Poster:	jhubert
Date:	2009-05-21 21:05
Subject:	Arcana Wiki Update
Security:	Public

I've mentioned the Arcana Wiki before. However, since the last time, the Arcana Wiki has grown tremendously - it has now more than 1,500 pages, with several new pages being added every day!

For those who don't remember, the goal of the Arcana Wiki is "to become like the Wikipedia - if the Wikipedia was written by gamers". That is to say, it can contain entries with information on any conceivable topic, just like the Wikipedia - but in addition to the plain facts, every entry also has adventure, story, and campaign ideas you can use for your own games.

Here are some of the largest and most useful section of the Arcana Wiki:

• Mythological Creatures - a large number of creatures out of real world mythology to inspire your own monsters and races.
  
• Mythological Places - places of legend you can recycle for your own world.
  The Timeline - not only does this list historical events, but also all sorts of news articles of strange and mysterious occurrences which can easily be used as seeds for adventures. I especially recommend looking at the 2008 and 2009 pages, as they have the most subentries.
  
• Organizations - a list of real world organizations (from organized crime rings to companies) and how to apply their core concepts to gaming.
  
• People - real world people who were larger than life, and who could serve as models for your own NPCs.
  
• The Tropes Section - part of an ongoing effort to port over elements of the TV Tropes Wiki to make them more relevant to RPGs.
  
• Terrain - a growing collection of terrain types, both natural and artificial.
  

• Random Adventure Seeds - I once saw a website which allowed you to generate random campaign settings by comining three random GURPS supplements. The same principle is used here to generate random adventures - this generator picks thre random Arcana Wiki entries, which will hopefully inspire you with a useful plot idea.
  
• Random Charactes - using the tropes of the TV Tropes Wiki to generate unique character concepts.
  
• Random Crimes - this generator tells you who did it, what they did it, and where they did it.
  
• Random Animal Hybrids - the latest and admittedly somewhat unfinished random generator. It is intended to come up with all sorts of strange hybrid animal critters, such as griffins, pegasi, or owlbears. Unfortunately, there aren't enough animals listed in the wiki to provide a large selection - but give it time...
  

Poster:	frost1130
Date:	2009-05-16 12:55
Subject:	RPG Game Find Site
Security:	Public

I wanted to tell you about my new site. It’s only a few weeks old but it’s growing and the word is getting around. I would like you to take a look at my site and let me know what you think and if there is anyway you could help me get the word out. I think it’s better than all the ones I have come across.

I'm an avid role-play gamer myself and I think the number one reason more people don’t play role-play games is they simply cannot find games in their local areas. Most have no idea where to find a game or find more players. I had a terrible time trying to find a game a few years back so I came up with my idea for a site to help connect people together so they can actually find games in their local area.

Maybe you could do an article on the site? The more exposure the site gets the more people will connect up, or that is my hope anyway. Any suggestions as to what you think I should do would be helpful. I am not really a marketer/promoter and just trying the best I can.

Here are the top 10 reasons why DM’s should use my site.

1. Easy to post your game
2. Free of charge
3. Easy to find games by zip code or browsing
4. No signup required
5. Game postings are no more than 3 months old so you always get current games
6. Post multiple games in different categories
7. Site is easy to navigate
8. Site includes Role-play games, board games, miniatures, and fantasy card games.
9. Access to forums
10. New Games looking for players are being added daily

Would love to know what you think of the site and any suggestions you have.

Poster:	thunderdrake4k
Date:	2009-04-22 19:55
Subject:	Any on you good at Acronyms?
Security:	Public
Mood:	curious
Music:	Forevian - Supox - Shake Yer Roots

O.K. my Gaming Realm time-line in a nut shell...
A hundred years from now, humanity pulls it's head out of it's ass and heads for the stars. We find the Galaxy is already chock full of civilization.
A thousand years from now (after much strife and conflict in the galaxy) we all come together and the Milky Way is an awesome place to live for about another two thousand years and we are at peace with each other and the races of pretty much the entire local super cluster.
At the end of the reign, a race of 'Evil Beings' who out class us by a ten-fold measure of magnitude start blowing us to kingdom come, because they can and it's fun for them. Apparently they do this every billion years.
The remainders of the once great trans-galactic society pool all their sciences and technologies and build a planet. The artificial planet is somewhat larger than earth was, but gravity is still the same because the place is this beyond colossal geode. The place is saturated in minerals that enhance and focus ability to access metaphysical prowess and Quantum Manipulation ("Magick"). Certain bioengineered plants and animals further effect such things. The idea was to nurture a people who could one day take the fight to the 'Evil Ones' and maybe dish out better than they can take. Due to an oversight, the founders of this world realized too late that the twin suns of this star system have 'the hiccups'. Every ten thousand years, the stars flare up for ten, evaporating the oceans down 60%, turning the world into a cloud enshrouded desert, followed by a deluge as the water rains back to the ground. Needless to say that every time this happens, the people get blown back to the Stone Age.
The reason for all this back story is, because this has happened a few times now (by the time of my Gaming Era), no one alive remembers what "T.H.R.A.E.A" stands for. Everyone though, regardless of race, creed, or Language Family, still calls the world Thraea. (Though, some do spell it with the ‘æ’ symbol.)

Anyone here think they can help?

Poster:	chgowiz
Date:	2009-04-14 09:38
Subject:	One Page Dungeon Creation Contest
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

A few months ago, three "old school" blogs: Sham's Grog 'n Blog, Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog and Mike's Society of the Torch, Pole and Rope put their collective DM-evilness together and come up with a neat template to help people create dungeons quickly and effectively, by concentrating on the meat and allowing the user of the dungeon to add in the flavor, fluff and setting.

A few weeks later, that little creation was "discovered" outside of our little niche by Philippe-Antoine (Chatty DM) Menard who runs a blog called Musings of the Chatty DM. Chatty contacted me with an idea and thus The One Page Dungeon Creation Contest was born!

The idea of the contest is to ask readers to create one dungeon level in an edition-less format (ex: you can name monsters but you don't provide stats for them) using the one page template that Sham (Sham's Grog 'n Blog), Amityville Mike (Society of Torch, Pole and Rope) and I created a few months ago.

ChattyDM (who is co-running this contest with me) and I, plus Sham/Mike and 2 other RPG bloggers will judge the entries. We have a TON of prizes and 3 "Grand Prize/Runner Up" categories, plus we'll be awarding alternate categories, like 'most evocative setting', 'Funniest entry', 'Most creative use of a Trap" and so on.

Once we've named winners, we'll be compiling a FREE PDF of the winners/runner-ups and releasing it to the community at large.

Prizes include:
Grand Prize

* Patron membership of Wolfgang Baur's Open Design
* Quarterly membership to Monte Cook's Dungeon a Day
* A full Licence for Smitework's Fantasy Grounds II
* 1 year membership to Obsidian Portal
* 50$ Gift Certificate from One-Bookshelf

Grand Prize Runner-Up: Old School Dungeon Design

* Bundle of Necromancer Games product
* Bundle of Brave Halfling Publishing products
* Otherworld Miniatures Demon Idol Miniature
* Bundles of Fight On and Knockspell issues
* Bits of Darkness Bundle from Tabletop Adventures
* 6 month membership Obsidian Portal

Grand Prize Runner-Up: New Edition Dungeon Design

* D&D 4e Dungeon Delve & Adventurer's Vault
* Fantasy Grounds II License
* 6 month membership Obsidian Portal

To divide among other Categories

* Open Design's Kobold's Guide to Game Design
* Quarterly membership to Monte Cook's Dungeon-a-Day
* Bundle of Brave Halfling Publishing PDF products
* Bundle of Knockspell and City Encounter PDFs
* Bundle of Fight On Magazine (issues 1-4 PDFs)
* Tabletop Adventure's Bits of Darkness Bundle
* Tabletop Adventures' Deck O'Names Set
* A few D&D 4e Adventures and Hardcovers
* Otherworld Miniatures - Pig Faced Orcs (Or Box of Minis)
* Goodman Games - The Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra

This contest runs from April 14th till May 14th. For more information and rules, please see my post about the contest and/or Chatty's post.

Good luck to you all who enter!

Poster:	thunderdrake4k
Date:	2009-04-12 18:19
Subject:	An EEEEEEE-vil Trap.
Security:	Public
Mood:	Headache, but happy
Music:	sumpthin snazzy

You have a long hallway with a ceiling of stone, trapped so that a loud sound will bring it down upon the adventuring party. Halfway up the hall you put 'Symbol of Pain' on the floor. If the part is big enough, someone is _bound_ to fail their Stamina Check (if you're using such) and scream in pain, causing the ceiling to collapse...

Cool, huh?

Poster:	peter_lorax
Date:	2009-04-10 18:17
Subject:
Security:	Public

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/04/10/obit.david.lance.arneson/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Thanks.

Poster:	chgowiz
Date:	2009-04-07 17:14
Subject:	David Arneson moved to hospice - family speaks
Security:	Public

Message from Arneson's family on ODD forum:

As of this writing, Dave is still with us. We have moved him into a facility where we can focus on keeping him comfortable. We have been and will continue to watch the forums and blogs and are passing along everyone's thoughts and prayers. Right now our focus is on getting Dave into the best possible position to maintain his comfort and his dignity. We will update the community as we can. We want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers and ask that you continue to send Dave your support in whatever form that means to you.

An address has been established to receive messages to Dave.

Dave Arneson
1043 Grand Avenue
Box #257
St. Paul, MN
55105


As before, my thoughts and prayers are with David and his family. I'm glad he's still with us, but saddened that he's been put in a facility that bespeaks the worst. I also share in the embarrassment that usually reliable information wasn't so reliable. My apologies to all.

Poster:	peter_lorax
Date:	2009-03-04 11:13
Subject:	GM Day
Security:	Public

Happy Worldwide GM Day to us all.

Poster:	exilian
Date:	2009-02-22 01:58
Subject:	"You're so cold but you feel alive."
Security:	Public
Music:	Breaking Benjamin - So Cold

While this bit of magic is contained in the D&D manual Frostburn, I think it would make a great spell-trap in a “Warm” location (i.e. a ruined desert locale, a temple dedicated to evil Elemental Fire, etc.).

Then it becomes a race against time for the victim’s companions!

Flesh to Ice
Transmutation
Level: Sorcerer/wizard 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. 10 ft./level)
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
The subject, along with all its carried
gear, turns into a mindless,
inert ice sculpture. If the sculpture
resulting from this spell is broken,
melted, or damaged, the subject (if
ever returned to its original state) has
similar damage or deformities. The
creature is not dead, but it does not
seem to be alive either when viewed
with spells such as deathwatch. Only
creatures made of flesh are affected
by this spell.

Material Component: Water and a
drop of blood.

Poster:	exilian
Date:	2009-02-21 23:58
Subject:	Giving back.
Security:	Public
Music:	Cold - Suffocate

I came up with this to include in my D&D 3.5 update for the Against The Giants module.

I was thrilled with how it not only met but exceeded my expectations.

Enjoy!


Rending Yeti
(The) Abominable Snow-slasher

(Multiheaded Cryo-Girallon = Savage Species, p.125 & MM I, p. 126-127)

Large Magical Beast (Cold)

Hit Dice: 9d10+33 (67 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 40 ft.
Armor Class: 17 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +1 due to extra head, +4 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+17
Attack: Claw +12 melee (1d4+6)
Full Attack: 4 claws +12 melee (1d4+6) and 2 bite +12 melee
(1d8+3)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Rend 2d4+9, Breath Weapon
Special Qualities: Darkvision 90 ft., immunity to cold, low-light vision, scent, vulnerability to fire
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +5
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7
Skills: Climb +14, Listen +2, Move Silently +8, Search +2, Spot +8
Feats: Iron Will, Toughness (2), Improved Multiattack, Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes
Environment: Cold mountains or Cold forests
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 8–10 HD (Large); 11–21 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment:—

This creature looks like an albino gorilla with a purplish tinge to its fur, but it has four arms and two heads. It also has razor-sharp teeth and long claws.

Slashing Yetis are savage, magical cousins of the gorilla. They are aggressive, bloodthirsty, highly territorial, and incredibly strong. When moving on the ground, a Slashing Yeti walks on its legs and lower arms (one head controls the upper pair of arms while the other head controls the lower pair). An adult Slashing Yeti is about 8 feet tall, broad-chested, and covered in thick, purplish-white fur. It weighs about 800 pounds.

Cold Subtype (Ex): Slashing Yetis are immune to cold damage and take a -10 penalty on saves against fire attacks. If a fire attack does not allow a saving throw, the creature takes double damage instead.


COMBAT
Slashing Yetis attack anything that enters their territory, even others of their kind. Their senseless belligerence is the one characteristic that keeps their numbers in check. Still, the creatures show some cunning.

A solitary Slashing Yeti usually conceals itself under a pile of snow and ice, with only its nose showing.
When it spots or scents prey, it charges to the attack. A Slashing Yeti picks up prey that is small enough to carry and withdraws, often vanishing into the frozen wastes before the victim’s companions can do anything to retaliate. Against larger foes, a Slashing Yeti seeks to tear a single opponent to bits as quickly as it can.

Breath of Hail (Su): Slashing Yetis can breath jets of frost 10 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 20 feet long. Both heads breathe once every 1d4 rounds, and each jet deals 3d6 points of cold damage per head; a successful Reflex save (DC 14) halves the damage.

Rend (Ex): A Slashing Yeti that hits with two or more claw attacks latches onto the opponent’s body and tears the flesh. This attack automatically deals an extra 2d4+12 points of damage.

Skills: A Slashing Yeti has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

Poster:	exilian
Date:	2009-02-21 23:18
Subject:	Q & A
Security:	Public
Mood:	curious

I’d love to use this as the coup de grace of a seemingly innocuous pit trap.

[This is from the D & D manual Sandstorm]

BLACK SAND
Mundane volcanic lands sometimes feature black sand
composed of ground-up cinders. Other than its striking
color, such sand is no different from any other. However,
magical black sand is a vile peril, whether on the scoured
surface of Minethys in the Tarterian Depths of Carceri
(where the Plane of Shadow overlays the Elemental Plane
of Earth) or in lands cursed by foul magic.
Black sand is infused with shadowstuff and negative
energy. A region of black sand literally swallows light;
magical darkness rises to a height of 20 feet over the
surface. Nothing short of a sunburst spell can disperse this
darkness, and even then only for a period of 1 hour per
caster level. In addition, creatures that come in contact
with the sand take 1d4 points of damage per round from
negative energy. Upon reaching 0 hit points, they crumble
and join the black sand.

Poster:	mendal
Date:	2009-02-15 18:37
Subject:	The "proper" run time for a game.
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

Based on what The Game Mistress said, I wanted to know what you all think is the best length of time for running a game.

For instance, my campaigns or chronicles last about 3-6 months, and my group plays once a week, give or take. So, my average game runs about 12 to 24 sessions. I've heard a lot of people talking about their games lasting 1-2 years. I wondered if that meant they played a game every week, or every month? How many sessions is your average game? What do you consider a game that's "too short?" "Too long?"

Poster:	thegamemistress
Date:	2009-02-15 10:03
Subject:	Ending a game
Security:	Public
Mood:	melancholy

I'm going to be ending my Werewolf game in a few months. It's been running for over two years, and it's been a lot of fun, but I want to try something new.

Nevertheless, I find myself sometimes feeling melancholy about ending this game. I guess there's a part of me that doesn't want to say goodbye, even though the rest of me says it's time to move on.

Has anyone else felt this way when you're ending a game, or is it just me?

Poster:	averypenguin
Date:	2009-02-01 11:05
Subject:	Five Rooms on Wikia
Security:	Public

Greetings all. My apologies for the cross-posting.

I have created a new wiki on Wikia for the ever-popular Five Room Dungeon concept. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, it's an adventure creation model based on five rooms (areas, locations, encounters, etc.) as follows:

Room One: Entrance And Guardian
Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge
Room Three: Trick or Setback
Room Four: Climax, Big Battle Or Conflict
Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist

If any of you utilize this dungeon crafting model or think you'd like to try your hand at it, I welcome you to drop by the wiki, sign up for a username, and add your creations. I have created a special template to walk you through building wiki pages specifically designed for 5RDs.

As the wiki grows, I would love for it to be an open-source repository of one-session adventures for every DM for every game system. Come be a part of the beginning of Five Rooms Wiki!

--
Avery W. Krouse

Poster:	lieutenanth
Date:	2008-12-02 13:14
Subject:	skills, experiences?
Security:	Public

Hello! I'm currently writing a computer-backed RPG system. The plan is to play regular tabletop pencil & paper style but to use the computer offline to do lots of complicated calculations for eg. default skill levels and so on. Thus the players can play the game with the ease that they ever had, but the obsessed GM can tinker with things in between games to hir heart's content...

I love GURPS, so what I'm making is a sort of turbo-GURPS with 16 basic attributes, retaining the points-base nature, and advantages/disadvantages. I'm wondering now, though, what to do for skills. I've never been completely satisfied with GURPS's entirely arbitrary sizing of skills - Area Knowledge(Earth) is easier than Lockpicking but provides a much greater breadth and depth of expertise. Then GURPS tacks on optional specialities for skills that differ in use from required specialities (no +5 for Guns: pistol, but +5 for Merchant: haberdashery), and then there's manouevers on top, which are sort of super-specialized skills.

So my question is, what are your thoughts on skill systems in RPGs? What works, what doesn't work? Given a computer to back up all the skill listings and management, what would you like to see?

I was thinking that a character's skills could be some sort of tree structure, with "doing stuff" at the top, with a child eg "medical stuff" with a child eg "brain surgery" with a child "prefrontal lobotomies" or "with only TL6 equipment", etc. However, there are definitely subskills that could exist in more than one branch of the tree - if you had "medical" and "soldiering" then "battlefield first aid" should naturally be a child of both of these higher-level skills. What do you think?

Poster:	chgowiz
Date:	2008-12-01 11:35
Subject:	microlite74 - one on one game recap
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

(Crossposted from my microlite20 blog: http://www.microlite20.net/blog/6 - thought that if anyone wanted to hear about a microlite game being run, here was a writeup I just did.)

I ran my first microlite74 game this weekend and it was a blast. I ran it as a one on one with my wife as the player. My adventure/dungeon was the sample dungeon in the back of the Holmes Blue Book, with modifications for m74 rules/monsters.

My preparations were minimal, convert the monsters, make sure nothing mechanical conflicted or needed some houserules. It went very well, as my familiarity with m20 prior to m74 helped me to know what to expect. What I really liked was that it was simplicity personified and since I wasn't doing a full world plan prior to playing (we're going to do it one hex at a time), I could just jump in.
 

Poster:	kurimsky
Date:	2008-12-01 12:22
Subject:	Indicating status effects in 4e
Security:	Public

Hi all,

If you're playing 4e D&D, and particularly if you're DMing, you're no doubt aware that there are a lot of status effects being thrown around: marked, cursed, slowed, bloodied, etc.

So, in Ladies Home Journal fashion, I thought I would share my solution to keeping track of all these status effects: drumroll... those little plastic key covers you get at the hardware store. They're cheap and colorful and can be hung on most miniatures like ring-toss.

Also, you can delegate some of the work to your players. The ranger gets one green ring for his hunter's quarry, the warlock gets five or six red rings for his curses.

It works great for us.

Poster:	chgowiz
Date:	2008-11-28 10:27
Subject:	Running one on one games
Security:	Public

I've finally talked my wife into playing D&D with me. I'm going to run an old school OD&D'ish type game based on microlite74, with some house rules.

It has been ages since I've ran a Holmes-ian game and much longer since I've ran a one on one game. Any one have any war stories, gotchas or advice for running one on one to help kickstart my brain?

Thanks.

Poster:	azuresorrow
Date:	2008-10-07 17:45
Subject:
Security:	Public

For D&D any edition,
How do you handle lockpicking and trapfinding in your game? I suppose the traditional way, is that the rogue/thief searches for the trap; they make a roll (or a DM makes the roll in secret), and if they pass they've found the trap. Then to disarm it, they make a roll, and if they succeed they disarmed the trap, and if they fail, they've either set off the trap or just been unable to disarm it (so the trap is still armed and poses a potential threat). For locks, they just roll their lockpicking, and if they're successful, they pick the lock, and boom the thing opens (or is just openable, whatever the case may be).

The problem with this is that it isn't very exciting. A trap is a form of challenge, and for it to be resolved on the basis of one or two rolls is pretty anti-climatic. I mean, compare it to a monster encounter - it takes rounds of combats, several die rolls, with possible HP losses on the side of the party, etc. As opposed to pass or fail with a single die roll.

In my experience, playing in or running a game for a party without a rogue/thief actually makes locks and traps interesting challenges. The party has to search for and find the key to open the reinforced steel door (because no one has the ungodly might to force it open), or the players have to find interesting/creative/tricky ways to get around the threshold with the trap. Admittedly, one problem is the whole "I'm not going in first, YOU go in first." I even had a fighter once who carried around warhammers to throw at doorways and thresholds that were potentially trapped as an effort to set off the trap from a distance (it even worked once! the warhammer knocked the wooden door open and acid sprayed down from the ceiling where I would have been standing if I'd opened the door normally!)

One idea that I had was, what if thieves' picks were consumable items. Rationalize that the picks wear and break after so many uses, and say, for example, that a normal set of lockpicks had, say, ten uses. That would at least mean that each lock picked/trap disarmed would cost the party something in the way of resources, making it perhaps matter more if the rogue is running short on lockpicks (eg. I could try to pick this lock, but I've only got a few more left and I think we might run into some traps before the BigBad).

Granted, I don't know how 4E rules handle lockpicking/trapfinding.

thoughts?
x-posted to roleplayers

Poster:	the_tonberry
Date:	2008-10-03 22:30
Subject:	Long time lurker, first time poster (I think?)
Security:	Public
Mood:	anxious

I don't recall if I've posted here before or not, but I come with a dilemma.  I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons semi-casually/semi-obsessively for a few years now and I was excited to start on the new 4.0 rule set and convert all my characters over.   My favorite rouge became so much more awesome, a fact I'm rather pleased about, but I've hit a speed bump with converting my favorite bard.  4.0 has no bards.  Should I try and design my own bard class based on 3.5 or just give up and remake my character in another class?

A lot of my gaming friends, including our GM(s), are having this same problem.  We're all rather disgruntled at the moment, which is leading to more arguments than gaming.