D66 Random Weapons

Yet more stuff for the kid game.


D66 Random Weapons
11. Iron Fists
12. Lightsaber
13. Net
14. Uzi
15. Shrink Ray
16. Scimitar
21. Slingshot
22. Bolas
23. Laser Pistol
24. Bazooka
25. Club
26. Ninja Stars
31. Fire Hose
32. Knife
33. Crossbow
34. Boomerang
35. Nunchucks
36. Staff
41. Tiger Claws
42. Whip
43. Six-shooter
44. Katana
45. Grenades (3)
46. Bow and Arrow
51. Morning Star
52. Really Bright Flashlight
53. Sword
54. Darts
55. Soap in a Sock
56. Axe
61. Baseball Bat
62. Spear
63. 2x4
64. Blowgun
65. Sunsword
66. Sword of Omen

D66 Random Items

More stuff for the kid game.


D66 Random Items
11. Broom
12. Scientific Calculator TI-82
13. Candy Bar
14. Bag of Flour
15. Tuning Fork
16. Mouse Trap
21. Backpack
22. Bottle of Glue
23. Juice Box
24. Bag of Marbles
25. Football Helmet
26. Golf Cart
31. 4 Rolls of Toilet Paper
32. Pack of Gum
33. Scissors
34. Whoopie Cushion
35. Compass
36. Bobsled
41. Wienermobile
42. Pet (choose what kind)
43. X-Ray Specs
44. Perfume in a Spray Bottle
45. Anvil
46. Riding Lawnmower
51. Can of Fart Spray
52. Balloon
53. Magic Wand (1D uses)
54. Deck of Playing Cards
55. Large Magnet
56. Can of Whipped Cream
61. Velociraptor (with saddle)
62. Suit of Armor
63. Shin Guards
64. Parachute
65. Rope
66. Night-Vision Goggles

D66 Random PC/NPC Types

A list for my kid game.


D66 PC/NPC Types
11. Space Alien
12. Prince/Princess
13. Wizard
14. Ninja
15. Caveman
16. Robot
21. Bug Person
22. Dragon
23. Hobbit
24. Butterfly Person
25. Vampire
26. Bear
31. Fire Person
32. Angel
33. Jello Person
34. Cowboy
35. Venus Fly Trap
36. Merperson
41. Billy Goat
42. Rabbit
43. Warrior
44. Fairy
45. Rock Person
46. Witch
51. Scientist
52. Flying Monkey
53. Ogre
54. Jedi
55. Jellyfish
56. Wolfman
61. Filthy Pirate
62. Cactus Person
63. Acrobat
64. Hobo
65. Troll
66. Snuffleupagus

Adventure Time with the Girls

Got to play some adventures with the girls today. Rockin' good fun. It's honestly way more fun than playing with adults. Here are some of the highlights:

• The basic premise: It's been raining cats and dogs for many days. An old half-crippled wizard comes to the girls and explains that the weather fairy, who keeps the weather in order in the Land of Ooo, has been trapped by the Ice King in a giant block of ice in the middle of the spooky forest. They must rescue her!
• They encountered a mud monster, sprayed him with fart spray, and sent him floating away on a giant bubblegum bubble. He landed on the Ice King's porch with a splat. The Ice King determined he was a pile of poo (what would you think a big pile of mud soaked in fart spray was?) and had his minions hose down the porch, destroying the monster.
• On the next encounter, I rolled two story dice and got a bee and an envelope. I decided it was a giant killer bee that was also the mailman. The girls decided to pack some garbage into envelopes and mail it to the Ice King. They really enjoyed terrorizing the crap out of that guy! Even though the characters were hundreds of miles away, I played out the Ice King receiving his packages so they could get a nice payoff for their dirty tricks. There was immense laughter at the table.
• One of the players made good use of the magnifying glass item she chose at the beginning of play, closely inspecting the water in a magic fountain to ensure it wasn't harmful. Also, just for good measure, she had her cat test out the water first.
• After rescuing the weather fairy, I told them they had completed their quest. They said they wanted to go take on the Ice King anyways, to ensure that he didn't commit any more mischief. They really had it out for the guy!
• After defeating (knocking out) the Ice King in an epic battle, I asked what they wanted to do with him. Tying a large rock to him and dropping him into a volcano was discussed, but in the end they decided to jail him in the dungeons of the Candy Kingdom - with a hungry grizzly bear as his cellmate for good measure.

We all had a ton of fun, and it's really rewarding to see little kids adding up simple figures, and coming up with creative solutions to challenges. I highly recommend doing this if you have any kids around.

It just so happens that this week is also Teach Your Kids to Game Week, and while I really appreciate the spirit of it, there are a few things about it that I think could be better.

1. More free games. I've purchased a number of non-free PDFs of "RPGs for kids", and they tend to suffer from a sort of identity crisis. On the one hand, if you're going to charge money for something, there should be some meat to it, with lots of material and options presented. On the other hand, if it's a game for young kids, it needs to be very simple and open-ended. So what you end up with is something that is either too complex to really be a kids' game, or something that is so simple that you feel dumb paying money for it. I certainly haven't seen every offering out there, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but this has been my overall experience with these types of games.
2. More support articles with stories and tips about playing with kids. It seems like this is not much more than "here are some game PDFs". I think this is easy enough for people that are currently into RPGs, but what about the guy that hasn't played for years and wants to try it out with his kids. There should be some help available for that guy.

So now since I feel mildly uncomfortable about criticizing a thing meant to be good for kids, I hereby offer my payment of the Joesky Tax - a complete list of the resources I used to run my game today, complete with explanations and examples.

• A few printed copies of my TOON hack character sheet. Game rules included on the sheet. I believe this game to be suitable for any type of adventure gaming one might do with young kids. For any rules not listed on the sheet, make something up that is fun and reasonably fits the situation at hand. That is the key. We honestly barely even used these rules, and could probably get by without any rules at all. You will have way more fun making stuff up as you go than you would going over some list of predetermined options with a child. Don't limit them! Just go with the flow!
• A pair of six-sided dice for each player. Preferably different colors to make d66 rolls easier.
• Pencils. Dixon Ticonderoga is preferred.
• A map of the Land of Ooo. Just looking at this map gives lots of ideas for adventures. Or you could just do a google images search and easily find another suitable map.
• A magic 8-ball for answering those crazy questions kids inevitably come up with. (Thanks to Jeff Rients for this idea. I've gotten a ton of mileage out of this thing in all my games.)
• Some story dice. These are just to get your brain moving to help you make stuff up. Playing with kids is all about making stuff up. Our crusty adult imaginations need all the help they can get!
• Some random charts from the original TOON game, or any other random charts with fun things on them. I don't have anything available to share at the moment, but I'll see if I can get a few scans of some of the charts up on my tumblr in the near future as examples.

As you can see, you don't really need to buy much of anything. The story dice and the 8-ball are totally optional, and if you spend a bit of time beforehand, you can make up your own random charts or find some online. In a pinch, you could even get a little kid's ABC book and flip to a random page to give your brain a starting point. Use toys on the tabletop to play out scenarios if you like. Make up your own clever uses of stuff you have lying around to add a bit to your game. The sky is the limit really, and it's very liberating!

Finally, I think a lot of people fall victim to the idea that kids can't start playing these games until they are 8 or 10 or 12 or something. Nonsense, I say! Sure, they might not be memorizing the AD&D Weapon vs. AC To-Hit Adjustments tables, but that is a far cry from not being ready to enjoy the essential elements of tabletop adventure. Again, just forget about rules systems. Go ahead and even ditch the dice and pencils and paper. Even just a verbal exchange can be a great start.

I now leave you with these awesome character sheets.

Character played by Penelope, age 3

Character played by Bella, age 4

Character played by Sophia, age 6

My Crappy Little NaGaDeMon Game

I whipped up this little game, which is nothing more than a hack of TOON, in the spirit of NaGaDeMon. I'm not an actual registered participant, but it seemed like a fun thing to do anyways.

I made the game so I'd have a one-stop system for any RPGish gaming I do with my daughter (age 3) and her friends (and perhaps the "grown-ups" too, when we're in the mood for some lighter fare). It should be able to handle anything from My Little Pony to Adventure Time to old-fashioned dungeon crawling. I took care to keep the thing as open-ended as possible, since I think more structured games have a stifling effect on the creativity of a child. Thus, there are no pre-defined character types, powers, or items. The players will have to make them up!

Yep, that's all there is to it!

If you do happen to give it a go, I'd love to hear how it worked for you.

Linkage:
My NaGaDeMon Game 2012 (PDF)
My NaGaDeMon Game 2012 (PNG Image)

Enjoy!

Tunnels & Trolls 4th Edition PDF Released

Flying Buffalo has released a PDF of the 4th edition of the Tunnels & Trolls rules, and it is available HERE. I highly recommend the purchase, to show that there is interest in the old crusty versions. T&T 4th has a great deal of charm, and the power curve is notably lower than that of the popular 5th edition. I think it's a great framework if you want to keep your game really simple, or to have a nice skeleton upon which to build your own wacky creation. At any rate, the $4 price is tough to beat.

Most Used Random Tables

For the games I run, the "Dungeon Master Guide" I use is nothing more than a homemade digest booklet - about 32 pages or so - that holds my most commonly-referenced charts, tables, and notes. I periodically review it and make a new one, dumping little-used tables, updating ones where a lot of the results are used up, and making any other tweaks I might want to make while I'm at it. It's interesting that I always find a few that I thought were awesome but they never saw use at the table. Conversely, some of the less sexy tables get used all the time.

So yesterday, while I was going through this process, I compiled a list of my most-used tables and posted it on G+. No one really responded with theirs, but Zak suggested it might be more suitable as a blog thing, since it does require a bit of thought and effort.

Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Crits & Fumbles I'm always using some form of crit and fumble charts, and I switch them up from time to time. Next session I plan to try out James Raggi's d30 crit/fumble tables from Green Devil Face #5. They're filled with ridiculous things! Here's one entry from the fumble chart, as an example: "15. Your attack actually hits for max damage, but you learn the wrong lesson from this lucky hit – you lose all accumulated XP for your current level." That's totally fucked!
2. "I Search the Body" From Zak Smith's Vornheim. Supremely useful, although I edited to get a few less "small number of coins" results. We've had whole adventures around some of the results on this table.
3. Carousing Mishaps courtesy of Jeff Rients. A few versions are available. Not sure how different they are. There is one in Fight On #4, one in The Miscellaneum of Cinder, and one on his blog.
4. Deck O Stuff Also by Jeff Rients. Copy/pasted from Fight On #5 and made into a d100 table. A shorter version is available here. Occasionally useful for unique starting items for PCs, but even more useful for when PCs are searching dressers and suchlike.
5. Wandering Monsters I use the Labyrinth Lord charts (page 104 & 105), but sometimes reskin the monsters or make on-the-fly tweaks like with Monster Mutations from the Miscellaneum of Cinder.
6. Mutations I use both Carcosa and Encounter Critical charts. Would love to use Mutant Future ones if they weren't so damn long.
7. Male & Female NPC Names Why name an NPC before they are met? Once a name is used, I cross it off the list and make a note about that NPC in my binder, except for when I don't because I forget to.
8. Unguarded Treasure from page 7 of Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. Super-boring and super-useful.
9. Whimsey Chart My own table created per the guidelines given in the Arduin Grimoire in the entry for Elvish Whimsey Wine. (or something like that)
10. Good/Bad/Indifferent Not really a chart, but I use a pair of fudge dice in a lot of situations to determine if something happens. Two plusses means good, two minuses means bad, anything else is indifferent/nothing. Most common use: "I cut open the monster's stomach. Do I find any treasure?" Double plusses indicate a good result, such as a minor treasure in the beast's stomach. Double minuses indicate a bad result, like a face-hugger-parasite-monster that was taking up residence in the manticore's digestive tract, that is now going to attempt to leap out at the character's face, choke him to death with its tail, and then crawl down his throat to lay eggs in his stomach. Any other result is indicative of nothing interesting happening - “Nope, nothing inside the manticore's stomach. Sorry dude.”

Feel free to make a post of your own list and post a link in the comments. It doesn't have to be 10 items. Just make a list of whatever you find yourself using regularly.

A note on The Miscellaneum of Cinder: Last I heard, this was available as a free download from The "OSR Conservation Process". The link isn't working for me at the moment, so I'm not sure what the deal is. If you want a copy and are having trouble finding it, just shoot me a note at jderam by way of google mail and I'd be happy to send a reply with the PDF attached.

Actually, looks like an awesome result to me...

OD&D ADD

Last time my "home group" played, the first ever TPK in my life happened. It was in the Tower of the Stargazer, in case you were wondering.

Anyways, as much as I LOVE DCC (let's call it my favorite in-print game), I couldn't help but find myself looking fondly at my ghetto homemade brown box every time I would pass it while walking through the house.

So I made an off-the-cuff decision to run OD&D for those guys the next game. I'm still going to run DCC at the game store, at least through the end of the year, since I made a commitment to myself to do that. I'm not sure if this will be a one-off, or if we'll stick with OD&D for a while - we'll just have to see what happens. I whipped up a quick house rules doc, trying to keep things short and sweet. I'm going to try a few things differently and see how it goes.

• Only the three classes: Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Cleric (never gone thiefless before!)
• I didn't bother writing up any wacky races. I'll just ask people what they wanna be and take it from there.
• Stole an idea for neutral clerics from Talysman's Beastmaster Class. (Note: I didn't actually read the post. I was just like, "Okay turning table, something about animals, got it!")
• Someone mentioned this on G+, and I think I might try it - Have everyone roll up a few characters and then shuffle them all up and hand them out randomly.

The rest is included in the doc:

Outland OD&D House Rules v.92.458243197587

Also,

The World's Most Boring and Utilitarian Character Sheet

So my love affair with those little booklets continues... I can't really explain it. It's the one iteration of the game that I feel best delivers on the promise of "You can do anything!" 

I'm excited for this Saturday. We'll see how these guys like it.

One-Page DCC Spell Charts

I've begun my attempt at reworking the DCC spells that span across multiple pages, and getting them trimmed down to fit on a single page. I've done the 1st-level cleric and wizard spells so far, and will do the rest as time allows. Check them out on the DCC Resources Page. I hope you find them as useful in your games as I have in mine!

Outland's Quarterly Campaign Newsletter

So last week, Alan Grohe pointed us odd74 readers to this dude's blog. I loved the idea of the campaign newsletter thing, so I immediately started working on one.

I have multiple groups, and I believe the sharing of information to be a good thing - conducive to meaningful choices regarding adventures the groups choose to undertake. However, I always have a lot on my mind at the beginning of a session, people have questions that need answering, I need to get my stuff situated and so forth, so it's very easy to forget to share information regarding recent events in the setting.

Further, I loathe writing session reports, and I have yet to encounter much in the way of players that are interested in writing them.

I figured a short, infrequent newsletter would allow me to share a snapshot of happenings in the campaign with the players, and wouldn't be too tedious an undertaking for me.

Here is my first stab at it:
Xusael's Unblinking Eye: Issue 1

Game Store Game Resumes Monday!

...and I am very much looking forward to it!

Outland Fully Migrated to DCC Rules

I only recently discovered this amazing Erol Otus piece

 
I've finished converting all my Outland stuff for use with DCC, which will be used as the system of choice going forward (at least until I change my mind again). If you are interested in such things, everything is accessible from the new page I added here.

I made a number of changes to the character generation process. I didn't have them documented at the time I ran the first game with my new home group, so it actually took a fair bit of time for me to help 6 people with making their characters, but it was a fun process in and of itself, and everyone got at least one wacky race - most people had two. Also, I can't for the life of me remember where I got my unique item list, but I think it was a d100 table where someone expanded upon Jeff's original Deck O' Stuff. If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know so I can link to it. Hint: One of the players got a Sword of Shiva (+3 sword, whirlwind like a djinni 1/day). Also gotten were a tin of mustache wax and a WWI German army helmet.

Best Morlocks ever?

The players in that game completed Sailors on the Starless Sea (good times!) and my game store game will be resuming in about a week, and we will be converting their existing OD&Dish characters to DCC. I'm looking forward to getting back into a regular gaming schedule again, and I've got a few new players so that's double-awesome!

Which brings up a side issue... I'm not certain at this point when or if I'm going to resume running games on G+. I've got a game store game every other week, and a monthly game at my house now. For a gainfully employed father of two, that's kind of a full load. Plus, since the arrival of our new daughter, I lost my office so it could be converted into a kid's bedroom, so getting a semi-private spot in the house with some peace and quiet has proven challenging. Hopefully the opportunity will arise where I can run or play in the occasional one-off game, but I guess only time will tell if that's in the cards.

Even still, I consider myself a diehard FLAILSNAILS adherent, so if you were to show up to one of my games at Unique Gifts & Games with some sort of AD&D/Labyrinth Lord/whatever type of PC, I'd be happy to let him or her get killed in my game join in on the fun.

Anyways, stay awesome, dudes (and dudettes!)

Looks like a 3rd copy of the DCC rulebook is in my future!

P.S. - Thanks to Jeff Rients for his suggestions with regard to converting the dwarf and the halfling into non-racial classes (and everyone else I stole ideas from).