Free .pdfs for Halloween on rpgnow.com

rpgnow.com currently has little pumpkin pictures throughout its site that if you click on it will add a .pdf to your cart and discount it so it's free. So far I have found like 4 pumpkins. Two on the main page, one in my library and forget where I found the other one.


So I got Profane Miracles, Living in a Zombieland, All Flesh Must be Eaten Revised and Supernatural Adventures, all for free.

If you find any more pumpkins tell me where they are!

UPDATE:






I found this list at rpg.net




1) Event announcement.
2) Home page.
3) Wishlist.
4) Quickstart = Trick
5) FAQ = Trick
6) Contact us.
7) Newsletter
8) Free stuff
9) My Library
10) Orders updated since last download
11) Products awaiting review
12) Contact Options
13) Newletters

Darker Paths 2, The Witch is now available.

If your following The Greyhawk Grognard then your probably already aware that Darker Paths 2, The Witch has been released. If not, then now you know. 

The Witch is an evil character with abilities such as Poison brewing, Candle Magic, spells including Esbat and Sabbat rituals and of course the ability to gain a familiar (I hope I get the Cat).

Also, something I didn't even know was going to happen, you can pick up Both The Witch and Darker Paths 1, The Necromancer, together for only $8. (Normally $5 each). Joseph also said that if you have already bought The Necromancer then he will contact you with a way for you to take advantage of the discount.

Since these are both holiday themed or out in time for Halloween, I wonder if Joseph will make thanksgiving or Christmas classes, Maybe the next product will be Travelers Path 1, The Pilgrim.

Licking Cyclops, and Friends.

Actually my son said this is him and his sisters.

Two Weapon Fighting

I found an article that, despite being written for 3.0 back in 2001, I think explains very well how you can use two weapon fighting effectively. Assuming your not a wizard addicted munchkin.

It basically explains that having extra attacks when using something like a rouge's sneak attack or maybe great cleave with the proper feats can turn the tide of damage in your favor.

You can read the article here.

Awesome Find.

Turns out a local thrift store, where I live, carries old D&D books. It's been along time since I was able to browse a good selection of 3.x and earlier books and this store had a surprisingly good selection. Most of the books were in good condition to.

Today I picked up, Savage Species, Complete Adventurer, Monster Manual 2, Frost Burn, The 2nd edition players handbook and about 16 Dragon Magazines. All for about 86 bucks. Not amazingly priced but fair and I saved a ton in not needing to pay shipping.

Ah, I feel like celebrating.

About my early look at Darker Paths 2.

I wasn't completely satisfied with my post about Darker Paths 2. I kind of feel like I didn't give any information or much of an opinion that you couldn't figure out for self by reading the announcement on Joseph's blog.

The reason for this is I didn't want to name specific abilities or spells that are in the book without permission to do so. Which means really I wrote it too quickly and didn't take my time deciding what I wanted to mention specifically.

Despite that my opinion still stands that it's a great Witch class, and that's great news for me as several adventures I am planning will have something to do with witch's or witch craft.

I'm still going to be going through the spells looking for typo's or any other issues's and general play testing but I'm guessing it won't be long until you can grab it for yourself and make your own opinion.

Playing as kids, Post 1

Me and my players often like starting a campaign out as kids but I never fleshed out a complete set of rules on how I was going to handle the statistics, I usually just winged it.

After posting the Quick 0’lvl rules, I decided I could take that a step further and make essentially a Young, Young Adult and then commoner level. So, here is what I’ve got.

Making the character:

All stats start at 6, with 10 points to add via the point buy system.

Gain all racial features. (or maybe all non cultural, racial features.)

Start with no weapon or armor proficiencies

1 hp

Instead of getting your skill points times four you don’t multiply it so you’re basically getting ¼ of your first level skill point

No class features and no feats etc

+0 to BA and saves

Becoming a Young Adult:

Once the PC progress to the next stage he gains

Another 10 points for stats

Another 1 hp

Weapon and armor proficiencies

Another ¼ skill points

And if it’s a spell caster ½ of their 0’lvl spells

Then becoming a 0’lvl character or Adult:

Another set of points +10

    These can be adjusted to use the standard or elite array.
    Since they started at 6 then another 12 points are needed on top of the standard 15 so a total of 27.

    If they just got another 10 then they could have a total of 30 (18), which would a little above average.

Roll your actual classes hit die, if its higher than 2 use that

Another ¼ skill points

+1 to your good saves

The rest of your o’lvl spells

When you finally make it to level 1 you gain:

All class features

Your full saves and BA

Your first level feat

The final ¼ skill points

Max out your starting hit die

Quick 0'lvl rules.

I think next time I decided to play 3.5 but want to start at 0 level but mostly follow the core rules I am going to do this (after stats and race are determined):

• Pick a class
• Roll for hit die
• Give skill points at x2 not x4
• Max ranks 3
• No first level feat
• +0 to BA
• +1 to your good saves, not +2
• no class features or traits
• spell casters get 1/2 of their 0 level spells

Then when they hit level 1

• Max out first hit die
• give the rest of the skill points
• max ranks is now 4
• gain 1st level feat
• gain BA
• gain +1 to good save
• gain class features
• gain the rest of your level 1 spells

Although the classes wouldn't have their features martial classes would have access to better weapons and would have a potentially higher HP. skill based classes would still have more skills.

Creation Mythos

I wanted a base creation mythos for my new campaign, but I wanted it written as if by a prophet or mystic. So I came up with this.

It's purposely hard to read but if you really want to know what it says here it is:

Quidditas Primitus, shall ye learn,
neither of Harmony nor Discord, born,
thus from Gaia did all sojourn.

Confusion, Clarity, Life and Death,
that which is Kind and that which is Left,
Awareness free of Primal breadth.

The Hour and Compass mattered not,
foretold of doom and eternity sought,
thus a Trinity did now plot.

Primordial separated on sake of temperance,
strange Land egresses, framed of balance,
segregation of ethos, causes repentance.

All that was known, now floating about,
Shards of time fall in diverse amounts,
authority proclaimed but dominion without.

I used this site, to help ground my ideas, so there will be some similarity to Maldins creation mythos.

Early look at Darker Paths 2 (The Witch), by BRW Games.

The official announcement has been made that The Witch class for Adventures Dark and Deep will be available in time for Halloween. Again, I got the privilege of being one of the Proof Readers and again I am impressed by Joseph's work.

The class is just as well made as the Necromancer and is again designed with a specific archetype in mind. The Witch in this book is not a gentle herbalist or wizard with a special spell list, it is the kind of hag that grows ever more Ugly and ever more Vindictive against society.

One thing that Joseph is great at doing is showing a classes specific flavor in both the descriptive text and abilities. I can't say too much more without giving too much away, but this Witch's abilities are designed for causing pain or death.

0 to Thorpe in 8.7 months.

For one of my upcoming campaigns the PC's are going to be stranded with about 57 commoners. I wanted to know what kind of supplies they could expect from the commoners and when, assuming the commoners are able to get a Thorpe going. My math might not be perfect but I think it will be close enough and I'm open for corrections.

I figured about 1/3 of the 57 people would be busy gathering supplies, such as food, water, flint and other tool supplies and maybe even metal ores. And eventually working on most of the planting and farming once that is started, or doing whatever other jobs are necessary. so that leaves me with 38 people spending the majority of their time raising houses.

I decided to measure when the Thorpe is officially established will depend on housing, IE once they have houses they live there. But first, tools to build the houses.

Getting Tools

Lets assume one guy made his living either making tools or as a black smith and is familiar with tools. He could easily have 4 ranks + 3 from skill focus + 2 from a skill affinity and maybe another 1 or 2 from synergies that's 11 (or 9 if you don't know what I mean about skill affinity). I think I could make him above a +12 if I wanted but I'm thinking this guy is NOT a specialized tool making expert so I'm only going to give him +7.

He probably has an assistant (so that's 2 of the 38 people) giving him +2 for assistance.

 Starting with improvised tools (-2) and having nothing to start with, (-2 circumstance) I think can be made up by whatever this guy and his assistant had on them while traveling and the +2 circumstance bonus of knowing the whole village is dependent on them. Survival can be a good motivator.

We still have 7 skill and +2 for assistance. Master work tools have a DC of 20 so he needs to only roll an 11 to make 280 sp a week. It takes 2 weeks to make his first set of master work tools. (or if he needed to make some basic tools first he could have) That's 2 sets of masterwork tools a month, helping the remaining people build houses. They can always share tools until more are ready.


Building the Houses

I have 36 people left making the houses. I'm assuming most of them are not specialized in making houses so lets assume they have a total of +4 from relevant skills and synergies. Such as from Craft (Wood Working).

Even though each person will be doing work by themselves they also each have 35+ other people to ask questions and get some assistance. So that's +2 from assistance and another +2 from the masterwork tools being made. And considering they are all excited to make a new community and equaling afraid for their lives that's a +2 circumstance bonus. 4 + 2 +2 +2 = +10

I can assume an average roll of 10 so that's a total of 20 for their craft checks and I believe a house isn't typical DC10 nor is a log cabin a Complex DC 20 so I'm going with DC 15. 20 * 15 = 300 SP per week.

Now assuming 1/3 of the Thorpe is married to another third of the Thorpe at most you need only 38 house for the 57 people if that. Remember this isn't counting kids but they live the same households anyway. Each csimple house costs 10K silver so that's 380K

The 300 SP a week is 1200 SP a month per person so 43.2 K a month. 380000 / 43200 = 8.79 so about 9 months later a fully built Thorpe. Even if they spend more their time helping set up farms, I doubt they really need that many houses.

If you want to help me correct my math feel free but please don't trash talk 3.5 or my thinking just because you think crafting is broken. Anyone who thinks commoners cannot support themselves should read Justin Alexanders "D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations"

Also remember a single person specializing in survival can easily feed 5 other people. And 19 medieval frontiers man will feed the other 38 just fine.

Keep Your Eye on BRW Games!

With the Release of Darker Paths 1 and all three Adventures Dark and Deep books available for playtesting, I can't help but be excited to see what else Joseph will make.

 The second most anticipated book, for me, for any RPG is Joseph's Adventures Great and Glorious.,The first being Adventurer Conquer King by Autarch. Mostly for the different tiers/types of play. Colonies, domains, war, generations. I think it will likely be compatible in some degree with ADD as well.

Keep an eye on BRW Games this month though, there could be another product release before you know it.

Is it bad to judge people by their looks even a little.

This was Originally a post on google+ but since it was a long post and I think well thought out, I decided to archive it here. Later I will likely move the comments to here as well.

Is it bad to judge people by their looks even a little.

I hate to say it but sometimes I don't understand someone's post until after I have looked at their profile. When I can put a picture to the words of any topic I just feel like I get what they are saying better. On the other hand I have had times where something seams really interesting or funny but then when I see who is saying it, I'm thrown off a little.

I think everyone does it to a degree. Here is an example, +Ayoub Khote is an excellent author who occasionally writes about heaven/hell type themes. His writing is already excellent. But if I found out they were actually written by a 10 year old girl, I'd be even more impressed. Frankly I think the world would be astounded. But what does that have to do with his work.

I might like his writing less if he were only 17 and were from California I suppose that makes me prejudice but then aren't we all.

Suppose someone told me to Shut my Trap and spend sometime off my computer. I'd be rather offended and likely click on their profile. Then suppose I saw it was +Ila East (not that I'm saying should would say that) Well I'd likely realize she is right I spend way to much time on electronics. I'd probably go outside for awhile.

So does seeing what someone looks like actually matter? Does it somehow put the words into better context? Am I racist?

Can products be made for advanced players?

I feel as if any release rule set, if it could ever be seen as a good starting product to buy, would need to be written assuming the new player has no idea how to play an rpg. However I think that could double the size of the fluff in a book.

On the other hand releasing a product that assumes you already know alot about roleplaying games or a specific game runs its own risks. Such as being mis-interpreted or too hard to pick up and play without referring to other books.

I think that anyone could buy Arcana Evolved and learn to play it with no prior knowledge of 3e. That's a good thing of course. I just can't Imagine it being that impressive to buy a product and see the whole "What is a roleplaying game, and How to GM", sections, every time.

Maybe I'm just being lazy, I am thinking about releasing my Kurahast ruleset at some point. It could be a great set of rules for beginning and advanced players. I just can't imagine me trying to write, "how to role play and making adventures", sections, when odds are anyone who would see my ruleset already has access to tons of info on those subjects.

One Page Dungeon: Infected House

I finally have my Kurahast Ruleset (based on 3e) ready for me to begin playtesting, and so I quickly threw together a small adventure site for low level characters.

It's not necessarily a quality product or even balanced for that matter but I will place the jpeg of it below. I used hexs instead of squares because for now I'm using hexs for everything, I'm bored of squares, lol.

Basically its an old house that is now infected with various bugs and vermin. Some of them can be whole colonies. I also layed some out to possibly help each other, and the large mosquitoes and Bot flies should be able to wander around.

I haven't done treasure yet and the file is rough looking because I slapped it together for my own use. If you roll to see how many creatures are in each area it could end up being rather tough for 1st level characters if they don't play smart.

Edit: Like any one page dungeon you should be able to easily adapt this to the system of your choice, however the exact names of these vermin match were taken from d20pfsrd.com so if your playing 3e/pathfinder you can get all the stats you need from there.

Examples of proper skill use.

DM: You have arrived in town and slept at the Inn. You awake feeling refreshed in the morning.
Player: Can I buy some new weapons, I don't see the ability on my sheet do any of you have that ability.
DM: You just need to find a shop or visit the market district.
Player: Ok, I use balance to walk out of my room and then climb to get down the stairs. If I see anyone I will use Diplomacy to convince them to tell me where a shop is. And then balance or tumble my way to the shop. Then I will appraise the goods. Bluff the shop keeper, while using sense motive on him. And then role some knowledge checks on what I am buying.
DM: You forgot to roll a concentration check while leaving to remember to grab all your equipment. So, roll survival to see if you can live without it.
Player: Can I roll spot to try and notice it on the way out.

DM: Sure, you manage to spot some equipment laying around in your room.
Player: Ok, do I use an Int check to know who's it is or will Knowledge Local work.
DM: Knowledge Local, so you can tell if it's suppose to be there or if you brought it.
Player: Ok, I pick up all of my stuff.
DM: Roll a perform check.
Player: Perform?
DM: Yeah, Perform, Menial Task, also make a listen check to see if you hear your conscious remind you not to take what isn't yours. Also roll a Knowledge Humanoid check when you catch your own reflection in the mirror.
Player: Can I also roll a sense motive check to see what the person in the mirror wants.
DM: Your doing alot right now roll a concentration check.
Player: Ok, *rolls low
DM: You weren't concentrating on breathing and so you pass out. You hit your head on the dresser, which is a huge bludgeoning weapon that's 1d10 damage and 1d6 for the fall. You take 11 damage.
Player: As I am bleeding can I roll a spot check to notice my life slipping away.

Current Status.

My ADD group hasn't been showing up, unfortunately, but by next Tuesday I'll likely finish Castle Caldwell even if it is just me and my wife playing.

Still playing the Castle Ravenloft Board Game, off and on. Our last game was with just two heroes on adventure 4, I think. We lost twice in a row, lol.

And, so I have been spending most of my time revising my Kurahast rule set. I keep cutting things and remaking it to try and get it as concise as possible. Right now it basically a low level, low power set up. With some house rules I think will be nice and using L&L Combat stunts. The main thing most people would like is the Skill tree system I use. Literately, the class powers and feats are set up as a skill tree using inserted shapes in excel.

I couldn't possibly release the file yet, because 2 years ago I had it all set up and done then the whole thing got erased. So I'm remaking the skill tree completely, and this time doing even more confinement. It actually is becoming alot different from my last version of Kurahast.

Pathfinder Beginner Box

So far I don't have much of an interest in path finder, something about the feeling or tone just isn't for me. However the Pathfinder Beginner Box looks very well done and in my opinion looks like a good value. I believe is about $35. I think people would be willing to pay more for whats in the box.



I'm curious though if anyone else has the same problem I do. When I open up a pathfinder book and try to use it I fee like it is to cartoony or softened somehow. The art work and some of the monsters just seam childish or silly and sometimes even contrasting.

I tried to talk to someone at my local game store about how it just seamed to ruin the seiousness of my campaigns and his response was "You'll never get seriousness in a D&D game" I don't agree with that at all. I don't purposefully make my games mature or anything, but there is death and fighting and relationships and somehow throwing in a path finder goblin or even gnome and everything just suddenly feels like a comedy or cartoon and our suspension of belief is broken.

More on The Castle Ravenloft Board Game.

Yesterday, I bought the Castle Ravenloft board game and posted about some of the contents, at that time I hadn't yet played. Now I have played about two and half runs throughs and I have to say I'm loving it. The combination on the event cards and the different adventures has me never knowing what is going to happen yet.

We had a player randomly led deeper into the dungeon, encountering some spiders one of which ran even deeper alerting the main villain. There's blood mists and illusions and adventure specific artifacts. One of my favorite moments was drawing a card that revealed my ally was just and illusion and he was somewhere else in the dungeon. I thought I was fighting side by side with him but instead it was a swarm of rats about to jump me.

I recently read that the other D&D board game adds even more elements like chambers and villagers, and also a Legend of Drizzt game is coming out this month. This will be the first time in a while I have been waiting for a D&D product from Wizards of The Coast.

Today I am suppose to be running a Sibra1 campaign but I bet we will be pulling back out Castle Ravenloft again.

A Twist on Orcs

In my new Kurahast Campaign I am hoping to only introduce new or different monsters or takes on monsters. I am still in the planning phase of the campaign but I want to avoid goblins for now so I decided to mess with Orcs.

My idea I came up with randomly was to have an Orc race that was originally made like Homonuculus' and also add in some elements from animated objects, IE their hardness and ability to have different limbs.

I used the Legends and Labyrinths monster creation tool to start out with for the Stats. It has not been play tested but I tend to fix rules and costs and they come up in game.

So here it is.

Orc

Small Construct
CR 1/2
HD: 2d4 (4)
Hardness: 1
AC: 13 (10 +2 dex +1 Size)
Attack: Claw +2, Dmg 1d4
Fort: NA  Ref: +3 Will: +3
Size:  Small
Speed: 30 walking, crawling, or hopping,
Str 10, Dex 14, Con NA, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 8,
Climb +4

Flying Orc

Small Construct
CR 2
HD: 3d4 (6)
Hardness: 4
AC: 13 (10 +2 dex +1 Size)
Attack: Claw +4, Dmg 1d6+1
Fort: NA  Ref: +5 Will: +3
Size:  Small
Speed: 10 Fly 50
Str 10, Dex 14, Con NA, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 8,

Spot +5

An Orc is a pig or gargoyle faced construct shaped from a mixture of black clay, ashes, mandrake root, water, and one pint of the creator’s own blood. The materials cost 50 gp.  Creating the body requires a DC 12 Craft (sculpting) check or a DC 12 Craft (pottery) check.

After the body is sculpted, it is animated through an extended magical ritual that requires a specially prepared laboratory or workroom, similar to an alchemist’s laboratory and costing 500 gp to establish. If the creator is personally constructing the creature’s body, the building and ritual can be performed together.

An Orc with more than 2 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds +2,000 gp to the cost to create.

Additional Limbs may be added for a cost of Y² x 1000 gp, Y equaling the number of Additional limbs. These limbs can add benefits like an extra attack or a bonus of +10 to speed.

The Creator of an Orc does not normally become its master as the ritual is intended to create a chaotic evil creature of destruction.  They can and will pick up weapons to use if they find them and work better than their claws.

Dungeons and Dragons Board Game.

Yesterday, I bought the Castle Ravenloft Board Game. I read through all the rules and punched out all the tokens and generally just rooted through the whole thing. I haven't played a complete game of it yet but I gone over it enough I think I could without referencing the rule book.

Since I had no idea what the game would be like when I bought it, I figured I might as well write a post about it. Maybe someone out there is thinking of buying it but wants more info.


Characters:

The characters look like 4th edition characters but they lack the base statistics as well as fort, ref and will. They only have HP AC and surge value. The party gets two healing surges to share, which are used when you are unconscious. The cleric also has healing capability.

If you are knocked out and not healed then on your turn you use a healing surge if you don't have any you die.  Damage is not random and is very low like 1dmg or 4 for a daily ability. So the HP is likewise lower then 4th edition with characters having around 8 or 10.

You start with some At-Will powers, one daily and one utility. Your can level up once if you roll a natural 20 and have killed a couple of monsters, you only need l 5xp. Becoming level 2 grants one more daily power and a bonus to AC and HP and that's about it. There are no levels beyond level 2.

The Monsters:

The monsters have HP and AC but also have tactics. Each player will end up controlling different monsters at the end of their turn, by following the monsters tactics. Interestingly if two players are moving the same kind of monster then those monsters both act on both of the players turns.

The Tiles:

The dungeon tiles in the game are different then the dungeon tiles you can buy separately. They are all exactly the same size except the start tile, and they interlock on all four sides. The pictures on them however, show you where walls and such are. The tiles are used similar to how cards are used, with their backs face up and you not knowing which tile is about to be placed.

The Miniatures:

You get alot of hard plastic and not painted miniatures. Which I actually like, to me they are more durable then the typical Mage Knight like miniatures. They will certainty hold up against my kids alot better. With the exception of the skeletons they are not very flexible. Also, I think they are color coded.

The Counters:

There are all sorts of counters, for things like conditions and traps, monsters, items. Personally I think there are too many counters and don't know which way to store them is best.

The Learning Curve:

I'd say the learning curve is small. I think I could teach four people how to play the game without even opening the rule book anymore beyond my first read through.

One more thing though, the game actually runs out of an adventure book and not everything in the adventures are random. However they are simple enough and can even be played one player. I think you could make up your own adventures if you wanted but the game in general is far simpler then even basic dnd.

I think War Hammer Quest is far more complex. I don't know weather to play ADD tonight or try out the board game. Maybe both.

Darker Paths 1 Is Now Available!

BRW Games has released Dark Paths 1, today. A Necromancer class for Adventures Dark and Deep or any game that is compatible with the 1st edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game.

You can get if from the BRW Games, store at RPGNow.com Where you can also download the play testing rules for Adventures Dark and Deep,

I'm very excited about this release but if you don't know much about it you can read it about it at the BRW Games Website or see my Early Look at Darker Paths 1. The announcement was made today on the authors blog Greyhawk Grognard.

Darker Paths, too be released soon.

It is October and that means  Darker Paths 1, for Adventures Dark and Deep, will be available sometime soon and I'm guessing earlier rather then later. Either way I will post here the second its available.

If you don't know what Adventures Dark and Deep is you can find out from the BRW Games website or from my earlier blog post. You can also check out my Early look at Darker Paths 1.