Garden of Morr / Graveyard Map

Morr’s Garden (click to enlarge)

Awesome random geomorph dungeon/caver/city/sideview generator

Just used THIS random generator, to generate the dungeon below. Check it out!

 

Some handwritten/drawn material

An ancient ruined ziggurat (and the tunnels beneath)

A (Vornheim inspired) D% table of random NPCs.

The table’s top row of text (the titles of the various columns) reads; from left to right, Description, Demeanor, 1st name, 2nd name, and Profession. This is one of many sandbox generator style tables I’ve been slapping together to allow the players in my WFRP campaign more freedom…and less prep for myself.

Once I have a significant number of these Ubersreik/Reikland random tables, I’ll get around to typing them up and making it available on various forums as well as on this blog, so stay tuned.

Warhammer in the Cinema

Been planning the next leg of my Warhammer Fantasy campaign. Some films I’ve used as inspiration:

The Last Valley – set during the 30 Years War, follows a German captain and a man of faith who both come to a peaceful valley community that has laid untouched by war.

Jabberwocky – Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece of Monty Python-esque Middle Ages adventure. It’s silly, it’s violent, it’s filthy…yup that’s The Old World summed up pretty well.

Black Death – a recent film that chronicles the exploits of a group of Medieval witch hunters tasked with traveling upriver (ala Apocalypse Now) investigating a distant village untouched by plague. Sean Bean does his thang in armor, and is entertaining as usual. A surprisingly bleak, morally grey, and nihilistic film that fits in the Warhammer universe quite nicely.

The Borgias – Udo Kier as the Pope…that is all. Oh, and intrigue, sex, murder, and betrayal.

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter – A 1970’s Hammer Horror film of wonderfully lavish production. It must be seen to be believed.

The Name of The Rose – based rather closely on Umberto Eco’s novel of the same name. Zealous monks, murder mystery, dirty peasants, and witch burnings = Warhammery goodness.

 

OD&D Archives

You may not know this, but my day job (or night job as it were) is at a local university library. This of course gives me access to all sorts of wonderful resources, both historical and technical.

Yesterday, on a lark, I decided to search our databases for the keywords (Dungeons) and (Dragons)…little librarian inside humor there….and came up with these little beauties:

OD&D Companion & Immortals Sets

which have been sitting in storage for at least a couple of decades according to their circulation history.

There’s also a Basic Set under there, but I already own a copy of it (thanks Ebay!).

Also, an older coworker gave me this today:

Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Minatures

It’s the third edition (released after the first run of D&D) and is in excellent shape.

Reviews of both of these cornerstones soon to follow.

Magical Ruin

Another of my hand drawn maps. This was originally used in my most recent Warhammer Fantasy RPG campaign as a randomly generated ruin that the PCs stumbled across while tracking a greenskin (anything of the goblinoid race for you D&Ders) through the forests east of Ubersreik. Feel free to use it for whatevs. Let me know if you have any questions about the map.

Sewer Trap Map

Just the first in a series of hand drawn maps I’ll be posting to here from time to time. This particular map can be used in a specific encounter or as part of a larger random sewer dungeon. I’ve included a short list of random events at the bottom. Let me know if you have any questions.

The Return of the Sixth World

If you haven’t noticed, for some reason the old FASA Corporation game Shadowrun has been having something of a renaissance of late. The pen and paper rights are still with the folks over at Catalyst Game Labs, who are about to release a return to form with the new Shadowrun 2050 Core Rulebook. which is just around the corner; while the video-game rights seem to have fallen into two different camps, with Cliffhanger Games currently working on an in-browser MMO version of the Sixth World set in the recent late 2050’s era of the 20th Anniversary Edition. In the other camp is the original creator of the whole Shadowrun shebang, Jordan Weisman and his crew at Harebrained Schemes. These guys have raise over one million dollars via an amazingly successful Kickstarter campaign. Their game promises two fully explorable cities, turn based tactical combat, deep character development, rich layered missions and story-telling, riggers, deckers, mages, trolls, street samurai, a kick ass soundtrack and all the rest.

I strongly encourage anyone and everyone that’s a fan of this game/setting to hop over to their page and contribute at least $15 or more. This minor donation will get you the following:

• A Digital Downloadable copy of the game, DRM free on PC
• One totally sweet, exclusive desktop WALLPAPER for your PC, Mac, tablet or mobile device.

I’ve personally only played the pen and paper game a couple of times in my life, and that was over a decade ago. I can tell you that it was one of the most inventive and original settings I’ve ever laid my eyes upon; and while the mishmash of Tolkien inspired fantasy and Gibsonian Cyberpunk may seem jarring and silly at first glance, I can assure you that it’s a helluva lot of fun to play in and especially run. The setting screams sandbox and the premise (PCs are runners looking for work), allows exhausted GMs to easily create scenarios and missions without a ton of prep time. I’ll be breaking out my old 2nd Edition book soon, for a trip down memory lane, and to flex my D6 dice pool muscles a bit.

Old School Dungeon Mapping

Below is the first snippet of the first level of the dungeon called Grimrock. If you’re unfamiliar with the newly released game Legend of Grimrock, then head on over to http://www.grimrock.net/blog/ for official details.

I’m gonna need a lot more graph paper…

I’m currently running the game in “old-school mode” which turns of the auto-mapper and forced the player to map each and every nook and cranny by hand. I feel as if I’ve been instantly transported to the mid-nineties, playing games like Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Menzoberranzan, etc.

I’ll save a proper review for those that have actually finished the game…like the kids over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

For now, I’m just basking in the glow of my computer monitor, mouse in one hand, pad of graph paper in the other.

DIY gaming tables vs. high-end boutique tables.

I’ve had a hankering to build and/or purchase a proper gaming table of late. What with my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game currently on hiatus (we’ve wrapped up the recent story-arch and the current player characters no longer have any reason to stick together), this has allowed me plenty of time to obsess over the other more peripheral aspects of gaming, such as where I want to actually host games in the near future. Most recently I’ve had my players meet at the local university library, where we’ve taken over a conference room in the basement for 5+ hour sessions (long I know, but we only get to meet maybe once per month).

Now this was a relatively large group for 3rd Edition WFRP (six players most of the time), which tends to run best with around 3 or 4 player character, due to the room needed for cards, dice pools, and handouts…plus the fact that the 3rd Edition..with my group at least, tends to lean toward dramatic storytelling more-so than previous editions (subjective, depending upon who you ask).

Regardless, this little detail has forced me to consider downsizing the number of players per game for future sessions, and in turn has allowed me to entertain the idea of hosting games at my house..which while very comfortable, isn’t massive. Our dining table seats four comfortably, with barely any room for dishes other than four plates and silverware. So two options present themselves to me. Invest in a dedicated pre-made gaming table, or build my own.

My price range is around $100…which is a damn shame because that pretty much discounts everything made by the folks over at Geek Chic. If you haven’t checked out what these guys are up to, and you’ve got the money to burn, then by all means, have at it.

The Hoplight coffee table. Probably the closest to my price range, but still about 10 times more expensive than what I can afford.

I could skimp and buy a crappy plastic and felt card table, but let’s be honest, there’s nowhere near enough room for 3-4 players, a GM, character sheets, dice, drinks, etc.

Alright…so that about does most of the options for premade/store-bought tables…so hows about the DIY route?

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of different DIY game table ideas on the web. My preliminary Google search turned up the following hits:

• The Avenger gaming table – a hand made built from scratch gaming table. Good stuff, but a little too much work, and it’s too big for my apartment.
• These guys also built a rather large but simple/utilitarian table for wargamming, but it could just as easily be used for RPGs with a few alterations.
• There’s a thread over at Wizards of the Coast that concerns building your own gaming table. Good advice overall, and one piece in particular has caught my eye:

With a piece like the one above, you can use it with an existing dining table. It just raises the dice rolling and miniatures/maps area above the drinks and character sheets area. I’m thinking that this, combined with a simple folding card table, could be perfect for my needs.

More to follow…