Reflections and other Random Thoughts

This is a bit of an ADD post, sorry. I'm kinda exhaling :)

Well, the BMII campaign came to a close on Indiegogo very early this morning.

Final tally: $12,702

Whew! It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Make sure you know what you are in for if you decide to run a campaign.

It's also helpful to know your goal - mine was to make BMII bigger and better than BMI while offering cool exclusives to campaign supporters. We accomplished all that and more.

I really had to divide my time between the campaign and progress on the dungeon, so this now opens things up for me to concentrate exclusively on the dungeon design and getting the art going for the illustration booklets. Two booklets - that's not less than 24 half-page illustrations and 6 full page illustrations! That's crazy-awesome.

I'm going to get another G+ game going shortly, maybe Thursday or Friday night, so if you think you might be interested post in the comments.

BTW BMI is on the verge of a major milestone. Expect a post on that shortly ;)

Barrowmaze II Campaign: Final Day

This is the final day for the BMII campaign on the Indiegogo site. Please spread the word.

The Delvers: Trivia Contest with New Prizes!

The Delvers have revamped their Trivia Contest including all new prizes.

Check it out!

Interesting Session Last night

Last night I DMed a 5 hour session of Barrowmaze with my usual group. It was a very interesting session for several reasons. To this point, my players have avoided bricked-up crypts for fear of provoking random encounters. Fair enough. After Sol, the human fighter lost a level to a wight deep in the crypts, they decided for this session to return closer to the main entrance and take out some bricked-up walls. Actually they criss-crossed the map looking for them and made out with some good loot. So it was a unique session from that standpoint (I was rolling poorly for random monsters which didn't help). The session was also interesting because at one point the party found two runic tablets. Sol and Serge the elvish fighter/ magic-user started daring each other to read them. Serge cut right though the playground politics and went straight for the deaded "Triple-dog Dare." Sol rolled a natural 20 and had his strength increased by one. Immediately on the heels of the natural 20, Serge rolled a natural 1!!! He failed his save versus death. His flesh immediately blackened and he died! I mean you just can't make this shit up. The player of Serge then rolled up a swanky new magic-user who on the next foray was pummeled by a Grey Ooze for 14 points of damage and he died too! I sorta felt bad. Sorta. He then rolled up a halfling thief and called him Snake Plissken. On cue, everybody who met him said "Hey, I thought you'd be taller." Needless to say, it was a very entertaining session. We'll get a more detailed report up on Red Box Niagara as soon as we can.

Barrowmaze II: 5 Days Remaining

There are just 5 days remaining in the campaign.

If you haven't checked out the campaign site, there's lots of extra stuff thrown in above and beyond the hardcopy of BMII.

There are custom dice, a custom dice bag, a custom crypt generator, a custom character sheet, extra levels, digital maps, and a poster map...and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Oh yeah, how about not one, but two printed ToH-style illustration booklets - one for Barrowmaze II and another for Barrowmaze I!

I haven't even started talking about the art in the book yet. I'm still awaiting word from Jim Holloway too.

So, if you were sitting on the fence there's only 5 days left.

I've really emptied my bucket. It should be pretty awesome.

More 5e Playtest Thoughts

We played through some combat scenarios tonight and mixed the dice rolling with discussion of the 5e rules.

Here are some of our observations in no particular order.

If you are taking stock at home, we have two players in their 20s and two in their 30s:

*We don't like the HP bloat for PCs or for monsters.
*We don't like the bonus bloat either.
*We understand that bonus bloat requires HP bloat
*The laser cleric needs to go. The cleric player just stood back like Cyclops from the X-Men and blasted monsters. That wasn't fun.
*The dwarven fighter never missed.
*The frost ray of the mage player was particularly effective given the amount and volume of damage the party could deal in one round.
*We don't like the advantage/disadvantage rules. Why? It kills the sanctity of the dice. It doesn't allow the dice to play their part in the development of the game. It prioritizes the rules over the dice. We really dislike that.
*Is the gameplay fast? Yes, but that's because the bonuses are outlandish. You'd expect combat to end quickly given the bonuses and advantage/disadvantage rules.
*There needs to be a happy medium between AoO and no AoO. Unless we missed something (which is entirely possible) monsters can move unhindered right through a party to get at the spell-casters and vice versa.
*The cleric player wasn't really sold on the at-wills, but the mage player seemed to like them. They suggested getting rid of at-wills in favour of more spells that you could cast once per day.
*We felt it would be very difficult for a PC to die in this edition.

In sum, quick painful death must be a part of the game to make it meaningful. The randomness of the dice are a highlight of D&D, not something to get bracketed with rules. The combat plays fast, but that's the direct result of the buffy characters. Too buff for our taste. We like resource management, and the current playtest rules do not allow us to emphasize that aspect of the game (to the degree that we prefer). D&D is not a supers game, and this playtest felt like a supers game with first level characters.

OSR Character Sheets

There is a little known project on Indiegogo for OSR Character Sheets. Effectively, you get a pad of character sheets for Labyrinth Lord, but they would be usable for any basic rpg. Anyway, I don't know this person. I just think it's a really neat idea. Please consider taking a look.

Barrowmaze on Google+ Last Night

Met up with Brendan S. and Greg J. on Google+ last night for a quick foray into Barrowmaze.

We actually played a little senario using the Random Crypt Generator I'm designing for inclusion in Barrowmaze II. Speaking of Barrowmaze II there's just 10 days left in the campaign :)

The opening is pretty standard fare, I'd encourage you to jump to the points of interest outlined in the description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWHVqzY-hrM

Interested in playing a bit of Barrowmaze tonight?

Then jump on google plus and start rolling your dice with us.

Read This...

I've been advocating WotC adopt this position forever, but never put it down in so thoughtful a way. You need to read this...all of it.