In a Wicked Age

In a Wicked Age




What exactly is this game? It uses oracles to come up with a story and a cast of characters. For example:

a Nest of Vipers

10S: A court dandy, casually cruel, exiled from the presence of the prince for a petty slight.

4S: One mistakenly condemned, fled into hiding.

6H: A tower of silver and alabaster, which rises from the sea under the new moon.

9C: An underground chamber, eerie with blue-green lights.

From this from what I have read (as I don't have the game as of yet) the group then makes a cast of characters. Using above I come up with..

Humatru A court dandy I imagine an vicious cruel effeminate unich fat and disgusting. Full of bright clothes and makeup. He must go and get back the princess from the dark night.

Garmelesh The prince tired of life, very tall and gaunt. A manly man. Long hair and beard. He is an expert swordsman and has only one love his sister the princess.

Anetriesha A virgin princess clad in only the thinnish of clothing. Melodramatic and crying from the slight made by the unich. She is constantly making a scene for attention. Her games are many and she cares not if people are harmed or killed in them.

The Tower Meklashia a vicious imprisoned spirit lives within this tower. He calls the virgin princess to get her to go into the underground chamber, eerie with blue-green lights. There the place will drain her life and he will awaken to torment the world.

You could at this time come up with a few more characters such as the guards, the king, some mercenaries, or whatever you can think of.

The players stat out their PCs and the GM stats out the rest and you start playing. There are very few rules present. Read over some of the reviews of this strange game.

Here are a few more oracles to see the strangeness that I am talking about.




Blood & Sex

10D: A note written in an elegant hand, sweetly perfumed.

QH: The rehearsal of the funeral of the city's aged and beloved mayor.

3H: The sorcerously animate homunculus of a wizard, more clever than wise, recently dead.

1H: A farm manor, peaceful and prosperous.



God-kings of War

10D: The country fort, made mostly of mud bricks, of a local warlord.

QH: A warrior-woman, queen of her small wild tribe, hard-pressed by advancing civilization.

3H: An unspeakable demon of atrocity and rage, bound in chains for a thousand years, aware suddenly of a minute loosening of his bonds.

1H: A secret order of warrior-mystics, defending their relics.






the Unquiet Past

10D: The young, beautiful wife of an old man whom the gods have touched.

QH: A reader of omens and caster of auguries, with grim news.

3H: The guardian of a tomb, a statue cast in silver with ruby eyes.

1H: A girl with the soul of a leopard, born inappropriately into a human body.






a Nest of Vipers

10D: The written deed to a certain house, affirmed and sealed.

QH: The return of a reclusive enchantress to her home.

3H: An imbiber of sorcerous drugs, seeking congress with demons.

1H: A vicious gang of cutthroats and alley-thieves.

Comments?

Many NPCs and Megadungeons

So have you noticed that since 3E on up UNLESS you had a Character Builder of some sort that NPCs were hard to make?

Even if you made them in 3E that would be cumbersome to run and ever more so in 4th edition.

Notice from 2E on down that a huge party of PCs and NPCs were easy to make and run? I mean I use NPCs as cannon fodder to keep the heroes alive. Not a problem when you can make one up in less that a minute. Just try running a party of 8-10 players with 12 or so NPCs in the 3rd or 4th edition. It works in 3rd edition BUT they will have full stats IF you use the rules as written. If not they will be massive unskilled retards. God I would not even have enough room on my table for a 4th edition game of this sort.

Now for something completely different!

With the 4th edition the age of the Megadungon is over for the modern gamer. Just go and try and make one. I already have for LL/S&W. You go make one for 4th edition with at least 100 rooms per level. See you in a 100 years. We of the OSR shall enjoy the mysteries of the huge Megadungeon!

Happy Jacks RPG Podcast

http://rpgpodcasts.com/show/HappyJacksRPGPodcast

They were my first podcast.

They still are the best so far compared to all other podcast that I have listened to.

Swords and Wizardry Complete Rulebook

Full power old school feel!

This book expands the Swords and Wizardry Core Rules (http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/) to cover all of the early phase supplements from the 1970’s. It creates a 1-volume resource allowing the players and game masters alike to create and run adventures and campaigns that will last for an entire lifetime. The game is supported by a vast array of adventures, and other resources that are produced by Frog God Games.

This is the game you played 20 years ago. It’s true to the original style and philosophy that made the game great. No “Spot Checks” here. Simple, flexible rules that allow players and game masters alike to roll play and roleplay. This stand-alone tome provides all the rules you need to play the game. Its easily transferable as a rules set for other retro-clone games as well as those old dusty modules you still have in the attic.

In 1974, Gary Gygax (1938-2008) and Dave Arneson (1947-2009) wrote the world’s first fantasy role-playing game, a simple and very flexible set of rules that launched an entirely new genre of gaming. In the year 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (holder of the “Dungeons & Dragons” trademark) released the “Open Game License,” which allows third parties, like us, to use various intellectual properties historically associated with the Dungeons & Dragons game – although not the actual trademarked name itself, and with specific terms and restrictions.

This book is an unofficial, “re-stated” version of the original Gygax & Arneson rules (0e), created using the Open Game License. This original game consisted of a boxed set of three booklets: Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. Four supplements were also written by Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz and others between 1975 and 1977, containing options for expanding the game with new rules. Collectively, all those booklets are often referred to as “0e,” standing for “zero edition,” and we mention the “Original Game” from time to time in this book, as a reference point. Swords & Wizardry re-describes selected rules from all seven of the Original Game booklets, taking some and leaving some. In general, Swords & Wizardry adopts class, monster, and spell rules from all the supplements, but sticks to the simpler combat mechanics from the boxed set and the first supplement only. Tim Kask, the first editor of the Dragon Magazine(TM), the first employee of TSR, Inc., and the editor of Supplements 2-4 for Original Dungeons & Dragons (TM), has more to say about that in the Foreword.

The Swords & Wizardry rules are extremely short, compared to the multi-paged rule-libraries required to play most modern role-playing games. Yet this game contains within itself all the seeds and soul of mythic fantasy, the building blocks of vast complexity, the kindling of wonder. “Edition Zero” is so powerful because it’s encapsulated in a small formula, like a genie kept imprisoned in the small compass of an unremarkable lamp. Take this framework, and then imagine the hell out of it!

Estimated Retail Price: $39.99, limited edition signed, numbered, hardcover (100 copies) and pdf, $19.99 perfect bound softcover and pdf (200 copies only of the first printing), $9.99, pdf only.

Estimated Page Count: 128
Authors: Matt Finch
Scheduled Release: November 2010

Empire of the Petal Throne

Wow just looked at a PDF of the game. A reprint from 2000 from Tigree Enterprises that is now Defunct! Wow what a piece of work.

I quit playing 4E for an undetermined time and other musings

Well I told my gaming group that I was just burnt out on 4th edition. Yep I know that is former post I said I was going to put away my OSR setting and embrace the 4th edition and just shut up and play!

AND play we did. I was playing a cleric. The battles were few but LONG. We had in the past discussed that the players need to know their characters and use strategy. Much strategy was used and many monsters fell. It still took too long and many battles just drug along.

Due to my job I had to give up the DM chair and we had some of the other members running games.

The system is fairly clunky. The monsters have a full page of stats. Why? Worst of all everything except minions has way too many hit points. Why would someone design a game in a way that purposefully makes battles last over 30 minutes?

I thought they play-tested it for over a year. How can there be so much errata? Then the Essentials are coming out which is a whole another version.

I remember one battle where a character did over 30 points of damage to a gnoll and this had just only bloodied it after 20 minutes of battle.

Slow. boardgamish, no story just battle, well I just stopped having fun or at least very much fun.

I had suggested many times for my group to try my LL mega-dungeon but I always got the blow off and the statement "I only like 4th". I always stated that we did not have to stop playing 4th but every so often try another system.

The standard answer was "I only like 4th" even though many of them have never played anything else or very little of anything else. In the past when anything else was going to be ran they would not show up that day.

So we were back to the every Saturday only playing 4th edition and it stopped being fun. I mean I love my group of friends but every weekend we were just playing a game and using per encounters, dailies, healing surges, too many hit point, too much math, too many rules, and it just got all the same. I asked my wife and my 14 year old what they thought. They too had not been having fun for a long time either. That settled it.

What about the fear of your character dieing? What about running out of spells and supplies? What about having to go back to town to heal up? What about it being a challenge?

A game where your character had fought and clawed his way for every XP he ever got.

SO..

I told my players for an undetermined time no 4th for me and soon I will be playing something else. The reaction was not surprising and I was not surprised by "I only like 4th and only want to play 4th" and one of the players said that if any other game was ran "he would not be attending".

I was even schooled on how I should have finished the 4th game that we were playing and then they would think about another game.

I did not recall asking them to stop playing 4th nor would I ever. I do not want this to end friendships but they seem to be taking the less than savory path. I will continue to be friendly and hope the best for them.

I only asked for them to try another style of gaming and was shot down for at least as long as I have had this blog save a few sessions.

OTHER MUSINGS

So the new Red Box is out? It only cover 2 levels. Gee sounds like a sample more than a game sight unseen. Gee I told WOTC to do that back on their forums during the first really crappy 3rd edition boxed set.

It's causing a stir and that is good and now the OSR Game Writers need to get off their asses and make a real basic set.

There needs to be a LL/AEC, OSRIC, BFRPG. and/or S&W (S&W is already kinda basic though) intro/basic set.

It should cover all the races and all the classes up to 5th level.

Have a selection of monsters and a guide on how to play as well as an adventure included.

Make it cheap. Get it out there!

A boxed set? Possibly but the OSR publishers need to get off their asses and take advantage of what is going on.

The OSR in me never died.

Well after a few more sessions of 4th Edition I decided to bring out my LL/AEC setting and work on it again. Not that the 4th edition sessions went "bad" per say it's just they didn't go "well". I had to give up the reigns of the DM as well as I have a LONG day that involves waking up a 3:25 in the morning and then getting to bed at 100:00 at four days a week and the fifth is an 8 hour shift but the 71.5 mile drive one way is the killed plus the 25 minute bus ride, plus the almost a mile walk. See very little time for rules intensive RPGs. Funny I can still create for the LL/AEC as all I think of is the story and then the rules just allow me to just write them down in minutes. The 4th has some good qualities and really good story ideas but it still does not offer that "certain magic" that the OSR does. I just recently reconnected with a few Old Schoolers in the area and may see if they want to play some RPGs old school style.