Showing posts with label RGP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RGP. Show all posts

Thursday 13 January 2022

Spring Cleaning the Blog

It staggers me that I have been writing this blog since 21 August 2010. almost 12 years ago!

It is full of weird little articles which I have brain dumped ober the years and collected a huge number of tags, some of which only feature once, or I have multiple tags for the same thing.  

When We Begin, the Beguine

My first blog post was a plot idea for a Judge Dredd game. well nothing much has changed there, I'm still writing plot hooks for games and I am still running games of Judge Dredd.

Blog Stats By Label

My Top 20 Labels or Tags are:

Post Tag / Label# Articles
Fluff/Inspiration185
Fantasy133
Sci-Fi105
Miniatures92
Judge Dredd63
Painting61
Advice/Tools50
Movies43
Session Report40
Bones39
Make:39
Reaper38
3D Printing30
80s29
Mapping28
Monsters27
D and D26
Games Mastery25
Boardgame24
TV24

Feel free to roam around inside my mind dump.  But, for me, it's time I did some spring cleaning.

Rosey! fetch the feather duster.  

Rosey the Robot - THe Jetsons

 


Thursday 16 August 2012

August 2012 RPG Blog Carnival - What's in your Backpack?

The Gassy Gnoll of Game Knight Reviews is hosting this month's RPG Blog Carnival and asks the question "What's in your Backpack?" to which I answer "Item Cards".

A selection of item cards
A sample of item cards - Available as a free PDF from RPG NOW

Now you may think that this is just a piece of blatant self promotion, but in reality this is a question which has plagued some of my (and possible your) games for years...

THE BACKPACK OF HOLDING

These non-magical backpacks, which are entirely indistinguishable from a normal backpack, bestow upon certain players the uncanny ability to pull out exactly the right item with which to execute their plan and save the day in the nick of time.  When challenged these players will often say that they've had the item for ages or that they bought it in that town they visited 6 months ago. 

In the interests of game play it is often best not to argue, but there are times when it can be detrimental to the natural flow of the plot and you need the party to have eaten their last lembas cake, supped their last drop of water or be confronted by the reality that they don't have a rope to their name when they've got a rope type dilemma.

ENCUMBERANCE IS A CHORE

As Berin Kingsman writes, the backpack is "an in-game manifestation of my least-favorite mechanic: encumbrance" and I've got to agree with him.  Maintaining your equipment list as a part of your character sheet is a downright chore but it also presents a few other problems.

1.  Character sheets are a player's preserve not the GM's - When GMing, I'm pretty busy and certainly don't have time to ensure that your equipment is in order and that you've been marking off your rations like a good little player, that's your job!!.  However, this is easily rectified through item cards.  Basically, if you can't produce it when challenged then tough, you simply don't have it.  You can't argue all you want that you left it in your other backpack or it's in the saddlebags on the horse which is currently enjoying a holiday in the dragon's belly, but you'll only look stupid in front of the other players.  This also cures the "infinite spell components" faux pas which affects most spellcaster PCs.

2.  PC thieves steal from other PCs, fact! - How many times has your party contained a kleptomaniac PC who likes to look through everyones gear, well now they can, safe in the knowledge that they won't see any secret annotations on the victim PCs character sheet.  Just hand them the contents of your backpack and let them rifle through to their hearts content.  Better still, do it secretly and the victim PC might not even notice that the item is gone.

3.  PCs lose stuff all the time - If you had a 300 year old heirloom sword you'd look after it right?  Not PCs, they leave these things on inn tables, in slain dragons, on the floor, under pillows, in fact everywhere other than in their scabbard or sword belt.  Now unless these weapons are magical hammers like Mjolnir, most will only return to their owners hand with the assistance of copious amounts of strong elastic, which the last time I looked wasn't in their backpack!! 

Again the item card comes to the rescue, when they lose an item they have to give it up to the GM and it is lost unless they make a concerted effort to find it.  This also goes for those clumsy characters who seem to find every ravine or cliff edge and then fall off it, you break it you lose it.

Medieval Flint and Steel
A Medieval Flint and Steel
4.  Finding stuff is fun and rewarding - Finding shiny stuff is a pleasure that can often become dull with time.  But you should see your players eyes light up when you give them a new card with a picture of a diamond necklace, or a +1 magic spoon of dining.  It's like watching a bunch of kids opening pokemon boosters, all their birthdays and christmasses have come at once. 

But seriously, having a representation of an item can also be incredibly useful and educational.  A fact I discovered Whilst researching the images for my item cards.  My preconceptions about what an item looked like or how it was used were frequently challenged.  Just take the common or garden flint and steel, for years I imagined a piece of flint and a knurled steel rod (just like I used when I was a boy scout), but the medieval version was actually hoop shaped and held in the fist like a knuckle duster.

Likewise, I find players treat their loot differently when they can visualise it with a jewellery card or a gemstone card.  You can even make items critical to your plot in the form of a key or the parts of a puzzle.  When I last ran "Challenge of Champions" I created item cards for each of items provided in each challenge which was an immense help to my players (who are not all card carrying D&D geeks) when they tried to solve the puzzles in real time.

5.  50' of hemp rope is pretty large and heavy - This is the bit of encumberance which is frankly a cludge, as it's usually interpreted  as a function of weight and not a factor of bulk.  Other items aren't easily stowed such as a 10 foot pole.  It only takes up one slot on an equipment list but it doesn't fit in a backpack which means it has to be either put together in sections or you have to hold it.  Which leads on to the next problem...

6.  PCs only have one pair of hands, usually - The classic faux pas of most players is that they're so busy fighting with a two-handed weapon they forget that they're still taking the AC bonus from their shield.  Item cards come in handy (pardon the pun) as a visual reminder of what their PC is holding at any one time, a concept familiar to Legend of Zelda players the world over.  The logical extension of this is for players to arrange their cards in a series of stacks as a visual reminder, I normally define this as the BACK (carried on your back) RIGHT (hand), LEFT (hand), WORN (on a belt or on your head) and STOWED (on a horse or in a backpack) stacks. 

This is a particularly useful mechanic when either entering or engaged in combat,  as player will need to decide what they are going to attack with before hand.  If they lose a weapon through a fumbled roll they may need to draw a different one.  Spellcasters and other non-combat specialists may become embroiled and have to use up combat rounds fishing about in a backpack for that wand or pot of greek fire that they want to use.  It really does make a difference to how your party treats combat.



Thanks of course go to Of Dice and Dragons for continuing to promote the RPG Blog Carnival.  This is my 3rd entry and you can read the rest by clicking the RPG Blog Carnival tag below.


Monday 5 March 2012

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Sci-Fi Scenics Set 1 - Hover Taxi and Hover Car

RGP is proud to announce the first in a new line of Paper Miniatures with the release of RGP011 - Sci-Fi Scenics Set 1: Hover Taxi and Hover Car.

Populate your street scene and spice up your firefight with this papercraft hovercar suitable for any sci-fi roleplaying game such as Cyberpunk, Traveller or Judge Dredd.  8 different colour variants available (1 vehicle per sheet) including:
  • Yellow Taxi Cab
  • Orange
  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Purple
  • Grey
  • White
all for the low, low price of only $1 dollar!! (that's 63p in old money)

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Monsters of Dual: Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers

In a recent session of The Lands of Dual, I wanted my players to be harrassed by some plant minions during their exploration of a tunnel network like my favourite flamethrower wielding heroine Ripley.  

This is the fruit of my labours:

The Brain Vine

This plant is only ever found in subterranean locations and therefore does not rely on sunlight for energy, instead it has evolved a mechanism to secrete a highly acidic enzyme from its tendrils which breaks-down the soil and rock to release minerals which it then consumes.  Once the plant has grown to a huge size its energy needs soon outstrip it's surroundings and so it sends out its tendrils to find new sources of minerals, eating through solid rock and anything else which stands in its way.  The plant often encounters small quantities of Gold within the rock it consumes which solidify and become trapped within the plants heart like gall stones.

Although the majority of its diet is made up of processed rock, it is actually omnivorous in nature and equally suited to extracting nutrients from other plants or animals.  This unusual feeding mechanism also provides the brain vine with its only defence mechanism.  When attacked the plant exudes a cloud of acidic poison gas for 1d4 / 1d6 or 1d8 rounds (depending on the size of the plant).  In the first round the gas cloud has a radius of 10ft and expands by 10ft each round after that.  The gas causes all creatures within the cloud to suffer 1d6 damage unless they make a save against poison.

It is especially vulnerable to strong sunlight which causes any exposed parts to wither and calcify and is pale white yellow in colour topped by a purple-pink fruit resembling a giant brain, hence the name.  PCs may confuse this growth as evidence of an evolved intelligence however this is not the case and the brain vine has only a plant-like intelligence.

The brain vine is asexual and once it reaches adult size produces a single seed every 2 years.  This seed is contained deep within the fleshy brain fruit and resembles a spiky rugby ball.  When planted the seed grows quite slowly taking 1 year to germinate and grow into a Young plant (Medium size), 2 further years to grow to a fully grown into an Adult (Large size) and a further 5 years to mature into a Great Brain Vine (Huge size).  A Great Brain Vine can live upto 5d6 further years before it will wither and die.  

BRAIN VINE
# Appearing:1
Size:Medium (Young), Large (Adult), Huge (Great)
HD:4d8 (Young), 6d8 (Adult), 8d8 (Great)
MOVE:0
AC:10
ATTACKS:None
SPECIAL:Acid Gas Cloud: 1d6 damage for
1d4 Rnds (Young), 1d6 Rnds (Adult),
1d8 Rnds (Great)
SAVES:N/A
INT:None
ALIGNMENT:Neutral
TYPE:Plant
TREASURE:1d4 x 100 GP (Young), 1d6 x 100 GP (Adult), 1d8 x 100GP (Great)
XP:40 +4/HP (Young), 120 +6/HP (Adult),
250 +8/HP (Great)

Fugaloid Lurkers

These human sized fungal plants are an entirely seperate species which have evolved a symbiotic relationship tending to the Brain Vine and feeding off its decaying plant material and any other plants which inhabit its underground ecosystem.  They are of low intelligence and appear to communicate with each other by releasing fungal spores from the pustules covering their bodies which they inhale through their tendril covered mouths.  They are a mottled green colour, vaguely humanoid and each armlike appendage ends in two tentacles covered in vicious barbs.  Fungaloid lurkers are immune to the Brain Vine's toxic gas.

They are fiercely territorial and interpret anything that is not either another Lurker or the Brain Vine as a threat to the survival of their colony and they will attempt to grapple their prey to the ground and use their barbed tentacles to macerate the flesh in order to bleed it dry.  They will then feed the remains to the brain vine's tendrils and consume whatever is left behind.  They are relatively quick to grow to maturity but the size of their colony is entirely dependant on the size of the Brain Vine plant that they tend. 

A young Brain Vine can support a colony of 15 Lurkers, an Adult Brain Vine supports upto 30 Lurkers and a Great Brain Vine supports upto 45 Lurkers.  When a Brain Vine dies the Lurker population will consume the remains of the vine and then plant a vine seed in its place (if one is available).  Once this process is complete they will consume each other until only a handful are left in order to tend the immature plant.  As the vine grows in size more Lurkers will be created and so the cycle is repeated.

FUNGALOID LURKER
# Appearing:6-15 (Young), 12-30 (Adult), 18-45 (Great)
Size:Medium
HD:2d8
MOVE:30 feet
AC:15
ATTACKS:2 x Tentacles (1d6)
SPECIAL:None
SAVES:P
INT:Low
ALIGNMENT:Neutral
TYPE:Plant
TREASURE:None
XP:20 +2/HP

You can also download a free sheet of standees for use in your own adventures from RPGNow.

Thursday 21 July 2011

...meet Leonard of Quirm

Although it has been pretty quiet for blogging here at roleplay-geek HQ, I'm very busy; running my C&C campaign The Lands of Dual with my regular friday group; designing and building a foamcard pirate galleon; designing a new "Deluxe PDF" approach to Item Cards which will debut soon with the release of RGP004 - Armour and Shields and preparing a Star Blazer Adventures one nighter as a birthday treat for my buddy Paul Stebles, to name just a few.  I'm also working on v5.0 of my post apocalyptic car combat game which I hope to be able to release as a Print 'n' Play PDF in the very near future.
I'm beginning to feel a bit like Leonard of Quirm, too many projects and not enough time to finish them...

Sunday 29 May 2011

COMPETITION: RGP Products - Tell me what you think and win a Decision Deck

I'd love to say that the life of a fledgling publisher is all good, but to tell you the truth I have no frame of reference.  Put simply I have sales (woot) but no reviews (sigh).  I have no idea what my customers think of my PDFs, how I could improve them, are they useful to you, is there anything missing that you'd expect? 

I need some user feedback.

So, If you've bought any of the first 3 sets of Item Cards; RGP001 - Adventurer's Gear, RGP002 - Potions or RGP003 - Animals or RGP004 Paper Minis Set 1: Animals please feel free to let me know what you think using the comments box below. 

As an incentive I'll send each one of you a complimentary copy of my new GM Aids Decision Deck courtesy of RPG Now/Drive Thru RPG.

Monday 23 May 2011

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

...You're only a fay say day away   


As you are by now aware I have started a little publishing venture, and proof reading has kept me away from blogging.  Today, was the first time I have had to publish an errata notice and this got me thinking.

I don't know of any other publishing genre which has so many errata which slip through the net.  Fiction certainly doesn't, magazines and newspapers print retractions, but that's a content matter and not typos or other cockups.   Do we the buyers seem to accept these errata more readily because we see ourselves as RPG fans first and consumers second?  Do we appreciate the publisher's hard work that goes into even the smallest $1 PDF download, rather than wail on their poor proofreading skills?  I'd like to think we're a better kind of people and we know how much love goes into the games we buy.

BTW if you've bought RGP001 - ITEM CARDS Set 1: Adventurer's Gear the errata have been corrected and you can download them in the FREE Item Card Sampler.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Paper Minis Set 1 - Animals

RPG is proud to announce the first in a new line of Paper Miniatures with the release of RGP004 - Paper Minis - Set 1: Animals.

Do your PCs ever forget that they're on horseback? Do you need some mundane animals to populate that village scene? Do you want ink friendly disposable miniatures?  Then this is the product for you!!

Paper Minis Set 1: Animals includes over 112 paper miniatures depicting the 28 animals featured in our sister product RGP003 Item Cards - Set 3: Animals.  Each animal is based in 4 colours, 1 for each of your PCs, plus another 6 bonus animals, that's 136 miniatures in total all for the pocket money price of $1 dollar!!.

Animals featured include; Bear, Bull, 2 Types of Camels (Bactrian and Dromedary), Carrier Pigeon, Cart Horse, Cat, Cow, Dog, Donkey, Eagle, Elephant, Goat, Horse, Lion, Llama, Mule, Musk Ox, Ostrich, Pony, Reindeer, Rhinocerous, Tiger, 2 Types of Warhorse (Light and Heavy), Water Buffalo, Wolf and Zebra plus bonus animals; Ducks, Goose, Pig, Sheep, Boar and Chicken.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Item Cards Set 3 - Animals


Hot off the RGP press it's Item Cards Set 3 - Animals.

Does your party of PCs like to ride around the kingdom on the one warhorse that they forgot to tell you they bought in the last 2 shack village they passed through? Want some exotic transportation for that african safari you want to send them on? or do they just want to send a postcard back to mom? Well this is the product for you!!

Set 3 includes 112 cards depicting 28 animals each in 4 colours, 1 for each of your PCs. Animals featured:

Bear, Bull, 2 Types of Camels (Bactrian and Dromedary), Carrier Pigeon, Cart Horse, Cat, Cow, Dog, Donkey, Eagle, Elephant, Goat, Horse, Lion, Llama, Mule, Musk Ox, Ostrich, Pony, Reindeer, Rhinocerous, Tiger, 2 Types of Warhorse (Light and Heavy), Water Buffalo, Wolf and Zebra

As with all item cards it's at the low, low price of $1 dollar!! You can now also buy the entire set of item cards together and save 20%.

Friday 29 April 2011

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Item Cards Set 2 - Potions

Hot off the RGP press it's Item Cards Set 2 - Potions.

28 Potions in 3 Sizes (1, 2 & 3 Doses) and each potion has a blank 1 dose card, so you can surprise your players with the "Guess the mystery potion" game.

Like all the Item Card Series, Set 2 - Potions is priced at low, low price of 1 dollar.  Includes:
  • Aid
  • Blur
  • Cure Light Wounds
  • Cure Serious Wounds
  • Delay Poison
  • Fly
  • Gaseous Form
  • Haste
  • Protection from Evil/Good
  • Remove Blindness / Deafness
  • Water Breathing
  • Water Walk

and many more.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Item Cards Set 1 - Adventurer's Gear

I know it's been a bit quiet here at Roleplay-Geek...

Coz I've been slaving away putting the finishing touches to the first of my item card PDF downloads which is now available on RPGNow/DriveThru RPG right now.

I've been playtesting these cards in my latest campaign and they've gone down a treat.  The first set contains 112, yes I'll say it again 112!! basic Adventurer's Gear item cards plus a full set of rules on how to use them in your game.  So show some RPG love for your players and buy a copy today, it's only a dollar!!