Old Time Radio: Bold Venture!

About eight years ago I took interest in old time radio shows. My brother gave me a giant box set of twenty cassette tapes called The 60 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century, selected by Walter Cronkite. This contained thirty hours of variety shows, comedy, suspense, mystery, wild west, science fiction, etc. I always meant to get my hands on more of my favorite shows, but never got around to it.

Now, I see that these shows are available for free and legal download from sites such as the Internet Archive, etc. One could spend a lifetime listening to it all. Of course, some shows are better than others. I plan on posting here about some of my favorites.

This time it is Bold Venture starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Episodes can be streamed or downloaded from http://www.bold-venture.co.uk/.

The episode that particularly amused me today is called "Death By A Fighting Bird". Great dialog between Bogey and Bacall. Near the beginning, Smooth B. casually unleashes this zinger:

Bacall: "How do you talk about me behind my back?"

Bogey: "Walk ahead of me and I'll think of something."

Ah...the master at work.

Score!

In the past year, both the downtown used book store and the main game and hobby shop in Rochester have closed. Thankfully, the other used book store is still open. It also sells comics and some games. I stopped in last night to pick up the latest issue of Mouse Guard and was pleased to find several classic fantasy books for dirt cheap.

Phantastes by George MacDonald
Lilith by George MacDonald
Wisdom's Daughter by H. R. Haggard
The World's Desire by H. R. Haggard
A Princess of Mars by E. R. Burroughs
The Dungeon, vol 1 by Richard Lupoff ("Written under the creative auspices of Philip Jose Farmer". Maybe not a classic, but seems to have a "lost world" pulp vibe to it.)

Also grabbed a Warhammer 40k 3rd edition rulebook for three notes. Might never have a use for it but it has all those swell pics of painted minis, at least.

I hope this little used book shop survives the tough economic times, so I'm trying to spend a few more bucks there. On the other hand, maybe these kinds of stores do well when folks are looking for cheaper entertainment options.

Brainstorming

Picked up my brother at the MSP airport on Saturday. On the drive home, we got talking about starting some new online campaigns, be they RPG or strategy boardgames. He has a great idea for adapting Twilight Imperium for email play. A great game of space politics and exploration, but a challenge to slog through a complete game at the table. Setting it up to play via email, at a rate of one turn per week, could work great. I wouldn't be surprised if it has been attempted and documented somewhere on the net. My bro is gonna work on the idea. I'm eager to see what he comes up with.

Our next idea for a one-turn-per-week campaign is covenant-centric Ars Magica. Rather than focusing on the stories of individual characters, this campaign would focus on the development of the covenants as a whole. The Ars Magica season-based advancement system is well-suited for this type of long term, long range play. Each weekly turn would represent a season of magical research and accumulation of covenant resources.

When there is a conflict that would normally called for an adventure, it would be handled abstractly with a series of skill, spell, or combat rolls. Examples of conflicts: covenant vs. covenant, covenant vs. church, covenant vs. local lord, covenant vs.faerie court, etc. The covenant creation rules are designed to produce relatively balanced covenants, with built-in strengths and weaknesses to spur conflicts that interest that covenant's player. Then, the real fun begins when the player's covenants conflict with each other.

This Ars Magica idea needs much further development. Add a comment if you have any ideas for it. What setting would appeal to you? The British Isles? The New World?

Next idea: Divine Right email campaign. I love the map and flavor of this fantasy wargame. The one time I played it I had great fun despite my severe strategic blunder of leaving my king open to a brigand attack. Divine Right has unique but relatively simple rules and is best when played multiplayer. I also stumbled upon this post at Jeff's tonight that describes how the game's setting, Minaria, would make for a fine RPG setting. Maybe it would be fun to integrate short D&D quests into a Divine Right email campaign.

Verbosh: Dare to be Stupid

Now that the "Zanzer Campaign" has ended, I reflect on how the 13-month endeavor unfolded. Zanzer's Dungeon was the campaign's genesis, but the town of Verbosh was the hub. Originally, it was to play only a minor role in the loosely constructed Zanzer plot, but the players' actions put the town front and center.

Verbosh is a wacky little mini-setting supplement. Some of the wacky stuff I was hesitant to include in the campaign, but included it anyway because the campaign was already quite lighthearted. Then there was some even-more-wacky stuff that I left out. For fun, this is a survey of what was included in the campaign, what was left out, and what was created or modified by me, the DM.

I KID YOU NOT...the supplement as written does seem to have a high proportion of inns and taverns, but then I'm not a scholar of medieval city life. On the other hand, I'm rather fond of fantasy gaming towns being stuffed to the gills with these hives of ruffians, rumors, and raunch.

I PULLED OUT OF THIN AIR...a tavern of my own creation: The Burning Twig. My inclusion of this tavern has become running joke in games that I play or DM. Another little tradition that I started in this campaign: "Upstairs, third door on the left."

TOO WACKY FOR ME...was the Tourist Information shop at location 29. I switched this building to The Burning Twig.

I KID YOU NOT...the supplement as written says that Darn Gimble is the owner of a magical returning war hammer.

I PULLED OUT OF THIN AIR...the fact that Dent (a PC dwarf) somehow took possession of the hammer. It then went to Fura. Darn caught wind of this. Hilarity ensued.

TOO WACKY FOR ME...were some of the random street encounters, such as "Street urchins flinging dung" and "Run over by a large group of local ladies looking for a great deal".

I KID YOU NOT...the supplement as written is ruled by Hargor the Complainer. Nobody likes him, but nobody is willing to try an assassination attempt on him, because previous would-be-assassins have met a horrible fate.

I PULLED OUT OF THIN AIR...the Guy Fox character. The only fella crazy and sly enough to pull off the assassination. Actually, I got inspiration for this character when I glanced at the calendar hanging in my office on November 5th and saw that it was Guy Fawkes Day.

TOO WACKY FOR ME...was the fate of the previous assassins hired to kill Hargor: "...high level assassins run out of the city screaming after falling victim to his onslaught of complaints about his back, food prices, and even his own taxes! A 14 or better Constitution will enable a character to endure Hargor's complaints for 1 minute, each additional Constitution point will give a person the strength for one additional minute. If this limit is exceeded the person will fall into an uncontrollable fit of screaming and flee..."

I KID YOU NOT...the supplement as written describes King Verbosh XXXI as living in a shack, selling fake titles and paper money.

I PULLED OUT OF THIN AIR...the Stoney character. Every town needs a town drunk. I based him on the character described in Jerry Jeff Walker's song "Stoney".

TOO WACKY FOR ME...was The Greater Demon Exterminating Company. They sell buckets of Demon Destroying dirt for 1 copper piece. "This comes with a money back guarantee that no one has ever claimed."

Another part of the campaign worthy examining is the hidden dwarven mine. It isn't in the Verbosh supplement, but is another Judges Guild product from the same late 70s, early 80s era.


TOO WACKY FOR ME...was the name of the actual supplement: Glory Hole Dwarven Mine. This must have been named before the phrase "glory hole" took on a new meaning. I renamed it Stonefast, which is the name of the dwarven mine described in the Zanzer's Dungeon adventure.

I KID YOU NOT...Glory Hole Dwarven Mine is based on the Mines of Moria from the Lord of the Rings. It is a large, sprawling complex, in the depths of which resides the Prince of Evil himself. An artifact of immense power lies somewhere within, guarded by its possessed owner, Kish the gnome.

I PULLED OUT OF THIN AIR...the riddle on the mine's entrance: "Iron, iron, iron".

I KID YOU NOT...Jolly Naben and his daughter Sabra want to extract the mine's natural riches.

TOO WACKY FOR ME...was that Jolly Naben and Sabra are actually serial rapists.

There's more I could say about the Verbosh and Glory Hole Dwarven Mine supplements and how they were used in the campaign, but this is long enough for now. Anybody have any questions about what did or could have happened in the campaign?

Always remember to look up

The latest D&D session with my wife lasted only about 30 minutes. But what a fun little session that covered a lot of ground! Again, "Team Wewe" (as she calls her party of four PCs) was unharmed in the session, due to a combination of good decisions and lucky dice.

They conversed with a pair of Giant Mink. Dodged flesh-eating Green Slime falling from the ceiling. Bypassed a Giant Tiger Beetle.

The last encounter of the session was in a library room. As the team searched books and scrolls, a camouflaged Giant Crab Spider descended from the ceiling and surprised them. Determined to finish searching the room for magical texts, Team Wewe engaged in combat for the first time. Asked what her team said to taunt the spider, she exclaimed: "Cheeeeese!"

It must have worked, because hot rolling gave her an easy victory. Veva and Maira landed blows in both combat rounds to dispatch the spider. The men, Eldon and Grizz, were embarrassed by their ineffectiveness. The search of the library turned up a magic scroll, which will need to be identified back in town.

Maira dodges the dripping Green Slime...gloop glup

The ladies apply beatdown on the Giant Crab Spider

Will Team Wewe return to town to re-memorize spells, identify the scroll, and risk encountering wandering monsters on the way? Or will they, still at full health, explore deeper into the palace dungeons?

Chillin' with Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill

The last few weeks I've debated on which version of the Basic D&D rules (or retro-clones) to use for the game with my wife. The half dozen or so versions are 99% compatible and a module written for one version is effortlessly adapted to another. It makes little difference which I choose, but a choice must be made, if for no other reason than the consistency and familiarity of using the same rulebook for each play session.

Last night my wife surprised me again with another impromptu request to play a game. I'll write a session report another day (she wants me to take pix of the Legos again), but the notable thing was that I simply grabbed the nearest Basic D&D rulebook and, by the end of the session, the "which version?" debate was resolved.


That version is commonly called"Holmes" Basic, after its editor, Dr. J. Eric Holmes. It's the first Basic version of D&D produced, circa 1977, weighs in at a whopping 48 pages and takes PCs from level 1 to 3. Perhaps the biggest difference between it and later versions of Basic D&D is that its bonuses and penalties from ability scores generally max out at +1 and -1. Furthermore, Strength and Wisdom have no mechanical effect on play, other than as Prime Requisites for Fighters and Clerics, respectively.

I am intrigued by the idea of ability scores having minimal direct mechanical impact. I'll give it a shot, but, on the other hand, would prefer that each ability score have at least SOME explicit relevance. Time for some house rules.

Ability Score Bonuses and Penalties (house rules in bold)

Strength: 13+ gives +1 bonus to melee hit roll, 8- gives -1 penalty to melee hit roll

Wisdom: 13+ gives +1 on all saving throws, 8- gives -1 penalty

Intelligence: +1 language for each point over 10

Constitution: hit point bonus or penalty each level

Dexterity: 13+ gives +1 bonus to ranged hit roll, 8- gives -1 penalty to ranged hit roll

Charisma: 13+ gives +1 reaction bonus, 13+ gives 5% xp bonus

The xp bonus for high Charisma is an idea I first saw in Swords & Wizardry. I like it because it reinforces the Fame and Fortune model of advancement. A couple other house rules for this campaign:

Human Magic-users and Clerics have "open casting". This means they don't need to memorize spells, but can cast anything in their spellbook, as limited by the character's level. I like this rule to help low level spellcasters have more options and be more involved. Some of the utility-ish spells seem to never see action, but could be very helpful in a pinch.

No Thief class. All the other classes are free (and encouraged) to attempt thief-like actions, so eliminating the Thief class isn't a great loss. If a player wants definitive sneakiness...choose the Hobbit class. When properly enticed, the little folk are known to take on titles such as "First-class Burglar", "Burglar-Expert", "The Chosen and Selected Burglar", "Thief in the Shadows", "Expert Treasure-Hunter", and even "Mr. Lucky Number".

The start of another adventure...

Last month I wrote about preparing to play D&D with my wife for the first time. Around that time we learned the great news that she is pregnant with our first child. We did it!

Anyways, for the past 6 weeks or so, she's been very tired in the evenings and usually goes to bed shortly after supper. Therefore, the D&D game has been delayed...until tonight. I almost fell off my throne when she asked to play D&D. I swear to God, it was her idea.

We played the short pre-programmed intro to the Palace of the Silver Princess adventure. Veva, Maira, Eldon, and Aarl passed through the gatehouse into the palace dungeon. She learned about secret doors, traps, listening at doors, turning undead, surprise, etc. She did well to avoid combat too. Maira fed the crazed monkey to pacify it and Aarl successfully turned the chain-rattlin' ghost. She's eager for the next session in hopes of finding the treasures of bath oils and luxurious towels.

Entering the palace dungeon (Nice crooked helmet, Eldon)

They surprise the crazed monkey (I don't have any Giant Rat legos, so I made it a monkey instead)

Aarl turns the ghost (It passed through the rear wall and may show up later in the dungeon)

Truck Mix Disc: Ron #2

I made my first Ron truck disc when I owned 5 of his 10 albums. Since then, I've acquired his other five albums (plus a couple of his side project albums). They are worthy of their own truck disc. Here's the lineup:

1. Spiritude
2. Brandy Alexander
3. Brighter Still
4. Blue, Red, and Grey
5. Boredom and Loneliness
6. Cold Hearted Wind
7. Diana Sweets
8. Father Christmas
9. From Now On
10. The Grim Trucker
11. Hands of Time
12. Happiness
13. Hard Bargain
14. How on Earth
15. I Don't Like Mondays
16. Not About to Lose
17. One Brown Mouse
18. Poor Helpless Dreams
19. Ship of Fools
20. Snow Angel
21. Wishing Well
22. Dawn Anna