tenletter

24 December 2009

xmas pressy for J

Filed under: rpg — Tags: , — trashcondor @ 2:01 am

What could be a greater gift than the gift of hope and inspiration? ;) So here, just in time for Christmas, I have an ADOM log file fresh of the PC press. Jue had an unusually hard time early on for a barbarian (having her trusty two-handed sword destroyed by an Eye of Destruction) – but on the other hand, she did pick up no less than 6 wishes through her travels (“Treasure Hunter” – best talent ever?). Unfortunately the forces of Chaos were too strong too allow her to cleanse her corruption after saving the world – so she leads a not-so-happy-ever-after. On the other hand… she does do 6d5 + 105 damage when berserking. Without any of the orbs. Pretty impressive – during the peak of her fighting at the grand finale she commanded a PV of 60 to keep her safe from chaotic hordes (with an abysmal DV, she trusted purely in the thickness of her armor).


 

Jue           St:32  Le:26  Wi:31  Dx:23  To:35  Ch: 1  Ap: 1  Ma:14  Pe:12 N+
DV/PV: 35/48     H:1063(1063)  P:170(170)    Exp: 50/23067599   DrCh  Sp: 124
Blessed Bloated
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Inventory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total weight: 3894 stones                Carrying capacity: 5475 stones

Head          : uncursed eternium cap [+0, +4]                        [28s]
Neck          : uncursed amulet of life saving                         [3s]
Body          : uncursed eternium plate mail of speed (-1, -2) [-1, +7]
Girdle        : uncursed mithril girdle [+0, +5]                      [20s]
Cloak         : uncursed cloak of protection [+0, +3]                 [20s]
Right Hand    : blessed eternium two-handed sword (+18, 6d5+19) [-1, +0]
Left Hand     : -
Right Ring    : uncursed ring of slaying (+7 melee damage, +6 missile damage)
Left Ring     : uncursed ring of slaying (+8 melee damage, +6 missile damage)
Bracers       : blessed bracers of war [+8, +4] {Dx+8}                [10s]
Gauntlets     : blessed thick gauntlets (-1, -2) [+0, +1]             [15s]
Boots         : uncursed eternium boots [+0, +7]                      [55s]
Missile weapon: -
Missiles      : heap of 12 uncursed rocks (+0, 1d4)                   [60s]
Tool          : -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                Weapon Skills
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Melee weapon           Lvl   Hit   Dam   DV   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Unarmed fighting         2    +2    +0   +0   basic                33
Daggers & knives         1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Clubs & hammers          4    +3    +1   +1   skilled              30
Maces & flails           9    +7    +5   +3   excellent            415
Swords                   7    +5    +3   +2   skilled              101
Axes                     1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Whips                    1    +1    +0   +1   basic                25
Pole arms                1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Twohanded weapons       13   +16   +21   +5   Mastery              4789
Staves                   1    +1    +0   +1   basic                25

Missile weapon         Lvl   Hit   Dam   Ra   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Slings                   0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Bows                     0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Crossbows                0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Thrown axes & hammers    0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Thrown daggers           0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Thrown rocks & clubs     0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Thrown spears            0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            3
Boomerangs & scurgari    0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7

Shields                Lvl   DV               Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---              -------------  --------------
Shields                  6   +12              skilled              4

Damage caused with your melee weapons:
--------------------------------------
Right hand: +110 bonus to hit, 6d5+76 damage

Damage caused with your missile weapons:
----------------------------------------
Ammunition: 12, base range: 2, +52 bonus to hit, 1d4+21 damage

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Skills
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Athletics ................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Backstabbing .............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Climbing .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Courage ..................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Detect traps .............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Disarm traps ............. 71    (great)        [+1d3]
  Dodge ....................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  First aid ................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Food preservation ........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Gardening ................ 66    (good)         [+1d5]
  Haggling ................. 72    (great)        [+1d3]
  Healing ..................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Herbalism ................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Law ...................... 61    (good)         [+1]
  Listening ................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Literacy .................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Pick pockets .............100    (superb)       [+1]
  Stealth ..................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Survival .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Swimming .................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Tactics ..................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Two weapon combat ........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Woodcraft ................ 73    (great)        [+2d4]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Spells
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Calm Monster     :    17,  12pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Greater Identify :    12, 151pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Improved Fireball:    13,  45pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Lightning Bolt   :    10,  18pp     (Effectivity: +0)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Effects of Corruption
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your feet have been transformed into hooves (+8 kicking damage, Dx: -6).
You are surrounded by an unholy aura (Ch: -10, DV: +6).
Your skin is covered by tough scales (PV: +8, Dx: -6, Ap: -4).
Your antennae explore the details of your environment (Ap: -4).
You rage (DV: -9, +6 melee damage)!
Your corrupted tissue seems to heal much faster.
Poison drips from your hands.
Your close attunement to corrupted astral space allows teleportation.
You have grown a bulging cranium (Le: +6, Wi: +4, Ap: -6, PV: -4, To: -3).
You are a living mana battery.
You have grown horns (+3 melee damage, Ap: -4).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              Her further life:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After she leaves the Drakalor Chain she is welcomed by her people with great
honors. They acknowledge her noble deeds, her valor, her cunning and her
great skills that helped to prevent the complete destruction of the world
she knows. Her severe taint by the forces of Chaos prevents her from ever
leading a normal life. She always remembers the glorious deeds that took her
life away. Her sacrifice is remembered in the stories of her people, but not
in their hearts. She ends her life in loneliness and isolation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Her achievements during her adventures:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jue, the human barbarian, saved the world with her brave efforts while
saving herself 20 times.
She scored 10727708 points and advanced to level 50.
She survived for 0 years, 158 days, 18 hours, 4 minutes and 21 seconds
(148560 turns).
Jue visited 109 places.
Her strength score was modified by +15 during her career.
Her learning score was modified by +5 during her career.
Her willpower score was modified by +12 during her career.
Her dexterity score was modified by +14 during her career.
Her toughness score was modified by +19 during her career.
Her charisma score was modified by +6 during her career.
Her appearance score was modified by +9 during her career.
Her mana score was modified by +7 during her career.
Her perception score was modified by +1 during her career.
She was unnaturally aged by 33 years.
She was the champion of the arena.
She was a member of the thieves guild.
She left the Drakalor Chain after completing her quest and became a famous
heroine.
7509 monsters perished under her attacks.
The following 22 artifacts were generated during her adventure:
  the si
  the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle"
  the golden gladius "Death's Sting"
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Water
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Air
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth
  the lead-filled mace "Big Punch"
  the sword of Nonnak
  the elemental gauntlets
  the ring of the High Kings
  the phial of Caladriel
  the crown of science
  the ancient mummy wrapping
  the ankh
  the rune-covered club "Skullcrusher"
  the bracers of war
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana
  the black rune-covered dagger "Sting"
  the rune-covered sling "Whirlwind"
  the crown of leadership
  the rune-covered halberd "Wyrmlance"
She possessed the following intrinsics:
  She was fire resistant.
  She was poison resistant.
  She was cold resistant.
  She was acid resistant.
  She was lucky (enhanced through an item).
  Fate smiled upon her.
  She was able to control teleportation.
  She was stun resistant (gained through an item).
  She was resistant to death rays (gained through an item).
  She was shock resistant.
  She was immune to acidic attacks.
  She was able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item).
She had the following talents: Affinity with Twohanded Weapons, Aggressive,
Alert, Careful, Defensive Fighter, Dodger, Greased Lightning, Hardy,
Healthy, Immune to Pain, Iron Skin, Long Stride, Miser, Quick, Steel Skin,
Tough Skin, Treasure Hunter, Very Quick.
She had a final speed score of 124 (final base speed: 129).
She was a messiah of Istaria.
She asked for 8 divine interventions.
She was a holy champion of Balance.
She was severely tainted by Chaos.

18 December 2009

[Pathfinder Alchemist] Typically French

Filed under: pathfinder, rpg — Tags: , , , , — jatori @ 6:57 pm

Paizo’s Advanced Player’s Guide playtest for their Pathfinder RPG is well underway with playtest versions for all 6 of the new base classes released to the public. I have to admit that I was most interested in seeing how the alchemist would be handled and, to be honest, I’m not sure if I like the current version or not. However, I don’t think I can give it a proper assessment/review without at least actually playtesting it first.  So, looking for some help in crafting my alchemist, I took a look at several fictional alchemist and alchemist-like characters for inspiration. In the end, instead of coming up with a playtest character for myself, I came up with a list of characters I’d like to build as Pathfinder alchemists (something for me to do on my upcoming series of flights, I suppose).

Those that didn’t quite make the list:

  • Bane (of Batman fame): Super intelligent and super strong – thanks to all that Venom.
  • Geralt of Rivia: The iconic elixir-chugging sword-swinger.
  • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Even though he is (they are?) THE alchemist(s), it’s just a bit overdone.

Does two make a list?

These are two characters I’m going to try and put into the Pathfinder rules:

  • The Green Goblin

He has a serum-enhanced body and mind. The pumpkin grenade is his signature weapon. He’s criminally insane (and aren’t all PCs?).

He'll get angry if you refer to his Goblin Glider as an Ebony Fly.

  • Getafix

Druid, in French, means alchemist. (No, it doesn't)

Surely somebody else saw the Transformation extraction and Infusion discovery, right? Remember, an extract is ‘cast’ by drinking it, which makes the drinker the caster, getting past the personal range restriction of the spell. Hmm, maybe I should go argue this on the forums.

- Jerall

14 December 2009

[Travel] Shopping for Geeks in Johannesburg – Part 1

Filed under: gaming lifestyle, rpg, south africa, tcg, travel — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — jatori @ 6:04 pm

With the excitement over the FIFA World Cup 2010 growing, I thought it appropriate to start a series of posts/guides for the geek/gamer traveling soccer (that’s what we call it) fan. Today, I’d like to begin with Outer Limits, located in Melville, Johannesburg.

The Outer Limits staff - friendly and photogenic

I don’t think I’d be wrong in stating that the Outer Limits chain happens to be one of the more influential forces in the South African gaming scene, be it on the convention scene or the organising force behind various types of games/tournaments. The Melville branch, I believe, happens to be their flagship (you’ll also find them in Cape Town and Pretoria).

The staff at the Melville branch are friendly, talkative and knowledgable of their stock (don’t you hate it when the staff don’t know anything?), though I think all of them hate Cape Town (just on principle).

The store stocks the usual assortment of figurines, statues, war gaming gear, trading card games, board games, geeky apparel, role playing games,  books, manga, comics and graphic novels. Of course, my biggest interest lies in their role playing stock. Whenever I peruse their bookshelves, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a true reflection of the role playing scene. Outer Limits has a large supply of older books, but very little of the newer stuff (though you can order anything, should you require it). Maybe it’s just a supply chain issue, or maybe South Africa’s filled with grognards.

Stuff!

I really like the play area at Outer Limits – it’s on the veranda, almost spilling onto the roadside. The walls in this area are covered in fantasy-themed murals and offers players a wonderful view of all the fast food joints across the road (I think that this promotes faster play in tournaments with time-constraints). Sorry, I didn’t manage to get any pics of the murals (maybe next time), as I visited the store during the middle of a card tournament and I think the flash of my camera made them a bit skitterish.

Overall, I think that Outer Limits, Johannesburg, is one of the more important stops on the South African geek store circuit. Plus, when in Melville, be sure to get a pizza at the Ant!

- Jerall

P.S. Yes, I know that the post title sounds like some sort of human (geek) trafficking report. Sorry for the disappointment.

[Distributed Workshop] Vamping up Nevermet Press’ The Desire

Filed under: WoD, internet, nevermet press, rpg — Tags: , , , , — peasantbutcher @ 7:00 am

Today is the official release day for a product I’m proud to be associated with, Nevermet Press‘ first pdf  Portrait of a Villian: The Desire (you can pick up a copy here). Part of the official release day ‘party’ ;) I give you a vamped up Desire.

Name: Desire        Virtue: Justice*              Vice: Lust**       Clan: Ventrue           Covenant: Invictus

Attributes

  • Int           ØØØØ
  • Wits        ØØØ
  • Resolve ØØØØ
  • Str           ØØØ
  • Dex         ØØØ
  • Stamina ØØØØ
  • Presence          ØØØØØØ
  • Manipulation ØØØØØ
  • Composure     ØØØØØ

Skills

  • Empathy ØØØ
  • Expression ØØØØØ
  • Persuasion ØØØØØ
  • Socialise      ØØØØØ
  • Subterfuge ØØØØØ
  • Streetwise ØØØØ – specialities: underworld, web of desire network***
  • Occult              ØØØØ
  • Politics            ØØØ
  • Investigation ØØØ
  • Stealth        ØØØØ
  • Athletics    ØØØ
  • Weaponry ØØØ – specialise: self-defense

Disciplines

  • Dominate ØØØØØ
  • Resilence Ø
  • Majesty    ØØØØØ
  • Auspex     Ø
  • Obfuscate ØØØ

Merits

  • Haven ØØØØ – her home is the one refered to in the masquerade encounter
  • Heard ØØØØØ -made up of all the whores and pimps in her employ
  • Status [city] ØØØØ
  • Status [clan] ØØØØ
  • Status [covenant] ØØØØ
  • Allies [local government] ØØØØ – some of these allies are there because of what she knows
  • Allies [police] ØØØØ – you need some friends in high places when you run all the brothels in town
  • Contacts ØØØØ
  • Striking looks ØØØØ
  • Retainer ØØØØ – the retainer is one of her ladies in waiting
  • Resources ØØØØØ – all of the Desires wealth strives from her extensive network and business dealings
  • Eidetic memory ØØ – you need one of these to blackmail and manipulate people who let their secrets slip during intimate moments

Size: 5       Health: 9        Willpower: 9        Defense: 3      Initiative Mod: 8

Humanity ØØØ ****            Blood Potency ØØØØØØ

Vitae 15/ max spend a turn 3

The Desire appears to be a young woman in her mid to late 20s, even though she is an elder (250 years) of the dance macabre.

* Justice drives her every action, from the moment she was wronged as a young girl in a nobles employ.

**Yes, it would be a given that the madame of a brothel would be lustful…but it’s not all about sex. She also lusts after power, hence her extensive network acting as spies for her.

***Her network is made up of whores, pimps and all the people who make up the seedier side society.

For reviews on the pdf go check out Gnome Stew, d20 Source, Alltern8, Uncle Bear and The Examiner. For another workshop take a look at  The Core MechanicSea of Stars and Sycarion Diversions.

- Cassey (look out for my name in the pdf :) )

13 December 2009

LARP inni Kaap

Filed under: south africa — Tags: , — trashcondor @ 8:44 am

I’m off on holiday for 3 weeks, going to Namibia. But I thought I’d leave with a post on life action RPG role models! YES! Who better to epitomize and aggrandize the values we roleplayers value most: unknown local rappers have the ability to slip into somebodies skin (metaphorically) and be them. It worked for Eminem – and I’m sure Jack’s future is BIG! ;)

Have a great holiday and happy Hanukkah, Christmas, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Tai Chiu, Atarashii Toshi, Gudjewg – or what ever other day you wish to celebrate :)

PS – the Gudjewg is not a veiled German reference to “good jew” day, it’s an ancient Aborigine tradition of dreamtime that celebrates various days throughout the year including the start of the wet season (Gudjewg) in December.

11 December 2009

[RPG Superstar] Going for gold, using mold

Filed under: pathfinder, rpg — Tags: , , , , — jatori @ 6:06 pm

That’s right, today, I submitted my entry to Paizo’s RPG Superstar 2010. I’ve been following the reality contest (I would watch the TV version, wouldn’t you?) since its inception, but have never entered before now (because I used to be that stupid). I found that I learned quite a lot about RPG design just by lurking on the forums and crafting my own submission. So much so, that even if I don’t make it*, I would not consider this a wasted effort.

- Jerall (decided to start signing off with my real name)

10 December 2009

For Blog and Cleavage

Just last week, I was talking about regretting not getting involved with the Open Game Table project. That’s why I’m glad to report that Jonathan Jacobs (of the Core Mechanic) has announced an OGT volume 2. For more information, see here and here for nominating blog posts and here for volunteering to be part of the review team.

Over the last year, I’ve come across several blogs and posts that I feel deserve to be in such a compilation. So, I’ll be spending some time this weekend, rediscovering those gems and nominating them for review. There is, however, one specific tenletter post I’d like to see make it:

Every April, South Africa celebrates National Cleavage Day, or NCD, (this is a true story), and this year, tenletter marked the special event with a few cleavage inspired posts. One of those posts, entitled cleavage – a guide to the in’s and out’s*, has turned out to be one of our most popular posts of all time (not sure why, though…). Now, why would I nominate a post of almost-nearly-questionable material? Well, my reasoning is quite selfish, actually. See, I’m not too sure where TC got the images that he used in the post – probably the darkest and/or happiest corner of the internet. So what? Well, the OGT includes original art, created just for the posts included in the compilation. Do you see where I’m going with this yet? Yes, getting TC’s cleavage day post into the OGT might mean that we get some original chainmail bikini-clad cleavage art!

* Did anybody else notice that the feats listed in the post are quite powerful when combined with the Pathfinder cleave. Don’t ask about the apostrophes.

- jatori (busy turning the maturity levels up again until next year’s NCD)

7 December 2009

The Politics of Treasure

Every group I have ever gamed with has each followed their own method of sharing treasure. Some groups used strict and well-though out rules and other groups ended every adventure with arguments and accusations of treasure-whoring. Regardless of how the group has dealt with the treasure-sharing, there always tends to be some measure of conflict. I don’t intend to use this post to discuss the different methods of sharing treasure or the various techniques one could use to deal with conflict, instead, this time, I need the help of tenletter’s readers:

My current group has employed two equally valid methods of treasure-sharing, but now we’d like to settle on one method. Each method has their own champion(s) in the group and it looks like we won’t settle on an answer between ourselves easily. So, we’ve decided to host a poll here and let the internet decide.

Method 1: Items are sold at the standard 50% of market price and each character gets and equal share. However, if a character wants to keep one of the recovered magic items, that characters must pay 50% of the market price to the rest of the party (which split it evenly amongst them). If two or more characters want the same item, they may bid for it. The character with the highest bid gets to buy the item at the amount he or she bid (the other players splitting that amount amongst themselves).

I like this method, because:

  • Characters manage to get the occassional item at reduced cost;
  • Characters that don’t manage to get an item at a reduced cost, get some extra gold to purchase full cost items.
  • If a character trades in an item to purchase something, the remaining characters can deal with the trade-in item in the same manner (think of a split pot in poker).

Method 2: Items are sold at the standard 50% of market price and each character gets and equal share. However, if a character wants to keep on of the recovered items, that character must pay the following (if x  = character share of selling the item; y = number of characters):

  • [(y -1)x]

Each other character would still receive x gold. I like this method, because it keeps individual wealth levels between characters more even. However, if a character never purchases any of the found treasure, they will end up falling behind. No decision has yet been made about how this method would handle an two (or more) characters trying to buy the same item. Same as method  1, except different cost to buying out other characters.

Other stuff to consider:

  • There are crafters amongst the party and, though they don’t cover all the craft feats, many ‘full cost’ purchases would be made at the applicable craft cost.
  • The GMs may customise treasure hordes, making sure that each character would find an item just-perfect-for-her often enough.
  • Some found items get classified as group items. These items belong to the group and no one individual character.
  • We’re considering creating a shared savings account to pay for resurrections and group items.

- jatori

2 December 2009

[Blog Carnival] Countered on Resolution?

Filed under: blog carnival, rpg, south africa — Tags: , , , — jatori @ 9:38 pm

This month’s blog carnival, hosted by the Bone Scroll, asks contributors to take a look back at this year’s January carnival – New Year’s Gaming Goals and Resolutions (hosted by Uncle Bear). You can see my January carnival post here. Now, let’s see how I performed:

  • One GM, One Player Games: Not much luck here. Though PB and I tried this again, we couldn’t seem to get a handle on the dynamics of this type of gaming. Perhaps we chose the wrong type of game for it. I’m not sure if we’ll try again. However, I’m busy toying with the idea of using Google Wave to run one-on-one prologue games for my next game.
  • Get an online game going with my old university group: We tried once and despite some technical difficulties, it ran well enough. I don’t know why we didn’t try again after that.
  • Mark Rosewater visits tenletter: Well, he didn’t leave a comment, but I’d like to think that he did pop by and had a look around. Maybe I should spam his twitter account a bit more.
  • Get involved with the community: I think that I was rather successful with this one. Firstly, there’s my Durban revival campaign (last month’s carnival post). Then there’s also:
    • Exploring other gaming communities: I’ve been traveling a lot more this year than I have ever done before and every time I go somewhere, I try to investigate the gaming scene. Next year, I’m hoping to finally write about the Johannesburg and Cape Town gaming environment, actually get to a South African con (haven’t been to one in years) and (big maybe) Hong Kong and Argentina too. Of course, I’m bummed that I didn’t get to try out Germany and Spiel this year (sometimes the job pulls through and other times it lets me down).
    • Online: Of course there’s getting a twitter account and playing Guild Wars with Fred of Drop the Dice and the Stargazer, Michael, but there’s one online initiative that is most prominent on my list of online community stuffs: Nevermet Press. I’ve regretted not getting involved with the Open Game Table project (looking forward to a volume 2), so when I heard that there was a new crowd-sourcing RPG thang starting, I jumped aboard. Big things are going to be happening on the NMP front soon, so stay tuned.
      • Recently, I’ve been working at client sites more often, which has seriously hampered my online presence (hell, I even missed the RPGBNgate), but don’t worry – I still get to squeeze in some lurking time.

- jatori

[Exalted] Durban Game Day – 05/12/2009

As I mentioned last time, I won’t be able to host this year’s final Durban game day. However, one of our regular attendees has volunteered to run a session of Exalted and/or the WoW board game.

  • Venue: Destiny Bookstore, Windermere Centre, Durban
  • Date and Time: 5 December 2009 – 10:30am for 11:00am
  • Cost: Free!

Like last time, there seems to be a space issue at the venue (only one table), so you’ll need to confirm attendance. For more information, head over to the Facebook event page here. I won’t be there at the beginning of the event, but I’ll be sure to pop around to say hi.

- jatori

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