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Feb 20, 2012

Links of the Week: February 20, 2012

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For those interested in petty details and statistics, I’m now aggregating over 500 RSS feeds.  Of those, a handful aren’t RPG related but are related to my interests (a couple on cooking, a handful of art sites)… but it’s still more than 500 RPG sites.

This amounts to about 150-200 posts a day on average, or somewhat over a thousand posts a week (about 1500 during a busy week, such as when they announced D&D 5e).

I estimate it takes about an hour per day to triage this.  On a bad day this is also enough time to examine in detail any interesting pages I find… on a good day, it might take another hour or two.

It’s taken a little while to get to the point of this being convenient and reasonably efficient, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s going now.  I still need a better way to convert posts (and more, series of posts) to EPUB for my ebook reader.  Cut and paste into Word, load into calibre, then convert to EPUB… not a convenient process.

I’m rearranging things slightly in my presentation here.  I think the less-itemized presentation works better than the more-itemized presentation I was using originally, and I want to make the separation between major sections (Hall of Fame, Kickstarter, and Blog Posts) a little more clear.

Hall of Fame Additions

Age of Ravens: Known World Gazetteers

Lowell of Age of Ravens has been reviewing the GAZ series of gazetteers for the Known World/Mystara.

I always liked this series, especially how each one focused on a single region and how much the regions varied.

This is an ongoing series, so this page will be updated as new entries are available.

Between are the Doors: OSH Pantheon

Fictivite at Between are the Doors is one of the more frequently linked writers in my Links of the Week.

In this series he is presenting a pantheon for Old School Hack, working from five up to eighteen gods.

This is an ongoing series, so you can expect this Hall of Fame page will be updated when new entries come available.

Blog Posts

Division Nihil

Marshall is looking for ways to devise a magic system.  I’ve run into similar difficulties with regard to this and am interested in seeing how he solves them.  I’ll also be putting some more thought into the matter myself.

Echelon d20

This week I have had some time to actually do some writing of my own!  I’m thinking about how the paths of immortality might fit Echelon, and I have reconsidered the talent slot table to make talent selection more manageable.

Gnome Stew

Matthew gives another view of threat levels varying by region.  He inverts the model (find the danger hot spots and build down, rather than safe areas and build up).  It looks to me somewhat more likely how it really happens, but functionally I expect you end up with something close to the ‘normal’ way (from low-EL to high-EL areas as you move away from the safe places).

Points of Light

There is a poll at Wizards of the Coast regarding multiple attacks.  I find I agree with David’s discussion of multiple attacks — if it is possible to get multiple attacks through basic skill, they should not be penalized.  There’s no real call for it, and if your character build is one that depends on multiple attacks in order to stay relevant (as with D&D 3.x fighters) the bonus needs to stay high enough to be useful.  On top of that, as I said in my post “Falling off the RNG” attack target values should be recalibrated anyway.  Using good BAB as the baseline so ‘fighters are challenged’ leads to all sorts of problems.

Shatterworld: Behind the Scenes

It seems Niccodaemus is feeling a creative block and needs suggestions about things to write about.  I’ll have to think about this, I know there are things I’d like to see more of.

Ye Olde Blog

Ozreth forwarded Ed Greenwood’s response at Candlekeep Forum to a question regarding sexuality in the Forgotten Realms.

Zombie Toast

Orion suggests a different way of handling divination and prophecy in RPGs.  The idea has some practical difficulties, but they are possibly less than the GM trying to predict the future and the consequences of PC actions.

Posted in Links of the Week
Feb 15, 2012

Links of the Week: February 15, 2012

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Huzzah!  A couple of days late, but I’m all caught up (up to 4:00 pm February 14, at least).  Finally.

No Kickstarter projects this week (next week; I just want to get this wrapped up).

Added to the Hall of Fame this Week

(Well, since I only started the Hall of Fame this week, everything that’s there now!)

Some of these (Discworld, Damned Cities, Of the Gods) are works in progress.  They’ll show up in the ‘recently updated pages’ widget as and when I update their pages.

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Posted in Links of the Week
Jan 5, 2012

Fantastic Locations: January 5, 2012 Roundup

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Don’t mind me, just fixing the year in the date.  Not 2011 any more…

I anticipate a fair number of posts for this carnival, so rather than waiting until the end of the month for a roundup I think I’ll aim to do one every Thursday.  I’m having a lot of fun reading these posts, thank you to everyone who has written and made me aware of them.

Runeslinger is first out of the gate with a brief treatise (but medium-long blog post 8-) ) about how a place can be fantastic due to emotion and perception more than inherent properties of the place itself in Fantastic Locations & the Fantastic Things That Happen There.

He didn’t beat Dariel Quiogue by much, though, who provides a selection of Fantastic Locations in the Jangalan Isles.  The Hari Ragat setting fascinates me, and I understand there’s a FATE version coming — exciting news.

The Black Campbell has stepped up with an article on how to choose locations that can be described in an evocative way, and then provide your players with the tools to add the awesome needed to make the locations fantastic.

VBWyrde describes Weeleena’s Tea House, a place that reminds me somewhat of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories in its sheer alienness-as-human-convention.  I want to find out more about this place, but I think I almost don’t want to understand it, it might be better suited to remain something of a mystery.  I’m impressed.

Ravyn at Exchange of Realities has a couple posts so far.  The first is on Fantastic Location Essentials, identifying the things she expects from a fantastic location as opposed to just another place.  In Ravyn Freewrites: Location? Location! she talks about how things and places become wonderful, the events and circumstances behind the fantastic.

Fictivite tells us about the Gulldaw Amphibious Prison.  Brick and mortar prison?  A oubliette dug deep into the floor of a cavern?  Those are for normal prisoners, this is a place that rescuers probably would want to ask just how badly they want to rescue their friend… and I’m guessing it’s not a very popular guard assignment.  Another example of why ‘fantastic’ doesn’t need to mean ‘I want to go there’.

I’ve had a couple of posts on the matter myself.  In the first I ask What is a Fantastic Location? and describe what I look for to answer that question.  The second was to forward a link I found of the Weirdest Cities People Actually Live In.  Finally, so far, today I posted a description of the Ghost Hills, the site of one of the more unfortunate events in the history of this part of my campaign.

Posted in 2012-01 Fantastic Locations
Dec 19, 2011

Links of the Week: December 19, 2011

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I have got to start staying on top of this again.  Even starting on Saturday, I spent a big whack of my weekend reading blogs.  Some really good stuff, though; part of my problem this week was looking through related pages and the like, it probably increased my reading load by half.

I have a dilemma.  I want to write, and to work on Echelon… but there is so much good material out there that I don’t want to miss anything.

Kickstarter Projects

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1806106772/astonishing-swordsmen-and-sorcerers-of-hyperborea)

From the Kickstarter page:

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (AS&SH) is a forthcoming role-playing game by North Wind Adventures . It is played with paper, pencil, dice, and imagination. Participants include one referee and one or more players. The referee prepares and presents the adventure material, and the players create player characters, such as the principal classes of fighter, magician, cleric, and thief; or a subclass, such as barbarian, berserker, cataphract, illusionist, necromancer, pyromancer, druid, shaman, assassin, legerdemainist, scout, and more!

The heroes of an AS&SH game delve dungeons filled with horrifying monsters, lethal traps, and bewildering puzzles; they explore savage wilderness frontiers and hostile borderlands; they probe ancient ruins and investigate cursed tombs; they match steel against sorcery, and sorcery against steel; and they plunder for gold, gems, and magical treasure.

Hyperborea is the default campaign setting for AS&SH. This “flat earth” realm is overlooked by a bloated, dying sun, and hemmed in by the mystical boreas (or “North Wind”).  Hyperborea is in a perpetual state of decay, populated by disharmonious men, hostile monsters, and weird, alien beings.

The setting is inspired by the fantastic literature of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. Other inspirational authors include Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, Abraham Merritt, Michael Moorcock, and Jack Vance. AS&SH rules and conventions are inspired by the original 1974 fantasy wargame and miniatures campaign rules as conceived by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Hyperborea is an adaptable campaign setting. It can be used independently or in conjunction with other settings, published or home-brewed; indeed, Hyperborea might be just beyond the North Wind of any campaign setting.

I’ve been waffling about this one, but it closes January 15, a few days after my birthday.  I think maybe I’ll back this one as a birthday present to myself.

The Crown and the Dragon (feature film)

(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/285427038/the-crown-and-the-dragon-feature-film)

From the Kickstarter page

The Crown and the Dragon is an independently produced feature-length fantasy/adventure in the classic tradition – packed with action, romance, and a giant mythical beast bent on destruction. The film has already been shot, and we’re looking for additional funding to finish post-production, and make our dragon effects more spectacular than ever. Watch our teaser trailer to see actual footage from the film.

The story follows Elenn, an arrogant young noblewoman from the occupied land of Deira – a muddy backwater of the Vitalion Empire cursed by a particularly vicious dragon. Elenn accompanies her aunt on a mission to bring a relic to the secret coronation of the king of their people.  When her aunt is murdered on the road by Vitalion soldiers, Elenn hires a smuggler and criminal, Aedin, to escort her across the dangerous country so she can take her aunt’s place at the coronation.  But when Corvus, a rogue magister of the empire, employs a dark magic (Undead Assassins) to retrieve the ancient relic for his own evil designs, Elenn must find the humility and strength within herself to fulfill her aunt’s calling to free her people, and become a Paladin – the long foretold dragonslayer.

If the description’s not good enough, they’ve made the screenplay available for download, and the trailer below looks well done.  I’m thinking about this one, the Kickstarter closes December 27.

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Posted in Links of the Week
Nov 28, 2011

Links of the Week: November 28, 2011

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I see here a fair number of regular sites, lots of links, and lots of topics.

Also, a handful of sites I haven’t previously linked, and a few YouTube videos I didn’t feel the need to post immediately but felt worth mentioning.

Topic: Pathfinder MMO

Big new this week, and I’m reasonably confident that anyone reading this is already aware of the Pathfinder MMO announcement.

I don’t play MMOs and they hold little interest for me.  Since I lack the knowledge needed to have an informed opinion, I don’t have one.

No links provided this time, but you can’t read RPG blogs right now without seeing someone talking about how (great|bad) this is.

The Armchair General

DM Advice — Crystal Slotted Weapons

(http://armchairgeneral1.blogspot.com/2011/11/dm-advice-crystal-slotted-weapons.html)

Variable effect, Earthdawn-style magic weapons.

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Posted in Links of the Week
Oct 31, 2011

Links of the Week: October 31, 2011

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I think I never realized how many pages I was reviewing through the week.  This week I only had time for the briefest triage (“not interested” or “tl;dr — do later”) through the week, and I spend most of my free time this weekend reviewing things in greater detail.

It might be time to write a plugin to help me do this more efficiently.

Topic: Mapping Software

I’ve found articles about a few mapping programs (one online, one not) that might prove useful.

I’ll be honest, most of the time when I do maps I use the GIMP, but I can easily see myself using something easier.  Sometimes I just want to know where things are relative to each other, I don’t need a map that is as nice as I’ve seen done with a full graphics package.

Dungeon Painter Online

(http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/)

A simple online ‘dungeon painter’.  Select the map elements you want displayed and just click, drag, and so on to put them on the map.  It looks to have a nice range of textures and tiles (for instance, ‘floor squares’), including different tiles within the same ‘floor type’.

I don’t know that I would use this for publishing-quality work, but I’ve only toyed with it for a few minutes.  I’d certainly be willing to consider it for quick maps for use in play online.  Quick, easy, and presentable.

Online Dungeon Master

OnlineDM has been presented a series of articles on tweaking the use of MapTool.  I’ve used MapTool, I like MapTool, but this guy goes way beyond what I’ve ever done with it.  I’m impressed.

Roleplay-Geek: RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 – Battlemaps

(http://roleplay-geek.blogspot.com/2011/10/rpg-mapping-tools-part-1-battle-maps.html)

Tony presents and comments on a half dozen tiling map drawing programs (including Dungeon Painter Online, above).

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Posted in Links of the Week
Oct 24, 2011

Links of the Week: October 24, 2011

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Lots of topical posts this week.  Lolth, Villains, Batman: The Animated Series were some common topics.  The Shiny Technology just grabbed my attention, there are some nifty ideas out there.

Other than that, I’m not sure if it was a slow week blogging, or I was too busy at work and writing my own stuff to find more to list here.  I suspect the latter more than the former.

Topic: Lolth

There have been a few revisionings of Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb.  Never mind the different incarnations she’s had in ‘official’ material, the different interpretations I’ve seen from bloggers tend to be rather more varied and interesting.

  • Theodric the Obscure has the most recent, Respinning the Demon Queen.  He manages to mix the histories of the elves, vampires, and demons.  Nicely done.
  • N. Wright’s article about Lolth: Spider Bitch of the Abyss.
  • Tim Brannan wrote about Lolth, and a heretical cult of her original form, before she was betrayed.  The Church of Lolth Ascendant.

    • Topic: Villains

    A couple of blogs this week have talked about what makes a ‘good villain’.

    • Joseph at the Greyhawk Grognard points out that the Best Villains Aren’t Evil, that (psychotics aside) they often have some kind of justification for their actions.
    • The Secret DM discusses much the same topic in Building Better Villains.  With many ‘good bad guys’ you can see how they went wrong.  Whether it’s as simple as “the end justifies the means” or being ruthless enough that nothing will stand in the way of a laudable goal, or something else, you can often see how and where Things Went Wrong and at what point they crossed the line.
    • David reveals another source of villains at Dungeon’s Master: retired PCs, in Curse Your Sudden, Yet Inevitable Betrayal.

    Topic: Batman: The Animated Series

    A couple of bloggers talked about Batman: The Animated Series this week.  I never had the opportunity to watch much of it, but what I saw suggested it was put together well.

    Topic: Shiny Technology

    I don’t understand how some of these work, really, but what they can do ranges from pretty cool to downright exciting.

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    Posted in Links of the Week
    Oct 17, 2011

    Links of the Week: October 17, 2011

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    So.  Many.  Links.

    I’m surprised, according to the thumb on the scrollbar, this is actually about normal.

    I think perhaps I need to be a little more selective in what I read, so I actually have time to write.  But there are so many good articles out there, and I’m finding more blogs every week.

    Akratic Wizardry

    ‘Swords & Sorcery’ House Rules Index

    (http://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2009/07/swords-sorcery-house-rules-index.html)

    This page has links to the rules mentioned in the Wrath of Zombie article linked below.  These rules attempt to capture classic swords & sorcery using the Swords & Wizardry rules (which I don’t have a copy of yet, should probably fix that).

    Between Are the Doors

    No Printing Press

    (http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/no-printing-press-blog-carnival-loot-as-part-of-the-plot/)

    Books as treasure.  Not necessarily even magic books.

    Those who know me, know I love books.  I like where this post goes.

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    Posted in Links of the Week