The Guild Season 2 is here!

Finally, Season 2 of "The Guild" is here. "The Guild" is a story about a World of Warcraft (WoW) party who ends up meeting in real life and what happens when you mix your gaming life with your real one. Follow the link below to watch episode 1 on MSN Video.




Season 2 - Episode 1: Link the Loot

The Big Bad Blue Club

One of my favorite "primitive" weapons is the gunstock club from Last of the Mohicans seen above. Watching Chingachigook just devastate Magua with it always gives me great pleasure. I am wondering if anyone would care to suggest D&D stats for this weapon. I really would love to hear your opinions. Please don't feel like you have to limit your answers to one edition either i.e. 1e, 2e or 3.5, all editions are welcome here!

Grab the book closest to you!

This is traveling around Facebook and I thought it was fun.


Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence in the comments.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


Here's mine:
"She clawed at Dandra's mind as if she could rake the image and memories away."

Someone found it! (Put a APB out on this book! part II)

I would like to thank Derek for finding the book I discussed in my post Put an APB out on this Book! It is The Cross-Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski. Now I just have to buy a copy :)

One Scary Looking Dude!

Next time you want to add some mean looking primitives to you game I suggest you watch Apocalypto. If you look closely you can see that those are human mandibles used as his vambrace. Think of the look on your player's faces when you describe this guy.

Professional D'n'D League? Watch "GOLD"

Here is the prologue to what I think will be a great show. It takes place two years before the rest of the show.

What if D&D was a international professional sport, on par with baseball or football (read soccer).



GOLD: Prologue (SD) from David Nett on Vimeo.

The Adventures of Bobo the Flaming Sphere

When I used to play a wizard, I loved this spell and once used a persistent version to chase a group of marauding pirates from a port village (not all by myself of course). Luckily the village was made of stone and the buildings had tile roofs. The spheres ability to jump 30 feet and roll over obstacles less than 4 feet made it extremely useful. I made it hop from tiled roof to tiled roof dislodging pirates along the way. Nothing like being chases by a five foot rolling ball of flame.

For the game's purposes my character stayed in one central location while I moved a flaming sphere mini around the map. For some reason the sphere took over as the leader in the action, the rest of the party followed behind pushing the pirates before them. My DM at the time thought it was so funny that the sphere took on a personality of his own that he ruled that the rolling sphere was to have eyes, hands and a mouth. For some reason the sound he gave him as he rolled through the city was a guttural BOBO!

Flaming Sphere
Evocation [Fire]
Level:
Drd 2, Sor/Wiz 2

Components:
V, S, M/DF
Casting Time:
1 standard action

Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect: 5-ft.-diameter sphere
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A burning globe of fire rolls in whichever direction you point and burns those it strikes. It moves 30 feet per round. As part of this movement, it can ascend or jump up to 30 feet to strike a target. If it enters a space with a creature, it stops moving for the round and deals 2d6 points of fire damage to that creature, though a successful Reflex save negates that damage. A flaming sphere rolls over barriers less than 4 feet tall. It ignites flammable substances it touches and illuminates the same area as a torch would.

The sphere moves as long as you actively direct it (a move action for you); otherwise, it merely stays at rest and burns. It can be extinguished by any means that would put out a normal fire of its size. The surface of the sphere has a spongy, yielding consistency and so does not cause damage except by its flame. It cannot push aside unwilling creatures or batter down large obstacles. A flaming sphere winks out if it exceeds the spell’s range.

Arcane Material Component
A bit of tallow, a pinch of brimstone, and a dusting of powdered iron.

The text used in this post is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

My Turn Behind the Screen, Part IV

It has been awhile since I have updated my current run as DM. I guess that it has been going so well that I haven’t felt the need to regale you all with tales of it. We left our players in the first of 4 crystal towers, fighting both the undead and living enemies.

The players learned quickly about dealing with the mindless undead. They swiftly set up gauntlets for the skeletons and zombies so that they could destroy them with limited risk. The party suffered their worst injuries so far in a battle with three shadows. Soon after that an encounter with a wraith left the party seriously imperiled. I am starting to think that stat damage is a deal breaker at low levels. The party was having some trouble and no way of recovering the strength damage.

The party did subdue an orc in their battles. He confirmed their suspicions about there being multiple groups battling for control of the towers. The orc was helpful until the party started arguing and discussing how they would kill him. In a last courageous effort the orc yelled his defiance and attacked only to die under the repeated blows of our heroes. Once the orc died and the stairway issue was resolved (There was some confusion on my part as I read a stairway incorrectly and thought they party had reached the top level. That was swiftly remedied), the party moved to the next level. To their surprise they ran into a grizzly bear and his Thorn master. A battle ensued and even with prep time the thorn had a disappointing run, firing sleep arrows past the bear and into the party. Sadly, the heroes hit by the thorn’s arrows were immune to sleep. The bear was defeated and after some rule checks and die rolls, for battling while standing on top of the bear, the thorn was also defeated.

By examinaing the corpses they discovered that the thorn was twisted by evil magic as was the grizzly bear. Inside the room the party found a half finished wood font, fey runes inscribed on the rim, a saucer like bowl of dark wood leaned against it. The party used their knowledge of the arcane (and everything else they could roll for) to attempt to determine the nature of the liquid in the font. As close as their studies could bring them was that a positive energy and possible healing powers infused the water. The chosen guinea pig (elf fighter) used the bowl and drank a dose of the water, lo and behold damage was healed and the earlier stat damage was repaired. Even with that timely blessing there seemed to be more to that mystical water then has been discovered. The party dosed themselves and packed the remaining liquid into bottles with the arcanist (read Warmage) remembering to refill the font before they left the thorns chambers.

The party had a little difficulty with a party of well disciplined and highly trained orcs in their next encounter. The rear members of the orc band threw javelins over the head of the front line attackers with the Orc Sergeant bellowed and bolstered their moral. The running battle took two rooms and drew reinforcements from a third area. The battle was done and the party looked around and realized the first tower was cleared with only a prisoner left to interrogate. The orc prisoner, scared to the point of pissing himself, answered any question placed to him. The party was able to put more names to their foes and the elves finally recognized the name of the their undead enemy. Childhood stories flashed through their memories and visions of an evil elven spellcaster, that killed his own noble family with his heinous experiments haunted their thoughts.

After coup de' grace-ing the orc, the party was left looking at a bridge that the living creatures were defending; they found themselves deeply in need of a rest before moving forward. During the last combat the Elf fighter noticed a hidden door and the party went to explore. Looking into this room, it was stocked with rations and water, apparently the towers original occupants had found a way to store food for long periods of time without spoiling. The party searched the room and hiding their tracks behind them they moved into the large storage room. The door secured the party took to eating, recovering and preparing for the battles ahead.

As they rested dreams of a three eyed, three armed, three handed, three fingered creature disturbed the party’s cleric/healer. The visions of the three cold eyes over a gaping maw was enough for him to inform the rest of the party of the possible threat. The party did not know if this was a warning from the cleric’s god or a spell cast by their enemies to confound them and make them fearful. Secure in their courage and faith they moved forward crossing the bridge to the new tower the visions of evil beings lingered in the back of their minds.

Put an APB out on this book!

I am trying to find the title of a book I read sometime around the age of 10. So I am guessing it was written in the 1980’s. I cannot, after a long and exhaustive search, find anything about this book. I know it was part of a popular series. It was loaned to me by a friend who does not remember the title either and I only read the first book in the series, leaving me very little to go on.

Here is the description of our perpetrator:

It is a Science fiction novel, a couple hundred pages long, about a man who is transported back in time by accident. If I remember correctly he has a common name like John or Richard. He arrives in Europe in the middle ages and in the middle of winter. Here he meets a barefoot monk who’s “feet are warmer then his hands” and gets into a fight with a knight. One of the parts I remember the most clearly is when the protagonist goes shopping for armor and weapons. He finds a folded steel saber or scimitar with a diamond edged blade. At that point the book flashed to the people monitoring him from the future; apparently, they had agents go back in time and plant items to help the protagonist. They say something to the effect of the “We planted the sword and if he had gone to another armor shop he would have found a set of full Turkish plate his size.” The protagonist knows a bit about history and fencing and I believe he is pretending to be a knight on a quest by the end of novel.

Please if you know this book, leave a comment and let's capture this criminal!

DING! 100 Hits

I just passed 100 hits on this blog! YEAH FOR ME!

And Thanks to all of you!

Election Day draws near!

Cthulhu For President

LoTS: Legend of The Seeker premier

Legend of the Seeker just finished it's two hour premier here in South Carolina. Did you watch it? What did you think? LoTS is based on a series of novels by Terry Goodkind. The series, The Sword of Truth, is the adventures of Richard the Seeker and his pursuit of the evil despot Darken Rahl. I never read this series of novels and I have heard mixed reviews from friends about them. The series spans 11 novels so far and I am unaware of a scheduled ending point.(I could be wrong) I thought the show had a interesting premise and strong archetype characters which people could identify with. The cinematography was reminiscent of Hercules and Xena and considering Sam Raimi is responsible for all three that is not such a big surprise. I thought they really tried to cram in a lot of events into the first two hours, maybe too much. I am not sure if lightning will strike a third time for Mr. Raimi and make this show a hit but both Hercules and Xena ran for six seasons and enjoyed a very devoted following. For some reason I am left unimpressed with LoTS. The premier time slot for SC was eleven to one in the morning, so my opinion may be jaded by my fatigue. I guess South Carolinians are not the target audience. But if you did watch the show in your respective time zones, please let me know what you thought, especially if you have read the books.