All the best on this Fourth of July

It has become a minor Linneman tradition to spend the morning of July 4 on Liberty Island, taking part in the 5k around the statue.

With all the ways that American iconography has been co-opted to represent division, opposition to "outsiders," and denying others the benefits we enjoy simply for being born in the right place at the right time (and if some folks get their way, to the right people), I love that the Statue of Liberty has been a tough symbol to peel away from its representation of a promise made to anyone who sincerely wants to take part in the American Dream^TM.

On the ferry, with Ellis Island in the background

Laura's mom has a true-to-archetype immigrant story, arriving in the United States by way of New York Harbor, being greeted by Lady Liberty and processed through Ellis Island.  I hope we...and future generations...can maintain sight of this as representative of a foundational American value.  The American Experiment^TM has obviously had some pathways in need of course correction, but I thought this was one most of us could agree on.  Unfortunately, I don't hear many self-proclaimed patriots saying "Give me your tired, your poor..." anymore.

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But I can save some of that fretting for another day.  As it pertains to the usual fare of this blog, I should also celebrate the Statue of Liberty's role in this masterpiece of animation...

And here are Mutt and Junkyard enjoying a photo op on her massive left foot:

(I'll let you in on a secret, though.  That isn't really the foot of the Statue of Liberty.

It's a replica in the museum on the island.  I've had my picture taken with it too...)

I'm sure any scaling issues are...a perspective thing...

Hmm.

Anyway, happy Fourth, everyone!  I think I'll bring more Mutt and Junkyard to the blog this upcoming week.  Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Friday the 13th! Here's a minimalist, untested, overpowered 5e Slasher class...!

Hey, it's Friday the 13th!  I don't know that I've ever posted anything on here related to that most ominous of preludes to the weekend (other than pointing out a product or two that became available on the special day), so I figured I'd correct that now.

And with my mind on constructing a fantasy heartbreaker, it seemed like it'd be fun to see if I could put together a really simple Slasher class that fits the "trimmed-down 5e" vibe I'm working with.  So...here we go...!  I'm sure this has been done plenty of times over...and probably even somewhere that has been linked from this very blog, especially when you consider friend-of-MM and prolific game content creator Pun Isaac's penchant for slasher flicks, as well as the excellent horror material put out by his friends at Bloat Games.

But...I mean, that's not stopping me from making a fantasy RPG...so why would that stop me here?

Image from Wikipedia

The Slasher

Hit Die: d12

Proficiencies
Armor:  None...you don't need it.
Weapons:  Knives, machetes, chainsaws, hooks, gloves with metal claws...really, anything with a blade, a point, or a portion capable of bludgeoning someone.  And all improvised weapons, too.  (Not guns, though.)
Saving Throws:  Constitution, Charisma
Skills:  Deception, Intimidation

What are your character’s interests and hobbies? What have they done with their life up until this point? Choose one additional Skill and one Talent or Weapon proficiency to represent these.

Equipment
Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).

Unkillable
Beginning at 1st level, whenever damage would reduce your hit points to 0 or below, your HP instead become 1, and you lose one round of action.  At the beginning of the next round, you gain 1d6 HP.

A Slasher always regains 1 HP per 10 minutes of in-game time until their maximum HP is reached.

Or, y'know, if you don't feel like dealing with all the bookkeeping, you could probably just ignore hit points altogether...just make sure you occasionally take a story-appropriate round to regroup so those kids can get away...

Getting the Hang of It

At 2nd level, you choose one specific type of weapon to be associated with your infamy.  You get +1 to all attack and damage rolls using this weapon.

Two Beheadings Are Better Than One
Beginning at 3rd level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, as long as the attacks are each directed at a different victim target.

Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.

They Had It Coming

At 5th level, you gain the ability to quickly assess any group of people and determine who among them would please a hypothetical audience the most by dying.  (This is determined by the DM; if there's no way of knowing which one of those folks is actually an arrogant MFer who makes fun of old people and probably tortures animals, determine this randomly.)  If you subsequently kill that character, you may immediately take another round of action.

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Have a great weekend, all!  Stay safe out there!

Related side note that this is the only place it'll probably ever make sense to share on here...where I live in Jersey, I'm near this state park and obviously think about a certain character every time I pass it or a sign for it...

J6, the miniatures game...

Well...it's Presidents' Day.  Or...Washington's Birthday as I guess the federal government actually recognizes it, but also a day to remember the contributions of other past American presidents.  So, it's the perfect time to point out this interesting little pursuit out there in the world.

NPR ran a story yesterday about a pretty cool collision of art and gaming: Fight for America! is a wargame hosted by a Brooklyn-based art nonprofit called the american vicarious.  It is a reenactment/gamificaton of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, in seemingly amazing 1:64 scale detail.  (I'm stealing all the pics here from the NPR article, which used images provided by the american vicarious.)

Participants are divided up into the Red Team...

...and, of course, the Blue Team...

...and a GM dressed like Uncle Sam guides them through the day...

The NPR article does a really good job of leading the reader through one person's experience as they attempted to find Vice President Mike Pence with the rest of their team.  A slight spoiler alert: They do find him, and then the fact that they vote on whether or not to hang him to close out the game is...well, a little chilling.

I'd like to believe that there's power in gaming that really could help us recognize what it's like to be in the shoes of those with whom we disagree.  That chance for empathy is one of the (many) really cool things about RPGs in general.  There has to be a LOT of unexplored space to use games like this.  I'm a little bummed I missed the test runs in NYC last month, but I hope to catch it when it returns to the States sometime after a run in London starting June 8.  You can check out the Fight for America! website here.

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Have I really put two political posts on here in less than a week?  Is this even a political post?  I was tempted to tie it into the gaming I usually talk about by writing out some sort of feat or item that helps a character wield a flag as an improvised weapon.  But...for obvious reasons...nah.  (Plus, why not take the "high road" while also artfully taking credit for such a horrendous idea by mentioning it...?  It's my blog, I'll take the win/win whenever I can...)

Y'know what, it's Presidents' Day, so I'll just end with a quote from George Washington, from his farewell address written to the American people in 1796.  It sure seems to fit today's topic; he's writing about political parties here...

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Geeky SKAturday SKAliday: Oi to the World!

Next in line for ska songs that should probably be enjoyed every holiday season:  "Oi to the World!"

I only first heard this one when No Doubt covered it on a Christmas album in the late 90s, but I would later learn that it's actually a cover of a 1996 song by SoCal punk band the Vandals.  I like this song a lot, and I also have thoughts about it, so first I'll just share the video No Doubt made for it, and then if you want to see some of my thoughts (and I bet you'll have some of the same ones), you can read on.  I promise I won't go on for too long.

Okay, that was pretty fun.  Now, No Doubt is a band that's sure to elicit plenty of eyerolls among ska fans the world over.  However, their early years saw them much more connected to the fairly insular ska scene than many people realize, even finding their way onto some ska compilations around the late '80s/early '90s...and back then, comps were HUGE and among the major ways for ska bands to get their name out there, maybe even more than zines and shows.

And despite exploring a spectrum of new wave-y and punk type sounds...and wtf is wrong with that, btw...No Doubt began out of love for 2 tone bands, and my memory of guitarist Tom Dumont shouting out to the Specials and Fishbone on MTV back in the '90s was a tiny formative memory for me.  Although I have to acknowledge, at 47 years of age, that I might not even remember that correctly.

Now...it must also be noted that part of the modern view of No Doubt is shaded by shifting views toward lead singer Gwen Stefani, and this video isn't a bad example of that.  I'll say it up front...the bindi seemed like a much better idea for a white California lady back in the '90s than it does today.  I can't even completely put my finger on all the reasons why, but that video just oozes cultural appropriation (not to mention I'm not sure how to feel about the use of the elephant).

Part of this is, admittedly, connected to ska itself, and its weaving with punkrock.  As I think I've mentioned before, when I dressed up to go to ska shows in the '90s, I was basically cosplaying late '70s British kids who were cosplaying '60s Jamaican tough guys and sharp dressers.  And with this song (and it's discussed nicely here in a lengthy analysis on the Kerrang! website), you also have the white California lady putting on a tiny bit of a British accent (a punk tradition, of course), but that's because it's a cover from a California band that really went out of their way to be British in the original version:

The theme of the song is undeniably positive.  Unity.  Oi to the world.  Drink some bourbon with your new mate!  It also sounds like the kind of anti-racist story I would have found much more meaningful as a 19-year-old in south Georgia than here and now, as the complexities of racism around the world and throughout history have thankfully become a bigger and more nuanced part of the conversation.

It's just so simple...those racist skinheads such as Trevor "liked the music, but not the unity," and it just took standing up to them and ultimately being kind to change the ways of at least one of them.  I guess it also took a few well-placed oi!s, but we did it!

It's also just too convenient to rhyme "turban" with "bourbon," and I can't help but think that the reference to Indiana Jones (arguably a really stupid line, btw, but it entertains me) makes the whole thing a little more problematic, since those films aren't exactly known for their cultural progressiveness, and the fact that "Haji had a sword like the guy in Indiana Jones" seems a little like a Sikh caricature that I probably shouldn't pretend to be qualified to evaluate in terms of sensitivity.

BUT...

Y'know what...

This song also reminds me that I should probably be okay sometimes just accepting a hokey anti-racist vignette for what it is.  In this world where a growing recognition of the complexities of racism has made the conversation all the more difficult at times, we've somehow allowed blatant racism to come to the forefront again and gain acceptability in forums far wider than I would have expected.  I think I should just be happy to enjoy a song where a narrow-minded white dude ends up as a drinking buddy to a presumably brown dude who wears a turban.  That's still a win, especially in today's world.  We can still worry about all the complexities, but until this simple message is actually the fucking baseline we're building from, I'm not gonna hate too hard on something like "Oi to the World!"

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Now...No Doubt deserves at least one or two sounds to be cast by those who are able to harness the power of Rudeness...in OGL games or using Monstrous6 magic.  I couldn't decide which song would be best to use, so here are two.  One is among the best-known tunes by the band (and it's a good one!) that also retains a heavy dose of their 2 tone roots; you'll probably recognize it as a common D&D spell, very thinly reskinned for Rudies.  The other is a pretty early No Doubt song that made its way onto some ska compilations back in the day, as they say...

Spiderwebs

2nd-level Sound

Casting time: 1 action

Range: 60 ft (20 ft cube)

Duration: 1 hr

Saves: Dexterity/Strength

You conjure a mass of thick, sticky webbing at a point of your choice within range. The webs fill a 20-foot cube from that point for the duration. The webs are difficult terrain and lightly obscure their area.

If the webs aren't anchored between two solid masses (such as walls or trees) or layered across a floor, wall, or ceiling, the conjured web collapses on itself, and the spell ends at the start of your next turn. Webs layered over a flat surface have a depth of 5 feet.

Each creature that starts its turn in the webs or that enters them during its turn must make a Dexterity saving throw vs. your magic save difficulty. On a failed save, the creature is restrained as long as it remains in the webs or until it breaks free.

A creature restrained by the webs can use its action to make a Strength check vs. your magic save difficulty. If it succeeds, it is no longer restrained.

The webs are flammable. Any 5-foot cube of webs exposed to fire burns away in 1 round, dealing 2d6-2 fire damage to any creature that starts its turn in the fire.

Everything's Wrong

3rd-level Sound

Casting time: 1 action

Range: 60 ft (10 ft sphere)

Duration: 1 min

Save: Presence

This sound causes all willful creatures within its area of effect to second-guess everything they do for the duration of the spell.  Once the creature determines what it will attempt for the turn, it must succeed on a Presence saving throw vs. your magic save difficulty or be rendered confused and unable to take any actions for that turn.

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Geeky SKAturday: It's "Christmas Time Again"! (Bad Manners)

December is here.  It's Christmas time again!

I think I'll share some of my favorite holiday ska tunes this month.  Here's one I've posted before that is always worth revisiting, from the band that is probably the goofiest and maybe my favorite of the 2 tone era...

No notes.

And while I definitely have a big interest right now in turning Christmas songs into spells...that's a whole different project.  Instead, here's my favorite Bad Manners tune and a sound to accompany it...

Special Brew

2nd-level Sound

Casting time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 1 hour

Save: Presence

This sound targets one being that can see you and has a Knowledge score of at least 1.  On a failed save, the creature regards you as their best friend.  We're talking soulmate type feelings, although no romantic notions are necessarily involved.  They know that you want to spend all your money on them.

When the spell wears off, the target will remember what has occurred but will not necessarily feel deceived unless you have coerced them into doing things contrary to their usual wishes.  You will simply be regarded as a former friend.

My Mince Pie Odyssey

Undoubtedly, many of you reading this have also seen the comprehensive mincemeat pie reviews written by Kelvin Green over at his Brainsplurge blog.  If not, you should give them a look.  They've been...inspirational...as you'll see if you keep reading (no hard feelings if you don't).

See, I'm an uncultured Yank who's maybe had mince pie like once in my life, decades ago when my grandmother in Florida made one.  I remember (1) not understanding why there would be meat in a dessert, (2) not understanding why it didn't actually have meat in it, and (3) not understanding why it was this weird fruit and spice concoction instead of a sugar-soaked treat like proper desserts.

But I'll be darned, those mince pies that Kelvin displays look delicious.  He slices/bites (maybe both) and seemingly squeezes each one for a photo, so you can practically taste the filling just looking at it.  At least, if you know what mince pies taste like, you can probably practically taste it.  I don't have a very solid memory of it, but I definitely craved what my mind filled into that blank flavor.  So, I decided I needed to seek some out this year.

Okay, TRIGGER WARNING:  For the rest of this post to make sense, I have to inform you that I am vegan.  I hesitate to do so because the first thing many people want to do when they find out someone else is vegan is insist that no vegans ever quit talking about being vegan.  And if you're like me and Laura, who eat this way around family members who don't identify with any goal of veganism in the first place, you definitely know that we aren't the ones who won't quit talking about it.  So that whole trope is...annoying.  At best.  But I'll quit talking about that now.

With that bit of info on the table...well, as you are probably guessing right now, it poses a little obstacle for my mince pie quest.  I had high hopes of finding prepackaged vegan mince pies that look as mincemeaty and delicious as the ones Kelvin highlights.  And maybe if I were in the UK, where such pies, in a wide range of quality, are apparently a holiday staple, the case would be different...especially since cheap pastries often end up being accidentally vegan.  For the ones I could access, though...no such luck.  The mince pies, my oh my do they thirst for butter.

So, it would come to assembling my own.  I say "assembling," because this didn't seem like the challenge to put my meager cooking skills to the test this holiday season.  There has to be a way, eh?

I started with some mincemeat with verified ingredients:

Before tasting it, I had no idea if this is a quality brand or not.  And after tasting it, I still have no idea if it's a quality brand.  I think I like it, though.

The crusts were a little tougher to pull off.  I finally found some fillable pie shells intended for sweet or savory, then filled them with mincemeat and baked at 350 for half an hour to see what came out.

These crusts are pretty thin and crispy, especially after baking.  I know from this review that these can both be marks against them.  At least I know they aren't too sweet.

Oh!  And really, these are pretty tiny.  To give an idea of scale, here's my old character Ezra happening upon one...

The verdict?  Well, if you've read this far, I should probably apologize because I don't think there's much payoff to this little adventure.  I do appreciate the faith you had in me.  If it makes you feel any better, I've written all of this before realizing that I don't have anything especially worthwhile to tie it all together.  So...I guess I just wanted to share my little mince pie odyssey with others.  Thank you for indulging me.  And happy holidays!

Y'know what?  I'll give it a rating.  Using Kelvin's system, these are a 2 out of 5.  I mean, I'll still make and eat more of them, but those pictures on Kelvin's blog...well, I know there's more to mince pie than this, probably at least 3 out of 5 more.  I just have to figure out how to get my pinko vegan mitts on them.

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Now, maybe the best part of the journey is that it gave me an excuse to write this up...somehow, btw, not even the first pie elemental I've statted up on this blog...

Mince Pie Elemental

Scale: --

Handling Difficulty: 15

35 HP, 8 Defense (large size)

Strength 7

Dexterity 1

Knowledge 1

Presence 3

Skills: Religious Dietary Law +3

Attacks: Pseudopod-Like Appendage (melee, +7, 1d6 bludgeoning damage) and Mincemeat Missile (range 30 ft., +1, 1d6 bludgeoning damage + roll 1d6 on table to find the missile and effect)

1-2  Currant - target saves vs. DEX 10 or loses next action

3-4  Date - additional 1d6 bludgeoning damage

5  Orange Peel - additional 1d6 acid damage and target smells like citrus for next 2d6 days

6  Mutton Shred - target has a 1 in 6 chance of realizing they have Salmonella infection within 24 hours

Mince pie elementals appear most commonly during the winter holiday season.  They are mysterious creatures, going about their existence silently, bringing joy to many and religious anxiety to others.  The "personality" of mince pie elementals has been variously described as sweet, spicy, and a little bit savory.  That last one is especially strange because what tf does that really mean when you're talking about a personality?

While lacking arms, mince pie elementals are capable of attacking via pseuodopod-like extensions of their mincemeat guts, and by forcefully expelling components of their body at perceived enemies.

A belated happy Ghostbusters Day (40th anniversary!) to all!!

So I'm late to the punch in delivering this message, but as Ghostbusters Day (the anniversary of the first film's debut) was on Saturday (June 8)...and this year is the 40th anniversary of the classic movie...and Ghostbusters occupies a fair amount of my allocated nerd brainspace these days...I couldn't let things pass much longer without hoping all of you enjoyed it!  Or...if maybe you didn't even know that happened on Saturday...I hope you'll take some time soon enough to enjoy the gift to the world that is the Ghostbusters franchise.

I'm lucky enough to live where it was pretty easy to pop over into the city to take part in the big celebration at the actual firehouse...and I don't know if I can overstate how cool that is to this Gen X nerd.  (Click HERE, btw, for some reflections from fellow doggo fan and established GB aficianado Adam Dickstein of the Barking Alien blog.) 

And...I'm so glad I did!  I've gotta admit...I've gotten a little old and selfish with my time to do nothing lately; I could easily have been convinced to stay home and act like I was going to do things around the house on Saturday.  Luckily, Laura got us tickets to see a 2:15 showing of the original film at a theater in Manhattan, so we made the trip!  (Interestingly, that 2:15 showing was cancelled, which I don't think I've ever had happen before...something strange...)

So, what'd we see?

I think Laura was genuinely surprised at how large the turnout was!

The view down N. Moore St.

There were a ton of people there...and pretty much everyone was smiling!  In NYC!

We actually got there too late to see anything in the way of an official ceremony, but the atmosphere around that firehouse was awesome for hours.  I don't really like posting pics of myself, but here's one of Laura and me so I can show off the shirt I was wearing; it's a custom job that Laura created, featuring the "dumb bell" that stars in a certain Claymation Christmas number.  I had a feeling this might be the crowd for it...and for the first time, someone recognized the character...!  That is nerd paradise.

The awesome custom Claymation bell shirt designed by my awesome wife 

It was pretty amazing to be a part of an event for Ghostbusters that literally drew folks from all around the country and the world!

Here are a few more haphazardly curated views of the celebration...

The cosplay was varied and lots of fun!

Multiple Ecto-1 variants made an appearance...see Adam's post at Barking Alien for a selection of their license plates!

Each vehicle had their own details...

The functioning firehouse's engine was parked outside for the festivities.

(Glad to finally pick one of these up...a patch from the station!)

So fun to get this perspective...

Check out all the patches of Ghostbusters fan groups from around the world!

Two actors from the original film, Joe Cirillo and John Rothman, were on hand for pictures and autographs.  Love it!

Merry Christmas!! (To Cobra too!)

Merry Christmas, all!!

I was going to have a post today about this vintage Santa toy/decoration from my childhood, and how I discovered a world of similar products when I tried to track one of them down.

However...after seeing this fantastic brick-animated G.I. Joe short on Reddit ("Operation Christmas Wish") by user SPNKLR, I knew I should just share it instead.  Enjoy, and have a great holiday!

I've got a feeling this year's for me and you

Just one week to go before the big day!  Seven more sleeps till Christmas!

I'm gonna make this a bit of a holiday season catch-all post.  I actually have quite a bit I want to blurt out before the year is done.  Maybe.  If I have the mental endurance to get it all down.  Here goes...

Okay...first...you may recognize the source of the words in this post's title...the Pogues' classic holiday tune "Fairytale of New York."  I can't let the year pass without acknowledging the loss of a great soul just a few weeks back, the inimitable Shane MacGowan.

Image snagged from the Belfast Telegraph

Shane (I don't really think he'd mind my calling him Shane) was a poet extraordinaire, a brilliant observer of the human condition, and a man who owned his voice like no one else.

"Fairytale of New York" is one of the most beautiful of all Christmas songs and honestly maybe of ALL songs.  You don't hear it as much these days due to its inclusion of a homophobic slur.  And I really do get that; it's kind of grating to my lib ears every time I hear it.  And...well, I'm not even going to put a video of the song here because I'm afraid it'll offend someone.

I do recall reading a response from MacGowan about the controversy brought on by the line where he said something along the lines of "she's not a good person" (referring to the female character in the song who says the word).  (Note also that I haven't paused to find that source again, so I think I'm paraphrasing pretty accurately but may also be doing so incompletely.)

EDIT: Kelvin's comments (and link) below encouraged me to do a little digging to see if there is a "MacGowan-approved" edited version of the tune.  I haven't found that to be the case, BUT I did find the more complete quote (or a similar one) that I paraphrased above and though it was worth sharing (from HERE for one):

“The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character. She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history, and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it, but she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable. Sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.”

I've come to think that this approach actually gets to the heart of the song's beauty, and indeed, the heart of what is so poetic about a lot of MacGowan's music.  He saw the flaws of humans and still told their stories with love and a recognition that we all have souls and dreams.  That's a perspective we could use more of.

He will be missed.

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So what else is going on for Christmas?  Well, I just want to remind anyone reading this that they can go HERE to pick up a free holiday adventure about Santa's Elves fighting holiday abominations and trying to save Baby New Year.  So that's cool.  It was also written by me, so there's the caveat.

Reflecting on the various gaming items I've put out into the world, I think "In Bleakest Midwinter" has probably held up as one of the most useful and generally accessible.  In 2024, I hope to revisit it, "updating" as necessary and potentially altering the rules used/implied to fit in more with the system I'd like to adopt as a sort of "house system" for Monstrous Matters, a variation on the approach I started with my own fantasy heartbreaker way back when, and which will be connected to both 5E and OSR gaming.  Right now, I'm pretty drawn to the idea of a house system for the blog as one way of connecting the various threads I inevitably follow on here, no matter how much I try to focus on one thing.  So...we'll see how long it takes before this intention goes the same way as all the others...!

Pic from HERE, which also has a brief discussion of this little guy's Public Domain status

When I do make those changes, I also hope to spend a little bit of time exploring my own canon of holiday stories.  Justin's post over at Halls of the Nephilim on holiday adventures has a list I need to check (twice...har har har) to see if there are others I can fit into the same universe as the Elves of "In Bleakest Midwinter," and I'd love to build out a more complete mix of fiction to include.  This would obviously(!) start with the Rankin/Bass classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and stack up from there, with the first continuity explanation necessary probably being why everyone at the North Pole is such an a-hole in that story.  And then...how does Krampus fit in?  A Christmas Carol?  The Ghostbusters' encounter with Ebenezer Scrooge?  The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special?  If I'm actually able to stick to a focus on the Monstrous Heartbreaker as a unifying system, it may be a lot of fun to explore this as a segment of...the Monstrousverse...?

At any rate...I hope you enjoy your holiday season, everyone!!

Happy 2023!!

Wishing the happiest of new years to all who come across my scribbles and thoughts.  May your goals be realized and...heck, why not have your dreams come true, as well?

Hoping to be a bit more active on here this year.  At the very least, perhaps that will be influenced by the fact that I'm IN on #Dungeon23...

DG baby...

My inspiration looks something like this:

From here...

Best of luck to all you fellow D23ers!  And Happy New Year to all!

The Christmas party on my desk at work

A bunch of folks at work put some real effort into their cubicle Christmas decorations this year.  I think I held my own (with coworkers helping on a couple of festive touches), BUT if you ask me, the real party at my desk was in the...party...going on in the corner.  I documented it over the course of the season...

(HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ALL!!)

Looking at 5E for quick pickup games...

A while back, in the midst of remembering Ivan Reitman, I wrote a little about rule conversion that hinted at the possibility of using 5E D&D as the base for a game intended to be about as streamlined as the old Ghostbusters RPG.  You could create a character pretty much the same way in either system just by determining attributes/traits and adding on some proficiencies/talents.  If it works for a pickup game of Ghostbusters, it should work for a pickup game using 5E rules, eh?

During this year's run of holiday gaming, I ran a Lovecraftian horror one-shot for Halloween and wanted to try out this streamlined approach to 5E as a universal system.  So, I just took 5E, added in a couple of modern skills and tools that might be important, and asked everyone to make a character using a Background only (or an equivalent set of proficiencies plus an extra roleplaying-based characteristic).  Sanity was tracked like hit points, and everyone rolled both that and HP (instead of maxing out at "1st level") to keep things tense(?).  I had come across at least one example on the net where someone discussed setting up a 5E funnel with background-only characters, and this seemed like it should work just as well.

For the adventure, I modified and quickly converted the Call of Cthulhu convention module Dead Boarder to take place at Miskatonic Community College on Halloween 1985.  (Note: I definitely recommend this scenario, as it's a pretty cool and easily adaptable Lovecraftian romp, and its convention-game focus helped us keep a one-shot as an actual one-shot, which we sometimes have trouble with...!)  And honestly, I think it went pretty darn well.  Background-only 5E gaming may just become a go-to for themed one-shots I want to try out.

I mean, when players come to the game with characters like the one below, how can things go wrong?  Quick creation...just enough substance to care about the character through a single session...defaulting to 5E rules that we all know reasonably well...I realize there's nothing groundbreaking to this approach, but I was really pleased with the outcome.  Here's Rachel's character, sharing without her knowledge or permission or anything like that but I really don't think she'll have an issue with it...

Milton Casey

40s or 50s, tall and slight but with ropey muscles, thinning brown hair and clean shaven. Wearing classic olive-beige jumpsuit of a custodial worker.

Str 10, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 14

Skill proficiencies: Repair, Perception

Tool proficiency: Cleaning equipment (floor buffer, wet vac, etc.)

Languages: English, Spanish

Background Feature: Knows Where the Bodies are Buried - For the campus where Milt works, he knows where every employee (staff and faculty) keeps their files and important papers and can access them at any time (licitly or otherwise).

On gaming for the holidays

I have been very lucky to fall in with a gaming group that appreciates a good holiday adventure.  In 2021, we fit in sessions specific to the three big ones that close out the year here in the States, and we've already covered Halloween and reeling-from-the-weight-of-its-own-history Thanksgiving so far this year.  At least one Christmas adventure is on the schedule (a trip to Bedford Falls with Josh, using Eldritch Hack), and who knows...I've been wanting to run a session based on protecting some magi outsiders who are investigating the fulfillment of a prophecy over near Jerusalem a couple thousand years ago.

For some reason, I'm especially happy that we found the time for sessions specific to that big November harvest festival that just happened in the US, as it's easily forgotten in gaming during the busy fall and winter seasons.  Last year, Wil ran a really cool implementation of the storygame Dialect, in which we all played hyperintelligent turkeys looking to escape the farm.  For 2022, Rachel ran us through a version of the one-shot The Turkey Snatcher, which was tons of fun. 

I am right in saying that of those three holidays, Thanksgiving gets the least love when it comes to gaming, eh?  Is it possible that I only think it "deserves" a session because it happens to fall between The Scary One™ and The Big One™, which are bound to get a nod at the gaming table?

I've long thought that Lamentations of the Flame Princess (and its early modern sensibilities) would make for a nice Weird Thanksgiving tale. These days, if I put something together, I'd probably go with 5E but draw on the LotFP feel as much as possible.

Well, more drivel on holiday gaming coming soon...until then, let's honor the brief life of Rofl, my wood elf sorcerer who fell at the feathers of some Turkey Golems this year...

AI made this.

Rofl

Wood Elf Sorcerer 5 (Proficiency Bonus +3)

AC 15 (Draconic Resilience)    HD 5d6+10 (37 HP)

Move 35, Initiative +2

STR 8(-1)    DEX 15(+2)    CON 14(+2)    INT 12(+1)    WIS 11(--)    CHA 17(+3)

Features:  Dragon Ancestor - Bronze Dragon, Fey Ancestry, Trance, Elf Weapon Training, Mask of the Wild

Skill proficiencies:  Arcana, Deception, History, Intimidation, Perception

Tool proficiencies:  None

Languages:  Common, Draconic, Elvish, Riedran

Attacks:  Fire Bolt +6, range 120, 2d10 fire; light crossbow +5, range 80/320, 1d8+2 piercing; dagger +5, range 20, 1d4+2 piercing

Spells Known:

0:  Control Flames, Fire Bolt, Gust, Mending, Prestidigitation

1:  Charm Person, Magic Missile

2:  Knock, Levitate

3:  Fireball, Lightning Bolt

Just have to say...Fantastic Voyage has held up...

After thinking about the shrunken adventurer genre a bit, I decided to give 1966's Fantastic Voyage another watch last weekend, and I thought it'd be worth noting here that the movie has really held up to the passage of time.  It is, in some ways, a seminal work in this sub-sub-subgenre - to the extent that the TV Tropes wiki simply calls this style of adventure the "Fantastic Voyage" plot - and in my mind, it's quite deserving.

The film is, without a doubt, quite dated.  It really feels like 60s sci-fi...and I love that aspect of it.  The (Oscar-winning!) special effects are trippy and somewhat mesmerizing.  It also took home the statue for Art Direction that year, and I can certainly see why as the movie overall just looks cool.  And that's not just the special effects...the sterile look of the facility where the CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) operates sets a nice tone for the more grounded aspects of the film.

One thing that could probably be a drawback for many viewers is that the process of getting the crew shrunk down and into the human body takes forever.  I'd actually have to watch it again to note the specifics of this, but much of the early movie also runs with no music, so there's a very calm and methodical feel to it that I think extends to this scene.  Personally, I love it, as it emphasizes the danger and fragility of the process, rather than just shrinking, injecting, and moving on to the action.  BUT...I do work in a lab, so I may be drawn to that part of the storyline more than most.

Overall, if you enjoy retro SF, or even just solid SF in general, you should give this film a go at least once!

Now...how about a character?

As portrayed by William Redfield

Capt. Bill Owens

Level 4 Watercraft Pilot

AC 6[13]    HD 3d6+1 (12 HP)

Saving throw: 12

Move 12 ft.

Languages:  English, Russian

STR 11    DEX 17(+1)    CON 10    INT 14    WIS 9    CHA 9

Attack:  By weapon (+1 BHB)

Skill/tool proficiencies:  Pilot watercraft (expert), watercraft repair, perception, history

+2 to Saving Throws vs. explosions and environmental hazards

Stick Jockey (+2 to initiative in aquatic combat); Ocean Ace (may add +1 to two of a watercraft's stats each round); Jury-Rig 1x/day, 4d6 temporary HP to a watercraft

(I drew a lot of this from the Pilot class from White Star...) 

And finally...I suppose Fantastic Voyage is close enough to "military science fiction" to make this a reasonable post to tack on a wish for a happy Memorial Day to my fellow Yanks.  (I hope everyone has a happy day, of course...just calling out Americans since we're enjoying a holiday today...)  I also hope you'll take a moment to reflect on its meaning.  There are a lot of folks who sacrificed everything to help give us this world where I can spend time writing silly stuff on the interwebs.  Our country is in a weird spot, where one side of the political spectrum has attempted to stake a claim to patriotism, to the point that aspects of it have started to seem especially toxic to many who oppose them.  I'd like to think that something like Memorial Day is a great time for us all to find common ground in appreciation for those who truly have helped to maintain our freedom by giving their lives.

May the Fourth...!

A very happy holiday to all!

I'm going to celebrate by pointing out a very nice set of OSR rules for Star Wars gaming that I'm going to guess a lot of folks have overlooked.  Before my group's trip to the Stone Age, my good friend Josh ran a great adventure for us using RPGPundit's space opera ruleset, Star Adventurer.

While I'm not familiar enough with the game to give it a thorough review (and not that I typically do those anyway), from what I've seen, it's pretty awesome.  They're very solid rules in the general "modern take on B/X" tradition with enough detail to give a good feel for the genre.  And I guess it's almost obligatory to include some sort of "however you may feel about his politics" clause when discussing the Pundit's work, so...well, however you feel, it's hard to deny that the man knows how to put together a good game.

I went into character creation with the intention of making someone I could represent in miniature form with one of the figures from the classic Galaxy Laser Team...

This sealed bag is actually up on eBay right now...

I ended up with a human that matches pretty nicely with this guy:

His name is Garm Tharend.  He's a Human Warrior.  And not that you asked, but here's his backtory:

Garm Tharend comes from a multispecies spacer community with no home planet, many of whom have joined the extended family as a way of avoiding the crippling overreach of the Hegemony. This background often brings additional scrutiny from Galactic authorities during Garm’s interactions with citizens who live more traditional lifestyles, referred to by his community as “Worlders.”

This history has led a majority of Garm’s relatives (most of whom are more beholden to their own moral compass than he is) to side heavily with the Resistance, with many of them actively involved in rebel operations. Garm has been slower to back the movement, seeing a possible Resistance victory as little more than moving on to the next tyrant in line. However, he appreciates that the growing conflict has given him additional freedom to live on the outskirts of Galactic civilization.

Being pretty good with a blaster, he’s managed to put together a comfortable lifestyle by taking on a few lucrative hit jobs and living a low-key life in between. After being hired to take out an old droid running illegal schemes in the spacelanes, Garm was actually convinced by Glossig to give up the mission and join his crew instead. (There were probably some psychic mind tricks involved.)

If you actually took the time to read through that (thank you!), it's probably pretty obvious that Star Adventurer can be used easily enough to run adventures in George Lucas's sandbox.  While I've only ever run an actual Star Wars game using the old West End Games D6 rules...and if I were to run one now, I'd probably try out the 5E/LightBox blend I'm so enamored with at the moment...Star Adventurer is a strong game and could be exactly what you're looking for someday to play in a galaxy far, far away.

So...uh...utini!