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Monday, May 31, 2010

Build Your Own Hyper Pulse Generator (model)!

Build A HPG Station
Today's post is of a build I did for a recent Classic Battletech game which takes place in 3028.  Video of the entire build after the jump...

To give you a quick overview of the situation, the merc company hired by House Steiner is on garrison duty on a far flung world bordering the Periphery and the Draconis Combine.  It is a pretty backwater planet and the planet only broadcasts to the HPG Network infrequently(monthly or every 3 months).

Extinct Volcano Mountain-top
HPG Station Location
After some initial battles, which the merc garrison troops were on the loosing end, it was found out that "the Baron" was working with pirates to harass and drive out the garrison troops and cause shortages in goods and necessities in hopes that the populace rise up and secede from House Steiner to either the Draconis Combine or become an independent world amongst the Periphery Kingdoms.  A Steiner Advisor was sent to aid the merc garrison troops as they were a "green" unit and House Steiner was wavering in their hiring of this unit after the losses suffered at the hands of the pirates.  However the first skirmish with the pirates after the advisor arrived, the advisor was killed by the Baron!  The Baron strode into the fray with his custom 100 T Atlas Mech and thought he had the merc garrison troops at his mercy!  It was 
then the baron was killed as he tried to flee, with back to back headshots to his Atlas! (The baron's atlas was actually one hex from going off the map and escaping! It was an awesome set of shots!) The victory went to the merc garrison troops!  

So for this scenario it turns out that battle with the baron was holovideo'd, and the supporters of the baron and the Pirates heavily edited a copy, thus spinning the killing of the baron and the advisor as if our heroes were the actual murders and the baron was not a turncoat!  So the "race" between the merc garrison troops and the pirates to the HPG station was ON!  Now the HPG rested on a extinct volcano mountain top with only a winding road snaking to the sumit, and whom ever got their first and transmitted their side of the story were going to be the victors!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Prep for DnD / Pathfinder Session 33 of the Redemption Campaign

Mwhahaha!

So as I was prep'n for today's game of DnD / Pathfinder RPG, which will take place at 4pm-12am,  I just had to snap a pic!  This is to be the tomb of Galap-Dreidel.  The blue post-it notes are where the players (9 of em, yes 9 individual players!) arrive after going down a 1000'ft shaft which opens into this room.  The sarcophagus is located on a dais and the surrounding statues over look the tomb. Are they statues at all? They don't move.  Or do they! Mwhahaha!  

This will the the 33rd session of my Planescape Redemption Campaign.  Should be a fun session before we take a break for various peoples vacations and other social engagements.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Bow Of The Ages

The orc chieftain pried the bow from the fingers of the dead rangers body. The bow crackled with electrical energy up and down its bow string, it made the chieftain jump back slightly.  Only moments ago this bow unleashed bolt after bolt of electrified terror upon himself and his people.  It was by shear luck that his throwing axe caught the ranger square between the eyes, killing him outright!   The Chieftain's body guards already were dragging the human corpse toward the stew pot.  His people would eat well tonight! As the orc chieftain began to experiment with the bow trying to unleash its power as the human had, something caught the orc's eye near the grip...

The Boys Are Back In Town - DnD Podcast w/Penny Arcade, PvP, Kris Straub

Are you ready for some awesome?!  I thought so!  Woot!  I'm a big fan of the podcasts from  Wizards of the Coast both the audio and the video ones. Its always fun to hear about other campaigns and see/hear how other people play the game we love so very much.  Additionally I find that you can usually learn something to better your own player skills or add to your ownDM'ing style from these podcasts.  


The Penny Arcade guys, Gabe and Tycho and Scott Kurtz from PvP along with DM extraordinaire Chris Perkins started it all with their initial audio podcast introducing  the group to DnD 4.0.  Then the second and third seasons featured the same motley crew along with addition of guest star Wil Wheaton.  Wizards then released the widely popular video podcasts with The Robot Chicken Writers, Dan Milano, Zeb Wells, Tom Root, Doug Goldstein, and Kevin Schinick  playing DnD 4.0 again DM'd by Chris Perkins.  Chris Perkins even added an awesome video commentary to each of the podcasts and revealed some of his own secrets on how to be a better DM!

Well its finally here Season 4 of the audio podcasts featuring Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade with Scott Kurtz from PvP and joining them as guest star this time out is Kris Straub from chainsawsuit.com !   This time however Tycho takes the reins as DM and provides the background and adventure in the newly released DnD 4.0 version of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting.  Thri-kreen, Gladiatorial Combat, and Sand everywhere!  So have a listen, as its a great start to what I'm sure is going to be a very entertaining series of podcasts.
  • Jerry Holkins (Tycho from Penny Arcade): The Dungeon Master
The Players:

Season 4 - Episode 1
Season 4 - Episode 2
Here are the archives for the past audio podcasts with PvP and Penny Arcade guys and the video archive for the DnD session with the Robot Chicken Writers! These are great to listen to as we wait on the next episode of the Dark Sun Campaign!



Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

DnD 3.5, 4.0, and Pathfinder Movement Rules Compared

 Uh-Oh!
Per a reader request this article is going to compare the movement rules between the latest editions of  Dungeon and Dragons and the Pathfinder RPG.  This won't be a comprehensive movement discussion, just a highlight of the differences in each rule set.(rules comparison after the jump)

 In my home campaign my group decided at the DM's encouragement(me), that the easy way to deal with diagonal movement of 3.5 and Pathfinder RPG was rather than calculate 1.5 per diagonal square or do the 1-2-1-2 movement suggested in the handbooks, to just count diagonal movement as 2, period.  While it might not be the best alternative or accurate (this is just a game, not a real life simulation right!?), it works for us and it functions on a two way street for both players and npc/monsters.  We continued the practice after our conversion to Pathfinder RPG.  I would encourage you to do whatever works best with your group.  

You might even opt out of a "grid movement system" entirely and go with a straight length calculation.  If you choose this method I would suggest that you pick up some "soft" yard/meter sticks from the fabric store or make them yourself!  You can easily craft a measuring device with some white shoelaces and a sharpie, but that tutorial with have to wait for another article.  

Monday, May 24, 2010

Custom Pathfinder Character Sheets




Here are the customer character sheets I've made for use with my latest game I'm DM'ing.  I've included the Main Sheet here which has most of the items you'll be looking at during a game, AC, HP's, Skills, Weapons and Ammo, etc.  The rest of the pages, Sheet 2 - Gear/Feats/Class Abilities, Sheet 3 - Spell Sheet, Sheet 4 DM Helper/Player Aid (NPCs/Hirelings and Animal Companions).  

The campaign was initially run under another DM and I was a player. Things changed and when our DM went back to college out of state I decided to take up the cause and continue the campaign with our old DM skype'n in when he could.  The transition was fairly easy.  It was initially a DnD 3.5 game, and Pathfinder RPG just had come out, so the group decided to try out playing under Pathfinder and haven't looked back.  The transition was also aided by the fact that everyone was between 10-12th levels.  The group had just defeated the  main villain, or so we thought and as we escaped his crumbling lair via a portal opened up by a NPC benefactor most of the party found themselves banished to the plane of pandemonium!...

Dodecahedron Of FIRE!


So I attended the Makers Faire this weekend in San Mateo, CA and it was AWESOME! It was my first time attending and reminded me very much of the gaming conventions I've attended over the years. Good people, fun times, lots of stuff to do, see, experience. While I was there came accross this huge sculpture, which launched propane columns of fire along its spine, I heard lots of kids ask if it was a dragon, which it was serpentine in shape, but at each junction in the sculpture were these massive Dodecahedrons with flaming balls inside of them, SPINNING! It was great! (Video after the Jump)  The entire Makers Faire was extremely fun, and the food was great too, and hopefully if I can attend next year I'm going to get the weekend pass as I didn't make it to about 3/4 of the exhibits! There was too much to see and do for the one day that I attended!


Friday, May 21, 2010

How To Make A Velcro Game Board





I use a lot of paper craft models in my gaming, which I'm sure will be the subject of many other postings on here, but to start it off let me talk to you about how I constructed my Velcro Game Board!
This is essentially two 10 in. x 20 in. game board from a 3'x5', $5-6,  piece of foam core board that you can pick up at any Office Max/Depot , Wallgreens, Rite Aid, or Michaels Hobby and Crafts.  If you go to the office supplies or craft stores you can pick out various colors and thickness where as the other locations you'll likely have to choose from your 1/4 in. thickness in white and maybe 1/4 in. black if your lucky!  I'm using black with black Velcro but it doesn't really matter as the board gets covered up with dungeon tiles that you secure to the board, its just nice to have a dark color so no white shows through if your tiles don't line up perfect.  Now, if you're at said craft or office supplies stores wander over and find the Velcro section, typically in the craft stores its near the knitting/fabric isles.  There you will find either Velcro in long strips or you can get them in precut squares about an 1in in size.  I use the long strips and cut them into about 1 in. by 1 in. squares.  The 1 in. squares yields 4  1/4 in. squares so if you make a big board (20 in. x 20 in.) like I did you need to have 400 squares total, so divide that by 4 and you get 100 1 in. Velcro squares or a 100 in. strip.  Once you get your Velcro in whatever form you have you just have to sit down in front of the tv and cut it into 1/4 in. squares.  What you need to do is separate the "fuzzy" Velcro from the "hooks" Velcro.  More or less they should be already joined when you buy it but if not just make sure you put the two into two different areas as you'll use the fuzzy side to place onto the game board and the hooks side you'll put onto whatever you are going to stick onto the board.  The reason for this is that the fuzzy side won't stick to itself of course and while the hook side will attach to itself its not a good grip as the correct way of attaching the Velcro fuzzy>hooks!  

So while cutting them and after separating the different sides, I used a small container to place the cut squares into so I won't lose any, you can also use a sandwich bag or paper bag.  After awhile you'll notice your scissors getting gunked up with adhesive.  So you'll need to get some goo gone (or wd-40 but it doesn't smell as nice) and apply some to a paper towel then wipe down your scissors until the gunk is gone and they are cutting clean again.  You can get goo gone at most any place these days craft, pharmacies, hardware, grocery, and it smells of oranges!

Once you've got all your squares cut out use a utility knife with a sharp blade, if you're unsure if the blade is share replace the blade as a dull blade will tear the inner foam core of the foam core board and leave you with nasty jagged edges, and cut the foam core board into two 10 in. x 20 in. pieces.  Then lay those pieces adjacent to each other so it forms a 20 in. x 20 in. square. Using the duct tape secure the middle seam between the two boards.  Now you've got the start of a folding game board.  If you have the room you could even add a third panel and have it fold back to back like this |\|, though you'll have to duct tape on top of the 3rd board seam.  Now using a yard stick or another long straight edge, mark out 1 in strips on both axis using a pen or pencil. When you're finished you'll have a nice grid pattern.  

Sit down, again best to do in front of the tv, and remove the backings from your little 1/4 in Velcro squares and place them into the center of each of the 1in squares on your board.  Its just that simple.  It'll take some time for the larger board but its worth it!

Now any dungeon tiles, or other terrain you have,  stick the 1/4 in hook Velcro squares to that side and you'll have a fully functioning game board that is very secure!  I've only done the corners of my models but the heavier your terrain the more attach points you should use. Once you've got enough completed you can drop terrain into the mix at a moments notice.  You also don't have to set up the map ahead of time, which gives the players too much information!

So that's it! I made up a few add on boards, 10 in. x 10 in., and use them to put on the ends or edges when needed.  I'm thinking of even going smaller 5 in x 5 in for even more customizing and fitting them in some tight spots on my game table.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, May 20, 2010

Eyes of the Doppelganger

The rogue lay flat on his back, the last swing from the fighter, opposite him, had nearly decapitated him.  "I guess this guy isn't a simpleton after all!", thought the rogue.  The rogue quickly rose to a sitting position only to have the fighter brandishing the well used sword in the rogues face, "Now i'm going to show you WHO not to steal from! You daft twit!", snarled the fighter.  The rogue attempted to reason with the brute by throwing three cabochons at the fighter, "Please take these as payment as well as my apologies for any misunderstanding! Please just spare my life, I beg of you!", pleaded the rogue.  

The fighter looked down upon the whimpering figure and raised his sword readying for the killing blow.  "Stop! Put down that weapon!", heard the fighter...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

It Begins! Welcome to d4d6d8d10d12d20 !

You Can NEVER
Have Enough!
Welcome to the inaugural post for d4d6d8d10d12d20 ! This blog is primarly about role playing games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder RPG, and the tactical combat simulation game Classic Battletech .