Pen and Paper Role Playing Games (Warning: May contain Dungeons and/or Dragons)

[Craig H]

I figured I would give mini painting a shot and my goal was to do some decent work on my Gloomhaven miniatures. To practice, I bought some minis from the local game shop.

I, uh, really sucked at it and wound up giving the paints I bought to the owner of the game shop and telling him to donate them to anyone who looked like they had an interest in painting.

My Gloomhaven minis are still plain and boring, but at least they don't look like a toddler painted them.

EDIT: Oh, and also, I have a Bachelor's in Graphic Design and I'm not a stranger to painting. I like working with watercolors and acrylics. So I have some skill with this stuff. Painting minis is just an entirely different world. The people that paint entire 40k armies are crazy good at what they do.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Craig H

[Death From Above]

 

[jaedmc]

Those look cool man, good job.

[Death From Above]

Thanks. There are definitely plenty of very small scale mistakes, and I abandoned trying to do pupils for now with the intention of returning to it when I have more practice/skill. But overall I'd like to think I did alright for a beginner that nearly flunked art back in the day.

[southofheavy]

Hell yeah, dude! Lookin' good.

I've been wanting to jump into mini painting for a while, but I am broke as hell right now. Maybe some day. 

[Death From Above]

Admittedly it is not the cheapest hobby. But I will say, now that I've dipped in a toe there's a stunning number of very good third party 3D printed stuff available that tends to be a price bracket far more reasonable than Games Workshop often being your sole option. The paint and equipment costs up front, yeah, there's not a ton of ways around that part. It was definitely one of the main things (beyond my own self doubts) that kept me from trying it years ago.

[Death From Above]

On 5/9/2023 at 8:38 AM, jaedmc said:

I enjoy painting the terrain I make more than minis. I think my issue with mini painting is that I don't have patience for the very small details. I just slap some paint on to make it somewhat presentable. But I don't have the skill or the desire to develop the skill of doing some of the work I've seen in the Warhammer 40K scene.

I've started a crazy terrain project to work on between waiting for paints to dry too. I got a super cheap LED lantern that with some pipes, some board, a collection of doodads, and a liberal application of paints I am pretty sure I could make a big science fiction reactor centerpiece for an industrial zone.

Creating stuff is fun. The boring craft moms were right all along.

[SirFozzie]

I don't usually slamdance on the rotting corpses of businesses,but.. REST IN PISS NUTSR.

(for those who are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, let me explain.. no wait, there's too much. Let me sum up, ala Inigo Montoya)

NuTSR are a bunch of grifters who thought the problem with D&D was that it was too woke and betraying it's white man power fantasy roots. They tried to impersonate TSR (the predecessor company to D&D Wizards of the Coast), claimed that WotC had left games fallow so they could squat on TSR 's trademarks, namely Star Frontiers, and sell their own version of the games, all towards getting rid of woke in RPG's.) They tried to crowdfund a lawsuit against TSR, and released a beta of their new Star Frontiers, which was SO horribly racist and sexist that even those who think Woke is a four letter word shifted uncomfortably in their seats and tried to edge away. Combined with their charming attitude towards all and sundry, they did the impossible. They made Wizards of the Coast the one that EVERYONE was rooting for!

 

the news filed yesterday where they announced they were filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and asked the judge to pause their own lawsuit as a result filled me with glee.

[J.T.]

I have kept up with the entire sorted affair and it is glorious.

ENWorld has a interesting series of articles along with a precise timeline / chain of events on this bullshit for anyone interested in the details.

NuTSR co-founders Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dineheart somehow made the totally rabid and psychotic Gygax brothers look like reasonable and rational human beings.

We live on Bizarro World.

By the way, if you are wondering just how sexist and vile that LaNasa really is, he once tried to promote his tattoo parlor business in Wilmington, NC by advertising that his female employees would wrestle in a tub filled with warm grits.  You cannot make this shit up.

Edited June 14, 2023 by J.T.

[SirFozzie]

and it was for a promotion at the job too.

[SirFozzie]

Double Post: This has to do with the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous computer game, but since it's converted from the Pen and Paper, I figure it should go here.

From the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1496s2r/til_elemental_bloodline_converts_vicious/

Here's the Six Stages of Pathfinder players

Stage 1: ew: Vicious weapons suck. (just to explain, Vicious weapons in Pathfinder do extra damage to the target, but also some damage to you as well)

Stage 2: Hey wait, I can change it into another type of damage (This was originally intended to convert say, Lightning Damage to Fire Damage, to get around enemy immunities)

Stage 3: If I'm immune to that type of damage, then I get no penalty for vicious weapons (There are mythic feats that say something like "You are immune to Fire damage")

Stage 4: Oh wait, Ascendant Element means I'd take the damage anyway (Because this is pathfinder, and nothing is absolute, this mythic ability means that your damage of X Type cannot be reduced or eliminated due to immunities/resistances)

Stage 5: Here's 5 20-level builds (and full rationales) to take advantage of this interaction (Go read the post. He breaks down 20 levels of what to take, why certain builds won't work, etcetera)

Stage 6:: Because my DM's a sadistic bastard and I need it to survive.

My first impression was that Chevy Chase "I was led to understand there would be no math involved.

My last impression was like that old man looking at a blackboard of mathmatical proofs and going "Very impressive. I think I understand about a tenth of it, but it's all very impressive."

[SirFozzie]

18 hours ago, J.T. said:

I have kept up with the entire sorted affair and it is glorious.

ENWorld has a interesting series of articles along with a precise timeline / chain of events on this bullshit for anyone interested in the details.

NuTSR co-founders Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dineheart somehow made the totally rabid and psychotic Gygax brothers look like reasonable and rational human beings.

We live on Bizarro World.

By the way, if you are wondering just how sexist and vile that LaNasa really is, he once tried to promote his tattoo parlor business in Wilmington, NC by advertising that his female employees would wrestle in a tub filled with warm grits.  You cannot make this shit up.

The short version? "Go Fash? No Cash... Get Smashed."

[Death From Above]

Grits? Ain't nobody want to see that

[SirFozzie]

10 hours ago, Death From Above said:

Grits? Ain't nobody want to see that

It came out because LaNasa (the grifter) ran for office years ago, and his opponent found the YouTube video LaNasa had posted of it.

 

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article240600416.html

Edited June 16, 2023 by SirFozzie

[SirFozzie]

So, I'm trying to get a game together of Cities Without Number elsewhere. I mentioned this game before, but you definitely should read it (especially as I'm pretty sure that when the game hits release, they'll take down the free beta/RC google drive they set up and allowed people to share..

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12HH1k-ZTV_TnoQmJqXQre9jGak-9pq1d

[J.T.]

If you play in the Forgotten Realms setting, you can log on to D&D Beyond and download the character sheets and stat blocks for some of the characters from the Honor Among Thieves movie.

There are also stat blocks for some of the items and weapons in the movie like Elgin's reinforced lute and Xenk's Daggersword.

Edited July 6, 2023 by J.T.

[SirFozzie]

Figure you guys would get a kick out of this, here's the fixer for that Cities Without Number game I'm starting over on rpg.net. You can trust Uncle Tony, right?

 

Fixer: Tony Lau.

Look: 5'5, 225 lbs. (heavy, slicked back black hair ending at bottom of his neck. wears six gold chains and sunglasses even indoors). Prefers meetings in the back room at the Five Spices House, the district's premier Sichaun-style resturaunt (rumor has it they use real ingredients! His favorite is the thin-skinned wontons drenched in neon-orange chili oil)

Quote: "Look, I've been given you a couple milk runs cuz I needed to know if you was in it for good, or just in it for quick money, "Nǐ zhīdào wǒ zài shuō shénme?" (You know what I'm saying?) Been getting good reviews. Starting to earn some Yinying, eh? (shadow, meaning respect). Now I got something to move you up a notch. It's still nothing that will make you die rich, but neh, you do it right, you don't die, and you bank more shadow, eh?

The "Mister Mister" behind this wants to send a message to a rival. So, he's asked me to procure a team to send his rival a message that they can't ignore. The mission's simple. Break into a corpo building, and leave a package on a specific desk. Preferably with as little notice and carnage as possible. That doesn't mean that the Mister Mister is going to burn you if some eggs need to be broken, but don't go in looking for a body count, neh?

Now, I can't spill all the deets without knowin if you're in or not, but when the Mister Mister says he needs some up and comers that can do a job well without breaking the budget, I thought of you guys. It's easy creds if you don't poke the Dragon, and you ain't the types to do so. So, you tell me if you're in, and tell me what you need. You know Uncle Tony's willing to help out, neh?"

[tbarrie]

Ran my first session of Icons: Assembled Edition yesterday, and I think I like the rules a lot more than the rulebook. The book is extremely poorly organized and confusing. But the rules, once I finally figured out what the fuck they were, seem solid and conducive to fun play.

[J.T.]

Happy Halloween!

D&D totally stole the idea for the Caller in Darkness from 1999's cult epic, The House on Haunted Hill, for the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Caller_in_darkness

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Darkness_(House_on_Haunted_Hill)

There, I said it.

If you are going to rip off something, rip off something that is good.

Edited October 31, 2023 by J.T.

[tbarrie]

Why is that fandom wiki entry on the Caller in Darkness written entirely in the past tense? Are they officially extinct or something?

[jaedmc]

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I produce an actual play podcast called Out of Depth Plays. Each season is 12 episodes and uses a different RPG. Every episode is edited down from a two hour recording session, so their length is usually around 60-75 minutes. I also do the sound design, which consists of music, ambience and sound effects.

Yesterday we released the first episode of our 4th Season, which is called Fifty Cent Souls. We're using Call of Cthulhu set in 1950's Hollywood.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, you can listen just about anywhere you get podcasts: https://out-of-depth-plays.captivate.fm/listen

You don't have to listen to any of the other seasons, as each one is a self contained story.

Anyway I'm really proud of it, and people seem to enjoy it, so I'm sharing it here.

[J.T.]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:18 AM, tbarrie said:

Why is that fandom wiki entry on the Caller in Darkness written entirely in the past tense? Are they officially extinct or something?

Good call and i am not terribly sure why it is written that way.   I suppose they wrote the entry knowing the idea was not original, so the article is more of "here are some ideas on how you can incorporate this into your campaign" rather than writing it up as if it were FR canon.

I don't even think it fits the FR setting proper given that it appears that most of the player base hates psionics and prefer to let magic do the heavy lifting.

I practically plagiarized the HoHH reboot's plot for an Eberron mystery-horror game I ran about six years ago and like the movie, it had a Caller as the BBEG.  The Caller was a much better fit for a setting that already incorporated psionics and a good time was had by all.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by J.T.

[SirFozzie]

Must resist urge to buy more shiny clicky math rocks.

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1362933074/dnd-dice-set-liquid-core-for-role?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ref=sr_gallery-1-13&pro=1&organic_search_click=1&variation0=3695766745

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1547787191/liquid-core-dnd-dice-handmade-liquid?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&pro=1&organic_search_click=1

[SirFozzie]

Quick review of the new Marvel RPG campaign book "The Cataclysm of Kang" (I've tried to mark big plot points off with spoiler tags)

 

 

The campaign comes with some suggested heroes for each "issue" (read: Adventure) as part of a "Graphic Novel" (read:Campaign) if your players don't want to run their own heroes through the game (although that is a default option as well), but you start at Rank 1, and each issue moves you up a rank.

Personally, I would explain it like this:

Imagine the Cataclysm of Kang as the next Avengers movie. The beginning of it puts your heroes right after their origin story (maybe through their first solo movie), and is the team up movie. It starts seemingly slow (your characters are asked by Nick Fury to check out why the Maggia are trying to run an Italian Restaurant out of business, only to find... HYDRA teaming with Maggia.

Spoiler

Ok, it's not just Hydra. It's "Mirror Universe Hydra", one where they successfully infiltrated SHIELD and took over the world after the Cold War.  They're coming to our universe because there's a bad guy who's going to eat their universe. And to make things worse, in the battle, the other universe's Steve Rogers (just before he gets headshot to death) warns you about the Crimson herald (that's right, in this universe, the role of the Silver Surfer is taken by.. THE RED SKULL from yet another universe!)

Needless to say, things escalate from there. We have a Locked down area in New York, and then an invasion, which the characters have to figure out what the enemies are doing to keep the rest of the world from nuking them, a trip back to that other place to try to stop the Crimson Herald (and probably take back that universe from Hydra). It's revealed that the main Devouring bad guy isn't who you think it is, but a version of Kang [spoiler] who not only eats planets, but multiverses[/spoiler]. The final battle takes part at the beginning/end of time of that other place, and you have to stop Kang from

Spoiler

 finishing eating that universe before he starts on the players universe

I generally do like the plots. They can be a bit railroady (there is one issue that is supposed to be the "we failed" beat like Infinity War, but if players don't recognize that this is an unwinnable battle and retreat, they could get themselves in trouble (at which point you probably need to defeat the team, let them play new characters with one of their first goals being to liberate their captive teammates.)

One thing I didn't like (that is going to be issues in any Marvel Campaign. It's never going to be great explaining why the Avengers/Fantastic Four/X-Men aren't helping.. that's why I suggested that it's like the first Avengers movie, where everyone has been introduced, but there's much less established history to say "Why couldn't they have helped?" You'll have to do a bit of adjusting, as one of the things that is happening is a battle where the bad guys want to retrieve an Ultimate MacGuffin from the Baxter Building, but you can't let the players get a hold of it either, as it's critical to the finale

 

Spoiler

The Ultimate Nullifier may be the only thing which can defeat Kang the Destroyer

I will say two things about the ending leave me a bit cold. I'll put them in spoilers, because they deal with the denouement of the campaign.)

 

Spoiler

1. No matter what you do, that other universe is dead. (basically, since Kang is eating everything before it branches out, there literally is no future for that universe). Sounds really draggish that billions of souls were just wiped out  (or never were), especially because one of the reasons people probably went back to that universe was to liberate them from HYDRA and their version of the Avengers (called the Supremacy). If/when I run that, they'll be able to help the resistance there if they survive the final battle.

 

2. They insist on having a Tony Stark moment, as to fire the Ultimate Nullifier, the person who fires it will die just like Kang the Destroyer. Remember that Call of Cthulu campaign where one person had to sacrifice themselves to stop Cthulu from entering our universe)? Yup. they do that here too.

 

I know I'm coming off negative, which isn't my thing here. I just think that you need to figure out how to approach things, where the heroes don't try to call in other groups to help, and that there's a couple bits of downer in the "triumphant" ending. that I would personally edit out. Otherwise, I really love the way it looks (using real comic art is great) and it does a great job in ramping up the stakes from "Neighborhood, to City, To World, To another world, to multiverse"

Edited November 18, 2023 by SirFozzie

[Craig H]

I’m reading through the Marvel Multiverse RPG rulebook and man, this thing is so well put together. There’s a chapter that covers the 616 history and I’m shocked it includes details of Hickman’s X-Men run that he started, like locations and events that happened after Hickman. Looks like it was just first published in April 2023. I’m impressed by the amount of detail. I think before I start a game I may get everyone together for an introductory night to go over the history of everything and where we’re at now. Only thing is, I don’t feel like putting a PowerPoint together and the Comics Explained dude on YouTube has videos that are too long and he gets on my nerves. Everything to him is always “And this is AMAZING” or “And this is DOPE” or “such and such is so powerful he could beat so and so and be home in time for cornflakes.” I keep the channel on in the background when I’m working on stuff, but it’s going to be really off putting to a group that isn’t all in on comic books.