Sunday, May 22, 2011

POST RAPTURE ROLL-CALL !

Hello ?

Hello ?  Is there anybody out there ?

Just nod if you can hear me.......



....is there anyone at all ?

 Well, heck.  Already been to the game store, no surprise, all the usual gamers are still around.....you'd think that 40 year old virgins would count as pure......I mean, sure, I expected it would be easy to get a white wolf game together, but, you know, I was thinking that would be just another one of the lesser known tribulations.  ("and there will be a vampire LARPING to embarass all gamers, yea even unto anthropomorphics fans"- Gamersis 15:7)

Me,   I was hopin' to loot me some new dice, or maybe some W40K stuff.  Don't know why I thought those GW guys would be called up.  Optimism, I guess.


anyone else still here ??

Sunday, May 15, 2011

So, I've figured out......

Why my blog isn't the most popular on the internet. I don't have a statement about "what the OSR, OD&D and Rules-Lite is to Me" !  So here goes.

To me, the Old School Rules, Original D&D , and Rules Lite RPG movements are all about a whole bunch of gamers finally, publicly  admitting that I was right all along.  I've been griping, moaning and winging about overblown and complicated rules strangling the RPG industry, ever since I was 16 and TSR told me they were "reworking the whole system".  I've played, and become annoyed by every single iteration since Eldritch Wizardry and citizens of the Empire for Traveller !  And I was right by jimmy ! All you Threetards and Fourons and Twosers and Noobs playing kiddie D&D or AD&D OFF OF MY LAWN !  I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG !  Ye shall, ask "whyfor are we unsatisfied, when we have the newest of editions, the indyest of indy , the GSR theory and the card of collection ? speak unto us old fart gamer that we shall know"  And I say unto thee "thou suffereth from ennui because you were WRONG and deserve to suffer !  Did I not say that if all thou has is a scrap of paper and some rocks then thou should run a game about pebbles and paper  (although, to do so thou must use at least one die, else you wander into abomination, obviously, although if you have not even one lousy die why are thou here, even ?) ?  Did I not give thee the law of the creek and the crawdad in mock of complicated systems  back in the early eighties for crimmies sake ?  Did I not say unto thee, if thou should listen to me, and agree in all ways with what i say, and do in all ways as I do, and play for the game and the fun and not the rules and the shiny stuff  that thou shall be happy all the days of thy gaming life And certainly have more pocket change to waste on snack foods and the like?  And did thou listen ?  Did thee ? Well, about frikkin time.  Now.  3d6 in order, and start ye playing"

Saturday, May 14, 2011

So, I know what it means......

.....when you mow your lawn and find a car, but what does it mean when you clean your library and find a computer ?

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sick.....

Sick. Kid sick.  Wife sick.  Head full of mucous to five times its normal capacity.  The RPG.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama goes to negative hit points, fails con check !

In case anyone has missed it, its Miller time !
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/01/osama-bin-laden-dead-killed_n_856091.html

 President divvys up XP bonus with NSI,  ISI and a bunch of currently drunk and rowdy SEAL dudes.

This has been a borderline inappropriate blog post brought to you by Doc Grognard and Crustacian Games: the gaming crawdads.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Osama goes to negative hit points, fails con check !

In case anyone has missed it, Its Miller time !
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/01/osama-bin-laden-dead-killed_n_856091.html

 President divvys up XP bonus with NSI,  ISI and a bunch of currently drunk and rowdy SEAL dudes.


This has been a borderline inappropriate blog post brought to you by Doc Grognard and Crustacium games !

More non-humans for Adventurer: VarGnolls !


This week: another easily identified race for Adventurer. When reading this, do keep in mind that the intent was to model Traveller into D&D as is written for traveller by Gary and Dave.  This may seem to some a poor excuse for rehashing Traveller tropes with some serial number removal, but since I'm not one of those, I regard is as an opportunity.....

Non-Humans of varied and oft terrifying forms


Non-Humans
Non-human characters are optional, and somewhat of a deviation from the norm of Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ord and sorcery campaigns.  Nonetheless, players invariably want to try out every possible combination , some for the variety of roleplaying experience, some to maximize advantages.  Accordingly, Non human examples suitable  for play are presented in part II; these are simply those used in a suggested baseline campaign, and the gamemaster , if interested in using nonhuman characters, is encouraged to create such species as fit best with their own campaign.

Non-humans do  not use the cultural modifiers; as we know, while Humans and Human varieties have a wide variety of cultural types, aliens and non-humans are invariably culturally and racially homogenous; thus their baseline is the only culture available.

Vargnolls
Vargnolls  (aka Vargs) are a race created by powerful sorcery rather than the gods.  At some point in the past, they were created as slaves and slave warriors by a long forgotten likely non-human civilization.

Other than during breeding and laying time, there is no differentiation between males and females, both sexes performing all social functions, and, unless raising the young, all are warriors to some extent or another. 

Physically Vargs are generally a bit smaller than the typical humans of the world, and resemble upright wolves with four fingered hands (one of which is opposable) on their upper limbs.  Some are furred, some are not, but while all are warm-blooded, the females, once fertilized, lay a clutch of soft shelled egg like sacks in which the young mature in about six months.  The eggs are capable of bringing the embryo to hatching by internal resources, but are semi permeable, and if kept in a pool of replenished nourishment (regurgitated or liquefied food in general, although blood or carrion will do in a pinch) the young will be much larger and stronger.  The young are raised in packs, with a few teachers who are past reproduction age or unable to fight.

A Vargnoll hatches after six months (regardless of nutrients), is fully adult at four years, old by twenty, and seldom live much beyond thirty years.

Note that by virtue of their creation, Vargnolls have no religion or connection to gods; and thus have no access to spiritual spell casting whatsoever. It is postulated, and believed explicitly by the VarGnolls, that they have no souls, or access to an afterlife.  As a result, they are highly fatalistic, and believe in living life to the fullest in the present moment, are extremely impulsive and never attempt a task half-heartedly. .

As regards magic, they are by design vulnerable to spells of control and compulsion, and take a -2 on all tests against such. Also, they are unable to learn any spells from the school of mesmerism.  Being a created race, their physical form is fixed, if variable, and they may never be shape changers.  On the whole, Vargnolls very seldom learn magic, not least because, as a race, they deeply hate spell casters.  Culturally, they realize that they were created as tools, and show no particular gratitude to those who created them.

Vargnolls are invariably tribal, and use the PACK stat instead of SOC

Vargnoll have Notable STR (+2) and Weak END (-2), and have an EDU They do +2 damage in unarmed HTH combat.  They automatically gain Brawling-1  All limitations and benefits of the species apply to characters Character professions allowed are Barbarian, Other and Commoner.  The fighter profession can be entered if EDU is 9+, and the mage profession can be entered if SOC is 3-.  All professions except mage are resolved in two year terms, with aging beginning after term four.  Vargnolls who become mages still use four year terms, begin aging rolls after term 2, and make two aging rolls per mage term thereafter.