6/17/2019

Free GM Resource: Ruins of Arduin Swords & Wizardry Campaign Supplement

Free GM Resource: Ruins of Arduin Swords & Wizardry Campaign Supplement
The most popular game my buddy and I played (i.e., his favorite) at North Texas RPG Con was Swords & Wizardry. Because of his interest (he actually bought a rulebook, which was highlighted years ago as a Free GM Resource).

I've been poking around a bit, looking for some PC sheets, and came across this awesome homebrewed Swords & Wizardry campaign.......that has been published as a 65 page PDF.

Ruins of Arduin is the name of the blog where the author shares this supplement of the same name. I've just barely scanned it, but I'm looking forward to reading this later.

Head on over to Ruins of Arduin and check it out!

6/11/2019

Free GM Resource: A Twofer of Judges Guild Goodness, Both Old & New

Free GM Resource: A Twofer of Judges Guild Goodness, Both Old & New
I've never hidden the fact that I'm a HUGE HackMaster fan. While I don't get to play the current edition pretty much at all, I did get a lot of gaming in on the earlier, technically 1st, edition which we all called 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. The HackMaster development team described HackMaster as "50% 1st Edition, 25% 2nd Edition, and 25% Home Rules"

.....Anyway, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this.

I like playing OSR games, and I also like Zines. The only thing better than an OSR Zine is an actual Zine from back in the day. If you're one of my 12 regular readers you know I picked up a whole bunch of Judge's Guild stuff on my last day at North Texas RPG Con. So I guess I have a good start towards my collection.....I think?

The first Free GM Resource I want to share this week is the Judges Guild Booty List. With the indexes contained there I can see what issues I'm missing in my new collection. Not nearly as much as I thought I would be missing.

Now that's the "old" Judges Guild. The new Judges Guild has some rules, some maps, and a Character Generator available for download.

6/10/2019

North Texas RPG Con: Day 4 Report

North Texas RPG Con: Day 3 Report
The last day of a con is always a bit bittersweet. I didn't have any games scheduled, but my buddy had heard about a morning game he wanted to get in on, so we woke up way too early, grabbed breakfast, and was good to go in case the game started at 0900.

6/09/2019

North Texas RPG Con: Day 3 Report

North Texas RPG Con: Day 3 Report
Ok folks, this is a down & dirty day 3 report because it is almost 2 AM, I want to game in the morning, and I'm beat.

Had a "straight" Dungeon Crawl Classics game right after breakfast, a game with the esteemed Tim Kask, then a charity auction, then a 1st Edition AD&D game with Lloyd Metcalf , then the wild & crazy Midnight auction.

The only "haul" from today were three items I won at the Midnight Auction. These pics are fuzzier than I'd like and I really should explain, but it is almost 2 AM......

I'll try to cover everything in a convention wrap-up post. Until then.....good night.

2 Pair of underwear and Urinal Box

Phil Foglio "Signed" What's New 1 & 2

Brindlemarsh Supplement and Super Rare Casting

6/07/2019

North Texas RPG Con: Day 2 Report

North Texas RPG Con: Day 2 Report
Today was a busy day at North Texas RPG Con. It's late and I have an early game tomorrow, so this will be a brief brief, as it were.

Started the morning with a Swords & Wizardry game, specifically the Mythrus Tower setting for low level PCs. The game was run by the main man himself, Matt Finch. We finished a bit early and we were to have a good four hours until our next scheduled game, but we had a different Swords & Wizardry Mythrus Tower game as an ad hoc session with another GM.

We got about an hour before our next game, which was a BX d30 centric game. I bit the big one by failing a saving throw for Dragon's Breath in the final encounter. Actually I made the 1st roll, kind of, but since the die skipped out of my designated Die-Rolling-Zone I didn't count it and re-rolled appropriately, going from a 17 to a 4. Still had a lot of fun, so no big loss.

Planet Eris Map & GazetterI just realized that my gaming buddy Shad has not lost a game or PC yet this convention......the bastard. He's in bed snoring away right now and it'd be too easy to break out the bowl of warm water........

Today's "haul" of gaming goodness was me going for quality over quantity. I picked up the World Map and Gazetteer for $15. I just really liked the map. I thought the adventures were a bit much at $10 a pop, but I'll probably break down and buy them anyway. I also try to pick up some new art pieces at every convention. If I can afford it I'll go for an original over a print. I managed to pick up Doug Kovacs' "Knight Dragging Ogre", which is in the core Dungeon Crawl Classics book. It isn't a large piece, but I really like it. While I love his work, most seems to scream "DCC" to me, so this piece strikes me as more system neutral.

Doug Kovacs' "Knight Dragging Ogre"

6/06/2019

North Texas RPG Con: Day 1 Report

North Texas RPG Con: Day 1 Report
Day 1 of North Texas RPG Con is finished, at least for me. The day started with and unexpected run to Walmart for deodorant because for some inexplicable reason the deodorant was missing from my pre-packed ditty bag. I travel a lot for work so I have my toiletries pre-packed and I should be good to go. No biggie since I didn't schedule any games until the afternoon.

I picked my buddy up at the airport around 1230 and after check-in and lunch we played our first game of the con, which was War Pigs. I started out the game at a severe disadvantage, but by playing defensively until the end I managed to almost win.......my buddy finally got his Naval Gunfire to work right and waxed me just as I was about to take out his tank full of troops. It was more fun than I had expected and I could see War Pigs be a good first-step for getting kids into war-games, assuming that was a goal.

New items from New Big Dragon Games UnlimitedLater we played in a Planet Meat adventure (I think it was part of a new supplement) for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It was hella gonzo and just off-the-way crazy....and fun. I'm usually more of a fan of "serious" RPGs, but if you get to play in one of Doug Kovacs' games......DO IT! I don't think I'd enjoy him as a regular GM, just because of a clash of styles, but I'll be the first to say that I could not run, even with a Co-GM, the number of players he does while having everyone enjoy the game. We had one survivor in the game and it sure wasn't my poor PC, but again I did make it almost to the very end. I ended up missing a critical Luck roll by 1, or we could have had two survivors.

Not too much loot picked up today. I had a set of metal dice, including a d30, to give to my favorite d30 Table Generator, Richard LeBlanc, Jr./New Big Dragon Games. He, in turn, gifted me some of his new stuff, which I am so looking forward to viewing/reviewing.

Not a bad 1st day of the con.......

6/05/2019

North Texas RPG Con: Day 0 Report

North Texas RPG Con: Day 0 Report
Hoody-Hoo.....I'm on vacation at North Texas RPG Con. Today's already been a bit of a challenge, even though it is just under a 3 hour drive. The challenge is....well...because....it's self-inflicted. I forgot an important piece of clothing back home and had to drive across Dallas to pick up a replacement.

That kind of sucks....BUT there just happens to be a Half-Priced Books in the same shopping complex. I managed to score quite a few books including the Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps Collection in hardcover, along with some Appendix N paperbacks.

6/02/2019

Free GM Resource: OSR Character Generators (Compiled by The Smoldering Wizard)

Free GM Resource: OSR Character Generators (Compiled by The Smoldering Wizard)
This week's Free GM Resource is something that I hope to get use out of this week at NTRPGCon: a listing of OSR Character Generators assembled over at The Smoldering Wizard.

There are a good 20ish generators listed in the one blog post and while it is tempting to just pluck a few choice generators  and post them here.......I don't really play that way.

Head over to this post on The Smoldering Wizard and check them out!