Death, Towering and Inferno is now here!

The Adventure I created and ran for Gary Con VII (2015) is now finished and ready to BURN!  25 pages of pithy drama.  Plays in 4 hours.  Complete adventure with 3 new Creeps and 8 pre-generated Crypt Openers.  Great for morticians looking to make a few extra bucks!

You can find it here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4SbN-rtbAlgUTJncW5fYTNzQlU/view?usp=sharing

...or in Swag product.  Enjoy!

Teleportals

A Teleportal is a quasi-mystical gateway that will transport creatures/objects to some predestined location.  They start out as seeds and are planted in an ornate vessel (urn, pot, jar) filled with transdimensional peat. As the seedling grows (in 4-16 weeks) the destination, in the form of Quadranulic Muttering must be whispered to the plant for one Gar-nuta each day. Once matured the Teleportal springs from the vessel in an ornate spiral of micro-rune text addresses, about 8 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. These characters slowly emanate from the soil and travel around the spiral until they disappear in the destination vortex in the center. Those studied in the art can look at the info stream and make an informed guess as to where the portal might lead. Teleportals can transport anyone/thing that enters in the vortex to the preset target destination. This happens as soon as the creature/object comes into contact with the center of the spiral. The player will be pulled into the ether and for one Nano-instant have their molecules stretched between both nodes. A Na-nuta later, their atoms are recombined at the target destination. There is a .001% chance that objects passing through are assembled backwards. Note, objects larger than the TP dimensions are affected, they are condensed as they are sucked in. Some teleportals simply purge their travelers at a preset destination out of thin air, others are connected to another Teleportal allowing two way travel.

Crying Fetish Resister

I ran my son's group last Sunday:

A few quotes:

"I'm the person who does all the dangerous work"

"I'm the one who stands in the back while everyone fights one another"

"I'm a really nice looking blob of flesh"

Elthara the sneak is kind of ugly.  The ugliness manifests itself mostly in her head, so by wearing a circlet that makes her head invisible, she gets a +2 Force Factors.

They are in Kananas Abode (which I wrote in '88).  He is an Arcanist too busy to deal with the Gargorat problem in his abode.  So he teletransports a bunch of crypt openers (he has never met) and turns them loose.  They have 12 hours.  Sounds about right?  Sure.  This is where they left off, in room Q with about 12 G-rats in it.  Somebody had to say "rat" and "rats"....stupid LAR's... 

Here's a pic of a Gargorat.  "You guys want some doors opened?"*  

*This is in reference to the G-rats origin, namely from the rules in XnX about typical dungeon doors.  In the game, players had only a small chance to open them while down in the dungeon, they were typically stuck fast.  However, the doors "automatically" would open for monsters.  So the joke was, that you would walk into a bar there would be a small table with a bunch of rats around it drinking beers and eating cheese.  They would say "Hey you guys want some doors opened?" and then laugh hysterically.

Fire In the Hole

I have this guy in one of my games who likes to hoard and throw grenades.  This has spurred me to clean up my "grenade chucking" subset of the core rule book.  Careful readers, I am sure, have noticed the scant nature of guidelines for missile discharge.   As it stands I give no indication of how to factor a "to hit value' (oh, silly me).   For my games, I have always said the floor is a 10 or better to hit, personas would then mod this based on Nimbality, range, wind speed, Urth's rotation, etcetera.  (This would mean that hitting the floor and a Nimbality 8 defender wearing carpet armor would be identical). Enough chittychatty:

Have the lobbing persona place a suitable chit to mark the desired point of impact.  Calculate the distance and divide by 5, rounding fractions up.  This number becomes the Base "to hit value".  Now mod the Base "to hit value" by seeing if the Other Modifiers apply.  Now you will have a final number needed to hit.

Roll a D20:

If it's not a hit, it's a MISS.  Pick a heading from the desired impact point and call it 12 o'clock.  Roll a d12,  The result is the direction based on 12 o'clock you direct the miss.  Next, roll a d10 and add to 10,  This is the amount of feet the miss is off in that direction.

If it is a hit, check the GRIT table above.  Look at the row that corresponds to the number you needed to obtain a hit. 

If the result falls in the range of CLOSE, determine direction (as above) but only roll a d8 for the amount of footage off.

If the result falls in the Spot On range the bomb lands dead on where the impact chit was placed.

In effect, throwing a grenade is not a totally binary affair.  A miss can end up in some pretty unexpected places and a hit can now range from Close to Spot On.

Narrgrog is throwing a napalm grenade into a room with two creeps in it.  The Basement Leader has her place a chit where she wants her bomb to land.  Range is 40 feet, so 40 divided by 5 is 8.  Ceiling is 10 feet, so that's a minus 2.  Shown in red is the Arc Triangle, the base side is 20 feet centered on the impact chit.  It is hard to see, BUT the sides cross over the corners, so that's another -4.  Our moded roll is 14 or better to hit.  Narrgrog can now factor in her own mods (skill, Nimbality, etcetera).  This is a good tactic, a miss here is no big deal.

Narrgrog has a Nimbality of 12, giving her a +3 to hit.  This gives her a final "to hit value" of 11. She rolls a D20 and gets a 12.  It's a hit.  Looking at the GRIT matrix it's only a close hit.  The Crypt Lord sets the direction clock (12 o'clock shown in black).  A D12 is rolled and a 7 comes up for the direction away from the intended impact point.  Finally, a d8 is rolled for distance.  A 5 is generated, so the Napalm grenade lands 5 feet away from the center, as shown by the red X.  Time for Blind Panic rolls.

Next: New grenades.

Vision of Flo Growing Horns

I learned from playing with my son's group that chicks dig horns. I think this has been in the media somewhere.  This love of horns has now infected my group....

These are Boram's notes for the proverbial quiz.  I think it speaks volumes for the game.  More pics:

IF the players had caught me savoring this exquisite Cheeto, (which sadly they did not) it would have earned them a +2 to hit.  You may have noticed some smaller people in the pics, they don't know it yet but C-N-C may be in their future....more games this weekend...Chill and maybe C-N-C....

(Astute visitors may have noticed a phone number penciled on the lid of my dice holder.   Dialing it will connect you to a 1980's version of me).  

From Basement Leader to Chill Master

As mentioned before, my oldest ran his friends through Numenera.  Not loved, So I suggested this....

Bought and played in '84.  Probably on the top 10 list of RPG's of all time.  It's on my top 5 for sure.

The players....Every now and then I'll tell them how the nice people from Pacesetter were disgruntled x-TSR employees, or that the system is highly regarded for it's Quality Results Matrix...but their eyes glaze over pretty much instantly.  Whatever.  They are unraveling a mystery set on July 4th 2015 in the small town of Gould, 30 miles south of Dixon Illinois.

Somebody is asking too many questions...  Ann is Jeb's second wife?  Why does she wear gloves?  And Frank, how does he figure into the mystery?  Is it a coincidence that Ann's old family house is abandoned? Stay tuned!

Mundo, Chum and Igor

...The road is well kept by the people who dwell here. Either they have a sense of true pride or officials from the city have harsh incentives to keep everything well tended. There is more traffic as you near the capital, larger and larger shadows of skycraft pass more often overhead and you have to step aside to let faster veyances pass on the hardened surface of the lane. Waiting is not wholly unpleasant, it gives you a moment to ignore the lurid advertisements flashing from your pocket orb to note the tidy, almost grid like arrangement of the various farm buildings and the rectangular proportion of nearly every garlic grove. The freshly yellowing nodules are pungent, hanging heavily from every twisting bough. Dapperly dressed peasant folk shake the trees and the ‘Lic falls into strategically placed baskets. Dumpmen use ‘Lic hooks to swing the baskets into automated feeders powered by draftpeds. The foul golden paste is scooped up from the end of the mastication process and troweled into sealed gourds. Everything here is efficient, it’s no wonder this land is so prosperous. Who would ever dreamed ‘Lic had so many uses, from moisturising cream to munitions? Only an open minded society peopled with hard workers could rise so high. Ah wealth! Even now your attention is dragged back to your pocket orb, A smiling wenchette beckons you to visit Bloorg’s accoutrement shoppe for half off all pleather ascotts. A land where even the lowliest of slaves wears Plowshine sandals while chewing Golden Chumley’s Liquidambar while chilling during an unwork break. Absent mindedly you look up and through a gap you see the city for the first time. It’s much larger than you imagined...it must be at least 15 hectasheets square! The road leads to the fabled Wall of Wonder (over a pit of Gargofiends) through a partially open gate. Beyond you can make out row upon row of buildings of every imaginable type. Smoke rises and swirls between sky craft tethered to minarets. There are hundreds, no thousands of denizens scurrying about, conducting who knows what business. The wealth of Fooburg awaits! Reprinted with permission from the Journals of Aurthurious Treacher, founder of Gruel and Drool. Moot of Fooglee

Type: Pictorial Monarchy Ruler: King Semiceedies the IV Cities: Fooburg, Fooham, 1 Mile Market, Fooville Symbol: 3 overlapped garlic cloves- the Igor, Chum and Mundo Description: The Moot is an a moderately civilized land of rolling hills and garlic groves. The inhabitants of this land cultivate Garlic trees in vast odoriferous groves. Within the Moot garlic is referred to simply as “Lic. The 'Lic is collected, crushed and made into sandwich spread, wine and weapons grade explosive. Three types of ‘lic are produced and are impossible by foreigners to tell apart. The Moot allows almost all travelers egress (Unlike most lands) . The huge capital city of Fooburg is an international hub of activity. There are huge granaries to store grain from Doi which is then transshipped to all lands of the Inner Sea. TMoF is ruled by the milues oldest living king. (There are rumors, however his daughter Lady Ruth 2nd Most High will take over soon). The capital is powered by schools of slave fish which turn a mammoth underwater rotor called the Churn. This powers an entire wurkshop district that produce vast quantities of cheap consumables. Fooburg is home to the most famous Inn in the multi-verse, the Gran Roach and also a hub of Lighter than Aire travel. You can book an airship and travel to almost any civilized spot on the globe. The Moot is a small but prosperous land.