![]() |
Damiano could be un Mago or un juglar (minstrel), each distinct from Saara the witch and Gaspare the dancer. |
A website dedicate to games of all favors and varieties, from video games to good old D&D.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
The One Shot Idea
Monday, November 23, 2020
The Standard, Non-Standard Ammo Options
However, in other games it is in the rules but somehow violates the spirit of the game. Star Trek and Star Wars come to mind. How many characters on TV or in the movies run out of ammo? Only when the plot calls for it.
Most games will fall someplace between the two extremes, such as any d20 game. Where the amount of ammo does not seem relevant, I prefer to use a different mechanic. In a modern setting with characters carrying normal firearms, I assume that all characters and NPCs are spending a bit of their time reloading as the opportunity presents. This means they almost always have bullets available.
To add some tension, if the character fails their attack roll by rolling the worst possible number (say, a 1 in 20) then they are out of ammo and need to spend time to reload right now. If the rules have a mechanic for a jammed gun occurring on a one, the first time they roll a one they are out of ammo and if it happens again on the very next roll, the gun has jammed.
Some games have weapons that simply don't work like a machine gun or semi-auto pistol. A blaster in Star Wars or Phaser in Star Trek are very unlike modern firearms. In the movies, they never run out of ammo unless the plot calls for it. As before, if a character rolls a 1, their weapon has malfunctioned. It makes a noise and nothing happens. To get the weapon working, the player needs to make a successful to hit roll to make it start working again. That seems like an oxymoron rule and maybe it is. The tension comes from the fact that the enemy knows there is something wrong and the hero can't shoot. They are drawing attention to themselves. Having the weapon suddenly go off in the enemy's face is just like Star Wars. And in Trek, fiddling with the controls almost always works.
On the off chance these advanced weapons experience two back to back failures, then they are out of action until a repair is made, usually outside of combat.
For most games where ammo tracking is important, I make sure the story provides ample reloads or parts where shooting is not required. My D&D players love "defending the castle walls" because by their nature, defenses have plenty of ways to get more ammo to the defenders.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Chessex Dice on Amazon.com Under $10.00
I love Chessex Dice. Well, I love all dice and these 9 sets are on my Amazon wishlist. The great thing about the Amazon wishlist is the ability to price check things. This way, I don't go too nuts and buy high when I consistently sell low.
Anyway, I have to have those Blue Weather Dice and the Tiny Pink Dice Set. Those are the best. The prices aren't bad at all and I can't wait until tomorrow when I can place an order.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Modeling Multiple Shots for Skilled and Unskilled Combatants in a Science Fiction Setting
![]() |
Skill using the logo, even though I will likely change it. |
![]() |
In the image, shots are numbered in order. Red is for aimed shots and green is for indiscriminate. |
Friday, March 13, 2020
Modeling Combat for a New Science Fiction Game
While every number over the target’s defense value is a hit, all pairs or triples which are higher the target’s defense are nearly as good as a matching roll. A pair (6 and 6) will do damage and stop an action. A triple (such as 3, 3 and 3) will do damage, stop an action and put the person on the ground. Neither will automatically knock the person out.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
#TBT review - Miniature Treasures - The Moldy Unicorn
Code: N/A
Author: Nate Treme
Rule Set: Angostic
Year: 2019
Pages: 6
Number of characters: As needed
Levels: N/A
Rating: ★★★★★
If a book has a good cover, I'll probably take a look. If it has that haute 70's look, the smash of day old banana and lime colored paste, I'll do a double take. If it has both of the above, plus the childish, rounded look of a composition notebook, my brain shuts down and the money comes out, no questions asked.
Well, that's what happened with The Moldy Unicorn a few days ago. I purchased one of a few physical copies based on a single image on MeWe.com. And then I forgot about it.
It arrived today.
I opened the envelope and was all disappointed. It was tiny. Really tiny. "I paid money for this?"
Then I opened the booklet. And the frisson hit. Suddenly, I was 8 year old me, standing in Walden Books, smelling nasty carpet chemicals and mall pretzels, looking a copy of the Red Basic D&D rule book. Gary, Dave and Tom whispered, "Go ahead, turn the page."
The thing is six g-ddamn pages, packed with amazing stuff. Pages 1 and 2 describe The Moldy Unicorn with a colorful map. Page 3 lists encounters for the Inn. The next page describes how to design a Demon, with 3 tables, conveniently labeled 1-12 for easy die rolling. The last two pages are a mini dungeon, Grotburk Crypt.
The artwork is excellent. It isn't excellent in the sense of a masterpiece, but the odd, brightly colored outsider art that masters cannot duplicate. The text is tight, it has to be in a volume this small.
While its only 6 pages (8 if you count the covers, the thing that made me **WANT** this 'zine), those pages are highly concentrated. Being so tiny, it is delicate. I already know that I am going to buy a special picture frame for this. I am just moments away from heading to DriveThruRPG and purchasing an electronic copy, to jealously protect the physical copy like mage protects his spell book.
It's been decades since I have been this happy with a purchase. Of course, I've read it cover to cover. But I'm going to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. This is great buy. This is well worth the $6.00 for the physical copy (Sold out, sorry), $10.00 for the PDF.
To put some perspective on the Star Rating above, I review a lot of things. Computer hardware and software, novels, games, historical books, etc. If I'm not going to give something 3 stars, I'm not giving any stars. If you're not going to give at least 3 stars, its like trash talking people. This is the first time I have been compelled to give 5 gold stars, underlined. I've reviewed several of my mom and dad's books. I don't hand out gold stars. It is very rare that I am so enchanted with any product to completely rethink my rating system.
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Star Wars: Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Author: Andy Collins, Bill Slavicsek, JD Wiker
Rule Set: d20
Year: 2000
Pages: 319
Number of players: 2 or more
For many years, Star Wars was in the stable of West End Games. Over the years, I accumulated many of their books, but never had a chance to play. In 2000, with The Phantom Menace coming to screens, Wizards of the Coast produced a gamebook for the series, which included everything you needed to play, including a set of rules to convert from WEG Star Wars to d20.
The system is a pretty close skin of D&D 3.0 or 3.5, with some great differences.
The system is a standardized d20 system. Standardization from the ground up is very good. One of the great advantages is it breaks every character down into a couple of stat blocks, which makes building a quality, unique character easy. Each character is made of 7 different categories of descriptions, all of which is uniform between classes. You start with ability scores, then everything changes. You select a species which is an approximation of race in D&D terms, a class, skills, feats, character descriptors like reputation, equipment and finally spells, if any. All characters have the same 6 items, unlike D&D where some characters get spells in addition to their other "stats".
So, what about The Force? Those aren't spells, they are tied into one Feat and several Skills for Force Sensitive people. Hit points are replaced with vitality and wound points. This changes the dynamics of how characters work. Vitality is how much energy and stamina you have, while wounds are actual chunks of flesh. Hike through a hellish landscape will reduce your vitality, but a blaster to the head is a wound. Wounds stick around or are fatal, while vitality tracks how much "give" you've got. Nice system, considering how dangerous a lightsabre is. Vitality returns with rest and wounds require healing. The reputation system is a replacement for alignment, which actually has some mechanical advantages or disadvantages, unlike the alignment system.
While this is a d20 system, there are several advantages to this rule set over a typical d20 RPG. First, your players will have a general idea of what they want to be if they have seen Star Wars. To this end, there are 25 character templates so you can play right away. The rules allow you to flavor these characters, so you are a cutout character, but perhaps not made of cardboard. Additionally, if you played WEG Star Wars, there is a set of conversion rules in the back. There is a section on Starships, Droids, and a Game Master Section, with a module included. Everything you need to play is right there.
4 of 5 stars.
You can pick it up on Amazon for less than $20.00. The links below are paid ads and will take you to Amazon.com.
Monday, November 4, 2019
Old School Mass Combat? Fantasy Hack
The rules are totally retro feeling because they are printed in one color, black, on yellow paper. Published in 1993, they'll send you back a couple of decades.
While not perfect for every setting, the set manages to handle most fantasy settings. Give it a try.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
RPG Podcasts
Let me give you my short rundown of Favorite RPG Podcasts*. The link is for the associated blog and the naked link is the feed location.
Thought Eater Podcast by Jeremy “frothsof” Smith. This is an Anchor podcast covering all things blogs on Wednesdays and a five minute Friday show, which is often off the cuff and right from brain to 'cast. He has 130 shows in the can, so you have a lot of replay-ability. Love it.
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thought-eater/id1448611668?uo=4
The Red Dice Diaries by John Alan Large. Like Jeremy, John has 102 episodes available, so the back catalog is huge. Again, I love this show. John runs the gambit of gaming, so this the depth is great. He sometimes takes time out to cover methodology, so you might hear about things like journaling, preparation and from special guests. In addition to special guests, John throws the topics over to Hannah for treatment. It's like 2 or 3 podcasts in one. A wonderful find.
Link: https://anchor.fm/s/55de8b4/podcast/rss
A relative new comer is the Super Adventure Friends Co. Podcast by Robert Loftin and friends. They have only 7 episodes, so if you want to jump in from the start on an excellent Traveller/Science Fiction pod cast, here you go. This is the first ensemble pod cast I encountered, with five high school friends chatting about great stuff. (Red Dice Diaries also gets this vibe when John hosts his friends.)
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/super-adventure-friends-co-podcast/id1465659876?uo=4
The last podcast I signed up for is vb Wyrde's Sunday Night Live From ElthosRPG. ElthosRPG is it's own thing and vb is ALL ABOUT METHODOLOGY. Mechanics, ideas, fitting it all together, from a non-D&D point of view. Great, eye-opening stuff.
Link: https://anchor.fm/s/ed1f0d4/podcast/rss
*The little star beside Favorites is there because I reserve the right to add more favorites. They Might Be Gazebos was previously mentioned and has it's own post. I've left off Patreon information in this post, that will be revisited later.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
RedBlade Character Generator Review
Rolling abilities couldn’t be easier. But what kind of player would you be if you didn’t reroll? The program orders the rolls high to low. Assign the highest first by clicking the ability button and proceed through the numbers sequentially. Should you wish to make changes ability assignment, use the arrow buttons on the right.
Skill selection is a breeze. There is a drop down box for class and Class skills and Cross Class skills. The software tabulates points to Class and Cross Class skills. The initial selection occurs on the center screen and more ranks are added on the right with the arrow buttons.
Shopping for equipment is fun; this is my favorite part of character generation. RedBlade breaks equipment down in to a dozen or more types and will display standard magical versions. The only oddity of this screen is the fact that coins are optimized to the minimum quantity. Silver is automatically converted to gold while gold converts to platinum.
The software allows you to customize equipment in the form of masterwork creations or non-standard magical items. It is very comprehensive.
Through out the software, helpful pop ups will appear and describe issues. Each is very clear. To resolve the issue below, you may add more money or click the “Buy for free” check box.
The Equip screen allows for multiple sets of armor and weapons. It is intelligent, allowing for two handed welt weapons. This screen will create a series of armor classes and to hit numbers on the final character sheet.
The spells screen divides spells into level and class. It will allow you to “cheat” and obtain more spells than normally possible. It will also calculate any bonus spells based on race, domain, class or ability points. It will display both known spells and spells memorized. There is a row for spell DC which I find to be very handy.
The last area is for goals. If an area is omitted, it does not appear on the character sheet. No need for clutter, eh?
“Finished” gives two options, character sheet and save. The sheet is saved as an HTML file and clicking the sheet button will display it in your favorite browser software.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Code: SF-0
Author: Mark Acres, Tom Moldvay with Doug Niles
Rule Set: Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn
Year: 1982
Pages: 30
Number of characters: 4-8
Levels: 1
Rating: ★★★★★
Crash on Volturnus is one of my favorite modules. The player start of as passengers on the Sierra Dawn, where they first encounter trouble en route to Volturnus. After an epic battle and escape, players move on to phase two, an incredible hex crawl on the planet of Volturnus culminating in a final(?) battle with the pirate forces on the planet. Aided by the local inhabitants of the planet, surely the players will win the day.
This module was released with the Alpha Dawn rules set and to my knowledge, was not released independently of that set. I received my set of Alpha Dawn rules peice meal and ended up with two copies of the module. The whole boxed set includes giant maps and wonderful counters, which makes SF-0 a snap to play.
Crash on Volturnus is the first module in the series and was followed up by SF-1 and SF-2. The other SF series modules are unrelated, but are valuable as they are set up for characters to continue their adventures in new settings. The series was also brought back to life by the Endless Quest book Villains of Volturnus in 1983. It was published in relatively short time frame making the series rock solid in game play and feel.
Having played SF-0 several times, there are few game breakers built in to the scenario. First, when the escape pod crashes, the characters only have time to get the survival packs. Several of my players started out with standard equipment packs and used the coveralls as a makeshift backpack tied across their chests before seating themselves. Since the equipment was attached to them, I couldn't justify taking it. The players also started with 4 medical kits, which made them neigh unstoppable in combat. They kept pulling back to heal. Of course, these were the same players who tied their equipment to their chests. I kept running them against random encounters to try to eat up resources, but that was unfulfilling. Eventually, I figured I'd let them run in god-mode and kill everything and everyone. Many of the challenges they faced were thinking scenarios and not fighting scenarios, so it really didn't change the outcome.
All and all, I found this one module to be the best of the best for Star Frontiers. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
The whole shebang is available over on DriveThruRPG.
Alpha Dawn with SF-0
SF-1 Volturnus, Planet of Mystery
and SF-2 Starspawn of Volturnus
Monday, November 12, 2018
I Just Can't Stop...
While organizing my desk, I happened upon a book by Robert Pearce. It is an incredible set of ship plans for Traveller. Sure, it says "Traveller", but it could be used for any game system. The detail and scope is amazing. It is campaign fuel for sure.
Why not take a look yourself.
I know I will be pouring over this book for days to come. For some odd reason, it isn't even for sale. It's free.
Damn. A mighty big thanks to you Mr. Pearce, you made my day.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
What now?
So, what's next? The Place We Will Stay. This will be a series of maps, places where commoners will be found. I've been roughing out some maps, exterior and interior art for many medieval and fantasy homes for our heroes to find NPCs, commoners and other background characters.
The Places We Will Stay will be in digital format, pay what you want and be between 25-50 pages. Coming soon in early October, 2018.
Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to download Zero to Hero.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
A Spaceship Study
The initial design was rather slight.
A few details that I wanted to look at where the cockpit and shielding for the crew. The movable panels came from details of the drooping nose on the Concorde.
Each square is about a meter, so the ship stands 8 meters high. It is loaded out with 14 missiles, a centerline minigun and two large wing tip pods. There are 4 retractable radiators, the items with the 2x3 grids on them.
I hope to revisit this design again with ink, smoother lines and better proportions. This ship would be good in several rule sets like Traveller or Star Frontiers.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Dramascape at Drivethru RPG

You can use the pay what you want model to give it a product a try and purchase it later. One of the advantages of using DriveThru RPG is their automatic system to deliver a product as a gift.
After going to checkout, all you need to do is enter your payment information and add the recipient's email address and DriveThru takes care of the rest. What a great way to share the gift of game.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Rifts on Google Plus

Saturday, April 11, 2015
For future reference – US Census Microdata
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
More Wizardry 1 Information
“Wizards, lords and samurai gain spells a lot slower than the pure clerics and mages. Wizards gain spells at the same rate as mages and clerics, but the spell levels are divided between the two types making them weaker but more diverse casters. Lords and samurai gain about half the spells of the two pure casters.”
Monday, February 25, 2013
Annoying Wizardry Spells
Badios – Harm. Injures one monster.
Dios – Heal. Restores some HP of one character.
Kalki – Bless. Improves the AC of all characters by one.
Milwa – Light. Increase sight range when in dungeon. Also increases chance of finding secret doors. This spell has a time limit and is canceled by entering darkness. Do not cast in the dark, it just burns a spell.
Porfic – Shield. Affects only the caster with an improved AC. Drops AC by 4. Critical if your cleric is in the front rank.
Calfo – Detect traps. Allow the cleric to see which trap is on a chest… most of the time.
Manifo – Stone. Turns some monsters to stone, affects all creatures in a group.
Matu – Blessing. Lowers the AC of all party members by 2.
Montino – Silence. Prevents the casting of spells and affects the whole group.
Bamatu – Blessing. Improved party’s AC by 4.
Dialko – Curing. Removes paralysis, manifo (silence) and katino (sleep). Of course, if you are sleeping or silenced, you can’t cast this spell. Remember, casting while silenced will burn a spell.
Latumapic – Identify. Reveals what type of monsters.
Lomilwa – Light. Continual light spell. This spell has no time limit but is canceled by entering darkness. Again, do not cast in the dark, it just burns a spell.
Badial – Pain. Blasts one monster for a good amount of damage.
Dial – Heal. One character recoves 2-16 HP.
Latifmofis – Cure Poison. One character only.
Maporfic – Shield. Lowers the party’s AC by two and has no duration. Cast this one on entry into the dungeon.
Badi – Death. May kill one monster instantly. It does not do damage if it fails.
Badialma – Pain. Causes 3-24 HP damage to a single monster.
Di – Life. Non-combat spell. Heals one character to 1 HP. It causes damage to Vitality and can accidently turn a character to ash.
Dialma – Heal. Restores 3-24 HP to one character.
Kandi – Locate. Give the cardinal direction to a lost person. It is relative to where you are in the maze.
Litokan – Kill it with fire. Strikes a group of monsters for 3-24 each.
Lokotfeit – Recall. Teleports the party to the castle, but causes the loss of all gold and equipment.
Lorto – Ginsu! Creates a tornado of blades that slashes whole groups of monsters to pieces. 6-36 points of damage.
Mabadi – Pain. Reduces a single monsters HP to 1-8. It does not kill all on it’s own.
Madi – Restore. Heals all damage and removes all status effects. It does not raise the dead.
Kadorto – Resurrection. Restores a character to full health outside of combat, even if the character is ash. If it fails, the character is gone forever. Sorry.
Malikto – Death. Causes 12-72 HP of damage to all monsters. A real crowd pleaser.
Dumpic – Sight. Gives the coordinates of the party, relative to the castle stairs. Should have been called “dumbic”.
Halito – Bad breathe. Singes a monster for 1-8 HP.
Katino – Sleep. Causes one or more monsters to fall asleep. Affects one group of creatures.
Mogref – Armor. Reduces the caster’s AC by two.
Dilto – Dark. Lowers the AC of one group of monsters.
Sopic – Armor. Reduces the AC of the caster by 4.
Mahalito – Fireball. Cooks a group of monsters for 4-24 points of damage.
Molito – Lightning. Zaps a group of monsters for 3-18 HP. Very unreliable.
Dalto – Ice Storm. Causes 6-36 HP damage to a whole group of monsters.
Lahalito – Big bad breathe. Burns whole groups of creatures for 3-36 points of damage.
Morlis – Shock ans Awe. Causes the group of creatures AC to drop by 4.
Madalto – Icestorm. Causes 8-65 points of damage.
Makanito – Poison cloud. Kills most monsters less than 8th level.
Mamorlis – Terror. Causes fear.
Haman – Change. Drains caster of one level, so if this is the highest level you can cast, you won’t be able to do it again. Can have the following effects:
- Augment all magic cast by the party.
- Cure entire party of all status effects.
- Silence all enemies.
- Teleports enemies away.
- Heals all party members as if Madi was cast.
Masopic – Armor. Reduces AC by 4.
Zilwan – Dispel. Will destroy one undead creature per cast.
Mahaman – Change. As Haman, except more. Remember, you lose a level so it is unlikely that you will be able to cast it a second time.
- Augment all magic cast by the party.
- Cure entire party of all status effects.
- Silence all enemies.
- Teleports enemies away.
- Heals all party members as if Madi was cast.
- Restores characters as if the Di spell was cast on them.
- Reduces AC by 20 for all party members.
Tiltowait – Nuke ’em. Does 10-100 points of damage to all monsters.
3 slimes
4 clerics