#RPGADAY2020 6. Forest

#Forest

That is a big word, for six tiny letter. When I think of a forest, I think of my children who grew up in and around forests. Spring, summer, winter fall, we're always in the forest. 


Magical. 

Wild. 

Dangerous. 

Protective.

Harsh.

Safe. 

Winters so still and so cold that your own body heat hovers like a cloak as diamond dust floats in the air. 

A forest at night, that holds back the worst of the storm.

As winter recedes, spring reveals secret trails.

Primeval places where children roam free.

And find cool waters in summer.

Which breaks to autumn where the blaze of leaves matches the sun. 

Episode 004 - Change, Kobolds, and Mrs. Todd

Welcome Back! Episode 4 has dropped. 

In this episode I talk about RPGADAY, change, kobolds and Mrs. Todd. The scripts are gone, as is the music. I hope these changes create a better listener experience. 

While I have done away with Mr. Kevin MacLeod's music, I hope you take a moment to go check out his music at incompetech.com. In addition to his music, he also has a graph paper creator which could be beneficial to any type of game. He has all kinds of good stuff over there and I hope you make use of his tools and download some of his music. 

This episode touches on history, both Roman history, my personal history and gaming history. 

Now, on to the show. 

The Tek - July 2020

My stats for DriveThruRPG were fine.

July 2020 Downloads via DriveThruRPG:

AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 3

Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 3

Kobold Folly Minisetting - 2
Swashbucklers Character Class - 1
The Hex Pack - 5

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 6

I just realized reports run in alphabetical order, so I reorder my list. I also looked at all time downloads, which include free and paid downloads. Those are some really nice numbers, it's been 23 months since Zero to Hero was released.

All time Downloads via DriveThruRPG:

AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 110

Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 150

Kobold Folly Minisetting - 139
Swashbucklers Character Class - 100
The Hex Pack - 118

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 273

I would like to do an update for Zero to Hero and Kobold's Folly. I would like to add maps and encounter tables to Zero and a treaties on Kobolds for the Folly. I'd like to do two new sets, one will be a Roman theme set of Domuses (houses) battle mats and the other will be a Hill fort map. These items will include a D&D specific booklet plus a rule set agnostic booklet. Maybe, 25 pages each.  

Well, webstats were disappointing. I didn't post much and it shows. 

Google Analytics Pageviews - 601

Google Analytics Sessions - 484

Pageviews per Session - 1.24

I don't feel to bad, as I already have 340+ page views for the first 5 days of August 2020. I should be back to normal soon. I'm also posting daily again, so that will give me a noticeable kick. 

I did do a major update on my page. I'll be tweaking things all month long. Sorry for the mess. 

I just want to remind everyone, if you have a product, a website or a podcast, let me know in the comments below. I'd be happy to add them to my site. 

#RPGADAY2020 5. Tribute

#Tribute(s)

I have some wonderful artwork from a well known artist in the field.  These creations are pyromancy. The brown areas are created with a torch and the colored areas appear to be watercolors. They are as cool as they are fascinating.

Each was done by the amazing Deven Rue. You can also find her on Facebook in addition to the aforementioned website. She's known for spectacular maps, but I can say I loved her teapots and slippers first. 

As you can see, I added an "s" to "tribute". I have a few more. Next up are the author-artist duo, Michael DiBaggio and Shell "Presto" DiBaggio, the creators of the Ascension Epoch series. I reviewed one of their books a few months ago, here. Shell Presto DiBaggio also has a Youtube channel for her artwork. I love watching these videos. 

Ok, so what is the tribute in these two? Well, believe it or not, I wrote a little OSR book called Zero to Hero which contains 50+ descriptions of medieval professions as character types. After I started following the DiBaggio's on MeWe, it sparked a memory. Historically, scribes fell into two categories, an illuminator and an author. And very often, they were husband and wife teams. It's nice to see traditions don't fade. So I added both types of professionals to my book after following them. 

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Heroes Zero to Hero

My third tribute comes from the Introduction of that same book:

"And my parents, who instilled a love in gaming in me from a very young age." Thank you Mom and Dad! They are also a wife and husband authoring team. My mom is a publisher and my dad is an author. 

These five people aren't the only that could have the label "tribute", but if I kept going, I'd be here all night. Five people for prompt number 5. Seems right. 

Be sure to check all of these great creators out. 

#RPGADAY2020 4. Vision

#Vision

The first thing that popped into my head was The Vision from the MCU. He is a wonderful warning for DMs of all stripes. Far too power and woven in the fabric of the problem but not the world, he is difficult character to handle. 

There is a going to come a point where your players make their characters something other than what you foresaw. There is the temptation to knock them down a notch, so they conform to your vision of what you planned. 

Don't. 

Not only for all of the reasons presented to the MCU version of Vision, but because what happens at your table is not just the DM's vision, but the player's as well. Your stories are the plan, the vision you have but your players have so much more in mind. They have a vision, too. 

Edit - HA! Crossplanes.com had nearly the same idea. Even better, he has a character sheet for The Vision. 

New! SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia

New Product from Dunromin University Press. This one is called The World Guide to Barnaynia. 

SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia

I'm not ready to do a review. In fact, I haven't bought it yet, owing to the fact that payday is Friday. Also, this book is over 200 pages of world details on Barnaybia, so it would take me a while to process it. I have many of the other titles in this series and enjoyed them all. I haven't played a session in this world, but I am looking forward to doing it. 

One of my favorite things about this whole series is the artwork. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is gloriously old school. Many of the images and maps look hand drawn, but are crisp and sharp like digital renderings. I suppose I could ask which it is, but that would ruin the mystique. 

One tangent. I hope you like these prepackage links which look like DriveThruRPG's product links. They aren't, I make them up on the fly. I do have instructions on how to make those for your website, at this link. When you do the code, you'll have to reference your copy of the image or link directly to DTRPG's .png file. Usually, it is 140 px and a .png. Also, don't forget to change the affiliate number so you get credit. 

#RPGADAY2020 3. Thread

#Thread.

This one is tough. It has to be. Every campaign, no matter the system or rules starts with an idea. How that idea changes over time is the thread. 

Rather than suggest any number of things, I would rather remember some of the epic games that would have gone off the rails if I didn't have hold of that thread. 

I started a campaign without any real idea of where things were going. I pulled out B2 The Keep on the Borderlands and let things go where they would. 

I didn't see where it was all going, but it was a hell of a lot fun. First the player bailed on searching the Caves of Chaos. They did a bit of reconnaissance and returned to the Keep for a few NPC or different characters. They picked up a dwarf and cleric, to round out a party of a thief, a wizard and two fighters. Good call, I thought. 

These two new characters didn't do much fighting, which is odd for a party not to risk their NPCs over their own characters. Well, of course somehow two of my players started playing the NPCs as PCs. I didn't expect that, but I was fine with it. 

The next surprise was the PC negotiating with the Kobolds. That wasn't terribly surprising, but the party went back to the Keep and returned with a door. A door they stole from the keep. The dwarf installed it for a kobolds. From this secure area, they advanced on the orcs above. Once they cleared them out, they stole another door from the Keep.  

"Are you guys planning on moving in or something?" I asked. 

They were. 

I have to say this wasn't our main campaign, but it was a nice place to escape to when other things weren't working out in our main campaign. The thread in this case was humor, exploration and enjoyment. 

I still have a brick joke about the quality of doors, which creeps it's way into every campaign from this one. It's been 30 years or more, but this thread is still alive despite not being the one I meant to create. 

#RPGADAY2020 2. Change

#Change. 

Timely prompt word. I need to change my website to conform with the newest version of blogger. It's kind of annoying but has to be done if I want my gaming site to keep on keeping on.