Never forget your roots

For those who don't know Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek Next Generation fame, is a gamer and blogs about it regularly. From time to time he writes some thing that really hits the mark. Never forget your roots is one of those posts.

And there is a nifty t-shirt involved that I think everybody will like.

Help with a Dragon Article

I need help locating the issue of Dragon Magazine with article of how to build your own class for BECMI D&D. I am having no lucking finding it (again :( )

Thanks it Dragon 109 Customizing Classes.

Prophecy and the skill of the player.

So I decided to put the player skill tenet of Old School to the test last night. With this bit of prophecy in an ancient elven tongue.

Alates tuhka draakon tulekahju poeg puud kasvamas. Ta läheb välja ja tulevad omal.

Poja lõvi ei kummardame isand madu ja loosungi lohe saab unfurled ja hobune peab olema poolaastaga.

Lääne-ja Ida peavad häda ees, kord ja tulevaste kuningas on hammustatud poolt madu ja silma pistrik hakkab himustama läände, langevad mõlemad jättes draakon koos kaheks osaks vähem.

Uroboros rullitakse pikast pimedas ja kuristikku ja impeerium kasvas. Viimati sundered ja impeerium langes. Pistrik levib ta tiivad ja tarbib kõik.

Võimas tamm varjupaikadele all oma lehte. Poeg puud peidab paljusid augustamine silmis jahi pistrik.

Lõpe Salakarit kohta bosum kohta Tiethoir tuleb ehitud banner iga koos Falcon silma kunagi magada.

Tema nimi tuleb Syrivald

Ja üks kannab nime järgi poeg puu ja tõde peab olema tema poolel.

Üle saali tõe ja ringid maailma tähtsaim sõna hävimatu.

Of course they google translated it in a heart beat. But that just made an already cryptic prophecy more jibberish. Part of the adventures in the upcoming weeks will be to find the books needed to translate this "ancient" dialect of elvish into something that make more sense.

The best comment of the evening was by Tim of Gothridge's character Ashling when the mages of Syrivald's Conclave offered to help translate it.

I translated it just fine, whoever wrote this just wrote jibberish.

Main Campaign Area progress report

My main focus right now is getting the Scourge of the Demon wolf finished plus a mapping job done. But from time to time I work on stuff for projects two or three slots down the line. One of them will be a full sourcebook for the Main Campaign Area of the Majestic Wilderlands. In the middle of May I finished detailing the mountains and hills and thought you might like a sneak peek.

First is a low res shot of the entire map. Right now I am in the process of adding vegetation. You can see a few light blue areas which are the first step in making swamp terrain. I then turn it into a "swampy green" and add the swamp fill on top of that. This is a harn style map so the hills and mountains are transparent so you can see the vegetation underneath. This allows for say forested mountains, snowy mountains, desert mountains to easily be distinguished.

If you look just east of Viridstan you see a fully detailed island. When I make one of these maps I detail on the larger islands to try out my current mapping scheme before committing to it for the entire map.




This is what it will look like a full resolution.


My main focus right now is getting the Scourge of the Demon wolf finished plus a mapping job done. But from time to time I work on stuff for projects two or three slots down the line. One of them will be a full sourcebook for the Main Campaign Area of the Majestic Wilderlands. In the middle of May I finished detailing the mountains and hills and thought you might like a sneak peek.

Combating Gamer ADD for 30 years.

James over at Grognardia has a good post titled Gamer ADD and the Campaign. In it he has a comment.

None of this is to say that I plan to run Dwimmermount forever.

Why not? I answered.

Look. One of the big gripes I see over and over again it lack of time to do everything you want. I roll my eyes at some of friends who run games that they put a lot of effort into only to ditch everything and start over for the next one.

I am not talking only about the hours before a game; writing up an entire key for a adventure or a 2,000 year history. I know not everybody does or likes doing that. Some do everything by the seat of their pants. What I am including are the hours you spent refereeing.

There are mountains of gold in the stuff that you and your players come up with each session. Stuff there is no way you will get to in the current campaign. Stuff that would make for some great adventure for the NEXT campaign.

That the secret to having a setting with depth. That when you play a genre you stick with the same setting you used before. That you use what you did the LAST campaign as the foundation for the current campaign even if the current campaign is has a completely different focus. And you get the added benefit of happy players who see their actions have an impact on the setting.

You see the secret is that a setting is an entire world. Look at the diversity our planet has in a sphere of roughly 8,000 miles diameter and 75% water. The setting you create can have the same level of diversity. In some distant corner there lurks the place where you can run the sub-genre you want.

And if you can't find a good physical place what about a different time? If you want to use 2nd edition Runequest with it's emphasis on Mythic Heroes then set it in the dawn ages of your world. Use what the player did then as the history of that time. Dragon Pass and the Plains of Prax are not big places as regions go.

For example James Dwimmermount campaign has a backstory about the Thulians (sp?) an ancient powerful magic using race/culture. If he wants to run Runequest 2nd edition then he can hone Dragon Pass/Plains of Prax to fit during a time of their rise. Or perhaps take Stormbringer and set it during their fall.

If all you do is play one shots campaign then make more work for yourself and you miss out one of the most compelling aspects of Roleplaying Games. Their ability to immerse your character in another place and time.

Old Judges Guild Items for sale

There are two new Judges Guild items for sale at RPG Now.

The first is Booklet K. Unfortunately this is only the initial form of what became the Wilderlands of High Fantasy and doesn't provide much new information.

However Judges Guild Journal (Jun-Jul 1977) is pure gold and provides an interesting snapshot into the hobby circa 1977. It goes along with Booklet K as Mr. Bledsaw talks about how he came up with the demographics rules in Booklet K. Thanks to my Google Fu I am tracking down the sources he mentioned and I will update you when I read them.

A sneak preview

Getting closer to the finish line for this Swords & Wizardry/Majestic Wilderlands adventure & sourcebook.



Some art for the adventure drawn by a pair of talented local (NW PA) artists, Jason Sholtis and John Larrey.

Of course my maps