What is it with dice? They are mean, capricious and have minds of their own.
The odds of a critical fumble showing up are 1 in 18. Last week, I rolled three in a row. odds of that? 5832 to 1 against...
Need to wait a long time to see that happen again? No. Charlie did it 2 days ago.
What is going on here?
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
Another Childhood Game
This time, we visited the 100 Acre Wood.
The three attributes are:
1) finding heffalumps 2) subdiung heffalumps and 3) finding where they had hidden Winnie the Pooh's honey.
On 3), you roll 1d6 to see how may jars you have found.
Critical fumbles: on 1) you go to sleep and a new friend of Pooh has to be chosen; on 2) you get lost while searching for where the heffalump has hidden the honey and have to start out again and on 3) you get scared off by the heffalump and have to start out again
Pooh needs 20 jars of honey to feel secure.
Game #2
Now the heffalumps have to steal honey from Pooh - they want to take 20 jars.
The three attributes are:
1) breaking down Pooh's door (a cf means you take a nasty splinter in the rear and a replacement heffalump is needed) 2) you need to stretch your trunk out to steal the honey (roll 1d6 to find out how many jars you can reach) - a cf means you stick your trunk in a mousetrap and a new heffalump is needed 3) you need to hide the jars ( a cf means you drop them all and have to start out again)
The three attributes are:
1) finding heffalumps 2) subdiung heffalumps and 3) finding where they had hidden Winnie the Pooh's honey.
On 3), you roll 1d6 to see how may jars you have found.
Critical fumbles: on 1) you go to sleep and a new friend of Pooh has to be chosen; on 2) you get lost while searching for where the heffalump has hidden the honey and have to start out again and on 3) you get scared off by the heffalump and have to start out again
Pooh needs 20 jars of honey to feel secure.
Game #2
Now the heffalumps have to steal honey from Pooh - they want to take 20 jars.
The three attributes are:
1) breaking down Pooh's door (a cf means you take a nasty splinter in the rear and a replacement heffalump is needed) 2) you need to stretch your trunk out to steal the honey (roll 1d6 to find out how many jars you can reach) - a cf means you stick your trunk in a mousetrap and a new heffalump is needed 3) you need to hide the jars ( a cf means you drop them all and have to start out again)
Friday, October 24, 2014
More Three Dice Games
Last week while we were out in the car, Charlie, Kamea and I played a game that was very popular in which we rolled up characters with just three attributes: unicycling, jousting and reccovering balance. The idea was to unicycle along a beam over a pool of alligators to meet your opponent in a joust; if the hits were equal, both had to recover balance. If you won three contests, you got to put an attribute up by one point. Critical fumbles were... well, critical.
Today, at the seaside pub with a beer and fish and chips, we played a three dice game in which fairies had to make children believe in them, teach them to fly and then create a good enough 'Mirage' that the pirates could not stop them joining Peter Pan's Lost Boys (and Girls)... It was so popular, I have to participate in Round Two now so that's it for now but I think this could be worth writing up as a free DriveThru pdf :)
Today, at the seaside pub with a beer and fish and chips, we played a three dice game in which fairies had to make children believe in them, teach them to fly and then create a good enough 'Mirage' that the pirates could not stop them joining Peter Pan's Lost Boys (and Girls)... It was so popular, I have to participate in Round Two now so that's it for now but I think this could be worth writing up as a free DriveThru pdf :)
Sunday, September 28, 2014
The Streets of Your Town (An A-Z of Khaboom)
I am approaching the 2000 paragraph mark in 'Missing in Action' now - over 180,000 words.
I have the street location after the number for every paragraph. Here is the A-Z:
I have the street location after the number for every paragraph. Here is the A-Z:
| Ackland Street |
| Acorn Lane |
| Alimentary Canal Street |
| Alrond Rise |
| Amnesia Street |
| Arbuckle Hill |
| Armitage Shanks Lane |
| Back Passage |
| Bitterstew Lane |
| Blacksoot Place |
| Brimstone Pits |
| Carbunkle Lane |
| Cauliflower Row |
| Chaffing Way |
| Champs Elysee |
| Curse Street |
| Dead Man's Cove |
| Desolation Row |
| Donkey Pits |
| Dungbeetle Scrubs |
| Dunleavin Street |
| Ebony Square |
| Elsie Avenue |
| Epicurean Avenue |
| Execrable Alley |
| Faraway Close |
| Five Card Frank's-Razorwit Rd |
| Flaggon Fields |
| Fool’s Hill |
| Foulsore End |
| Friday Woods |
| Gate of Glory |
| Ghoulish Gardens |
| Gordon Hill |
| Greaspaint Boulevard |
| Greenfingers Market |
| Grimtooth’s Gaming Gauntlet |
| Grizzly Lane |
| Gutsplatter Hill |
| Heights of Decadence |
| Hemlock Hill |
| Hemnin Forest |
| Hickory Docks |
| Higginbottom Gardens |
| Insalubrious Heights |
| Jack and Jill’s Hill |
| Jasmine Dragon Tea Rooms, Tyree |
| Jherri Quarry |
| Junket Street |
| Krisstrasse |
| Lardass Street |
| Life's End |
| Liliyliver Lane |
| Lizardlick Road |
| Longsorrow Street |
| Mean Street |
| Menagerie Street |
| Moneybags Place |
| Moonshine Parade |
| Mortuary Lane |
| Netherwallop Road |
| Nosebleed Lane |
| O’Vather Hill |
| Paladian Plaza |
| Patagonia Road |
| Peaswasse Street |
| Pentagram Square |
| Pestilence Park |
| Piccadilly Circuit |
| Pigwhistle Parade |
| Pilgrim Street |
| Piranha Alley |
| Punchdrunk Arcade |
| Prettyplease Pass |
| Quill Court |
| Ratfricassee Road |
| Razorwit Road |
| Resurrection Road |
| Robert Johnson’s Crossroads |
| Root Canal |
| Sandune Street |
| Savage Street |
| Scabbyrag Alley |
| Shiloh |
| Sickle Street |
| Silver Springs |
| Skullduggery Street |
| Slugfest Street |
| Smithereens |
| Solitude Street |
| Sourgum Street |
| Stealth Street |
| Stilton Street |
| Sullied Trouser Inn- Dunleavin St |
| Swattage Hill |
| Temple Mount |
| Territanoncarta |
| The High Mackerel Ranch |
| Threesun |
| Throgludite Crescent |
| Toe Rag Square |
| Trollcough Street |
| Trollhalla Row |
| Turncoat Lane |
| Tythe Hole |
| Viletooth Crag |
| Watergate |
| Wildebeast Plains |
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Powered Up Power Trip
So Sunday's game saw one player missing but new players meant a group of 9 to GM. This is largely a D&D crew but the T&T saving rolls are flying now with doubles causing big excitement. The 'buckets of dice' syndrome only got to the scale of 6d6 for hand blasters and the tallying of those cubes again produced more excitement than the 1 dice damage did in TOG rules.
The changes I have made to PT basic rules are:
1) everyone gets to claim a super power and it is tagged to one attribute
2) when you do something stunning using your SP you get a plus 1 on your SP to add into future SRs for SP-related actions only
3) No WIZ but PSI instead (otherwise per 7.5 T&T)
I intend to grant a second SP when +10 is reached on the first SP.
9 players worked like a dream! One died but was flipped back in time with a big SR by Tommy Two Times; another lost a hand when a blaster exploded on a critical fumble but a PC with the SP of conjuring living chocolate gave him a working new hand with a 1 in 7,680 saving roll of 1,1, 1,1, 2,2 4,4, 5,5 then (finally) a non-double. My Mediborg wildcard (his programming had been tampered with) got destroyed so I need to dream a new NPC to fox them.
Oh, and they rather prefer LK to Wisdom - very sound.
The changes I have made to PT basic rules are:
1) everyone gets to claim a super power and it is tagged to one attribute
2) when you do something stunning using your SP you get a plus 1 on your SP to add into future SRs for SP-related actions only
3) No WIZ but PSI instead (otherwise per 7.5 T&T)
I intend to grant a second SP when +10 is reached on the first SP.
9 players worked like a dream! One died but was flipped back in time with a big SR by Tommy Two Times; another lost a hand when a blaster exploded on a critical fumble but a PC with the SP of conjuring living chocolate gave him a working new hand with a 1 in 7,680 saving roll of 1,1, 1,1, 2,2 4,4, 5,5 then (finally) a non-double. My Mediborg wildcard (his programming had been tampered with) got destroyed so I need to dream a new NPC to fox them.
Oh, and they rather prefer LK to Wisdom - very sound.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Thursday's Child Has Far To Go
I downloaded a browsed through the TOG new basic rules. Wow! You don't need a board and miniatures now. That's a step in the right direction. Too many rules, too many tables, too many reasons not to play. I looked hard for humour but couldn't find any... is it against the rules? Maybe it just washes over my head.
You need three games mechanics for a fantasy RPG: combat, saves and magic.
The bucket of dice plus saving roll stunts beats the 'you missed, he missed, I missed, they missed, we all missed, oh! I hit - lose 1 hit point' mechanic (I think).
You have to pile in a lot of modifiers to make that d20 perform the heroic deeds a pair of d6 turn out everyday (I think).
Wizards who can do bugger all are boring liabilities and spells with names that make you smile put plenty of gas in the tank (I think).
Oh well. Now we know and that's sorted.
You need three games mechanics for a fantasy RPG: combat, saves and magic.
The bucket of dice plus saving roll stunts beats the 'you missed, he missed, I missed, they missed, we all missed, oh! I hit - lose 1 hit point' mechanic (I think).
You have to pile in a lot of modifiers to make that d20 perform the heroic deeds a pair of d6 turn out everyday (I think).
Wizards who can do bugger all are boring liabilities and spells with names that make you smile put plenty of gas in the tank (I think).
Oh well. Now we know and that's sorted.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Monday Message
GM'd my first ever 'T&T in Space' game yesterday. 7 players, 2 of them adult, 1 of them via skype. I didn't kill anyone but the annoying PC (the skype player) got bagged up and left in an alient spaceship with a bunch of time-delay bombs inside... The players were D&D people but they soon got to grips with T&T-style saving rolls and appreciated that it was less random than with the d20. Everyone nominated a superpower, based on one attribute (we had Power Trip's PSI instead of WIZ) and the PC who could stretch like Reed Richards (a dwarf!) managed to parachute to safety after his escape pod got ruptured by the now-insane Mediborg (taken over by the skype player). The players got to the planet Persephone at the end of 4 hours, a good place to stop.
Saving rolls, magic and combat - that apart, whichever system you play doesn't make so much difference unless you use a rulebook :)
Just read the dT&T update: happy for a longer wait based on what Liz says she's done with magic.
Had a good pyramid-raider game in the week on the Eagle continent and ended up with a new Wizard-God, Kafacaca - hence the thoughts on the last post as to why W-Gs go to sleep and stop dominating the world - i.e. WIZ takes longer and longer to come back the more of it you have and use - a W-G like Andy Holme's Liche-Lord might have WIZ of 980 but spend 900 and you are vulnerable for centuries waiting to get back up to W-G levels (one W-G never can be quite sure what the other is currently packing). Our friend, Kafacaca, conjured a great wall of fire to drive back the king's army: he'd maxed up by sleeping late but blew his wad in a way he hadn't planned so it looks like he's hitting the hay again soon.
Hey ho...
Saving rolls, magic and combat - that apart, whichever system you play doesn't make so much difference unless you use a rulebook :)
Just read the dT&T update: happy for a longer wait based on what Liz says she's done with magic.
Had a good pyramid-raider game in the week on the Eagle continent and ended up with a new Wizard-God, Kafacaca - hence the thoughts on the last post as to why W-Gs go to sleep and stop dominating the world - i.e. WIZ takes longer and longer to come back the more of it you have and use - a W-G like Andy Holme's Liche-Lord might have WIZ of 980 but spend 900 and you are vulnerable for centuries waiting to get back up to W-G levels (one W-G never can be quite sure what the other is currently packing). Our friend, Kafacaca, conjured a great wall of fire to drive back the king's army: he'd maxed up by sleeping late but blew his wad in a way he hadn't planned so it looks like he's hitting the hay again soon.
Hey ho...
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