Final Vinyl

I have had ideas for a dozen new posts on this blog, but for the past month or so writing them has taken a back seat to...

• Preparing for the birth of a child
• Watching MLB playoffs
• Selling some stuff on ebay
• Balazar campaign
• etc.

At this point, I've lost interest in updating this blog anymore. So this is my final post here. In honor of the original inspiration for this blog, I present this image of another one of the greatest album covers of all time:

Balazar: Guidelines for play

I've written here about the Balazar campaign nearly weekly for the past couple of months. The campaign's wiki is up and the game will start soon, so new info about it will go on the wiki from now on. The last thing I wanted to mention here on the blog is that I wrote up a "Guidelines for play" article on the wiki, available here.

This is the executive summary:

It's important to understand that this campaign is NOT about having fun with friends and creating memorable stories together. It's about the DM controlling and intimidating his friends in a way that he couldn't otherwise do. It's about chest-thumping and fulfillment of "control freak" impulses through the safety of the Internet.

Retaliatory DMing is to be expected. The players should always be worried about doing what the DM wants them to do, otherwise he'll make something up on the spot to screw over their characters.

Furthermore, the DM shall demonstrate his brilliance and creativity in such a way that his friends should be ashamed of the pathetic games and campaigns that they usually waste time on. This is the one true way. The players should be honored that the DM is delaying the writing of his novel to run this campaign for them.

Let it be known that the DM slyly made Tunnels & Trolls the campaign's rules system and is forcing the players to use it. He only plays RPGs from the 1970s and he rebels against mainstream things such as D&D. When everyone sees how awesome T&T is, they'll realize how awesome the DM is.

Lastly, the DM will get angry if the players don't participate regularly. He feels the campaign should be their top priority. When the DM sends a note to a player inquiring about their laziness, it should not be thought of as a friendly reminder. He's calling the player out and trying to make them look bad.

The Legion of the Incarnate Destiny of the Red Moon Goddess

The expedition of Lewis & Clark was called the Corps of Discovery, so I tried to come up with something similar for the title of the Balazar expedition and the campaign wiki. Various combinations of the synonyms of "corps" and "discovery" failed to produce anything that sounded good to me. So then I riffed off of the idea of "Manifest Destiny" to come up with the Emperor's official title for the expedition:

The Legion of the Incarnate Destiny of the Red Moon Goddess

The Lunar military has a more utilitarian name for it: The East Legion. This shorter name also works better for the URL of the wiki:

The East Legion

I put links on the wiki to the posts on this blog that concern the campaign. In the near future I'll add a section about "what the characters know" to provide more context for helping the players decide the expedition's mission plan. Then I'll add a section where PC info can be placed.

More than anything, I just wanted to post this painting. It synthesizes perfectly the mood and themes of the campaign's inspirations: gritty and austere, yet colorful and wondrous.

Balazar: Mapping

In a previous post I wrote how it is assumed the expedition forages and does opportunistic hunting as it travels the wilderness. But...to actually increase food stores, the expedition, or a part of it, must stop and hunt.

Similarly, it is assumed that that the areas adjoining the expedition's path are minimally scouted and surveyed for mapping. For example, high grounds are usually found to get a view of the surrounding wilderness. But...to effectively map surrounding areas, the expedition, or a part of it, must stop and survey into those areas. Often, hunting and surveying can be done simultaneously.

For game purposes, this means the entire 5-mile hex being traversed while in a travel mode will be revealed on the campaign map, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. It does not mean that all encounters or encounter areas located in that hex are found. "Search Mode" travel increases the chances of finding these things.


The campaign starts in the Balazaran citadel of Elkoi. The Lunar Empire maintains a garrison there, even though it is not officially part of the empire. The natives in Elkoi tolerate the Lunar presence due to the trade and wealth it brings, especially metal weaponry. This incites a measure of jealousy and anger from the other clans towards the Elkoins.

A major decision to be made near the beginning of the campaign is which way does expedition go from Elkoi...

To the north via boat, through the Elf Sea and beyond?

To the east on the trail through the plains, towards the other Balazaran citadels of Trilus and Dykene?

To the southeast through dangerous wilderness, towards the mountains and the dwarves?

The terrain of this western edge of Balazar is well known to the Lunars. Determining what lies to the east is one charge of this expedition. (click to enlarge slightly)

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Jokulhaups

Random deck from the Vault:

3x Jokulhaups
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Pyrokinesis
4x Wildfire Emissary
1x Orgg
1x Ihsan's Shade
2x Animate Dead
1x Necromancy
1x Abandon Hope
1x Hymn to Tourach
1x Demonic Consultation
4x Soul Burn
4x Paralyze
4x Dark Ritual
3x Mana Vault
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
4x Sulfurous Springs
1x Thawing Glaciers
2x Ebon Stronghold
2x Dwarven Ruins
6x Mountain
9x Swamp

Ah yeah. Here it is. This is the deck I most commonly played in tournaments at the height of the Grand Forks competitive Magic scene in my first year of college. I don't recall ever winning a tourney with this deck, but it did okay against top competition.

Sadly, this is a watered-down version of the deck. The Abandon Hope used to be a Mind Twist before I sold it. The most glaring deficiency of this version is the lack of creatures. It used to have 4x Hypnotic Specter, but I moved my only playset of them to the Zur's Weirding deck, which I coincidentally just posted about recently. I really should move the Specters back to this deck.

Jokulhaups was my favorite card for a long time...maybe still is.

My brother and I had a catchy phrase for when we were the first to use an awesome card in the GF scene: "Pioneered it." To boost our egos occasionally, we still remind each other of the cards we pioneered.

Pyrokinesis? Pioneered it.

Next deck in the series: d30 = 5, Mark of Eviction #1

Balazar: Wizards & Warriors

Around midnight last night, I got the urge to roll some dice through my dice tower. So I rolled up thirty Tunnels & Trolls characters to serve as the Balazar campaign's expedition.

View the entire list here.

Some interesting attribute sets there. Let me know which one you'd like to be your main character.

For the player's convenience and my own curiosity, I've identified the top attribute sets for potential warrior and wizard character types, in my opinion. Feel free to ignore my recommendations.

could be a fine…		Str	Int	Luck	Con	Dex	Cha	Adds
warrior		23	5	15	12	6	7	11
warrior		17	10	14	13	10	15	7
warrior	wizard	12	14	17	9	13	11	6
warrior	wizard	17	12	9	11	12	11	5
warrior		12	6	9	12	16	13	4
	wizard	10	13	9	11	13	10	1
	wizard	11	24	7	22	10	5	-2
	wizard	7	15	5	16	15	12	-3

In T&T, beginning attributes for humans are TARO (Triples Add and Roll Over), which explains why some scores are higher than 18. I should point out that attribute scores in T&T are "relative" and with no maximum. For example, a 50 Strength character isn't necessarily five times as strong as a 10 Strength character. Instead, a higher score simply gives greater chance of success when performing actions: approaching infinity but still at the mercy of a botch.

The top warriors are generally those with the highest Combat Adds. Combat Adds are a measure of the character's combat ability, before considering what weapons or armor are used. They are calculated:

+1 Combat Add for each Str, Luck, or Dex point above 12.
-1 Combat Add for each Str, Luck, or Dex point below 9.

Constitution is also somewhat important for warriors, since the character's "hit points" are equal to their Constitution score. Also, Strength and Dexterity together determine what kind of weapon and armor the character is able to use.

Is this the 23 Strength character? Mongo the Mighty?

Is this the 24 IQ, 5 Charisma wizard? He must have ensorcelled those two babes by casting Yassa-Massa on them.

The top attribute sets for wizards are a little more difficult to determine. Intelligence and Dexterity determine what level of spells the wizard can learn. (A beginning wizard must at least have an Intelligence of 10 and a Dexterity of 8.)

Strength is essentially "mana points". Therefore, Strength is obviously important, but I tend to favor Intelligence and Dexterity for beginning wizards, because Strength is easier to increase as the character rises in levels. Furthermore, there are other ways to reduce the Strength casting cost of spells, such as by wielding an enchanted staff (which are relatively easy to acquire or create).

For the Balazar campaign, the main PCs will start at level 3. This means that the players will immediately raise their PC's attributes twice (going from level 1 to level 2, and then from level 2 to level 3) according to the chart in section 2.14 in the T&T 5th Edition rulebook.

Warriors can start with any weapons and armor allowed by their Strength and Dexterity. Wizards start with all 1st Level spells, and then will receive an allowance with which they can buy higher level spells, an enchanted staff, and other weapons and armor.

Wizard's beginning allowance of gold = 5000 + (100 x 3d6) [That 3d6 roll is TARO]

Some useful info from section 2.2:
Level 2 spells cost 500gp each.
Level 3 spells cost 1000gp each.
A standard enchanted staff costs 100gp.
A Deluxe enchanted staff costs 5000gp. A Deluxe staff "has a name, is semi-sentient, and is almost indestructible."

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Zur's Weirding

My brother and I often discussed the possibility of using Zur's Weirding as the centerpiece of a tourney-quality deck. We always came to the same conclusion:

Any great deck with Zur's Weirding in it would probably be better without Zur's Weirding in it.

Nonetheless, we built various decks around the card. One of my favorites featured discard effects and creature recursion. Around the same time period, I built a creature control and recursion deck based around Necroplasm. Neither deck was super great, but they used many of the same cards so I combined them to create this "fun" deck.

3x Zur's Weirding
4x Elves of Deep Shadow
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Spike Feeder
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
3x Putrefy
4x Shambling Shell
4x Last Gasp
4x Brain Pry
4x Hypnotic Specter
3x Necroplasm
2x Plague Boiler
2x Simic Growth Chamber
2x Dimir Aqueduct
10x Swamp
8x Forest

Balazar: Travel and Weather

For some fantasy rpg campaigns I would just handwave, improvise, or summarize overland travel and weather (e.g. the Zanzer Campaign). Such factors were supremely important in the narrative of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Therefore, I think the Balazar campaign can be enriched by using a consistent system for determining how far the party travels in a day and what weather greets them.

Like with provisions management, I'd prefer such systems to be simple and abstract. Conveniently and coincidentally, the Griffin Mountain setting book describes simple systems for determining weather and overland travel rates. I've transcribed the travel rules here, nearly verbatim:

Three modes of movement are available to any party moving through the wilderness: search, travel, and pursuit.

Search mode involves a slow an methodical checking of the entire hex area. Use this mode for hunting or treasure seeking, and occasionally for mapping.

Travel mode is normal movement through the terrain, making a good, but not strained, speed. Travel mode always follows paths when available.

Pursuit mode is fast movement. It is exhausting, and can only be maintained for two days. Pursuit mode maybe used by both the pursued and the pursuers.

Each party traveling through a wilderness has a number of movement points equal to the movement class of its slowest member. This number, which will range from 1 to 12, will also be the number of movement points available to a party per day.

(An unmounted and unencumbered party has 8 movement points per day. A mounted and unencumbered party has 12 movement points per day.)


The Movement table gives the movement point cost per hex (5 miles) depending on the terrain and movement mode.

(Essentially, one movement point equals the ability to travel five miles at top speed on a path in clear terrain. The table extrapolates that base value to other terrain and modes.)

Movement point cost per hex (5 miles)

Terrain	Pursuit	Travel	Search
Clear	2	4	6
Forest	4	8	12
Hills	6	12	18
Mountains	8	16	24

Modifiers:
Along Path x.5
Boat upriver x1.5
Boat downriver x.5
Short Portage +4
Long Portage +8
Cross Minor River +1 (Assumes no boat. Has risk of accident.)
Cross Major River +2 (Assumes no boat. Has risk of accident.)

The modifiers are guidelines. Specific situations may affect travel less or more severely. Especially when dealing with rivers, the weather and season have a major effect on travel difficulty. The weather system is simply a large table to randomly determine general weather conditions each day, based upon the previous day's weather and which season it currently is.

The setting has five seasons, four of which correspond to the real world seasons, and a fifth season that is exceptionally stormy, with mythical origins and implications. More info here.

Truck Mix Disc: The Dubliners

The pride of my cassette tape trove has long been a collection of Irish pub songs by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Earlier this summer I decided I wanted something like that on CD, so I picked up a three-disc set by The Dubliners. I've condensed those down to this one disc of my favorites.

Back in the 1960's popular folk music came to be dominated by lily-throated minstrels lamenting the cruelty of man. The Dubliners went the other direction: grunting folk songs primarily about drinking and wenching.

1. Seven Drunken Nights

2. Rising of the Moon
3. Wish I was back in Liverpool
4. The Fairmoye Lasses and Sporting Paddy
5. Molly Maguires (live)
6. Biddy Mulligan
7. The Musical Priest/Blackthorn Stick
8. I'm a Rover
9. Maids When You're Young Never Wed An Old Man
10. Nancy Whiskey
11. A Pub With No Beer
12. Seven Deadly Sins
13. The Parting Glass
14. Poor Paddy on the Railway
15. Kelly, The Boy from Killan
16. The Breeze (live)
17. Cork Hornpipe (live)
18. Whiskey on a Sunday

19. Dirty Old Town
20. Whiskey in the Jar (live)
21. The Old Triangle
22. The Galway Races
23. Battle of the Somme/Freedom Come All Ye
24. Smith of Bristol
25. The Beggar Man
26. School Days Over

Balazar: Provisions and Trade Supply

An important facet of the Lewis & Clark expedition was management of provisions. Related to that is the expedition's stock of trade goods. I'd like the upcoming wilderness campaign to pay a little attention to those concerns as well. (Hmm, I'm tired of saying "wilderness campaign". Let's just call it the Balazar campaign for now, until a better name is thought of)

I precisely mean a little attention. I don't want it to be a bookkeeping chore for myself or the players. Luckily, I found an old blog post at Tales of the Rambling Bumblers that outlines a simple system for tracking provisions.

Based on that post, here is my first draft of the provisions system that the Balazar campaign will use:

The expedition's Provisions Supply (primarily food) can be in one of four states: Very High, High, Low, or Out.

The expedition starts with Very High provision. Each adventuring day, a Provisions Roll is made to determine if the Provisions Supply is reduced to the next lower state on the scale. I'm thinking something like a 10% chance each day, but it might need some tweaking. Maybe traveling through fertile or barren terrain will affect this percentage.

It is assumed that the expedition is always casually foraging for food as they travel, maybe even bagging some small game along the trail. A failed Provisions Roll abstractly means that, for whatever reason or another, not enough food was foraged and some provisions needed to be consumed. Or, a failed roll could mean that some disaster struck the expedition: maybe some natives stole a barrel of salt pork, a sack of flour fell into the river, etc.

There are two ways to increase the Provisions Supply status: hunting and trading. (Well, I suppose you could steal too, but we'll leave that as a special case to be roleplayed).

Hunting generally requires the use of bows and spears, but maybe traps can be effective too. Hunting has a base success rate of 50% (to be tweaked). Factors that affect success are skill of hunter and abundance of quarry. A drawback of hunting is that it requires a full day without travel, with accompanying random encounter and weather rolls. On the other hand, it also means that the area is more thoroughly scouted and searched.

Trading is only possible when a trading partner is encountered. This is most commonly going to be at natives' villages and forts, but occasionally could be a random encounter along the trail. In order to trade, the expedition must have Trading Supply. This too is tracked on a four state scale, same as Provisions. The expedition starts with a Very High status in Trade Supply.

"Why, yes, these blue beads are very rare and very expensive."

Typically, the trinkets and manufactured goods that serve as trade goods are worth very much to poor natives, so it is easy to trade a few small things for a large amount of provisions. When the expedition trades, the Provisions Supply automatically goes up a level, but there is a 10% chance that the Trade Supplies status goes down a level.

It is difficult to raise the Trade Supply level, since the expedition is far away from the cities of the Lunar Empire. One of the few ways to raise Trade Supply while in the wilderness is to find treasure. Any other increase in Trade Supply is likely to require roleplaying a specific plan or encounter.

The Trade Supply is also used as gifts to natives for diplomatic purposes, with a 10% chance of Trade Supply level reduction per diplomatic maneuver. Like with Provisions, a reduction of Trade can indicate a simple reduction of supply, or it sometimes it can mean theft or disaster has occurred.

Do you have any suggestions for this system?

M10

Picked up a M10 Fat Pack yesterday. I like what I've seen so far. The card names and art are a vast improvement over most everything since at least Mirrodin block.

One thing I've noticed about the art is that it seems unusually and intentionally dark in color and mood. Almost as if each piece was given an additional dark filter layer. Sometimes it gets too dark, but overall I'm satisfied with the art. I'll always prefer the art from the Alpha-to-Mirage era, but at least the Tempest-to-whatever era of art appears to be over.

But there are still some stinkers. Worst art in the set: Canyon Minotaur.

"Where is my center of gravity?"

"My canyon brethren are ridiculous."

I like the basic land art in the set:

Philippines?

North Dakota?

I don't buy or play enough Magic these days to think about creating tournament quality decks. For a challenge, I'm gonna build "Core Set only" 60 card decks. Who wants to play for ante?

I built this B-U-r deck out of the the eight booster packs that I have so far. The 40 card pack of basic land that comes with the Fat Pack is handy, but I still didn't get enough land of each color for just a two color deck. So I splashed a couple red cards.

1x Duress
1x Weakness
1x Drudge Skeletons
2x Mind Rot
3x Kelinore Bats
1x Vampire Aristocrat
1x Gravedigger
2x Tendrils of Corruption
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Consume Spirit
2x Vampire Nocturnus
1x Xathrid Demon
11x Swamp

1x Lightning Bolt
1x Prodigal Pyromancer
3x Mountain

1x Ponder
1x Unsummon
1x Zephyr Sprite
1x Ice Cage
2x Essence Scatter
2x Negate
2x Merfolk Looter
1x Illusionary Servant
1x Wind Drake
1x Snapping Drake
2x Clone
1x Mind Control
2x Air Elemental
9x Island

Tarsh, Sartar, and Balazar

I've decided to go forward with the wilderness campaign and file the "Dark as a Dungeon" campaign away for some other decade.

A month or more ago I was thinking I'd be creating the wilderness expedition campaign from scratch. Then, I discovered the Griffin Mountain campaign book. The more I read it, the more I found it fit perfectly with my vision for this campaign. It will serve as "this side of the mountains"...the first half of the campaign. The second half of the campaign..."the other side of the mountains"...I plan to create from scratch, assuming the campaign gets that far.

Griffin Mountain is officially part of the Glorantha setting, for which almost four decades worth of books are available to study. It's quite overwhelming, so I'm ignoring almost all of it for this campaign and just focusing on the Griffin Mountain book. On the other hand, a wilderness expedition without any context is rather pointless, so I've found some material online that describes the PCs homeland and culture.

One of the neat things about the Glorantha setting is that many of the cultures are described in a series of documents called "Voices of Glorantha". They take the form of brief narratives of "What my father told me." and "What the priestess told me." A nice way to get an understanding of the PCs culture. Here is the Voice of the Tarshites.

Next is an informative summary of the Kingdom of Tarsh. This provides useful info on its towns and countryside, its internal politics and conflicts, and its external rivals and enemies.

With those introductary reads in mind, I now describe the context of the wilderness expedition:

The Kingdom of Tarsh is the southern border province of the Lunar Empire. Its situation and location means that Tarsh bears the brunt of angst against the empire: its own rebels, its barbarian neighbors, and beasts of chaos. It stands to reason that, of all Lunar citizens, Tarshites are the least softened by the corruption of prosperity that entrance into the empire has brought.


To the southeast of Tarsh is the Kingdom of Sartar, located in a region of monsters and barbarians called Dragon Pass. The empire has been attempting to conquer and hold this strategically important location for many generations. There is much adventure to be had here in the area of Dragon Pass, but it is not the focus of this campaign.


To the northeast of Tarsh is the primitive land of Balazar, which has long been too poor and barren for the empire to bother conquering it and bringing it into the fold. There is no reliable map of Balazar. Much of Balazar is unknown to the Lunars and unmapped. On the other hand, the natives have intimate knowledge of their realm.

Taking Balazar would provide a long-term strategic advantage against Sartar. Balazar and Sartar are separated by the nearly impassable Rockwood Mountains. The movement of an army over or through the mountains from Balazar to Sartar would be exceedingly difficult. Instead, the empire wants to determine if there is another way over the Rockwoods further to the east. Legend tells of one.

What lies over the mountains that far east is entirely unknown. There are rumors of a fertile land called The Hidden Greens. Surely such a land would hold many riches and be easy pickings. If nothing else, establishment of a connecting trade route would benefit the Lunar Empire. As mentioned above, the ultimate goal is to pressure Sartar from the east.

Enter...the PCs expedition.

Truck Mix Disc: Juan Dela Cruz Band

A couple months ago I mentioned that I was planning to buy some CDs and DVDs in the Philippines. I found most of what I was looking for. Six movies and five albums for cheap. I put together this mix disc of my favorite songs from the bunch.

I don't understand the lyrics, of course, but it's good rak en rol. I usually just ask my wife what the titles mean, but I see that Google Translate can now partially translate Tagalog to English (it didn't do any a month or so ago).

1. Himig Natin
"Our Music". During our last night at the beach resort in Bohol, a pair of guitarists played a nice acoustic set in the restaurant area. I was about to request this song when they started playing it anyways.

2. Panahon
"Time". In Camiguin we were waiting on the beach for a boat to take us to Mantigue island. There was a videoke bar there and I was building up the courage to sing this song for the locals when the boat arrived and we left.

3. Inday
This is a girl's nickname. If I understand correctly, it is also can be used as a generic, and maybe slightly derogatory, way to address a girl. Kinda like "Missy", or something like that.

4. Balong Malalim
Sometimes when my wife feels the baby inside her moving around, she'll sing the first line of this song: Gusto n'yang mag swimming! Which means something like "She wants to go swimming!"

5. No Touch
The hook in this song goes: Sige na! Sige na! It means something like "Ok! let's go!" I had a t-shirt custom made with that lyric there in the Philippines, along with about a dozen other t-shirts.

6. Beep Beep
Whereas in some places of the world beeping your car horn generally means "Watch out, asshole!", in the Philippines it generally means "Hello. Sorry about my haste. Please excuse me. Thank you!" So that cacophony of car horns, bike horns, truck horns, and jeepney horns at every intersection there is kinda like a big friendly get together.

7. Kahit Anong Mangyari
"No matter what happens"

8. Todo Mo Na
This song is just a groovin' jam and every once in awhile they sing out: Todo Mo Na! which kinda means "Don't stop!". So then they keep on jammin'.

9. Rock & Roll Sa Mundo
In Tagalag, like in Spanish, "mundo" means "world".

10. Nakatagong Mata
"Hidden Eyes"

11. Pagod Sa Pahinga
"Tired of Resting" I might be one of the few people ever to realize that this gentle instrumental is exactly the same song as John Hartford's "Presbyterian Guitar".

12. Palengke
"Market"

13. Naglalakbay
"Passing Through"

14. Laki Sa Layaw
"Grew up Pampered" This song popularized the word "jeproks", which nobody seems to know the precise meaning of.

15. Mr. Kenkoy
Hoy hoy hoy. "Mr. Funnyman"

16. Kayabangan
"Arrogance"

17. Tulungan Natin
"Let's Help"

18. Langit
"Heaven"

19. Legs
A member of Juan Dela Cruz later formed Hagabis, a disco band with a sound similar to...The Village People. This funky song largely consists of the band yelling "Legs! Legs! Legs!" followed by various phrases that mean something like "They are blinding me." and "They are melting me." Fun singalong.

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Rith & Crosis

The d30 tells me that the next deck to be listed is...#14. Decks #13 and #14 are closely related, so I'll do both. The Rith and Crosis decks.

The Invasion block expansions encouraged decks of three or more colors. It was fresh and fun. Since then, other expansions have also pushed massively-multicolor decks, but they seem to be just rehashing much of the same innovations that Invasion introduced, so the whole concept has gotten stale from my perspective. But Invasion was great and remains a favorite block of mine.

I believe these two decks were Standard legal at the time of Invasion block, but I never meant them to be competitive. Instead, I made the decks to play with my favorite cards from the block and also as an experiment in designing two decks to be competitively balanced against each other. My brother and I played these decks against each other quite alot five years ago during a trip to the Philippines. The Crosis deck seemed to be a little better at the time, so I eventually retooled the decks to help the Rith side a little.

Fun decks to play. This was also around the time that I decided Rod of Ruin is perhaps my favorite Magic card of all time, so both of these decks sport foils.

Greatest flavor text ever?

The Rith deck (white-green-red):

2x Rith's Charm
2x Thunderscape Battlemage
2x Flametongue Kavu
1x Aggressive Urge
4x Thornscape Familiar
4x Penumbra Bobcat
4x Sunscape Battlemage
4x Shackles
2x Eladamri's Call
4x Armadillo Cloak
4x Fleetfoot Panther
3x Ancient Spider
1x Rod of Ruin
1x Treva's Ruins
2x Geothermal Crevice
2x Rith Grove
2x City of Brass
9x Forest
7x Plains

The Crosis deck (black-blue-red):

2x Crosis's Charm
3x Quicksilver Dagger
4x Lava Zombie
4x Doomsday Specter
1x Spite & Malice
2x Thunderscape Battlemage
2x Flametongue Kavue
4x Nightscape Familiar
4x Ravenous Rats
3x Nightscape Battlemage
4x Stormscape Battlemage
3x Rushing River
1x Rod of Ruin
2x Geothermal Crevice
2x City of Brass
2x Dromar's Cavern
2x Sulfur Vent
6x Swamp
4x Island
5x Mountain

Dark as a Dungeon

I plan on starting a new D&D campaign later this summer and am tossing around various ideas. A couple weeks ago I posted about a wilderness exploration campaign. Here's another, somewhat different, idea.

"Dark as a Dungeon" is a city and dungeon campaign. The dungeon is, of course, the primary source of wealth and glory and most of the action would happen there. But...such newly-discovered riches and power are sure to attract much attention and competition from the nearby city. Therefore, not only would the PCs be in the city to rest and re-supply after a trip to the dungeon, but they can also become involved in intrigues between the competing factions that are also hoping to control the dungeon.

That is the plot of the Glory Hole Dwarven Mine adventure module. Yes, the same module that was used as "Stonefast" in the Zanzer campaign. The Zanzer campaign didn't use the plot surrounding the dwarven mine as written in the module, but instead just used the dwarven mine as a substitute for the original boring Stonefast. The players in the Zanzer campaign experienced less than 1% of the Glory Hole Dwarven Mine, so no big deal if some of those same players would play in this new campaign. Maybe they'd like to take revenge on that three-headed ogre.

(Clarification: This new Dark as a Dungeon campaign would not be connected to the Zanzer campaign in any way. No Zanzer. No Verbosh. No Horny Mandrills.)

This campaign would start PCs at least at level 3, probably higher. Whereas the low level PCs in the Zanzer campaign were to execute a "get in and get out" mission into the shallow levels of Stonefast to rescue Gorgo Kermit, the plot of the Glory Hole Dwarven Mine module encourages the PCs to delve deeper, to clear out, and to maintain control of sections of the mine. Therefore, I think the PCs need to be a little beefier so the campaign can get off to a fast start. I've never had PCs start beyond 1st level, so I'm curious to see how it goes. (For what it's worth, I think the wilderness campaign would also start with experienced PCs.)

Dwarves are prominently featured in this campaign. I've also come across various house rules online that I think would emphasize the visceral and gritty "coal dust in your eyes" theme that I envision:

The Shields Shall be Splintered Rule: Any time you take damage, you can opt instead to say your shield absorbed the force of the blow. The shield is shattered and must be discarded, but you don't take any damage from that hit. Magical attacks can only be absorbed by magical shields.

The Fighter's Chop Rule: When a Fighter kills an enemy, he immediately gets a free attack on another enemy in his immediate vicinity.

The Flagon of Wine Rule: Quaffing a quantity (depending on type) of spirits will regenerate d6 hit points. Repeat as needed. Intoxication rules apply.

Lastly, the name and thematic inspiration for this campaign comes from a song written by Merle Travis and made popular by Johnny Cash called "Dark as a Dungeon". Think of it as a dwarven song...

Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine,
And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mines.
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul,
'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal.

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where danger is double and pleasures are few,
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

It's a-many a man I have seen in my day,
Who lived just to labor his whole life away.
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine,
A man will have lust for the lure of the mines.

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where danger is double and pleasures are few,
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

The midnight, the morning, or the middle of day,
Is the same to the miner who labors away.
Where the demons of death often come by surprise,
One fall of the slate and you're buried alive.

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where danger is double and pleasures are few,
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll,
My body will blacken and turn into coal.
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home,
And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones.

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where danger is double and pleasures are few,
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Welcome to My Garden

Fifteen years ago this summer, my friends and I got our first Magic: the Gathering cards. I remember well the day trip to Minot when my brother and I each bought that starter deck of Revised Edition. What a fruitful day at the mall that was...I also came home with NHL 94 for the Sega Genesis and Seal's second album on CD.

That first deck of mine contained such luminaries as Lightning Bolt, Fireball, and a Vesuvan Doppleganger that I soon lost as ante to my bro. Of course, those direct damage spells pushed me towards a preference for red decks that lasted for several years. Early examples of my deck construction style are the mono-red flyers deck and the red-blue landwalk+Unstable Mutation deck.

Since then, I've been an on and off player and collector of Magic. I haven't played much the last couple of years, but this summer's release of the M10 edition has me mildly intrigued, so I'll probably pick up a few packs for a test drive. I'm also still collecting a set of 6th Edition, but haven't seen any boxes in my price range for awhile. Every couple of years lately I've sold off part of my collection, so maybe it's time for another sale to fill the coffers and make room for new cards.

One part of my collection that I'll likely never sell is the two longboxes of thirty decks total that I've built up over the years. I'll call it my "deck vault". It has both fun theme decks and competitive tourney decks, some of which brought home tourney gold long ago.

Usually when I put a competitive deck in the vault it is a toned down version that generalizes the evolution of the deck. That is because the deck vault is as much about my favorite cards as it is the decks, and sometimes the best version of a deck didn't have some my favorite cards that a previous or later version of the deck did. Conversely, when I make a theme deck for the vault I try to give the deck some balance by not adhering slavishly to the theme, though sometimes I go all-out with the theme for the fun of it.

Anyways, to commemorate this inconsequential 15 year anniversary, I'll randomly choose a deck from my vault every now and then and post the deck list and a little commentary. I'll do it until I run out of decks or get tired of it. A roll of the d30 determines that today's random deck is...

"Welcome to my garden"

4 bee sting
4 unyaro bee sting
3 unyaro bees
3 killer bees
4 giant spider
2 aquastrand spider
4 penumbra spider
1 goliath spider
4 silklash spider
2 storm seeker
2 lure of prey
4 eladamri's vineyard
23 forest

This is one of my favorite theme decks in the vault, but also perhaps one of the least likely to actually win a match. This deck isn't really built according to any official format. It uses a card from Portal, for crying out loud.

This was my attempt at fusing a few different themes into a single deck. The spider and bee themes are obvious enough. The third theme is mono-green direct damage. The "strategy" here is to set up a strong defense of spiders, then send the bees and the stings in for the win. Storm Seeker bolsters the direct damage theme and has great art.

Yeah, I'm pimping my Italian language Storm Seeker in this deck

The general problem with this deck, other than the fact that green direct damage is not very good, is that it is too slow. A early Eladamri's Vineyard can help it along, but even that's a crap shoot. This deck could use some cheaper creatures. I think I'll eventually add some Llanowar Elves and some more Aquastrand Spiders. There are probably new cards of these themes that could help the deck, but I haven't studied the new sets of the past couple of years.

Welcome to my garden

This Campaign Needs a Name

For awhile now I've been planning on writing something on a new campaign idea, but didn't really have anything special to say about it until now. A recent post at Jeff's Gameblog called "Alchemical Proposal" presents a simple structure for describing and developing campaigns. Obviously, it's neither comprehensive nor definitive, but seems to be a good brainstorming technique nonetheless. I'll give it a try.

Core ruleset: Labyrinth Lord, the free retro-clone of Basic D&D, is still my default D&D ruleset for online campaigns. On the other hand, I've come to prefer Tunnels & Trolls for play-by-post games, due to its more abstract combat system and intertwined Saving Roll and advancement systems. Or maybe some other fantasy rpg.

Inspiration Source #1: The Journals of Lewis & Clark.
I wrote briefly about this book a couple posts ago. This is the primary inspiration for the campaign. Elements from the book that I'd like to adopt into the campaign:

• Exploration and mapping of unknown territory.
• Diplomacy with warring native tribes of various dispositions.
• Discovery of trade routes through mountains; especially via navigable rivers.
• Resource management; especially trading with natives to obtain food and transport.

Inspiration Source #2: The Hobbit. Like the Lewis & Clark expedition, this is a story of going "There and Back Again" over the hills, along the rivers, and across the mountains. There you had the Rocky Mountains. Here it's the Misty Mountains. Gosh darnit..maybe in this campaign they'll be called the Snowy Mountains.

Inspiration Source #3..."The wild card": The Muppets and other Jim Hensen creations. Some Muppets skits and related movies, such as The Dark Crystal, have great fantastical settings or backdrops, the flavor of which I would like to impart on this campaign. How long can the expedition survive on the meat of a single snuffleupagus or "big bird"? Ever since I started thinking about this wilderness campaign I've imagined the party encountering big bad Sweetums.

"Touché, little green one!"

The inclusion of The Hobbit and The Muppets as inspirational sources is for their fantastical elements (in contrast to the non-magical setting of Lewis & Clark), and not for their playful or comedic aspects. A bit of lightheartedness is good for any campaign, but I envision this one to be a bit more gritty than what I've done in the past.

Whereas I've had the above three inspiration sources in mind since I first hatched this campaign idea, I haven't put much thought into adding supplementary, setting-specific rules. I can see how this can be a good way to connect the players to the setting right off the bat...during character creation. Because it will be a wilderness-based campaign, I've given thought to various wilderness creation tools and exploring techniques, but nothing in the way of additional classes, races, spells, monsters, and magic items as Jeff suggests. I haven't decided exactly which core ruleset the campaign will use, but, because converting almost any fantasy rpg supplement to basic D&D or T&T is such a simple task, the choices for supplementary rules sources are plentiful.

Supplementary Rules #1: Griffin Mountain. This is an old Runequest wilderness campaign setting. I maybe wouldn't have thought of using it for this campaign if not for Jeff's "Alchemical Proposal". Now that I've taken a closer look at it, I think it is a perfect fit for this campaign in that it describes a large wilderness region populated by neolithic/hunter-gatherer tribes. I don't know if I'll use its setting exactly as is. It might work admirably as the setting for the first part of the campaign expedition. If nothing else, I'll mine it for additional classes, races, spells, monsters, magic items, locales, personalities, etc.

Supplementary Rules #2: Hmm...maybe the possibilities for supplemental rules are too plentiful. There's more old Runequest stuff that piques my interest: Dragon Pass, Prax, etc. I'll definitely use the medicinal herbs charts from the old Mirkwood supplement for the Middle Earth Roleplaying game, but I don't know if the rest of the book would be of much use. Maybe something from Planescape...any tiefling fans out there? Anybody got any ideas?

To smash your foes, to watch them flee before you, and to hear the cries of their daughters.

I thought I had a post here about the four characters I played in a Castles & Crusades play-by-email campaign last fall, but it appears I started the blog a month after creating these characters. For posterity, I'm recording a few details of them here.

A couple things in the past week have reminded me of these characters. First, I saw a old man last week here in downtown Rochester that reminded me a little of my idea of Fonzazzle. He even had a gnarled wood cane and crazy wild hair. Then, I had a cool dream the other night about the continuing adventures of Ceptaar. He's a tank in battle and smooth with the ladies, too.

Ceptaar is a blatant ripoff of Conan the Barbarian and I have no delusions of being a good author, but, if the muse strikes and I have nothing better to do, maybe I'll write some short fiction about these characters.


Ceptaar the Altanian
Well built with copper skin, sandy hair, and green eyes, Ceptaar is of common herdsman blood, but clan elders see him as potential high ruler and uniter of many clans. For this reason he has been sent to the City State to be cultured and seek alliances, but mostly he just wants to travel the world in glorious adventure. He wears only a loincloth most of the time, but dons a large belt and cape for formal occasions. He carries a two-handed sword, unsheathed at all times.

What set apart Ceptaar from the other characters here is the unusually high attribute scores and hit points that the campaign's DM rolled:

Attributes (racial modifiers)
STR 16 (15+1)
DEX 12
CON 17 (16+1)
INT 13 (14-1)
WIS 12 (13-1)
CHA 15
Hit Points: 11 + 2 CON bonus = 13


Fonzazzle the Wizard of no great accomplishment
A quirky, knob-kneed old wizard of no great accomplishment except his wild head of hair and ridiculously long beard. Also of note is the assortment of adventuring equipment that he usually carries on his person:

Quarterstaff, Dagger, Backpack, Rations, Flint and Steel, Boots (Soft), Bedroll, Cloak, 3 Candles, Map/Scroll Case, Quill, Ink 1 oz., Parchment (10 pcs), Diggery-do, Smoking Pipe, Tobacco 1lb, Tea leaves 1lb, Mug, Canteen, Robe, Scarf, Bandages, Bag of 25 marbles, Incense (2 sticks), 6 Glass Vials, String (50 ft)


Starflash the Elf Rogue of Dearthwood
My vision of Starflash is a little bit like an aloof Keebler elf with three-day growth. The elf from Hawk: the Slayer reminded me a little of Starflash, too.


Matthau the Cleric of Kadrim, god of small birds
Very tall and lanky, my vision of Matthau is like the characters Walter Matthau played in The Odd Couple and Bad News Bears.


How did the campaign end? It's all my fault...I ruined it! While exploring Tegel Manor with the party and another player's party, Fonzazzle found the mansion's smoking room. Hankering for a long puff from his pipe, the old wizard, like he always does, shed his robe and enjoyed a smoke bare naked.

Then a strange beggar arrived and they started a conversation. Somehow or another, the beggar got all excited and revealed his true form: a Type III Demon.


Fonzazzle, in a bit of a tight spot now, kept his cool and moved the conversation to a topic they both had interest in: virgins. At this point, the rest of the party had continued further down the hall and wasn't aware of what was going on. Long story short: he offered to give a virgin to the demon in exchange for a guided tour of the mansion.

Fortunately, there was a virgin priestess NPC in the party and Fonzazzle managed to trick her to come back into the room. The demon promptly ate her and then it fulfilled its side of the deal. He climbed onto the demon's shoulders and they ran out to tour the mansion. (This scene would be great if done in Harryhausen animation)

Then, unannounced and unexplained, the DM stopped posting for a few weeks. When he finally resumed, he and the other player expressed dissatisfaction about Fonzazzle's encounter with the demon. By my estimation, losing only an NPC in an encounter with a Type III demon wasn't too bad, but maybe it was just all too bizarre for them.

The campaign ended there. It was fun while it lasted, and was especially worthwhile in that I got see what it was like to be a player in a play-by-email campaign. The image of hairy old Fonzazzle racing through the halls of Tegel Manor on the shoulders of a demon is one I'll never forget.

Four stars on my BOOK IT! badge. Someone throw me a pizza party.

When I started this blog, one of the stated purposes was to be a record of my creative pursuits and inspirations. With that in mind, I offer these brief notes on books I've read recently.

The Journals of Lewis and Clark
I was a little concerned that the dated writing style and...liberal application of alternate spellings...would make this long book a difficult read, but that was not the case. It actually made it a more interesting read. I think I read somewhere that Clark spelled "Sioux" twenty-seven different ways in his journal, and never the same way twice, or something like that. This version, compiled and edited by Bernard DeVoto, has plenty of footnotes to clear up confusion and provide insightful commentary.

The Lewis and Clark expedition was both a success and failure on many accounts and levels. Its lasting effect is debatable. What I feel is not debatable is its achievement in providing a fascinating story. A "national literary treasure" says Stephen Ambrose in the foreword.

Three impressions:

The journey from Fort Mandan to the headwaters of the Mississippi high in the Rockies was devoid of any encounters with natives. It was suggested that this was in part due to the expedition's reputation preceding them as they wintered in present-day North Dakota. This was also the leg of the journey that provided some of the best scenery and plentiful game for provisions. Altogether, this seemed to be the most delightful and anticipatory part of the journey, but also perhaps the most tiring one as the expedition fought against gravity in hauling their canoes and gear upriver.

The encounters at the continental divide with Sacagawea's native tribe, the Shoshones, is amazing and serves as both the literary and literal high point of the story. The tribe's fate is heartbreaking.

I found the happenings west of the Rockies to the coast to be relatively unmemorable. Not only was it fraught with disappointments for the expedition, but the native tribes in the region seemed to be the most thievish and degenerate. On the other hand, on the return trip, Captains Lewis and Clark did note that the Twisted Hair tribe was perhaps the most noble of appearance and disposition that they had met.


Phantastes
After the lengthy Journals, I started reading this slender book by George MacDonald, thinking it would be a quick fantasy adventure. I liked Phantastes, but I found it to be a tough read, with dense text and a disjointed narrative. It has nice dream-faerie imagery, but the story is a bit too dream-episodic to be a real page-turner.

The most memorable episodes for me: the story of the one-way mirror of unrequited love from the curiosities shop and the preparation for and battle versus the three giants. There were also several choice quotes that could inspire further fantastical adventures, such as:

"All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass."

"Everywhere in Fairy Land forests are the places where one may most certainly expect adventures."

"Somehow or other," said he, "notwithstanding the beauty of this country of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong in it. If there are great splendours, there are corresponding horrors; heights and depths; beautiful woman and awful fiends; noble men and weaklings."


You Gotta Have Wa
My recent interest in Japanese baseball led me to this book by Robert Whiting about American and Japanese clash of culture in the sport. It was a quick, fun book which provided me a good introduction to the history of baseball in Japan and some of its prominent players. This was my vacation read. I started reading on the flight from LA to Taipei, and finished on the boat ride to Cebu.


The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
After slogging through Phantastes, I felt the need to casually reread Bilbo's tale for that quick fantasy adventure fix. I just started this past weekend. Since last reading The Hobbit, I've listened to the BBC radio production several times and am eager to rediscover the wonderful details that the adaptation left out. Chapter 1, "An Unexpected Party" bursts with magic and charm.

What was to be, what was, and what never shall be

I should have written this long ago. John recently sent me a summary of the D&D adventure that he designed and ran last year, and that got me thinking about writting a summary of the Zanzer campaign. Also, I hope to get a new campaign started later this summer, so I'm reflecting on what I've ran in the past. Maybe the players will find it interesting, also.

Whereas John's adventure is built from scratch, the Zanzer campaign is a patchwork of published adventure modules, connected together and customized with my own creations, many of which were inspired by the players' actions and ideas. The campaign started as just a basic adventure: escape from Zanzer Tem's dungeon. After that was accomplished and Zanzer had fled, there was player interest to continue on. So...not having anything prepared, I choose a few modules from my shelf and pieced together a simple plot that would get the party from one module to the next, with plenty of flexibility and room for expansion.

Here's the general chain of events that I originally planned for after their escape from the dungeon:

1. PCs rest briefly in the wacky town of Verbosh (1979, Judges Guild) and outfit for an expedition back to Mt. Carnage to find the secret entrance to the abandoned dwarven colony and mine: Stonefast. The original Zanzer's Dungeon module mentioned the existance of Stonefast and provided a simplistic but unstocked map for it. I wanted something a little more extensive and detailed. For this I choose Glory Hole Dwarven Mine (1981, Judges Guild), but retained the name of Stonefast in the campaign. The Glory Hole is actually an extensive and deep construction that was to serve as the campaign's "megadungeon", which the party could revist periodically to gain XP and treasure by successively delving further and further.
   
2. In Stonefast, the PCs can find loads of treasure, gain XP, and find Gorgo Kermit. Zanzer's former eunuch, Gorgo Kermit crossed his master and was imprisoned in Stonefast. He likely knows the location of Zanzer's secret lair, Xitaqa. Gorgo Kermit's cell is on level 2 of the mine. so no need to explore the entire megadungeon at this time, thankfully. Stonefast may have contained other clues to Zanzer, too.
3. Potential side-trek in Stonefast: Find the hidden level that holds Kish the Gnome and his powerful, but cursed, artifact that Gearmaster Willy told legend of.
4. Travel to Xitaqa (maybe after resting and refitting in Verbosh or Bayside) and defeat Zanzer. Xitaqa is Part Three of B10 Night's Dark Terror (1986, TSR).
5. If the players are still interested in continuing the campaign, the PCs can learn of Zanzer's goal of discovering the Lost Valley of Hutaaka and claiming its riches. The Lost Valley is Part Seven of B10 Night's Dark Terror.

The Lost Valley. It and its inhabitants have somewhat of a Cthulhu freaky vibe to it. Click to enlarge.

The deepest level of Stonefast, a.k.a. Glory Hole Dwarven Mine. You don't want to delve this far until your PCs are about level 10 or higher.

From the Zanzer's Dungeon intro adventure: the original wee Stonefast that I replaced with the whopping Glory Hole. This was almost entirely unstocked except for the baby white dragon in room 30 with 16 hit points. I'm all for having dragons in low level adventures, but having it be a weak, baby dragon is a cheesy way to accomplish that.

That was the plan, at least.

Things suddenly changed (though perhaps became more interesting) when the party marched in Stonefast and immediately suffered near total party kill to a three-headed ogre. I thought the players would employ more strategy in bypassing or defeating the ogre. Maybe I had been too soft on them up to that point, or perhaps they figured the possiblity of multiple PCs dying at this point in the campaign was unlikely. Actually, the dice had been good to them earlier in the campaign, but their luck changed in this combat. Only Fura survived, felling the ogre with repeated ranged attacks. Fura then decided to immediately leave Stonefast and not return. This removed Gorgo Kermit as a plot device, since he would likely be dead from thirst or hunger by the time any PCs found their way back to Stonefast.

The other players rolled up new PCs, so I created a new plot link to Zanzer and his secret lair: Guy Fox the assassin-mage. The Verbosh module is mostly just location description and doesn't have much in the way of plot. One of the few plot hooks it mentions is that the Lord Hargor of Verbosh is unpopular and many people want him dead, but Hargor is so sly and brutal that no assassination attempts have yet suceeded. For some reason, Zanzer wants Hargor dead and for the task he hires Guy Fox, the only assassin crazy enough to pull off the job.

Guy Fox. I was hoping to use this pic during the campaign, but the opportunity never arose.

The new PCs interacted with Lord Hargor and Guy Fox in Verbosh, but ultimately didn't follow the link to Zanzer's secret lair. So, I created two more plot links: Zehnder Tim and Gearmaster Willy. Unfortunately, the campaign closed shop before getting any further.

Meanwhile, as the new PCs were still hanging around in and near Verbosh, Fura decided to find a high level cleric to help resurrect her lover, Latifah, who had died against the three-headed ogre. For this purpose she traveled to the large city of Bayside (City State of the Invincible Overlord, 1977, Judges Guild), since there were no clerics powerful enough in the vicinity of Verbosh. In Bayside, she took up a quest to find the Lost Temple of Halav and recover the Shield of Halav (Hail the Heroes, 1994, TSR). Successfully completing this quest would earn her favor with the High Priest of Halav. The campaign ended just before the quest was completed.

What would have been next if the campaign had continued? Maybe Latifah would have been resurrected, and maybe Barab (another victim of the ogre) too. Zanzer's secret lair was in the general region of Bayside and The Lost Temple of Halav. Being a secret lair, Xitaqa was still remote and hidden, but Fura probably would have learned of if eventually. Meanwhile, maybe the other PCs would have followed the plot links and also made their way to Bayside to search for Zanzer. Maybe all the players PCs would reuinite into a single, powerful party again. Maybe they would have gathered strong new allies, such as the Cult of Halav, Zehnder Tim, Fonzazzle, or Willy's army of gnomes. Maybe Kish's powerful artifact would be recovered and the campaign turns truly epic. Would they have defeated the creepy, alien evil in the Lost Valley of Hutaaka, become filthy rich, return to their long forgotten homes, and establish new kingdoms?