Star Hat Miniatures: Heroic Scale Metal Figurines for RPGs

I want to recommend this to you because Darcy is a thoroughly splendid fellow and you will not be disappointed:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1262520792/star-hat-miniatures-heroic-scale-metal-figurines-f

Rotten Tomatoes

We've seen three movies recently: Tarzan, Ghostbusters and Star Trek.

I liked Ghostbusters! Charlie and Kamea said it lacked a 'boss fight' at the end but it was bright and hummed along. The cameos for DA and BM were predictable but nice.

As for the other two movies, they did not rock my world. In fact...

Still, as a searched for the above classic (which I assume I am allowed to post here as a tribute), I found another image I liked which I don't think has ever made it into a T&T rulebook. Its all you need to know about what sort of kindred you can play:

Put Another Dollar In The Jukebox

There it is, up against the wall. 

There is no way out of this room so you had better press the 'Play' button and see what you get...

1 - Emergency – 999      Roll 1d6 – the higher the roll the worse the emergency  Make a saving roll at the level on your choice of WIZ, INT, LK or CHR to stave it off or the whole party are toast!
2 - 68 Guns – The Alarm              Not nice! A whole artillery company is lined up and ready to fire                                Roll 2d6: on a 1,1 roll all the guns backfire and the pc escapes; on 1,2 roll they all misfire and a pardon is granted; anything else and the execution is carried out
3 - Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus            Bala may be dead but he’s climbing from his coffin right now!     Roll 1d6 and multiply by 10 to find the MR you must face…
4 - Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones             This devil wants worshippers, with death being the price for a failure to fawn effectively    Roll 1d6 to find the level of the CHR SR needed to placate the evil fiend
5 - Monster Mash – Bobby Pickett                         It’s a great party thanks to the Coffinbangers and the Cryptkicker 5 but you really do need to fit in!          Make a L1 SR on CHR to impress with a scary roar or a piteous moan or the monsters snack on you
6 - Rat Trap – The Boomtown Rats                          You find yourself poised on a giant mousetrap – L1 SR on DEX to get off without being cut in two by the deadly anti-rodent device
7 - I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King               As the first tremor is felt, you have to make a L1 SR on SPD to get under a bed before the ground cracks open and swallow you
8 - Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Chet Baker             This is one for the leprechauns!                                Any member of the Little Folk playing this record finds the pot of gold at the end of the rainnbow             It’s worth 1d6 x 500 GPs
9 - The Road To Hell – Chris Rea              If this road is followed far enough, all will be lost! A L1 SR on INT is required to get your bearings and find another route
10 - Zombie – The Cranberries   Rising up from beneath the dance floor comes a mouldering, brain eating undead monster! MR is 1d6 x 10
11 - Smash It Up – The Damned This is a free pass for wanton destruction! Make your combat roll and multiply by the level of a SR you try on STR – you get APs equal to the total and a whole heap of red-blooded satisfaction!
12 - Getting Away With It – Electronic    Another get-rich-quick opportunity!       Make the best SR you can on LK and multiply against 100 – this is the value of the gems you can snatch from Mrs. Bagpuss, the Mayor’s wife, if you make a L1 SR on SPD to get away      If you fail, you spend a year in jail
13 - All Right Now – Free              A freebie for those in dire straits (ok, wrong band!)         You get a little blue pill that will completely heal your next wound
14 - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer – George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers   Happy daze!       The drinks are on the house make a SR on INT and subtract the level from 3 – this is the level SR on CON you have to make to survive/avoid drinking yourself into a coma
15 - Man Eater – Hall & Oats                       The woman you hook up with (and, hey, your gender is irrelevant here) turns out to have a big, gaping mouth and needle-sharp teeth               You need to disengage from the love-grapple you so willingly entered into or your goose is cooked!           A L1 SR on DEX is required to make a clean break and save your tenderest parts…
16 - Don’t Go – The Hothouse Flowers   You have done something dreadful and have upset your comrades – you need to beg them not to abandon you! Make a L1 SR on CHR or you are hopelessly on your own in a particularly perilous place
17 - Proud To Fall – Ian McCulloch                            You stand on the edge of a seemingly bottomless chasm and must walk a tightrope to get across (the pack of rabid ghouls hot on your heels makes this a must)            Make a L1 SR on DEX or you fall foreverrrrrrrrrr
18 - Higher And Higher – Jackie Wilson Those ghouls are still after you!                 If you can make a L1 SR on STR you can climb up that vertical cliff, banging in pitons as you go             If not, the ghouls feast on your entrails!
19 - Ghosts – Japan                         You may have a mighty sword arm but what are you going to do against ghosts?                       Don’t even think about calling Ghostbusters!     You either have to cast a group zapping spell or leggit (a L1 SR on SPD willsee you safe and sound)
20 - Thick As A Brick – Jethro Tull              You thought that potion was going to do you good, didn’t you, you little optimist, you?              Well, you were wrong and unless you can make a L1 SR on CON to shrug off its insidious effects you will be rendered cabbage like in 59 seconds (with an INT of just 3)
21 - Many Rivers To Cross – Jimmy Cliff Well (is that a pun?), they’e not really rivers, just streams                            Trouble is, it’s not water flowing but highly caustic acid and you will have to jump, jump and jump again because those ghouls are after you again!        Make a L1 SR on STR or you will tire before the last of the many is crossed AND a L1 SR on DEX because there’s not a lot of room between them                     You know what will happen if you go in…
22 - Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil                      But will you notice and wake up?              It’s an early cremation if you don’t make a L1 SR on CON to smell the smoke before your eyes melt
23 - Roll Away The Stone – Mott The Hoople                      Stuck in a cave with the air supply dwindling…    You need to make a L1 SR on STR to save yourself from suffocation
24 - Don’t Fear The Reaper – The Blue Oyster Cult            Or maybe you should?                  Because his coming after you with that nasty, sharp scythe                        You need to generate at least 30 hits to knock it aside and keep your head on your shoulders
25 - Thieves Like Us – New Order             You’re going to have your pocket picked and lose all your money and gems unless you make L1 SRs on both INT and SPD to shift your ass before it is picked
26 - Spirit In The Sky – Norman Greenbaum                        Fortunately this spirit wishes to bestow a gift     Make a L1 SR on LK and you get 1d6 added to WIZ
27 - Wonderwall – Oasis               The wonderwall is worth getting over if you can stop wondering what is on the other side and climb it                 Make a L1 SR on INT and you will stop daydreaming and get to the Pool of Refreshment on the other side which adds 1d6 to CON
28 - With A Little Luck – Wings  If you can make a L! SR on LK you get to reroll the next SR you critically fumble
29 - Panic – The Smiths  Ever been on the receiving end of an Oh Go Away spell?                              Unless your INT, LK and CHR amount to more than 39 you get sent into such a tailspin you will just keep running until your heart bursts!
30 - Puff The Magic Dragon – Peter, Paul and Mary                          Make a L1 SR on CHR and you will have Puff as a friend for life  A magic dragon makes a great friend – he can fly you most any place and cast any spell up to your level if you ask him
31 - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason – Pink Floyd               You should have got out while you still could but greed for gold stopped your feet   Next time you need to flee, you delay for one round looking for something that glitters in your imagination and must make a L1 SR on INT to give up the delusion
32 - War Pigs – Black Sabbath     Monstrous swine with sabre teeth (1d6 of them) lock on to the sight and smell of you as the target for their next meal             They have MRs of 20 – watch out!
33 - Swords Of A Thousand Men – Tenpole Tudor             But whose side are they on?      Make L1 SRs on LK and CHR or you end up a prisoner of war for 1d6 years and come out with a CON of 1d6
34 - You Trip Me Up – The Jesus And Mary Chain              Well, you’re down but are you out?        You need to make L1 SRs on both DEX and SPD to elude the assassin whose outstretched leg takes you to the ground
35 - Spellbound – Siouxie And The Banshees                      There is a chance to break free though…                               Make a L1 SR on WIZ and the mean, manic, malevolent, murdering magician who cast the Hold That Pose on you won’t be able to maintain it   If you succeed and then make a L1 SR on SPD you can catch him and turn the tables, gaining his Fly Me ring!
36 - Torch – Soft Cell                       Suddenly, you are plunged into darkness and the dark is full of dangers!               Unless you have a torch, lantern or can cast a suitable spell such as Cat Eyes or Will-o-Wisp you will perish here
37 - Expressway To Your Skull – Sonic Youth                       A dreaful burrowing worm tries to tunnel to your brain – it is very hungry!        Unless you can make a L1 SR on SPD to get out of the way in time or a L2 SR on CON (your skull would be too tough for the worm’s teeth) you will lose consciousness and soon die
38 - In The Jailhouse Now – The Soggy Bottom Boys                        You got drunk and have been arrested and are behind bars        The Hanging Judge is in town and the sheriff doesn’t like use tax payers money to feed criminals              You need to make a L1 SR on CHR or you will stand trial with the inevitable outcome
39 - I See Red – Split Enz               Next time you get into a fight you will go berserk regardless of your INT
40 - At The Edge – Stiff Little Fingers                       Chasm time again!           It is stormy and the winds are buffeting you terrribly        You need to make L1 SRs on both STR and DEX to stand firm and keep your balance or you will be lost…
41 - Ride A White Swan – T Rex You gain a familiar, the size of a donkey, with a CON triple yours
42 - Song To The Siren – This Mortal Coil               You feel all at sea as a haunting voice plucks at your heartstrings and sucks at your soul                Now you have to return the favour… Unless you can make a L1 SR on CHR and another on INT you will not find the melody and not come up with lyrics to satisfy which will mean that the siren drags you under the waves to a watery grave
43 - Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday             Are you going to pick one and eat it? Up to you!                                If you do, make a L1 SR on LK       Failure meand it is full of deadly toxins while success meana that 1d6 attributes of your choice rise by 1d6
44 - Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon                     You’d better have a silver-edged weapon, an enchanted blade or be able to cast a devasting spell if you’re going to see off this MR50 regenerating howling furball


45 - Boris The Spider – The Who               You can get past Boris’ web if you make a L1 SR on DEX but if you get trapped you will need a L1 SR on STR to break free before the arachnid eats you!
46 - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – The Beatles            A beautiful angel looks down upon you from here cloud and begins showering you with tiny diamonds – you’ve hit the jackpot!    Multiply the level of the best LK SR youcan make plus 1 by 1,000 to see how rich you have become
47 - Tumbling Dice – The Rolling Stones                Your dice will tumble the way you want them to once in the future          On any one saving roll of your choice you may adjust one of the dice (probably so doubles show!)
48 - Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey                Your left pinkie turns to gold!     It is worth your weight in gold quite literally and it can also turn another being into a solid gold statue before its magic burns out
49 - Hammer To Fall – Queen     You suddenly find yourself at a fairground, shrunk to miniature size, beneath a bell, by flashing lights, with a giant holding a two-handed hammer in front of you grinning inanely                    The giant raises the hammer and swings it down with gusto, aiming at you!          Make a L1 SR on SPD to jump aside in time or you are just so much raspberry jam
50 - Witchy Woman – The Eagles              Now this particular witchy woman happens to be a Witch-Goddess         She scrutinies you and comes to a decision about what to do with you    Make L1 SRs on each attribute in turn     If you do better than L1 she will boost that attribute by 1d6 times the level you achieved         If you just make L1 she does nothing        If you fail L1 she subtracts 1d6 from that attribute                            If you roll a critical fumble she subtracts 1d6 d6 from the attribute (which may well leave you dead or utterly unviable)

Dungeon Jukebox Top 50

Over at the Trollbridge someone made a post about a jukebox in a dungeon. When the delvers - who are trapped in the room - play a record then the action starts. What that action is depends on what the particular record inspires in the GM or solo writer.

What a great idea!

I trawled through tracks in my music folder and soon had 50 to write actions for. I think I've done 25 so far.

Watch this space...

(Not least because...)

 These are apparently mummy predators, one-eyed monsters living in desets disguisng themselves as pyramids and jumping hapless mummies who have stayed out at the pub too late on Friday nights.

There's Always A reason (Almost Always)

Stan sent me this image:

He says they are "frien-emies"

I suppose I shall have to find out...

I can't easily slot them into my "Brewer's Brains" campaign where three-way civil war is raging on the streets of Qadouche.

I can't really plop them into the desert in the "Oasis of Jihazar" campaign that started last week and continues today as the green guy looks as if he'd hate the hot sands there.

My Vulgarian campaign which we picked up on Thursday after a gap of 2 months due to distance issues won't work because he delvers are on the verge of catching up with the ghost of Princess Dementia and confronting the silver warrior who broke her heart and dumped her (An adaption of an old D&D setting I chanced upon).

Probably the best bet is the Ogre campaign I'm doing with just Charlie as he's very tolerant of deus ex machina stuff. Having just met three very powerful wizard-gods, his character (a Stargate goa'uld) is on a road trip to the Ogre Peninsula from the larcenous city of Caerthaeph't in the company of the infamous and glamorous Rose of Stormguard. I think we could easily fit in an encounter with Fairy Nuff and a big dude stuck in a swamp. I don't think he's quite an ogre but maybe a cousin. Perhaps she put him in a Slush Yuck?

A Bad Day for Bilbo Baggins

He's coming to get you!

Not all hobbits are cuddly...

Fishing In The Stream of Consciousness

I have to admit that the title to this post comes from Terry Pratchet. I'm listening to a book about a steam engine, Iron Girder. It was a throwaway line but it struck a chord for me. I read one TP book years and years ago and this is my second dip into his ocean. I would be thinking I am guilty of borrowing too much from his well of inspiration if I wasn't so ignorant of the material.

Back to D&D/T&T thoughts. GMing that game on Sunday, I really missed the LK attribute! I like to rumble my way through the attributes for saving rolls (as you will notice in my solos - I remember Patrice of the French T&T fame telling me this was a 'good thing') and I found no use for WISDOM without resorting to sommersaults and had to resort to random dice rolls to replace LK. I'm sure others have ways to work with this that I just did not think of but...

Ken says better to be lucky than to be good and I say better to be lucky than to be wise and have a bunch of hit points!

My post at the Trollbridge today:

And by the way - I had 6 sales of "Control Freak' in the first 12 hours on DriveThru. Now that may sound small (and I knw those who buy first -thank you! - are the keenest) but that is actually pretty good for me  We all know that amatuer writer/publishers do not do this for the money (as if!) but for the love of the game. Still, I'm pleased to sell one copy on the first day!!

Charlie has a dormant solo, "Cult of the Chaos God". that he has left alone for 6 months or so and I'm encouraging him to work on it again as a follow up to his "Jailbait" solo (that still sells the odd copy. Funny how one sale is like a touchdown.

Jihazar Oasis

We began a new campaign yesterday!

Three players, maybe two more to join in and a cracking start in as much as we didn't reach the oasis and laughed alot. Well, that's my criterion for judging a game.

One player I had never played with before. He is a D&D player and I got an email from the worthy lady who runs the NZ MindSports Festival (which I have run games at for the last 3 years) telling me he was looking for a game.

Having discovered, thanks to the very un-rulebound Darcy Pery, that there's no reason you can't run D&D rules in the T&T spirit, I decided to take a crack at running a D&D game rather than T&T. Happily, Jacob was a man after my own heart and it quickly became apparent that the main difference was that we were rolling d20s for 'saving throws' rather than 2d6 for 'saving rolls'. OK, the spell names wee a bit dull but we agreed we could call them what we liked and that a successful game would be one where no rule book needed to be consulted.

The session ended when a very drunk elf wizard who had to be tied to the back of his camel to escape bandits and under-the-sands trollkin headhunters (he vomited on the camel's arse in an attempt to sober up) finally made the roll to regather his wits, just as the camel had escape the grasp of the halfling/hobbit/hobb paladin/warrior-wizard/paragon (my name preferences are the middle ones, by the way). This lead to the first and only spell cast of the day - something like 'Cloud of Daggers' which essentially sent a bunch of daggers in a five foot bunch at the pursuing savages.

This is not an accurate depiction by any stretch of the imagination but Stan sent this sketch and it almost fits:

More later, I expect...

And in other great news (to me at least), my new solo is now available as a book at Lulu and will appear on DriveThru as a pdf in a coupe of days. Not as exciting as T&T being wed to androids, I know, but you can only do what you can do :)

It's called "Control Freak - Spirited Resistance" and here's the web link: http://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-thornton/control-freak-spirited-resistance/paperback/product-22792123.html

And here are the covers:

Axed

Let's recap: you have been gifted an axe by Fairy Nuff. It has an iron head and a wooden shaft it is not enchanted, ot does not have an owner to whom it is special nor is it for you to use right now.

Let's change tack and find out why you are here.

Question:

Are you on a dungeon adventure?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

Dice, he say "2".

OK, now we're getting somewhere.

Are you solo?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

Luck of the dice response: 4.

Maybe this is a routine dungeon crawl.

Are you part of a group or do you have just one buddy?

1-3: you're in a party of delvers
4-6: you have a partner

1.

OK, How big a party?

1d6 plus 1,

Here comes the result of the Dice Jury: 4.

So a party of 6.

How many warriors? (1d6)

4.

Plenty of meat shielding on offer!

Are the other two both wizards?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

1.

Are you a wizard?


1-4: no
5-6: yes

 5.

Now we know that you are a spellchucker!  What level?

1-3: L1
4-5: L2
6: higher

 5.

L2, so no novice.

Are you human?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

6.

Let's find out your kindred...


1: elf
2: dwarf
3: hobbit
 4: fairy
5: leprechaun
6: something else

2.

That's it then, A L2 dwarf wizard in a party of six, just presented with an ordinary axe.

One last question for today.

Does Fairy Nuff have something specific in mind for you and the axe?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

4.

Oh well....

There Must be A Reason For All Of This

The dice comes up with a '2' so a weapon is given to you by Fairy Nuff. Fair enough but what is it?

1 - a sword
2 - an axe
3 - a dagger
4 - a spear
5 - a bow and arrows
6 - something else

Let's not wait until tomorrow this time!

Another '2' so an axe is what you have received.

What is it made of? We'll try head and shaft combinations.

1 - stone and wood
2 - bronze and wood
5 - all steel
4 - iron and wood
5 - jade and steel
6 - something else

Time to spin again: 4.

Is it enchanted?

1-2: no.
3-6: yes

And the dice verdict? 1.

OK....

What to ask next?

Is it special to someone?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

Mr Dice says....5.

We must probe deeper it appears.

Is it purely pragmatic, for the here and now?

1-3: yes
4-6: no

Cube response: 5

Gosh, this is opaque!

Let's wait until tomorrow to think up some more questions.

The Gift

The dice came up '4' so a gift it is.

What sort of gift? Let's see...

1 - an attribute boost
2 -  a weapon
3 - a spell
4 - a friend
5 - a magic ring
6 - something else...

We'll see tomorrow, provided it dawns as we expect.

Fairy Nuff

This fairy has been the Mercury/Hermes of my campaigns.

What's she going to cast with her wand now?

1-3 - you need rescuing
4-6 - you're going to get a gift