QuasiWizard

I think I have more to say on the idea of combat as chess. I brought it up in this post , but it was one example of the potential detail of a fictional world (a theme I would like to revisit, at some point). But I want to expand on the idea, and why to do it. What is combat as chess? It's combat where you can make informed, player skill-based decisions in combat. That means the players know everything they need to make a plan: how far away are the enemies? How many? What are their strengths and weaknesses? The players have the opportunity to brainstorm and attempt a plan entirely of their choosing. It necessitates an open-information policy by the referee. You can't know if it's worth getting hit if you don't know how hard the enemy hits. Suspense is nice in a game, but if your character's life is on the line, making an informed decision can save you the pain of rolling a new one. The goal here is cost-benefit analysis: How can I make an optimal decision, given that...

I ran a one-shot set in the Vietnam war with a friend during a car trip. I want to describe the character creation procedure, and propose a system based on that idea (we didn't use it at the time, but the thought occurred to me). Why that setting? Don't ask me, he picked it. The one-shot was a condensation of the movie Apocalypse Now . I came up with this one the fly using my Emergency Immersive Gaming guidelines. AKA I ripped it off from the movie. You can read the plot summary to get an idea of what it's about. I'm not looking to do a session report here. Instead, I want to talk about how the play went. I came up with a format for character stats on the fly. It was really simple: Of the usual six DnD stats (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA), which is your highest ability? We didn't actually use any numbers, we just decided to pick which stat was the highest had we assigned some numbers. He chose Charisma. He also got some hirelings, which he assigned highest abilitie...

I have joined the fallen ranks of YouTubers and podcasters. Woe upon me. Anyways, it's available here . I discuss with some friends what the OSR is.

I'm reviewing a hexcrawl! Times that Fry Men's Souls on Lulu, and on DriveThru . From the creator's synopsis: A weird campaign setting for use with traditional fantasy rules. Crawl across 80 hexes of a demented Colonial New York and New Jersey, with 180+ encounters, 10 supernatural scenarios, and hooks for dozens more. Abundant tables are provided for the ease and inspiration of referees and players.  I ran about 4-6 weeks of play by post of this setting before life got in the way. I've been itching to return to it, so this is a small scratch of that itch. I ran this with base 24XX resolution, and created a list of skills. Players also rolled for period appropriate trinkets, character quirks, and were given plenty of free reign on their characters using the book's excellent tables. I also asked the group to come up with a desired starting activity, anything from privateering to just plain ol' traveling (one group took up on the privateering). Oh yeah, imme...

I am a big fan of putting the cool stuff of a game in the adventure. As loot, or interactive elements in the constrained environment of a dungeon. I avoid games where the cool stuff is in the system. "Cool stuff" includes, but is not limited to, unusual powers, items, magical effects, character aspects, anything that hooks the players into wanting more of it. So then let's revisit my premise. I like cool stuff in the adventure, not in the system. The main reason is that it keeps players engaged with the fiction and the situation at hand. If the cool stuff is in the system, then players will figure out how to get to the cool stuff while avoiding the world. If you play XP  for gold, the players will find the path of least resistance to obtaining gold, so you shouldn't expect players to go into high-risk dungeons if they could become black marketeers or landlords instead. What's the problem? Mismatched expectations. You expect players to follow what you prepare, natu...

Probably a year or two ago I read a blog post from outside the DnD-sphere, Reality has a surprising amount of detail . It stuck with me all this time, and eventually the little worm in my brain that this post spawned crawled and ate its way through my neatly compartmentalized mind into my DnD brain. I haven't reread the article since my first reading, but the title is what really stuck with me. The worm has digested this idea, and the result is a little nugget of an idea I want to expand upon here. The blog post talks first about how constructing a set of wooden steps, in a precise manner, is actually quite difficult. Figuring out how the pieces of wood should be cut, fit together, and secured take some planning and precision. This is all to make stairs that simply fit together. Bearing weight is another manner. The OSR is all about having a "realistic" world - one that operates on consistent internal logic, even with fantastical elements. That means if you really wanted ...

SKORNE is a wonderful game system and implied setting. I adore it. I wrote d66 backgrounds for PCs. Create a character following the usual procedure, but keep note of the rolls to generate the gold crowns a PC gets, noting them in d66 format (i.e. one is a tens digit, the other is a ones digit).  Then look up your background on the table below. Before you were a renegade... 11. You were a charcoal burner. Take a lump of charcoal. Your skin is soot black. 12. You were an onion farmer. Take a sack of onions. Your breath is repulsive. 13. You were a crackpot apothecary. Take a flask of a liquid that will put your guts into knots. Your eyebrows are burned off. 14. You were a drug dealer. Take a hallucinogen. You have an ugly scar on your face from a fight. 15. You were a slime fisher. Take a pole. You have weathered, leathery skin. 16. You were a execution herald. Take a horn. You are missing two fingers. ----- 21. You were a slaver. Take a whip. You have a fake eye. 22. You were a ma...

White Hydra Many-headed sea serpent. Supposedly lives deep in the sea. Heads work like the usual fabled hydra. Blue Man A humanoid appearing in the last moments of those dying of exposure. He approaches the dying, touching them with a burning cold hand. He wraps them in a huge embrace, whispering to them of the immense warmth and cool awaiting them beyond sleep. Those who recover see him in the corner of their eye for the rest of their life. He is always pointing north. Alpine Demons Those who ascend the peaks of mountains risk encounters with the spirits who inhabit the trees of the upper slopes. They appear as starving men with stumps for feet, swinging from branch to branch using abnormally long arms. The demons speak in varying tones and timbres, taunting those on the ground, asking if they would join them. If approached, they grab a climber and fling them up high into the air, and they fall to their death. Furnace Grizzly A machine gone rogue. Shaped as a giant bear, it consumes a...

 I bought a copy of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki yesterday. Today I finished the first section of the book, "Right Practice." I want to share how much I enjoyed this book. For context, I have had interest in Zen for about 10 years now. I was initially just interested in a meditation practice while in high school and college, but as I encountered more information on Zen Buddhism, I became more interested in learning more than just meditation (the irony is not lost on me, now). I kept a daily meditation practice off and on, for a year long streak at most,  and visited a Zendo when I lived in Chicago, Zen Chicago Meditation Community , which I highly recommend. I now live in New Jersey and have not found a nearby Zen community in the Soto style. Alas. But I encountered this book at a bookstore yesterday. I had heard of it several times before, and said sure, I'll read it. I am glad I did. Even just a third of the way through the book, it has reminded me o...