So this Dungeon23 thing is really taking off, eh?

Seems like I can't go five minutes on the nerdweb without seeing another reference to the yearlong megadungeon effort widely known as Dungeon23.  Which is awesome!  In case you haven't seen it, it appears to have been launched by a tweet from Sean McCoy of Mothership fame, who started a movement with these words:

Megadungeon for 2023. 12 levels. 365 rooms. One room a day. Keep it all in a journal.

There's a whole post about it over on his Substack site.  (Is that just called a Substack?)  And people are freaking out about it.  In a good way.  There's a subreddit and a ton of mentions on Twitter and a lot of people happy about being creative and helping each other be creative.  I mean, when I see an RPG project get mentioned on Gizmodo, Grognardia, and The Other Side, I should probably pay attention, right?

My initial thought was something along the lines of, "well, there's another longterm hobby goal for me to slack on...I should probably steer clear."  But now that I'm seeing so many folks getting excited about prepping for it...might just be FOMO, but I'm kind of thinking I should give it a shot...!

Maybe I actually craft a "traditional" megadungeon to get the archetypal experience?

Maybe I use 5E rules and try to pare them down to my own take on OSR-inspired modern D&D?

Maybe I put together a neighborhood for Ravnica?

Maybe I stretch the megadungeon idea a little further and instead make that a neighborhood for Light City or Dogwood City?

Maybe the megadungeon is actually a human body, and I finally follow through on gaming in micro?

Or, maybe I just dream big for a little while and ultimately realize that it's time better spent on a project that I'm feeling a little more...like, at the moment, rules for playing with some of my action figures.

I never finish those either, though.

So, those who stumble through my little corner of the blogosphere...anyone thinking about taking this on?

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!!)

Terry Hall, 1959-2022

News broke yesterday of the death of Terry Hall, singer for one of my favorite bands, 2 tone legends the Specials.  This is truly a loss, and at only 63, clearly much too early.  I like this sentence posted on the band's Facebook page: "His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life... the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love."  If folks can say something that's anywhere close to that when I leave this world, it will probably have been a life pretty well spent.

From his Facebook page...

I've been listening to some of his work today and wanted to share a few songs here.  While much of the greatness of this first one is defined by its group vocals, I have to post the most iconic version of one of the most iconic ska or rocksteady songs of all time, the Specials' take on "A Message to You Rudy":

The Rude Boy archetype and the "character" of Rudy are a topic I've long thought I should write about in a Geeky SKAturday, and this tune probably leads the way in representing Rudy's image in a lot of people's minds.

There are a couple of songs, though, that I think exemplify Hall's strengths as a vocalist and will be forever imprinted on the musical portion of my mind.  "Dawning of a New Era" might have been the first Specials song I ever heard, and I really never get tired of it...

And then Hall's performance in the grand alloy that is the Specials' epic "Ghost Town" is absolutely timeless:

Of course, Hall had projects other than the Specials, with Fun Boy Three being perhaps the most well known.  Even many who have never paid much attention to his musical performances would probably recognize this pop gem that he co-wrote with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's:

Finally, I know I'm not the only one recognizing today how poignant Hall's performance in this classic cover is...especially considering the young age at which the world lost him...

I definitely hold some regret that I never seized an opportunity to see Hall perform live.  And I would love to honor him in a very Monstrous Matters way, by statting him up for a game, but I'm not sure I have the tools and chops (yet?) to do that well.  If I were to go the 5E route, I think I'd put him close to the max (if not THE max) level used in the campaign world at hand.  Of course, he'd be a Bard.  And he'd be the first one I construct that belongs to the College of Ska.  But I haven't put all that together yet.  One day, maybe, and hopefully soon, and until then, I'll enjoy the incredible art he left for us.

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think.

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

Football in 5E?

As my interest in 5E has grown, I've been really jonesin' to start posting to this blog regularly for the first time in...well, kind of ever, I guess.  I'm trying to avoid that voice I often hear in my head, that returning to the blog requires some important reason to put my voice out into the aether again, and that I'd better have something good to write if I'm not going to just look like an idiot making a play for relevance in a very tiny and specific corner of the internet.

But...

I mean, I honestly think all three of you who still read my posts have realized at this point that my prose ain't exactly poetry, and you're mostly on this blog out of some combination of time to kill + occasionally shared interests (a combination with varying percentages depending on the day).  In other words, I don't think I'll scare anyone off when I don't deliver Shakespeare, so here's where we're going today...

Watching the World Cup today (I know...FIFA, Qatar, etc....I still can't bring myself to just not watch...go USMNT!), I had to wonder about soccer/football and D&D rules.  Surely this would be something that's been thought about many times over.  To what extent has it ever been pulled off?  And if it was played, was it actually fun?

A quick "d&d soccer rules" search turns up some interesting Reddit discussions , and I learned from one of them that the Dungeons & Daddies podcast must have had a couple of episodes where the characters played soccer, and oh my am I going to have to invest time into learning the answer to this?  Why can't I just see a summary of what's been done now, in 2022, when all the knowledge of the world should be at my fingertips?

So...um, anyone have any suggestions on where to look for this sort of thing?

RETURN TO BLOGGING BONUS:  Here's the first image that came up when I asked the Dream art generator to give me "Dungeons & Dragons soccer"...

5e alien race: Those who hail from the Planet of the Mimes

 To follow up on my last post, I thought it'd be fun to make a bit of 5e content with a SilverHawks focus.  The obvious choice, in my mind, would be to figure something out about this guy's species:

Pic from the Thundercats Wiki

That, of course, is Copper Kidd, the sole nonhuman among the SilverHawks.  (Well, the main ones, anyway...certainly seems that Hotwing may also be nonhuman...?)

Copper Kidd is from the world known as the Planet of the Mimes.  Straightaway, I have to wonder if those who are actually from the planet want to call it that.  I can't say it's an insult...I mean, nothing wrong with being associated with mimes.  I guess.  But there's something about it that feels like...I dunno, referring to someone of Native American ancestry as an Indian.  It's a broad stroke of incorrectness that just has to venture into offensiveness.

So I'll just give them another name.  Using the random alien species name generator HERE, Copper Kidd shall be known as a...Bril.  Those who hail from the Planet of the Mimes are called Bril.  The Planet of the Mimes is actually known as Brili.  Sounds good.

While I'm basing this all solely on what I remember from watching SilverHawks as a kid, from the modest amount that I've watched the show as an adult, and from the little I'm able to find through quick google searches...so I may be missing some details, in other words...there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that's known about the Bril.  Here's one possible approach (using this nice custom race guide from Skullsplitter Dice as a guide):

Bril

Pic from the other ThunderCats Wiki

Ability score adjustments: +2 to INT and DEX

Size: Medium; Base speed: 35 ft.

Alien Larynx: Bril have unique speech capabilities. They are unable to speak the common language of the Limbo Galaxy without electronic enhancement, and most inhabitants of the galaxy are unfamiliar with the Bril language. However, Bril are skilled at pantomime (hence their controversial nickname). A Bril can communicate most simple ideas to others without sharing a language. More complicated ideas can be communicated with a successful INT check by both the Bril and the receiving character, with DC determined by the complexity of the message.

Enhanced Senses: Darkvision (60 ft.); Advantage on Perception rolls

Born to Move: Proficient in Acrobatics

Rational Mind: Advantage on saving throws against being charmed

EDIT:  My immediate reaction upon looking at this again...it might be overpowered.  I'm so bad at figuring that out sometimes.