Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Disney Bought Lucasfilm

I'm sure most of you have heard the news that Disney acquired Lucasfilm for 4.05 Billion.

Personally, I'm pretty happy about this.  Disney wants "boy brands" and I think they will handle it well.

And I'm hopeful that George Lucas won't be allowed anywhere near the Director Chair for Episode 7.

As an aside, I wonder if there is any chance of seeing more of Willow?

As a further aside, I've understood that Lucas owned 5% of Hasbro.  I wonder if that means that Disney could end up with those shares?

D&D Next: Newest Playtest Pack takes us to Level 10

WotC, released it's newest playtest last night.  We have level 1 through 10 of the Rogue, Fighter, Cleric, and Wizard now.  I knew we wouldn't be getting the extra levels for the Warlock and Sorcerer, but I'm still disappointed.

Seeing the Maneuvers for Fighters (and now for Rogues) as a separate document is something I'm currently torn over.  I like Maneuvers (and Expertise Dice), but want to avoid 4E-like "powers" as it's not my preference of play style.  However, since Spells have their own document,  I understand the decision.  I also like that the number of Maneuvers you know are fairly limited.

I'm supposed to run a demo for John W.'s friday group, so I should have more to say about that later.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Hitting a Wall

I'm guessing I have Writer's Block.  I'm guessing, because I'm not really a Writer, but I am blocked.  Posting on here was a top priority of my day, but the the last 2 months have been so stressful I almost dread looking at a blank post.

I'm working on it though and hope to get past it.

Monstrous Monday: Bride of Iuz



Iuz the Evil is brilliant, patient, and decadent.  His ambitions require loyalty, diligence, and creativity.  What better way than with the help of his devoted brides?  

All of Iuz's Brides are devious and beautiful with a strong lust for power...and Iuz.  Many already come from wealthy families, but Iuz "cultivates" any woman who he finds desirable.

Many of his Brides patiently observe an area, alerting their husband if anything provocative occurs.  They will often reside in that area for centuries, cautiously adopting new identities as the years pass on.

Bride of Iuz  
Medium Humanoid (Human)
Armor Class 14 (+2 Leather)
Hit Points 30 (6d8+1)
Speed 25 ft.
Senses Darkvision 60 ft.

Str
 11 (+0)       
Int 15 (+2)
Dex 13 (+1)     Wis 12 (+1)     
Con 12 (+0)     Cha 17 (+3)

Alignment
 chaotic evil
Languages Abyssal, Common, Elven

TRAITS 
Magic Resistance: A Bride has advantage against saving throws against magical effects.
Bewitching: A Bride has advantage on all Charisma based checks.

ACTIONS 
Melee Attack—Dagger: +3 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature)
Hit: 1d4 slashing damage.

Magical Attack—Eldritch Blast: +3 to hit (50 ft.; one creature)
Hit: 4d6 force damage.

Warlock Invocations:  The Bride can cast each of the invocations once per encounter as an action.


Baleful Utterance:  Each creature in a 15-foot cone originating from the Bride must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and is deafened until the end of their next turn. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage and is not deafened. Unattended objects in the cone take maximum damage.


Etheral Stride:  The Bride becomes ethereal until the end of her next turn.

ENCOUNTER BUILDING 
Level 4                        XP 240

Monday, October 22, 2012

RuneQuest System Hack

I've been reading and enjoying the RuneQuest 6 rules from the Design Mechanism.  While I've always enjoyed the simplicity of the RQ/BRP ruleset, I like having resolution system have more levels than we've historically seen.

I was first inspired by Alternity's 3 levels of success and this was further reinforced by reading Steve Perrin's Quest Rules and by reading about some (proposed) changes to Call of Cthulhu's new edition.

So, I've given every skill 3 levels of success corresponding to "C", "B", and "A".

So If I have a Perception Skill of 45 it's broken down to 45 divided by 1, 45 divided by 2 and 45 divided by 5.
A "C" on a successful Perception Skill would be 45 or less.
A "B" on a successful Perception Skill would be 22 or less.
And an "A" on a successful Perception Skill would be 9 or less.

In an opposed skill challenge, whoever succeeds at the highest level wins.  If the result is a tie, it goes to the "defender".


Monday, October 15, 2012

Back from the brink...

After a comic show and far too many Magic tournaments to speak of and the death of my boss's computer (and replacement with a Mac Mini), I think I'm finally through the fire.

Sadly, I haven't had the inspiration to craft any updates and I'm actually fighting to find it even for this post.  I just need to get back into sync and push myself.

I was greatly overwhelmed with the most recent DnD Next playtest update and it pushed me to make a decision on my Jarlsburg game which is returning starting this Thursday.

Since it's been well over a months since our last session and it ended on a cliffhanger, and my memory isn't as strong as it once was, I've decided to advance the timeline and have the returning player characters "awaken" not knowing what has happened or how the previous story finished.  On top of new perils, I hope for them to uncover what is blocking their memories.

On top of this, I'm converting the 5E game over to RuneQuest 6/Basic Role Playing.

Hopefully it will all work out.

I've had to miss several of John W.'s excellent Wild Talents games and it appears he and I may be running an Iron Kings game cooperatively.

More soon.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

On the 3rd Day of Halloween...

A guilty pleasure of mine: Haunted Collector.  I don't watch a lot of the Syfy channel, but my wife mentioned that a house close to where she grew up would be featured so we watched it.  And I was hooked.

What I like about this show is that is captures things that appear to be parnamormal.  Obviously, I won't say they are, but they sure appear that way.

Also, John Zaffis and his team try to solve the haunting.  I like that.  It rings of Ghostbusters.  He's not trying to prove the paranormal exists--for him it does, he's trying to fix the paranormal situation.

A couple facts about me:
1) As a high school student, I read a paperback about the are of Indiana where we were living being a gateway for the unexplained.  It also mentioned that opening yourself up to such things, was like turning yourself into a magnet.  I've always been glad to let myself and the paranormal remain as far apart as possible.

2) I've built 2 houses to reduce the risk of hauntings.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

On the 2nd day of Halloween...

The Real Ghostbusters.
Episodes like the Collect Call of Cthulhu and Ragnarok and Roll and No One Comes to Lupusville (the episode where werewolves battle vampires!).

 J. Michael Straczynski even worked on the show, I'm not a huge fan of his work these days, but he's no hack.

Yeah, it was a saturday morning cartoon, but it really impacted my preference for horror and the macabre.  And action and comedy.

On the 1st day of Halloween...

I love Halloween, so I've decided to try to post things that go together with it.  Like chocolate and peanut butter.

Brian Lumley.  Author of the Necroscope series, Titus Crowe and my favorite Cthulhu Mythos author.
I'm not a huge splatterpunk fan, but his works just clicks with me.



Another Update.

I survived CCX and the Return to Ravnica Pre-Release, but still have a Rav Launch this weekend.

I'm not back to regular speed unfortunately, but I'm alive.  John W. are speaking of collaboration on running the new Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press and everything else is on hold, right now.

More soon.

Monster Monday: Ork City's Chupacabra for Shadowdark

Welcome to Ork City! In the middle of Ork City's Hatt Island is the Park, a wild and dangerous forest filled with all manner of nightmar...