The Gathering of Heroes

 The Gathering of Heroes

Imagine if you could get the old adventuring party back together? The one from back in the day for a grand weekend of gaming. Many will have lost their characters from years ago so we just digress and all remake level 10 (or whatever level you stopped at back in the day) versions of our favorite characters or ideal characters from who they are now! Hell if many of you became successful, you could rent out a cabin in the wilderness to do this. Perhaps you could make this a yearly event? The adventure wouldn't just be a normal Adventure but time of great peril! These characters would have to come out of retirement in order to save the day. If you could do this in a cabin in the wilderness you could actually have a marathon session like you did back in school! Can you imagine the level fun you could have what you know now in the game in the style of back then? Imagine doing this with the 5th Edition rules as easy and smooth as they play? If you can make that happen with the old Gaming group and get together at least once a year so you don't forget who you are then do so.

I have tried it on and off for the last 20 years at least 5 to 10 times. I'd either get no response or very vague answers.

So should I try to do it again?

P.S. At this point in time I wrote this blog post a month or two ago, and pretty much I don't really feel like trying it again but if you make it happen, let me know. See it almost happened again. We had a place to play and the universe itself in the form of a hurricane ruined that potential place to play. 

Primordial Freeform/Rules Light Role Playing Games the Movement

So it looks like there are people doing (some have been doing it for decades) the Freeform Rules Light stuff like my DUNGEONPUNK RPG!  Nothing is original under the sun anymore but many of these methods we're back in the day. 

What pioneers that Wesley and his Braunsteins were that inspired Dave Arenson to create Blackmoor that later in inspired Dave and Gary Gyax to create Dungeons and Dragons. 

They played loose and free as there were no rules, they made it up and it was fun so they kept doing it. All they did was roll a dice to decide! 

I call that style PRIMORDIAL Role Playing!

So who is out there promoting, playing, and writings PRIMORDIAL RPGs? 

There is RPG Tinkerage which has inspired me to write Tales From the Green Dragon Inn and even write more DUNGEONPUNK RPG stuff.  His site always has great little tidbits of rules and such. My only problem is the blogger doesn't post enough! He always has something interesting. 

https://rpg-tinker.blogspot.com/

There is Darkworm Colt and his fantastic take on the early days of PRIMORDIAL RPGs.  I have been visiting his site over and over mining it for various ideas and inspirational contents.  Many stories if how they did it BEFORE there were rules! True PRIMORDIAL RPGs talking! There are also a few mentions of Sword & Backpack which was more of a reminder of my old Novel system and one of the inspirations for DUNGEONPUNK RPG. 

https://darkwormcolt.blogspot.com/

Let's not forget to celebrate Sword and Backpack which is a work of genius in it's Freeform simplicity. Not just that but it's punk rock presentation that somehow also captures the fantasy game. I would love to see more love spread towards this little game.  It's so similar to my Novel RPG system that it partly inspired me to write my Freeform fantastic system DUNGEONPUNK RPG. 






https://swordandbackpack.tumblr.com/post/47031468824/sword-backpack-rpg-is-here-here-it-is-the




There is Into the Odd which is such a cool ass game! I can't stress how cool and simple this game is yet so deep of a story. Then the offshoot inspired by such as Maze Rats and such. EDIT: Don't buy ANYTHING from BATIONLAND Press. They treat their loyal customers from the beginning of their game like SHIT.  The human filth at the DISCORDS at the FKR Collective, who also overlapped with the NSR, the Rainbow OSR and BASTIONLAND! These subhumans decided to ban myself and others for no reason. WHY? because were not libtard scum! Once again unless you're a total commie, don't buy their stuff. I wish I could get my money back from BASTIONLAND Press. 

Unless you are a leftist fascist, you can't just STFU and enjoy RPGs.  

 LINK REMOVED because it smelled of dung. 

There is Chirine the ancient one. This guy has a treasury of PRIMORDIAL Role Playing techniques from the original gamers Dave Arneson and MAR Barker. Most of his site is dedicated to Tekumel and is rather daunting but worth the time to take a look at how fantastic a world can be made. Imagine being an actual character in a world equivalent to another Tolkien and Middle Earth and that's what MAR Barker and Tekumel is.  His video on how they played back then is great! Very interesting videos and such. 

http://chirinebakal.proboards.com/
https://chirinesworkbench.blogspot.com/

We can't forget to mention the documentary The Secrets of Blackmoor as it shows "The Blackmoor Bunch" and how they rolled back then. 

https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/

Are there any others that I missed? Are their games sites and blogs that are also talking about the PRIMORDIAL style of Role Playing?

The Pit of Bones Old School 5E Module

The Pit of Bones

Long long ago in the ancient times of old. They dug deep into the stone ground, the Pit of Bones.

That's not how it was said when the world was so young.

It was spoken, whispered, and screamed in another tongue. They disturbed the unquiet dead buried and locked away long ago. Locked away and forgotten where the sane folk should not go. Disturb foolishly not the foul undead. Least you die horribly and your blood flows red. Beware the eyeless death from the red throne. The dead old king will strip your meat from your bloody bones!

That's the tale the old women tell when they want foolish children to not wander into the ancient ruins in the Scaredark Woods and to stay away from the most obvious ruin the old Pit of Bones.

There have been rumors for years of how "It be full of treasure neath tha ol Bonehole" but none have ever had a reason to wander that far into the edges of the Scaredark Forest till now.

The village of Old Tree is in trouble. The merchant caravans aren't coming and the crops have been very poor due to the Famine then floods this year.

It is said that foul beastmen from the wilderness deep have been raiding the merchant caravans out of the edge of the Scaredark near the cursed old ruins. Near where the Pit of Bones is.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/271400/The-Pit-of-Bones

The Adventurer's Guild: The Giant Con Game...

The Adventurer's Guild: The Giant Con Game...

I keep having this idea pop into my head. A giant continuous game of D&D with huge amounts of players and multiple DMs. All in one location as either a part of a con or the entire event. It could be done if everyone running the event is on the same page and the DMs are top notch. First event you can start low and then go high. You can just use paper maps and minis. Unless sanctioned, use everything! As the events grow, then you can get terrain and really build the tables up. Here is my proposed plans to do this.

The Gateway to Adventure

First you need a place for new players to enter and register or get characters. All new players start off at 1st level. If there is some kind of ranking system then the player may possibly start off at higher than 1st level. More details on the Ranking Systems later. 

You need a computer with internet and a printer. In many cases there are quick character generators to aid in the fast creation of characters. Point buy to keep things fair and prevent cheating. Once a character is registered or obtained the players head to The Tavern with their characters if they didn't already bring one. One also obtains at least a paper mini to represent themselves on the map if they didn't already bring their own mini.  A player could also bring pictures of their character as well to show what they exactly look like.
It is suggested that one comes with a group to form a party. 

The Tavern

The Tavern like all the maps are on 1 inch grids. Have a tavern big enough for the players to fit all their minis because here is where parties are formed. It is here where one finds their Dungeon Master as well.  Here one can role play, find rumors, look for work on the message postings. It's by the rules so powerful characters can simply kill low level characters. Town guards and veterans as well as other NPCs frequent the  place. Causing trouble can end your character up in the stockade, pay fines, or execution if they messed up bad enough. 

The Clock and the Wheel of Time

So what happens when one group is fighting and one wants to do different things that take different amounts of time? Here is where the Clock and the Wheel of Time comes in.

There are  up to 10 minute increments of real time that are turns of 1 Hour in game.

An ingame day takes 240 minutes. 

Combat can be fought within that hour. All combats and attacks must be finished before the next hour passes. This is coordinated between Dungeon Master's. 

This is to stop one group from hogging all the time and resources. 

If you have any suggestions on how to do this better or how it has been managed at other large live tabletop events, please give suggestions! 

The Village/Town/City Maps and Tables

The village or town might be small enough for a scaled table map. If not then one would have a map of the city and key areas on a scaled map (or miniature buildings) on a table. Start small and on a budget. 

Wilderness Maps and Tables

The wilderness is in one huge map with a few tables to represent key areas. Other cities, villages and towns can be put into other rooms as time goes by.

Dungeon Tables

Dungeons are done the same way. As many tables as you can fit. 

More information on Part 2.

Yeah I know about AL but this is my idea without ever trying that. BUT as luck would have it, the AL is coming to town with a HUGE response! .

My ideal MMORPG: Who wants to make this?

Let's face it, MOST MMORPGs SUCK!

I have a better idea that has not been done before as a MMORPG.

Get rid of the complication.

No Mercy!

Make it dark and scary!

A world with extreme seasons.

The only thing that should increase is HP and Gold to buy better weapons and armor.

There would be no Damage Creep from weapons unless magical.

ONLY HP and AC increase.

SLOW natural healing.

XP only increases if you rest.

If you rest in an unsafe area then you might not get to rest.

Make there be four classes.

Fighter - Has really Large HP and AC. Can use all weapons.
Rogue - Has Medium HP and Light AC. Can use most weapons.
Priest - Has Medium HP and Heavy AC. Can use weapons chosen by gods, Can banish evil beings such as undead. Has healing spells plus a very few others.
Wizard - Has Light HP and no AC. Can use a few weapons. Has a small list of spells that help party and do damage. More powerful spells are dependent on levels.

Permanent Death unless you have a Priest of enough high level to raise you IF you have the gold.

Races would give small benefits.
Human
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling
Gnome
Drow
Fey
maybe some others.

Get rid of the complication.

Total character customization in the looks department. Armor and weapons would have at least five different looks.

The game would be level based.

Have gritty towns and easy to kill towns people.

Only the mouse keys and the mouse moving around to do combat.

Left lick and mouse movement attack.

Right Click Shield.

Double tapping movement keys dodge!

Wizards/Priest need to stay back and cast their small list of spells on a rotary menu by the middle key.

Get rid of the complication.

Have huge open worlds with classic monsters.

Huge open worlds with terrible weather and natural disasters!

Huge worlds with walled towns and cities!

Every building can be entered.

All items can be pilfered.

Powerful NPCs, so don't piss them off.

All actions will effect the game world.

Huge mega dungeons!

Staying outside of town/city is deadly unless you find a safe place!

Have a light source.

Have food and water.

Have blankets for warmth in the high mountains.

Sandbox worlds where if you run into something too powerful and you don't run away you die.

No formal guild or party system, just if you meet up on screen then you go adventuring with each other.

A player would have to get his character to a safe place between games.

A few starting safe areas but once you are in the wilderness then permanent death of character.

Have a graveyard.

There would be high level NPC priest that could raise a dead character.

The map is only so large but have simple minecraft type editing where the world could be built upon.

New map additions are first come first serve BUT can be deleted or moved by admins if not acceptable.

IF you are a game designer then I have the ideas! Get with me! We could make the best MMORPG game ever!

The Black Stairs Megadungeon Level 4!

Here is the 4th Level of the Black Stairs...


To order it, take a look at DriveThruRPG!



So how big are the Black Stairs you ask? Take a look.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

(Unpublished)

Expeditionary Campaigns: Getting Started

Ingredients... (At least the first five)

Multiple Game Masters all local. At least three to start. Have to be really good to excellent Game masters! 

So you have to go out and look for these. You may already know who you want. Make sure and exclude anyone who is a negative ninny. They will come begging to join later. You can start out like a council having the originator of the idea the Leader or more like Project Manager to keep things going.  No end of the world scenerios unless everyone agrees. Keep threats fairly local. 

Multiple Maps that connect between the Game Masters.

Start with one map. Everyone who is a Game Master needs to work on it. Keep it small like one 8.5 x 11 with one inch equaling 20 miles is a suggestion. As Game Masters are added so are single page maps. Start from inside and go outward. Never try and make a whole world and then back fill it! Each Game Master gets the other to help fill the different maps. Multiple maps, stories, campaigns!     

Make competition between players and parties!

Very important as the games progress that each Game Master has different parties between them. Use the in game calendar  for travel times and such to see if a character can even be in certain areas if not using teleportation gates. Be strict on encumbrance and food rules.

Video Game like awards and trophies! 

Be creative and make up many awards and such. Steal from video games and any other source. Awards can also be weapons and titles as well as lands.  

Multiple groups of players that can interlock. 

At first keep them somewhat separated and only hear tales of these other adventurers.  As time progresses have grande adventurers where the heroes meet to work together or against each other. Warning hard feelings can occur so coaching is suggested.  

Once upon a time: "The game was centered around the referee, and the idea of the game was to explore the referee's world."

Here is a concept (that HE noticed) Michael Mornard Played in the original Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and EPT Campaigns
"Gronan of Simmerya" aka "Old Geezer" aka "LORD Grumpy"

IS THIS

Inspired by the other thread in this subforum, I've been thinking about the question of how D&D has changed, and I think I've come up with what seems the biggest change to me.
When Dave started "Blackmoor", which I've been told was a team vs team game, it was his invention... he wanted to RUN a game, and got players. When it morphed into more of what we now call an RPG, it was still "Dave's game" about "Dave's world".
Likewise when Gary started running Greyhawk, it was "Gary's got this cool new game called Greyhawk. You're a bunch of guys exploring an old abandoned wizard's castle." Again, Gary created a world, and found players for it... somewhere around 20 players in the early 70s in the cow's anus that was Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
And that was the first year or so of how the game grew... "Hey, who wants to explore MY dungeon?" The game was centered around the referee, and the idea of the game was to explore the referee's world.
At some point this changed. The mindset became, "We want play being a bunch of heroes, who can we talk into refereeing?" The game became centered on the idea of the players' adventures rather than the referee's world. That's actually a pretty phenomanal paradigmatic shift, and I think it's the core change beneath all the other changes made to the game.

SO Early RPGs were CENTERED around each DM was the artist and maker of a world and players PLAYED in the DMs WORLD!  At some point this changed. The mindset became, "We want play being a bunch of heroes, who can we talk into refereeing?" The game became centered on the idea of the players' adventures rather than the referee's world.

That's actually a pretty phenomanal paradigmatic shift, and I think it's the core change beneath all the other changes made to the game.

AND it has been that way ever since kinda for the most part. VERY profound. PUTS the early DMs into another light...

JDN2006 noticed that: Gary Gygax was designing the sort of game and adventures he liked playing and he seemed to have simple tastes, with a bent towards adventure and "anyone and everyone can play" concepts. I don't know if that is true, but it's the image I get from his work. 

THORSWULF wrote this profound statement: Sadly, so many DM's I know really didn't get into the exploration of creation- they missed the point. I too have been guilty of this. Sometimes the rules seemed to be the master, not the guide. I have to wonder if the very words like handbook, guide, and manual stifle creativity?

Fantastic thread. A few gems of great wisdom and "how we did it back then"! 

HERE is the original thread. 

http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/6104/which-gronan-muses-changed

Your Own Fantasy World.

Just a little exercise. Take your city you live in and using THESE rules below make a fantasy version of YOUR city you live in. Take real world people and convert them into NPCs. Take all of your old characters, adventures, dungeons, and villains from the past and put them in the history. Make a graveyard for dead characters. Write at least a page and draw a map. Make yourself into an PC/NPC based on your gamer street cred.

Lake Charlemagne Core Rules
1.Take your current modern city’s population and divide it by 10. This is your fantasy city’s current population.
2. Use the standard method for character creation. Standard races and classes unless allowed by the DM. Get some
players. Be honest. (THIS WAS 3.5 but now it would be Pathfinder. Not my favorite set of rules but the setting was made based on these rules.)
3. Now start creating maps based off of real world geography. Use most of your main streets and waterways. If living in
dangerous areas the cities need to be walled. Many of the bridges can be replaces by ferry crossings although huge bridges
and landmarks should be converted into gigantic ruins. Add in the demi-human races and their areas. For instance in
forested areas and parks add elves and gnomes. Any rocky areas add Dwarves and such. Don’t forget to add areas where the
foul humanoids live. The world has to be still untamed.
4. We will use the core rulebooks at first and go from there.
5. Every Player and DM MUST contribute to the setting by writing up at least a shop or building in the setting. Yes the
players help write the game making it more theirs. Remember to not go too far.


Other Rules. Time units and Calendar. There are 365 days in a year. Unless the players want to write up a special calendar
then we will use the standard earth calendar, as in days of the week and names of the month. There will be 365 time units
that a character must spend as he plays. One day equals 1 time unit. A week is 7 time units. The starting day of the first
official game will be Jan. the 1st. Year unknown until we come up with a story.

Hell if you make a setting close enough to another it would be bad ass role playing for a bunch of people to get together to go to War or have Espionage or combine settings.

NOVEL RPG: Hero's Mag News Update.

Hero's Mag: LATEST NEWS (from my comic book world)...

Well there were a few people saved from disaster from Hurricane Isaac by the Southern Knights out of their Houston base. A huge Cartel strike force was also thwarted as well that showed up in Louisiana to try and take out the Southern Knights.

Since the third plane hit the Protectors Base in York back on 911 the city is in a complete downfall with a death rate of 30,000 just this year alone. Not only is New York a criminal war zone it is beginning to spread all over the North East. The is a spike is organized and Supers crime in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Boston. Is there anyone going to save us? Save our country?

Several explosions rocked the south as the Cartel keeps up it's pressure on the Southern Knights. Quite a few refineries, police stations, and minor Supers hangouts were bombed in New Orleans, Houston, Little Rock, Dallas, and Atlanta. Over 1500 dead and 3000 injured. Other smaller Cartel related events happened but have not been connected as of yet. Are the Southern Knights going to do something? What relevance are they in this modern world if they can't even stop the Cartel?

The Republican Nation Convention is still recovering from the delegate debacle when some Ron Paul supporters and delegates who were also supers got out of control and destroyed most of the convention center. The GOP Supers team The Right Wing came in and put a thrashing on those wackos and looser and put them in their place. Mitt Romney was quickly nominated at a secret location even though the delegates were not there as many were injured by the disturbance. There are no other details as the supers in question have been put into a detention facility. Good job Right Wings!

Israel and the Obama administration are keeping up on talks of military intervention in Iran. There are crack teams of Supers in the Military read to go and are in various Governmental Training Facilities. This is going to be a really interesting war as Russia and China have both stated they will defend Iran and have moved the military and various Supers teams into the region.

The Billionaire and adventure Goldbar is doing big stock sell off and buying up precious metals. In fact many of the mega rich are selling stocks and buying up precious metals at this time. When asked what is going on Goldbar only responded whit this statement "If you can't see this baby is about to collapse and burn then you deserve what is going to happen to you. This country is toast and to let yet another cat out of the bag all my governmental contacts and mega business contacts are all making bunkers in preparation for something real bad. Let me tell you get prepped because something bad is coming!" All I can say is it looks like Goldbar has relapsed back into Drug abuse again.

THIS IS THE LATEST NEWS STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

One Page Dungeon Contest 2012 Judges Arrested in Attempted Bizarre Cult Sacrifice!

It appears that the One Page Dungeon Contest 2012 was a front for a drug frenzied bloody bizarre cult of cannibals. Over 200 people had been imprisoned near a remote island in Borneo last Thursday when.....




NOT REALLY!
But I got you to read this!
Only a few weeks left so enter this thing!
Some really kickass prizes!

One Page Dungeon Contest 2012

Track 1PDC Changes

This page collects all information regarding the One Page Dungeon Contest 2012. The results of previous contests are also available (2011, 2010, 2009).

Help spread the word!

Check out the Google+ Page, the Facebook Page, or Twitter posts tagged #1pdc.

Dates: Submission deadline is April 30, 0:00 UTC (Monday evening). If you live West of Greenwich, you will have to send in your submission a few hours before the end of the month! Winners will be announced June 1.

Judges:

Paul Go, also on Google+
Robert Ogłodziński of Ancient Scroll
Gianmatteo of the Chimerae Hobby Group
Jason Morningstar of Bully Pulpit Games
Adrian Shieh of Occam’s Samurai Sword
Shane Mangus of Swords Against the Outer Dark
Clay Wendt aka Sean FitzSimon on deviantART
Jeffrey Runokivi of There's a Bugbear in My Kitchen!
JB of B/X Blackrazor
Alex Schroeder, organizer and blogger

Prizes & Sponsors: Do you have prizes to donate? Let me know → kensanata@gmail.com!

Current sponsors, in alphabetical order:

an anonymous sponsor with $300 via Paypal
Bully Pulpit Games with a copy of Fiasco and the Fiasco Companion
Calithena with a PDF copy of the complete run of Fight On! and a PDF copy of Roll the Bones
DD Art Studio with a 8½ x 11 pen & ink personalized, character drawing on bristol board
Engine Publishing with three PDF copies of Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters and Masks and three PDF copies of 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game
Eric Harshbarger with a set of four Go First dice
Goblinoid Games with a perfect bound copy of TIMEMASTER core rules, ROTWORLD core rules, Labyrinth Lord, Advanced Edition Companion and Realms of Crawling Chaos
Hex Games with two QAGS PDFs and two copies of their 2011 Bundle (everything they released last year)
Jason Morningstar with Love in the Time of Seið and METAL SHOWCASE 11PM (one package)
John Stater with PDF copies of the complete run of NOD
Lamentations of the Flame Princess with a copy each of LotFP Grindhouse Edition, Vornheim, Carcosa, Isle of the Unknown, The Monolith from beyond Space and Time, and The God that Crawls (both adventures on indiegogo)
Obsidian Portal with a year of free Ascendant Membership including an OP T-shirt and some custom OP d6 dice (one package)
Peter Regan with PDF copies of two complete runs of Oubliette Magazine (issues #1 to #8) plus—if the prize winner is interested—their entry printed in the following issue of Oubliette (#9) with a copy of that issue in print and as a PDF
Porky’s Polycosm Publishing with a PDF copy of Triffles: Abandoned Space for every winner
Precis Intermedia with Ancient Odysseys: Treasure Awaits! Pocket Softcover, The genreDiversion 3E Manual and Story Engine Plus Edition
RPG Character Illustrations with a custom black and white character illustration by the artist of the winner’s choice
RPGOrbit with a free store for life (transferable to a friend)
Scratch Factory with a PDF copy of Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island
…
…
…

Submissions: Here’s how to submit your entry.

Create a One Page Dungeon.
Submitting a dungeon to the contest releases it under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license with credit to the contest participant (see FAQ).
The submission must have a name, an author, and a link to the license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
The judges and readers play a variety of systems. Don’t waste valuable space with a lot of system-specific stats.
A link to extra material on your blog such as wandering monsters, random events, adventure background, introduction, descriptions of tricks or traps are welcome for readers but will not be considered part of your submission.
One entry per participant. Participants may revise/replace their entries up until the end of contest, with the last revision counting as their official entry.
If your font size is too small to read, you will most probably not win.
Many people will print your submission as a black and white document. Adding colors is no problem as long as the black and white printed copy is still good enough.
Help us keep file size in check. A single page should not take more than an image with 3000x2000 pixels (1-2MB is cool, 5MB still works, 10MB is too much).
Submission must be mailed in PDF format to Alex Schröder → kensanata@gmail.com. Usually we can help you convert your Open Office and Microsoft Word documents to PDF.
If you have a blog article talking about your submission, send us the link. We’d love to link to it from this page.

Current Submissions, in chronological order:

Tom Denton – The Mage’s Prison
Aaron Bianco – Relaxx Spa
Eric Harshbarger – In The Dying Light…
Nick Wedig – Project Phaeton
Chris Engle – The Plague Years
Vivian Smith – Evil Experimentation Lab
John Geoffrey – Mourning Wight Of Brakhill (blog post)
Yves Geens – The Biosphere
Felbrigg Napoleon Harriot – One Page Dungeon
John Bailey – The Wanderers Tomb
Gene Sollows – Holy Sword (blog post)
Kevin Heuer and Michael Jones – Tomb Of The Sea Dwarves (blog post)
Scott Slomiany – Twilight House
Jens Thuresson – Close the Gates
David Thiel – The Ovens of Ar-Gar (blog post)
Ramsey Hong – The Cave of Kull Cove
Dylan Hartwell – The Dutch Oven (blog post)
Clay Thomas McGrew – The Giant Ant Nest
Warren Abox – Will No One Rid Me of The Troublesome Goblins (blog post)
Diogo Nogueira – The Hidden Shrine (Portuguese blog post)
Lester Ward – Seven Spindles and a McGuffin (blog post)
Fco. Javier Barrera – The River of Stars
Aaron Kavli – The Return of the Hecate Rose
Kabuki Kaiser – Shrine and Shield (blog post)
Chris Olson – Tomb of the Vampire Pricess Sword (blog post)
Jeff R. – Baron Fel’s Vault (blog post)
Jeff McKelley – Lair of the Minotaur
Jan Pralle – The Lost Temple of Moradin (blog post)
L. Forrest – Fungal Infection
Ian Johnson – The Necromancer In The Three Lobed Brain (blog post)
David Van Slyke – Hermit Alchemist Tower (blog post)
Mark Morrison – Turtle Shell Bandits
Sersa Victory – The Tears of Mother Pestilence (blog post)
Berin Kinsman – The Shimmering Portals (blog post)
Edward Green – Goblinville (blog post)
Wayne Snyder – MakMurdo’s Infinite Sewer
Kelvin Green – A Rough Night at the Dog & Bastard (blog post)
Gerardo Tasistro – The Graveyard (blog post)
Benoit – The Moriah Museum of Dwarven Artistry (blog post)
Roger Carbol – The Tomb of Oddli Stone-Squarer
Mark Garringer – Shrine of the Demon-Monkey God (from the author)
C.M. Lebrun – The Ichor of Vercingetorix (blog post)
Mike Monaco – The Panopticon of Peril (blog post)
A. A. Bunkerclub55 – Here We Stand, Again (blog post)
Rodney Sloan – Paranoia Pyramid
Alan Brodie – Splashdown in Fiend’s Fen
Ricky Anderson – Fine Art
…
…

Process: This section explains the process used by the judges.

Every judge nominates their favorite entries and proposes a category for each.
We try to make sure that every judge has at least three of their nominations in the final list. The idea is to not only reflect popular opinion but to also capture some of the more eclectic entries out there. We’ll make sure that every judge is well represented with three entries each.
Based on the categories proposed in the first step, we try to assign a category to each entry on the list.
Judges gets to check whether their favorites are still on the list.
We fix omissions and rename categories until we’re happy.
We publish our list of winners!
We will ask each winner for three items they’d prefer to win and any items they prefer not to win. Then we try to do a best match, giving precedence to those winners that got more nominations in the first step.
All the entries and a special PDF with all the winners will be available for download at no cost.

http://campaignwiki.org/wiki/DungeonMaps/One_Page_Dungeon_Contest_2012

Living Fantasy Realm LARP Rules Part I of III

Here are the Living Fantasy Realm LARP rules.

What is a L.A.R.P.?

It stands for Live Action Role Play.


Taking the OSR (and Nordic) approach that simple is better and that most LARPs have huge hundreds of pages rulebooks that chase away players.

Here is my simple answer to LARPing.
These rules are designed for a LARGE LARP fest.
They have been tested for many years and are tried and true!

Try them out and let me know.


The Living Fantasy Realm
Presents
The Brotherhood of Steel and
Sorcery
Version 1.6
solomanwolf777@yahoo.com
The Brotherhood of Steel and Sorcery is a live action fantasy role-playing community and society
based on medieval society, fantasy literature, games and movies and is part of the Living Fantasy
Realm. The Living Fantasy Realm is a community and movement.
Personae
A person wishing to join BoSS must create a persona, or a character to become while at an official
BoSS meetings or fighter practices. The persona may be from any time and place from the medieval
era, fantasy literature, games and movies. The persona must have a name and a brief written history
registered with the seneschal one week after joining. A persona must also declare a class and may join
a house.
Houses
A house is a group of personae who wish to join together under a common name. Houses must register
a name and a member list with the Seneschal. A representative must be elected to send to the Council
and to correspond with the Seneschal on subjects such as house rules and current members.
Council
One member from each house is sent to Council. The Council is the body of decision makers. The
Council meeting will be held on the first Sunday of every month. After the meeting it is the job of the
representatives to return to the house and inform all the members of the decisions made by the Council.
Officers
There are only two actual officers in BoSS: The Head of Council and the Seneschal. The job of the
Head of Council is to mediate the council meetings and to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie.
The Seneschal is the secretary-treasurer for the group. It is his job to keep records of the attendance,
dues, houses, etc.
Classes
A class is the field which a persona decides to devote his time and effort. There are four basic classes in
BoSS: Fighters, Wizards, Priest, and Rogues. Other classes may be allowed, but a persona must gain
specific permission to be allowed another character class. Class must be registered on the persona’s
character card. Once class is declared and Novice level is reached a persona may decide to join a guild
for his specific class. No one will be allowed to declare another class while continuing his current
persona. If a persona is killed, a person may choose to create a new persona in a new class, but it is not
advised to kill off a perfectly good persona.
Fighters – Anyone may fight, but a persona may choose to declare that as his personal
field of study and growth.
Wizards – One of the classes that can use Magic. This group studies the fine arts behind
true magic use.
Priest – The healers and holy men of BoSS. Their magic is a gift from their deity.
Rouges – Thieves, assassins, and generally sneaky personae.
Levels
There are three initial levels in BoSS: Guest, Novice, Veteran. A persona is a guest for his or her first
period. Guest Level 1 after 4 weeks he is a Novice level 2 after 8 more weeks he gets Veteran Level 3
and so on every four weeks. One may join another class(s) and split experience equally between them.
If a persona is absent one week, it does not count as a week of his or her period. During the guest phase
a persona may not join a house, vote, or hold office. At the end of the guest phase, the person must
choose whether to keep his current persona, or kill it and create a new one. Either way he continues
into the Novice phase. As a Novice, he is a full fledged member. He must pay his membership dues of
$5.00 per month, and he may join a house, vote, hold office, etc. Two periods into the Novice phase a
person should show his knowledge as a true and honest Marshal, and must have garb. These titles are
meant to show that a persona has been a member for a specific amount of time, and not to lord over a
person of lower level.
Skills
In order to use a certain weapon or skill, a person must prove that he knows how to handle the weapon
or use a skill correctly without injuring himself or another person. Then and only then, will he be
allowed to use that weapon or skill. The exception to this rule is magic. Magic may only be learned by
Wizards and Priest, and must be learned from someone suitable for teaching. Other non-class skills are
acceptable if approved.
Magic
There are two different level systems for magic, one for Wizards and one for Priest. The levels are as
follows. The magic presented here is a broad category of spells in one word. One must throw a pack of
birdseed or tennis ball, hit the opponent and call the effect of the spell to work. You get one spell per
level. Magic resets itself after each battle. You can cast any spell you have as long as you have a
birdseed pack or tennis ball. Magic ignores armor. This is a very WYSIWYG system as we cannot cast
actual flashy spells. Guest gets Level 1, Novice gets Level 2, Veteran gets Level 3, Apprentice/Acolyte
gets Level 4, Wizard/Priest gets Level 5, Master/High Priest gets Level 6
Wizard
1. Pain – The person hits is paralyzed with pain for 5 seconds and can do nothing but scream and
writhe. Other sensations (tickle, itch, sneeze, etc.) can be substituted but Pain is the easiest to do.
2. Compulsion – This cause the victim to follow a simple command for up to 30 seconds such as drop
your weapon, look over there, you cannot move, you don’t see me, and anything else you can think of.
3. Harm – This kills or wounds the victim depending on where it hits.
4. Domination – This completely takes over the mind of the victim and is at the Wizard’s every whim..
This last until the Wizard cancels the spell or another more powerful wizard cast a more powerful
version.
5. Death- This kills another no matter where it hits.
6. Rite – This is the most powerful ability to cast powerful rituals. More to come in a future Magic
pamphlet.
Priest
1. Turn – A priest may turn an undead causing it to run away in fear.
2. Heal –With the touch of the priest and a small sermon of 30-50 words a persona’s wounds are
healed. Each wound must be healed separately.
3. Pure – This spell ends all poisons or diseases
4. Banish – A priest may banish most undead or demons hit with this spell.
5. Resurrect - A persona that has died may be raised with a ritual.
6. Ritual – This is the level of the divine ritual. Here is an example ritual: The Wrath of the Gods - This
spell calls the wrath of the gods down. It is at least a five minute long ritual that if completed will kill
or wound all opponents or some other desired effect. If disturbed the spell must be completely
restarted. More to come in a future Divine pamphlet.
Fighting Rules
-The fighting rules are meant to provide safety to all fighters.
-The marshal is the over-all law of the field.
-There must be a marshal on the field at all times unless otherwise noted.
-Every member (Novice or above) must have their own weapon(s) which are approved to be SAFE by
at least one member of a council. Once a person has his own weapons, he may borrow those of other
people with specific permission. If a borrowed weapon is broken or damaged, the person borrowing the
weapon must repay the owner.
-If a shot is made to the arm the fighter may not use that arm anymore. If a shot is made to the leg, the
fighter must go down onto his knees and cannot move anymore. A foot counts as a leg shot.
-Chest shots are automatic kills and the persona begins dying. He may scream for effect.
-A persona completely dies in five minutes unless a Heal spell is cast , a bandage (see pamphlet 2) is
applied, he uses a Healing Surge, or he is brought to a healing circle. After five minutes the persona is
fully dead and must be raised by a Resurrection spell or a (see pamphlet 2) Rez.
-A Healing Surge is a burst of heroic energy that allows one to stave off death. Healing surges only
heal the worst wound first. You must wait your full five minutes before using.
-You get one Healing Surge per level. You regain a Healing Surge every six hours.
-A dead persona may be HACKED by hitting the ground next to him 200 times to represent hacking up
of the body. This permanently kills a persona unless some great ritual or rite is performed to bring this
persona back.
-Head shots are only allowed on the back of the head if all agree. A persona can be blackjacked by a
sock within a sock knocking the persona out. A helmet completely protects the individual.
-Light Armor such as leather, absorbs one hit to an area.
-Medium armor such as chain mail, and banded armor absorb two hits.
-Heavy armor such as plate mail absorbs three hits.
-Any other rules instated within a certain fight must be agreed to by ALL combatants, and must be
stated to the marshal of that fight.
-There are some special effects that are to be noted. Magic weapons ignore nonmagical armor.
Poisoned weapons will poison a persona and he will suffer the effect unless first given an antidote or
Pure spell if they get through armor.
Punishment
The breaking of these rules will result in the loss of privileges. If a fighting rule is broken a persona
may be pulled from the field for a day. If the dues are not paid by the end of the month, then the
persona loses all privileges as a member (i.e. voting, fighting, attendance credit, etc.) until the dues are
paid.

Back to the Dungeon LL/AEC Zine!

So here it is the first Back to the Dungeon Zine Volume I Issue I. I have been working 7 days a week and up to 12-14 hours a day but finally have a fatigue day so sorry for any incomplete or half finished crap. Hopefully the damn links work but on blogspot it never does, has, or will work.


https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUMlVUNDBTcGpTOEtVUTNMUjhoNHE4Zw

I really hope that more amateur publishers with delusions of grandeur start producing more Zines.

Yur World Fantasy

Yur World Fantasy

A Pathfinder/3.5 OGL Experiment

1.Take your current modern city’s population and divide it by 10. This is your fantasy city’s current population. Change the name to a more fantasy feel. For instance I changed Lake Charles, LA to Lake Charlemagne (which I am currently fiddling with due to other projects writers block and ADD), Baton Rouge, LA to Red Staff (or Staff Rouge I can't remember), New Orleans LA to Saint Orleans. Towards the west I changed the name of Beaumont, TX to Bearmount and Houston TX to Hugestone. ANYWAY get the picture? Change your hometown into a fantasy setting! Divide the population by 10 or it will be way too hard to manage all those NPCs!


2. Use the standard method for character creation. Standard races and classes unless allowed by the GM. Get some players. Be honest. We may have to go to a point buy of Attributes but for now it will be standard rolls.


3. Now start creating maps based off of real world geography. Use most of your main streets and waterways. If living in dangerous areas the cities need to be walled. Many of the bridges can be replaces by ferry crossings although huge bridges and landmarks should be converted into gigantic ruins. Add in the demi-human races and their areas. For instance in forested areas and parks add elves and gnomes. Any rocky areas add Dwarves and such. Don’t forget to add areas where the foul humanoids live. The world has to be still untamed.


4. We will use the Pathfinder or any other OGL 3.5 rulebooks at first and go from there.


5. Every Player and GM MUST contribute to the setting by writing up at least a shop or building in the setting. Yes the players help write the game making it more theirs. Remember to not go too far.


6. Other Rules. Time units and Calendar. There are 365 days in a year. Unless the players want to write up a special calendar then we will use the standard earth calendar, as in days of the week and names of the month. There will be 365 time units that a character must spend as he plays. One day equals 1 time unit. A week is 7 time units. The starting day of the first official game will be Jan. the 1st. Year unknown until we come up with a story.

Is Yur World a good name?

New Skills, Feats, Classes, and Rule Variants in general will be judged very harshly. If your idea is rejected go rewrite it and then resubmit it. We are not trying to write rules we are trying to create a setting with the rules as the framework.
Any artwork, poetry, and adventures will be used if possible with full credit given to it’s creator.

This has to be the campy old school type of gaming mixed with the new rules.

Now make sure and have a graveyard with all your old deceased characters in it. If some of your old characters are still alive remake them and play them or reuse them as NPCs. Make the children of your characters from long ago! Rehash old villains and adventures into your setting and have that as part of Yur World's setting.

I know that Ronvug the wizard from back in 81 is now a lich and he is now planning on taking over the lands!

Return of the Heroes

Return of the Heroes

So what is a Return of the Heroes? It's the game to get some of the old group back together as well as invite new ones. First of all you need to have everyone recollect their favorite characters or a combination of their favorite characters. Give them 6050 XP and start (re)making characters. You could also make the players the children of their favorite characters! Tell them to not buy equipment as you the DM will make an equipment list for them. Give them a minor few magic items and such.

Next start with the adventure. Try and reuse or rehash old villains (or the children of the villains). This automatically makes the party join together and be ready to fight. Remake and expand you dungeons of old. Really go all out on this.

Ronvug that evil wizard is now a Lich and he has many minions out there! The players will have to get more powerful to defeat him!

Deep in the the wilderness in the middle of a caravan attack is how it needs to start and the goal is the Tavern in the small walled keep or town!

Where were the characters coming from? Were they at war or on a quest that required them to all separate and years later come back together?

Now they have all received a summons to return to their old meeting place. They have heard dark news that their old enemy (or his offspring) have returned.

It is a time for the Return of the Heroes!