Ideas, ideas, ideas

Last night, I was listening to The Game's the Thing.  I got it from Zak and while I listened, I pulled out my box set of the original Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  (Not the Grindhouse edition, which I want to get after hearing Raggi pitch it.)  I had already decided to use the small modules that he included in the box set.  (Tower of the Stargazer, which is brutal if played by idiots.)

Here is the thing, when I first got the box set, I thought it would be a neat little collection to have.  I might pull it out and look at it, yet I was getting it as a collectible.  Once I started looking through it with an eye towards game design though, I was won over by this thing!  It is an amazing little set of rules.  It is real old school, with a few modern twists.  The Specialist to replace the thief/rouge is the biggest one with ascending armor class being the other.  I devoured the books and was amazed at how elegant and simply, without being simplistic, this game system turned out.  I am not itching to run a game of this for my group.

Though, there are some who have a philosophy counter to the very nature of LotFP.  A few of them believe that their characters are heroes.  That nothing can hurt them and they are better than the rest of the world around them.  Not so in LotFP.  Your character isn't a powerhouse.  Your PC is a guy with a sword, spells or an attitude of wanting to go out and find "adventure."  And, typically, that adventure turns into delving into a dark and forbidden place, where things lurk in the dark that would make H.P. Lovecraft shudder.  S/He isn't better than anything out there, and most stuff out there can kill you easily.  So, why play at all?  For the challenge of it.

I can even link it back to the podcast I released yesterday.  (By the way, if you haven't listened yet, keep your volume down a little.  We were recording really loud I think.)  This idea of set challenge ratings and encounters is something that would never survive LotFP.  In this game, you a small guy/girl who can't hack it as a potato farmer and instead picks up a sword, or a book of spells, or a holy symbol and goes out and tries to survive in a  world that is trying to kill you.  Or, to be blunt, doesn't care if you live or die.

Ok, I hear those of you reading this thinking, so why are you talking about this and yet you put in the 4E label on this blog?

Well, I'll tell you.

First, there is something else you need to know.  I love Vornheim (also, a contest I am trying to do.)

So, imagine my surprise when I look to a game blog a guys writes about called re-skinning Vornheim.  Here is the link, and this guy's idea rocks!

What can we take away from this?

1. Vornheim is cool.
2. LotFP is an amazing and brutal system I want to play.
3. Even 4E can be cool, if done right.

And, as a last minute thought, I might also try and do a full review of LotFP in my next blog.

Campaign ideas

Been working on my campaign world and thought I was going to take a break for a day or so.  Then, I realized after I left my girlfriend's place, my mind was already working on something for the game.  It is the same when I write fiction.  I take a break for whatever reason and I realize when I come back to it, my mind has had something on the back burner, simmering away.  Though, if you wait to long, the pans can be cooked right through and your idea is one burnt black thing that you need to work to even understand or just give up and hope that it comes back...ok, enough food analogies, I'm getting hungry!


Moving on...I discovered that there were several things that mind mind flashed to.  One was an old episode of a cartoon with a guy who lost his family and started carrying a photo book with him.  He called it his book of rage.  (If you know the name of the cartoon, good for you.)  My mind tweaked it and has used it before in a two episode game, changing his lost of family from the government to the gods.  And, because I needed something to challenge my players, I gave them rage zombies.  (Something like the things, not zombies from the movie 28 Days Later.  Those things are not zombies in the traditional sense, yet it worked for me then and it works now.)

Another idea that came was from the Sword for Truth series.  The nightstone.  In the book, it summons shades from the Underworld.  In my world, in summons undead.  Anyone holding it will attract any kind of undead.  And, it makes turning them harder.  (Yes, I am evil.)

Another came reading the Vornheim City Kit.  (This is an amazing product by the way.  I can't recommend it enough.  No matter what edition you use, or retro-clone, this is going to help any campaign you make.  Not just for the city games either.  There are threads of adventure that can start out in the wilderness that can lead to your big mega-city like Vornheim.  I'll even give an example of something I plan to do.  If my players are reading, be cool and either skip to the end of the paragraph or don't be a meta-game dick!  There is a library, run by a man named Zorlac who loves books.  He hires library thieves to find more and more books for his ever growing collection.  I plan to have the PCs either help these librarian thieves by bring back books or having a librarian of Zorlac stumble into them in the hinterlands, see that they have a tome of some unknown author and/or subject and steal it, or attempt to steal from them.  I can see more than a few sessions spent trying to keep the book away or trying to get the book back.)

Another came from combing through this guy.  (A special shout out to Ancient Vaults, you come up with some amazing stuff!)  Looking through his blog, I was stunned by the number of adventure seeds and partial campaign ideas that sprang from reading that one blog.

Finally, the last place where I get my ideas comes from a actual play podcast.  This one has been around for awhile these guys do all kinds of games, Pathfinder, 4e, Temple of Elemental Evil, World's Largest Dungeon, etc.  I was trying to sleep and listening to one of the actual plays of their Keep on the Shadowfell.  I have read through it and suddenly, while I was trying to fall asleep, listening to them tangle with the kobolds, my head started to spin a little nugget from a few pieces I remembered from the module and from what they were doing.  It didn't help me get to sleep though.  Bu thtese thigns happen.

In closing, I never know when my mind will grab and idea and start to play with it.  Turn it around and exam it, looking for ideas.  Even now, something sprang to mind from a different blog, talking about shrines, a link and now, I must go.

Blogging, Vornheim, 1st ed. and all points in between

First off, I know that I haven't blogged in awhile.  Been dealing with things like trying to find a job and the radio gig with another friend.  And, that has been going well; if you want to hear our madness, click here.  Look for Gamer Corps.  It changes position day to day, and there is a new one each week around Tues/Wed mark.

Second, the podcast RPG:Rants and Raves is on hiatus.  It is not podfading, just need time to sit at a mic and do it.  The quality isn't as good as Gamer Corps, cause Rants and Raves is done at home on my computer and Gamer Corps is in an actual radio station.  Rants and Raves is also about purely role playing games.  Gamer Corps needs to spread itself over several kinds of games.  (Though I would like to try and change that ever once and again.)

Third, the Star Wars game I was running has gone on hiatus as well.  Not sure when that will come back.  It was working for a time, yet I was getting bogged down in player drama, turn over of characters and the story was going nowhere.

Finally, there is the Gamer ADD I have.  Having put the Star Wars Saga game aside, I am already working on something else.  A 1st edition AD&D game.

I blame part of it on just the general Gamer ADD that I seem to suffer from.  The "new shiny."  Another part of this switch over to such a radically different system is that I have played all of the other incarnations of D&D, from 2nd to the edition that cannot be named.  I have even tried a little mix of Hackmaster and 1st edition.  And I want to actual delve into the straight out 1st edition game.  Another part of the want to go "old school" is listening to an amazing podcast called roll for initiative.  Here is a link to their main webpage.  Check them out, they are rather cool.

I will be posting more on my thoughts and trials as I create this 1st edition AD&D game.

And, finally, there is Vornheim.  This is not a review, just a few thoughts on it.
It is a city-kit put together by Zak S. Here is his blog.  There is some great art inside, the tables and information is inspiring and it is crammed with all kinds of stuff.  EVERY bit has something, the inside bookcover is a map of the city.  The front book cover and back book cover--yes the covers of the book--can be used for randomness in a city game.
In a few words, "It is an amazing toolkit and wonderful aid."