Titan Bound - a Pocketmod for use with Into the Odd and other Odd-likes

This is a little pocketmod I made. It is some kind of extended encounter for Into the Odd or Odd-likes  (as in rogue-like) which I will call mods and derivates of ItO from now on.

It is not very original or overly creative - it is more of a feasibility-test for me. If all goes well I might do some more pocketmods in the future.

Originally I wanted to use LaTeX for pocketmod-design but I got a bit frustrated (again) and switched to LibreOffice and converted it to pocketmod-format via jPDF Tweak as I'm working on Manjaro right now (thanks +Sophia Brandt) and was trying to do everything on Linux native.

So if you want to help me out: Print out the document fold it up and read it! Focus on the following points:

1. How does it look?
2. How's the readability?
   And, not that important,
3. do you like the content? 

Download the (updated!) pocketmod here!
Download the A7-size PDF here!

F

[EDIT]
Corrected a typo in Chris' name (ouch!) and uploaded the A7-PDF for better viewing on your screen/phone.
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Ah, jPDF Tweak is a killer program with tons of options... one option I did use for the updated PDF (download link above): Resize to A4. The previous file was a pocketmod in A7 format (8 pages on an A7 page) - as +Nathan Ryder pointed out; it scaled up well, so re-formatting for printing worked. But now it's all fixed and doesn't need to be scaled up.
[/EDIT2]

One sentence reviews - 2015/3

So, some time has passed since I last posted... there should be no month without a post. So before July ends, I'll have some more one sentence reviews for you.

Gaming/Books

• Adventurers - The Dungeon and The Dawn of Tomorrow by GRAmel - not quite as good as expected but for the low price you get some nice add-ons for this lite game.
• Blood of Pangea +Olde House Rules - whoa - so simple and probably a bit flawed (I have yet to playtest it) but a hell of a read and with a small but growing community at G+ - go buy this game.
• Infernal Realms by +Olde House Rules - I love this game the more I read - future releases are a no-brainer.
• Mead & Mayhem by +Thaumiel Nerub - basically a random table for your average bar brawl - one I'll def. use at my next classic-fantasy game, though!
• Dragon Union by +Thaumiel Nerub - really nice collection of house rules for your average OSR-game; superb cover-art!
• Vacant Ritual Assembly Issue #3 by +Clint Krause - one of the best available of gaming fanzines right now!
• Zogonia - Slice of Death, provided by the ever friendly +Thaumiel Nerub - oh, how I love Zogonia - sadly I did already know many of the comics from my long-time Dragon Magazine-consume.

Movies

• Among the Living - interesting and entertaining mix of Stand by My and your average weirdo-slasher Flick - the most "meh" of the french "Terrorkino" so far.
• Deadgirl and Savaged were reviewed already - one good and one, ehm, bad.
• I stopped viewing Hidden in the Woods when I noticed I was looking the badly censored german version - which took around 9 minutes.
• Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2 - nice "edge-of-your-seat" re-interpretation of the Poltergeist-genre, the second one was a bit underwhelming, though.
• Let Sleeping Corpses Lie - very 70s zombie movie with your standard eco-explanation of the zombie-plague; nice gore.
• Masks - surprisingly effective low-budget (?) italian/german horror-flic in the tradition of Dario Argento/italian Giallo.
• Suspiria - my first Argento - wowzers - colors, music, acting - everything over the top... I was quite entertained.
• Tenebre - my second Argento - more of a standard Thriller, an entertaining one, nonetheless.
• The Abandoned - sometimes things are not enhanced by repitition - this film is uninspired and lame.
• The Conjuring - I should have watched this before watching Insidious 1&2 - this is actually the same thing, only better.
• The Serpent and the Rainbow - A vodoo-classic with a total unecessary over-the-top ending and a very inconveniently positioned nail - well, two actually.

Music

• Brain Drill: Quantum Catastrophe - now we're talking - a bit too fiddly and the drums are more fast then overly complicated but hey - this is solid technical extreme music.
• Job for a Cowboy: Demonocracy - if I only were 15 again - I would have loved this band and album - right now I'm a bit bored.
• Whitechapel: Our Endless War - same thing as with JfaC - I like it but I don't love it.

Week of Gore - Deadgirl

I've been busy lately, so I had no time to work up my week of horror movies.

After a really disappointing start things got better fast...

Deadgirl
Wow, this sounds disgusting! One part Nekromantik, one part The Stink of Flesh, one part "teenage drama/comedy" - let me tell you, the sum is better than the parts of it.

Two friends skip school, get drunk, go on a demolition spree in a near-by abandoned asylum, find a beautiful dead girl in the basement... which turns out to be not so dead at all. One of them is quite fascinated but more of a voyeur, the other one is quite "active" in his fascination and uses the zombie-girl for his own carnal desires. It doesn't take long and things go south...

Let me get this clear: This movie is not a new instant horror-classic. It is not the best in gory effects or splatter. It is not the socially critical movie it could be. It is just a deviant idea presented cineastically appealing. The main cast is solid/good, the make-up is good, the story is simple but interesting enough. The characters are mostly believable (aside from Eric Podner/Wheeler, which is just a bit too whiny and dumb) - they are your average over-sexed, stoned, lewd and scrupulous (male) teenagers; of course, Deadgirl takes this cliché ad absurdum  - it is a horror movie, after all. The end is a bit meh and there are moments you really, really now what's going to happen, but that didn't lessen my fun.

I'll give this movie a 6/10. If you like horror movies or zombie movies in particular and are not totally disgusted by the gist of the film go watch it!

F

I DMed DCC on saturday!

Well, my wife and son are on vacation, so it's time for action! Not only I declare the next days as "Week of Gore" (as I bought a bunch of uncut horror flicks which I'm going to watch the next five days), I had loads of fun DMing a one-shot for my good old friends!

I chose The One Who Watches from Below after reading a good review from +Bryce Lynch. It IS indeed a good adventure. A bit too long for a one-shot, so we cut it off at the end. There were problems (mostly caused by my very analytic players, who would've liked more logical explanations for various gonzo-elements - which there are a lot of in this adventure) but there were minor.

The thing is - it didn't matter how the adventure was. DCC is one of those systems where one only needs to sit and wait for coolness to happen. It started when characters were rolled (we started with a modified funnel - two 0 and two 1st level characters). We used Alternate Occupations. My good old rpg-friend +Christian Lonsing rolled a dwarfen outcast (with a bottle of elven wine), an elven herbalist, an elven vintner, and a dwarfen brewer... Team Alcohol! The others' teams were less distinctive but cool nonetheless. Only non-combat spells were rolled for the elves and wizards (like Detect Magic or Comprehend Language) which all proved useful during various stages of the adventure. Not a single character died (perhaps I did something wrong) - there would've probably some deaths at the end but we cut off at 3/4th of the adventure.

Despite the tons of tables (fumble, crit, spells, spell failure, deity disapproval to name a few) combat and rules-heavy situations went fast - and we only had one rule book (+ some spells copied by a fried).

DCC stays one of the best incarnations of the OSR and I hope I'll be able to play it again soon.

F

Week of Gore - Savaged

So. Wife and kid on vacation. I'm alone at home and tons of movies are waiting to be looked...

Savaged
This sounded interesting... it is advertised as "The Crow" meets "I Spit on Your Grave". No, I'm not into rape and revenge movies, actually I think they are most often dumb; but if there are twists, I'll have a look and decide again.

What do we have? A deaf girl gets kidnapped by sadist-racist morons which brutalize her for days. Then they kill her and dispose her body. So far so disgusting.
But then she is - surprise - found by a native american shaman. He tries to get her back to life with some yadda-yadda around a campfire but things go south - not only her soul but also the soul of a long dead native-american warrior uses the oppurtunity and uses her body as co-driver. So far... so dumb. Then starts the killing-spree. More or less uninspired gut-ripping, throat-slitthing, arrow-shooting. Nothing spectacular, if you're not totally squeamish. Ah, yes, while she finishes the bastards off, she slowly rots (why did the shaman want to bring her back to life when she returns as a zombie? No one knows.)

This could still be good... script, actors, screenplay, effects. But it isn't. The dialogues are more or less stupid, the actors (safe for some scenes) act clunky, the screenplay is mediocre, at best. The effects are bad. The whole movie has some kind of "300" or "Sin City"-filter which seems displaced. The gore-scenes are sometimes unbelievable, sometimes OK, nothing mind-shattering.

Conclusion: Watch it if you have a lot of spare time, spare money, like Amanda Adrienne and are a big fan of occult r&r-movies. Otherwise: Hands-off, I'll give this film a 2/10.

F

One sentence reviews - 2015/2

So, time for more one-sentence-stuff...

Gaming Products

• Black Box Books Tome 1-5 (by +Kirt Dankmyer) - I love, love, love the pocket-mod-format; the content is of various usefulness, the price of <1€ (wedding sale) made it a no-brainer.
• Empire of Dust (by +Clint Krause and Amy Garcia) - a sandbox-y science fiction rpg which I can't really grasp but tickles my fancy nonetheless.
• WhiteBox Omnibus (by +James Spahn) - really good vanilla fantasy add-ons for my favorite retroclone.
• Wonder & Wickedness (by +Brendan S) - wowzers, so simple, so cool - this is a must-buy for any fan of magic systems and variants for your favorite old-school rpg.

Books

• Pages of Pain by Troy Denning - for me one of the best planescape-stories out there, lots of cool characters, a bit on the slow-side, though.
• Verheißung by Jussi-Adler Olsen - solid detective-story, not his best, for fans a must, though.

Movies/Series

• Across the River - advertised as the italian Evil Dead; this should've made me suspicious; better look some other ghost/horror-flick.
• Camp Evil - meh, takes itself way to serious... stick with your favorite slasher movies.
• Deliver Us from Evil - meh, the beginning was so cooool, ends totally lame; skip the last 20-30 minutes.
• Game of Thrones Season Four - what can I say - it's the tv-fantasy gold-standard.
• Halt and Catch Fire - great series, very calm, geeky, and: No zombies.
• Ironman 3 - perhaps I'm the only one, but think #1 is the best; nice effects, though.
• Outlander Season One 2/10 - crap.
• The Punisher and Punisher: Warzone - Punisher One was a waste of time, Warzone was actually really entertaining!
• The Purge and Purge: Anarchy - I had fun, popcorn-wise.
• Walking Dead Season Five 12-16/16 - they should reduce to 10 episodes/season... seemed a bit stretched in the end.

Other

• Platinum Pen Carbon - cheap and really handy ink pen, very similar to the rOtring ArtPen; the ink doesn't smear, though, which is a big plus.

Phew, many movies/series this time... too much radiology-books, so I needed distraction.

The year of getting shit done... turned up to eleven!

Elder Ones, Gods & Co as Detachment

When I first converted Cthulhu from DnDs Carcosa to Into the Odd some days ago, I got many comments from Into the Odd-enthusiasts, including Chris McDowell himself. The basic reception was quite kind. One thing stood out, though - the idea to represent big (as in BIG) monsters by using mass battle rules (which are in development). Chris has released his recent draft on mass battles on his blog.

So, let's take up the idea. Here's where we left last time:

Odd CTHULHU v2
STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 18. 30hp, Armour 3, Tentacles and Maws (1d20).
Sleeps and sits and waits and sleeps, waiting for the right constellation of stars...
CTHULHU uses the Old One template.*
The sight of CTHULHU kills characters on a failed WIL save.
CTHULHU regenerates 2 hp/round until reduced to 0 STR.
CTHULHU can summon 1d100 Deep Ones.

The "Old One" template reads:

• Attacks of Old Ones are never impaired
• Critical hits from Old Ones kill instantly
• Mundane physical attacks against Old Ones are always impaired
• Old Ones may use every psionic power at will.

Ok. Now let's have a look at detachments (copy pasted from the link above):

• Individual attacks cannot harm detachments unless they're something big like a cannon, bomb, or giant creature.
• Detachment attacks are Enhanced against individuals, causing d12 damage regardless of weapon. 
• When they would take Critical Damage, a Detachment is Broken and useless until rallied. 

And, with individuals among the detachment:

• The character is also protected from enemy attacks, other than individual challenges, while the detachment is protecting them. 

or

• The detachment and leader both make an attack roll as normal, but only the highest roll is taken. The attack is treated as coming from the detachment, even if it was the leader's roll. If the attack is against an Individual, only the Detachment's roll is Enhanced. 
• Until their next turn, the leader is subject to all attacks that target the detachment, with both leader and detachment taking damage. Remember here that Detachment attacks against individuals are Enhanced.

Pfff... ok. Some things could work (paraphrased):

• CTHULHU cannot be harmed by normal attacks

Well... that's about it. What will work, though: CTHULHU can summon a detachement of Deep Ones. Yup. And, even better: CTHULHU could be the individual leader of the Deep One detachement!

Ok, let's have a look at Deep Ones...

• STR 18 (yay, a stat mentioned in Carcosa!)
• 1+1 HD
• AC 16
• Move (blahblah)
• Chaotic alignement (surprise again)

In Into the Odd, this would be (for example):

• STR 18, DEX 10, WIL 10
• 1 or 2hp, depending how you read the conversion rules (though I think this would be a tad too low, 5hp sounds better)
• armour 1
• Damage by weapon (say d6)

As a detachment the damage would be amped to a whooping d12, damage would be ignored (except for "special attacks"). The "broken on critical damage" rule could be ignored, as long as CTHULHU leads them. This version would definitively be hassle-free to dm - at least compared to handle 1d100 Deep Ones individually.

Thoughts? Comments?

F

Advancement in Into the Odd

I really dig the "achievement"-style advancement of Into the Odd. You do what you're good in (expore) and get better along the way. The "apprentice"-condition is a nice twist on the otherwise a bit monotonous "go on more expeditions".

But during my thoughts-experiments with "Into Carcosa" I came to the conclusion that this way of advancing probably isn't the best. Of course, classic advancement (get more gold) isn't really "Carcosa" either.

So what to do? I hereby present the Way of the Sorcerer

NOVICE
You are ready to taint your soul (you must have achieved at least one ritual, for example during character cration).

PROFESSIONAL
You have gained knowledge of one additional ritual since Novice level.

EXPERT
You have gained knowledge of two additional rituals since Professional level.

VETERAN
You have gained knowledge of three rituals and completed at least one ritual since Expert level and obtained an apprentice.

MASTER
Your apprentice has obtained Expert level* and you've completed at least two rituals since Veteran level.
*The apprentice may not use your known rituals for advancement!


And, since sorcery is vile and evil and such...

Way of the Fighter

NOVCE
You are ready to get hurt.

PROFESSIONAL
You have battled at least one enemy stronger* then you one-on-one - and survived.
*more hp AND higher Strength

EXPERT
You have battled at least three dangerous combats* since Novice level - and left the battlefield victorious!
*outnumbered 2:1 or very dangerous opponent (dm has last word)

VETERAN
You have battled at least five dangerous combats since Expert level - and left the battlefield victorious! Further you must accept at least one sword-disciple you will train from now on.

MASTER
Your disciple needs to be at Expert level. You need to erect a fort/monastery/settlement and declare yourself leader (obviously in need of a weird name).



More ideas
Way of the Diplomat
Way of the Xenoartificer
Way of the Broken DNA
Way of the Dinosaur-wrangler...

Comments, please!

F

Musings about weirdness

Ah, I love weird adventures and settings! I've got Carcosa, Many Gates of the Gann, Vornheim, Red and Pleasant Land, Systema Tartarobasis, Gus Ls free Adventures, Beneath the Ruins (Kihago)... they are all wonderful!

If you follow my blog, you'll know that I try to mix Into the Odd with Carcosa; these are mostly ramblings about game mechanics but deep in my head rests the hope to one day dm a full-fledged "Into Carcosa" campaign... and then? How the hell has an adventure in Carcosa to look like? Especially if I want to make sure it's weird? How much weird is too much? When will my players be disappointed because the plot is too "normal"?

These questions are highly theoretical by now but interesting nonetheless. What defines "weirdness"? Don't get me wrong, I don't want a cast iron proof definition of "weird" - I just don't have no idea.

Let's look at some examples; first, some "non-weird" things:

1. A paladin on his horse rescues an abducted princess from the claws of an evil dragon.

or

2. An elven archer shoots an orc fighter in a wild dungeon-fight.

or

3. A bunch of investigators find clues about a murder series in 1920s London.

or

4. A group of space rebels fight the evil imperial army in an epic spacefight.

Sounds all pretty "normal" - I think we agree here.



Ok, let's change some things...

1v1. A paladin on his horse rescues an abducted princess from the evil scientist who tries to model an obedient robot slave after her example.

or

2v1. An elven archer shoots a space orc in a derelict space hulk.

or

3v1. A group of investigators find clues of the involvement of an alien entity in a murder series in 1920s London.

Weird? I mean the plot did not change, the protagonists did not change, heck, even the basic nature of the enemy did not change.



What about...

1v2. A lawful insectoid on his symbiont bug rescues an abducted slime-princess from the claws of mother winter.

or

3v2. A group of 0-level turnip-farmers, haberdashers and thugs armed with sticks and pitchforks find clues about the activities of a beastmen killer-cult involved in the abduction of local townfolks ("Sailors of the Starless Sea").

Too much weird? Gonzo even? Again, the plot didn't change. Pretty basic stuff, one might think...



Then, some plot tweaking...

2v3. An elven archer shoots an orc in a dungeon after travelling back in time to hinder said orc from killing his mother 200 yrs. later.

4v3. A group of space rebels fire re-programm-rays on their evil imperialist counterparts to ally with them to find a way to cure the parasitic infection that will destroy the whole universe.

Weird?



And, last but not least - normal plot and motivation, weird protagonists:

5. A sentient mushroom-monk (conversing via pheromone-like spore clouds), a sentient swarm of colibris, capable of summoning whirlwinds and a depressive three headed animated statue of cerberus go forth to collect gold and experience to become famous (I'm pretty sure some DnD 3.5 games ended up like this).

Again: Weird protagonists with pretty standard motivations.

My point: What constitutes weird? Weird characters? A weird setting (say Carcosa)? A weird plot (time travel, dreamlands, insanity)? Is it enough to play pretty basic adventures if the background is weird enough (Carcosa)?

Feel free to comment!

F



EDIT: as +trey causey points out, all my examples are more "gonzo" then "weird"; he has an excellent post on "Weird and Wonder" on his blog. The question remains... what defines how weird a game is - characters? Story? Background? Obstacles? Setting? Plot? Or, strongly worded, is it enough to say "we're playing Carcosa tonight", to be on the weird side of gaming?

Thoughts on the d[Carcosa]

Mh, the d[Carcosa]. One of the really, really weird ideas from our beloved little Supplement VI. For all those who do not know what I'm talking about: Mr. McKinney takes the idea of randomisation ad absurdum by randomizing the die to roll the moment when it is to be rolled... so: CTHUGAH does 4 dice of damage to all creatures within 300' via heat radiation. Which kind of dice, you ask? Roll on the table on page 5 of Carcosa (or have a look here)!

This might be funny, but... nothing I want to port to "Into Carcosa", to be honest. But we have an idea of damage scaling, though: A simple attack will most often deal 1d[Carcosa] (1-20 damage) while some Great Old Ones will do as much as 20+d[Carcosa] (equaling some 20-400 damage)! I suggest porting this to Into the Odd the following way:

1d[Carcosa] = 1d6 damage
2-3d[Carcosa] = 1d8 damage
4-6d[Carcosa] = 1d10 damage
7-10d[Carcosa] = 1d12 damage
11+d[Carcosa] = 1d20 damage.

This is for monsters, only. Weapons deal damage as per ItO. If this method seems a bit too "granulated" - you have other ways to modify damage with ItO (without ruining anything, you know):

1. Attacks can't be impaired by xyz
2. damage is not reduced by armour
3. damage is dealt to ability scores, not to hit points
4. damage can't be healed the normal way!
5. when dealing critical damage, some effect occurs (tripping, pushing, swallowing)
6. and, if you use my house rules: attacks can't be parried or evaded.

As you see, there should be no shortage of rules mechanics to individualize your monsters attacks!

And - you really should consider playtesting my combat house rules - since I don't actually play ItO right now, I've had no good opportunity, yet! Right now they are only available in german, but Google translates them acceptable enough :-)

F

Into Carcosa - stating the Old Ones

One thing I find quite amusing is the existence of a stat block for the Great Old Ones in +Geoffrey McKinneys Carcosa. Not that it is that special, heck even Chaosium did it in their Call of Cthulhu supplements and though I don't know for sure, I'm guess the newer Incarnations of Lovecraftian gaming (Savage World-powered, for example) go the same way.

I never really understood why mundane human investigators should be even able to fight "gods" - and stats imply that! But with Carcosa it's another thing... first, all characters have some kind of combat ability; second, they will have access to some weird things, probably enhancing their combat abilities (like alien artifacts & such). Third, they might have allies - either mundane, as in henchmen, or supernatural, perhaps via some vile ritual. So, while unlikely, they could stand a chance in a fight against the old ones.

While I did not intend to do a full conversion of all the monsters in Carcosa and think many things could be done on-the-fly, I guess statting the Old Ones would be a nice test of flexibility for Into the Odd.

Luckily, +Chris McDowell did a short conversion guide (it's 5e to ItO... close enough).

Let's start with CTHULHU himself; not much information given, as usual:

• 57HD
• AC 13
• move 150' (land), 360' (water)
• Alignment: Chaotic (surprise!)
• Psionics: each 10/day
• regenerates 2HD/round
• can summon 1-100 Deep Ones
• save vs. paralyze or die on sight
• does 25 dice of damage each round.

Not bad, not bad! Many things can be ported without too much hassle: Psionics, which should go up to "at will" for simplicities sake, summon Deep Ones, WIL save or die.
Some things need more attention: HD 57 pretty much outbids ItOs scale, Chris McDowell suggests 1 hp/HD with a hard cap at 30hp; why not. Regeneration should be 2 hp/round then. STR, DEX, and WIL are not given in Carcosa, but STR and WIL should not be lower then 18-20. DEX is probably much lower, say 8.
Armor should be 3, as far as I understand. Multiattacks do not exist in ItO and as much as one would expect they would for tentac-ly monsters in Carcosa, only a single attack value is given - and it is ridiculously high! Since I did not find any monster entrances with more than d12 damage, I'd suggest d20 is totally fair. Attacks from Cthulhu should never be impaired, save for some weird ritual perhaps. Characters swinging their sword against Cthulhu are probably doomed, their mundane attacks are impaired. Lasers, alien-artifacts and shit do not count as mundane for that matter. Critical hits should devour characters without any saves (auto-kill), their fate to be horribly described by the dm.

Ok, now it looks like this:

Odd CTHULHU
STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 18. 30hp, Armour 3, Tentacles and Maws (1d20).
Sleeps and sits, waiting for the right constellation of stars...
Attacks by CTHULHU are never impaired.
Critical hits from CTHULHU kill instantly, characters dying an irreversible, horrible death.
Mundane physical attacks against CTHULHU are always impaired.
The sight of CTHULHU kills characters on a failed WIL save.
CTHULHU regenerates 2 hp/round until reduced to 0 STR.
CTHULHU may use every psionic power at will.
CTHULHU can summon 1d100 Deep Ones.

Phew, a bit long for my taste.

So, we need to define a "template", let's call it "Old One" for now.
Attacks of Old Ones are never impaired. Critical hits from Old Ones kill instantly. Mundane physical attacks against Old Ones are always impaired. Old Ones may use every psionic power at will.

Cool. Now let's have a look:

Odd CTHULHU v2
STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 18. 30hp, Armour 3, Tentacles and Maws (1d20).
Sleeps and sits and waits and sleeps, waiting for the right constellation of stars...
CTHULHU uses the Old One template.
The sight of CTHULHU kills characters on a failed WIL save.
CTHULHU regenerates 2 hp/round until reduced to 0 STR.
CTHULHU can summon 1d100 Deep Ones.

Still a bit long for ItO, but hey.

Ah, if you use my ItO combat options (german post), attacks from Old Ones can't be parried, though one may sacrifice his shield. Of course, Old Ones don't care to evade or parry attacks.

What do you think?

F

2015 slows down a bit...

March '15 passed and no post yet... why? Well, RL pretty much occupies me at the moment - my toddler needs much attention (which I'm happy to give since he continues to become the most awesome person on the planet), my work is very demanding (plus I'm learning for my board certification as a radiolgist), and I'm ill quite often these days - nothing spectacular, only very annoying things like common colds et. al. (probably day-care center/toddler-associated)

This means my year of awesome slows down a bit... but, hey: I will play more 5e soon, pushing my fighter a bit closer to level 4 (and playtest some maneuvers!). I will paint my frickin' 6mm minis and playtest some skirmish systems. I will further my attempts to modify Into the Odd, hopefully playing Into Carcosa.

Funny enough my only contact to gaming these days is Google+, which is really fun and sometimes plain awesome. Unfortunately it is very time consuming! Perhaps I need to take a step back from following social media and focus my sparse free time on more productive tasks.

F

p. s.: Sophias blog travelled through space and time and is now located at http://dieheart.net/. Read it!

One sentence reviews 2015/1

So, the year is young and already had its moments... here are my purchases so far:

Gaming Products

• angelbarracks.co.uk Starter Set (scroll down the page) - When I'm not going insane while trying to paint these, it could be my entry into 6mm wargaming/skirmishing.
• Dungeons & Dragons 5e Player's Handbook - Really good if somewhat verbose successor to our beloved game; worth the 40€.
• 2 Hour Dungeon Crawl - Interesting, a bit on the pricey side, though.*
• A dozen of Vallejo Game Colors - For my 6mm guys... hopefully they evade the fate of my old GW-colors death by dessication.

Books

• Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" - One of the most depressing and futile novels I've read so far - I loved it.
• Cormac McCarthy's "Ein Kind Gottes" (Child of God) - Not as good as "The Road", but after two books I can see a pattern here, Mr. McCarthy - and I like it.
• Joe Haldeman "Camouflage" - Well, one-fifth through the book and It's more like "fifty shades of grey-alien" then the nebula-award-epic-sci-fi-I-hoped-for.

Movies/Series

• Lost Season 4 & 5 - Better then I thought, at least without ads and a week between episodes.
• The Walking Dead Season 5 (11/16) - I'm not sure I like every development, but among the best on TV nonetheless.
• The Purge - A whaky dystopian future makes a mediocre excuse for an mediocre kind of home invasion movie...

Music

• Huss & Hodn Zitate EP - Funky.
• Venetian Snares My So-Called Life - So far detrimentalist was my favorite album by Aaron Funk, MSCL could be the successor...
• Venetian Snares My Love is a Bulldozer - Interesting... lots of singing is going on here, but a true VS-album nonetheless - not for the faint of heart.

*The underlying mechanic is neat, though; you can get the basics for free here.

Overall some good purchases! We'll see what comes next...

So, yesterday I played 5e...

...and damn, it was fun! Only one dm, two players and the mandatory mines of phandelver. We startet at level 2, Sophia played a white dragonborn warlock of the old ones, I played a human fighter (soon to be battle master). We rolled 4d6, drop lowest & arrange, rolling mediocre at best. hp for 2nd level were rolled randomly, again with mediocre results - all in all retro-enough for me.

We jumped right into action; some blah-blurp when handing the cart over, then we went straight to Trazendar Manor (sp.? don't want to spoil myself googling the right name), expecting nothing but a few ruins. We surprised three Redbrand-thugs in the cellar (calling them Redbricks by error), killed two with little effort, and in an act of endless humanity let the third one live (not really knowing what the hell Redbrands are). The idiot went right to their nest, the "Sleeping Giant" and made us officially "personae non gratae" in Phandelin. Meanwhile we went a little bit further down the cellar of the ruin and discovered a crypt with three sarcophagi and three grumpy skeletons; since we weren't expecting a "dungeon", we retreated using the just-triggered pitfall-trap as an undead-proof obstacle. Back in phandelver we dodged the Redbrands and got a little help from a half-elf turnip-farmer called "Darren". After full-resting we tried to convice some of the merchant-folks to assist us in smashing the opressive Redbrands but we fell on deaf ears. Only Ms. Halia from the Miner's Exchange seemed to care, supporting us with some knowledge of a secret tunnel found by some local kiddos. We tried to contact them, but found only the mother, a halfling-famer called Kelin (sp?); she told us what she knew and we headstarted to the tunnel. Some 50ft. into it, we found a giant-cave (with crevasses and shit) and were approached by some psychic entity, which read the thoughts of my scaled-friend but failed on my mind of iron (Int 8, Wis 9...). Nonetheless the beast appeared at the end of the cave, being some kind of cyclops-alien, shooting death rays from its single eye... I kid you not! Well, call it fate but one of those pesky death rays did 13 damage to the dragonborn (dropping dying, having only 9hp). On the following rounds, Sophia passed one death save, then missed one, then... rolled a 1, dying instantly! I whipped the hell out of the beast, rolling two 20s and using my action surge and such. After that, I recovered my dead companion and we ended the session...

So, that's special?

Yeah, of course! It was friggin awesome. The fights were really hard, even deadly. I like the death-saving-throw-mechanic. The town, simple as it was presented, provides tons of low-scale adventuring opportunities. The npcs were good enough to remember them by some quirk or feature. The option to do eerything wrong was fine by me ("Look, an old ruin, let's have a look before dinner!", "Ok Mr. Redbrand you're no danger for noone, sod off and don't look back!"...) - not being railroaded was really a refreshing experience.

I guess I'll stick to low-level 5e with its deadliness and such, and probably you'll never see me playing dragonborn or drow-rangers, but hey - that's my choice. I'm not really sure what to think of feats, but the seem nice enough (I went for Heavy Armor Specialist, essentially gaining damage reduction 3/mundane, which really improved my survivability). Magic seems a bit high-powered, but that's ok for me - I'd prefer a drawback, but that's probably my DCC-faible.

I guess this wasn't my last 5e-session...

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Getting Shit Done in 2015 - erste Resultate...

Ja, etwas langsamer als versprochen, aber >10x schneller als zuvor!

Willkommen zurück!

Wie es aussieht, ist der Lost Pages-Shop wieder online! Also, worauf warten? Kaufen!

Into Carcosa - Charaktererschaffung/Startpakete

Für meinen kleinen Plan sind, wie erwähnt, nur wenig Änderungen nötig. Die Charaktererschaffung und Startpakete werde ich mir als erstes vornehmen.

Charaktere bei Into Carcosa sollten mit 1W6+4 TP anfangen, wie erwähnt.

Zufällige Bestimmung der Volksfarbe nach der Tabelle unter "Places of Men" von Ramanan S.

Die Startpakettabelle von ItO wird übernommen, ein Eintrag von X wird ersetzt durch Y:

Arkanum - Besonderheit (Tabelle)
Bombe/Rakete - Alienartefakt (Tabelle)
Chemikalien/Substanzen* (Äther, Gift, Säure...) - Lotuspulver  (Tabelle)
Donnerbüchse/Gewehr/Muskete - Alienartefakt (Tabelle)

Pistole - Schleuder

Tiere (Adler, Hund usw.) - Tiere aus Carcosa (Tabelle)
Übernatürliche Sinne - Psikraft (Tabelle)

*einige "Chemikalien" können ohne Probleme auch in Carcosa vorkommen - Klebe, Öl, Rum, Schmiermittel, Zigarren. Alle anderen sollten über Lotuspulver geregelt werden. Sind zwei Dosen angegeben, so verdopple das Ergebnis auf der Lotuspulvertabelle.

Tabelle "Lotuspulver"
2W6
2    Schwarzer Lotus
3-5  Blauer Lotus
6-8  Grüner Lotus
9-11 Jale Lotus
12   Weißer Lotus

Tabelle "Besonderheit"
W6
1   Kenntnis eines Rituals (zufällig bestimmt)
2-3 Alienartefakt (s. Carcosa S. 251)
4-5 Mutation (s. Carcosa S. 265)
6   Psikraft

Tabelle "Psikraft" (s. Carcosa S. 20-21)
W8
1 Hellhören
2 Hellsicht
3 Gedankenlesen
4 mentale Detonation
5 Gedankenkontrolle
6 Vorahnung
7 Telekinese
8 Telepathie

Tabelle "Tiere"
W8
1 Schleimhaustier (Farbe bestimme wie die Volksfarbe bei 
  Charaktererschaffung)
2 Compsognathus
3 Lesothosaurus
4 Micropachycephalosaurus
5 Riesenlibelle
6 Riesenmistkäfer
7 telepathisch kommunizierende Achatschnecke
8 parasitärer Wurm (doppelte Nahrungsaufnahme nötig, +1 auf alle Attribute)

Sicherlich müssen die einzelnen Punkte noch ausgearbeitet werden, aber die Regelkonversion sollte rasch gehen.

Mir fällt gerade auf, dass ich eine andere Übersetzung für "Jale" benötige - Ulfire mit Ulfeuer zu übersetzen klingt logisch, "Dolm" klingt schon nach einer Farbe, "Jale" allerdings... wenn man es wie "Jade" ausspricht, könnte es klappen. Hat jemand von euch "Die Reise zum Arcturus" von David Lindsay gelesen? Wie werden die Farben dort übersetzt?

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Into Carcosa

Carcosa und das Regelwerk von Into the Odd passen meiner Meinung nach zusammen wie Erdnussbutter und Marshmallowfluff (gut, falls sich jemand fragt). Carcosa selbst setzt auf wenig Regeln, die meisten settingspezifischen Regeln sind universell (man denke nur an die ganzen Rituale), die Monster gliedern sich grob in "bekämpfbar" und "sicherer Tod" (vgl. Call of Cthulhu) und sollten ohne große Dramen zu konvertieren sein (Chris McDowell hat auf seiner Seite ein paar Richtlinien zur Konvertierung von D&D 5e zu ItO), was dem angedachten Spielstil von ItO entgegenkommt. Die Tatsache, dass Menschen (wenn auch in unterschiedlichen Schattierungen) die einzige spielbare Rasse in Carcosa sind und, dass es praktisch nur eine Klasse gibt (ich meine fighting-men) macht alles noch einfacher.

Sogar die Umsetzung der Startpakete sollte flüssig von der Hand gehen - Arkanum wird kurzerhand zu Alienartefakt, die sonderbaren Kräfte (wie "...sense nearby xyz" oder "Telepathy [...]") kann man gut mit Psikräften um- und übersetzen, zudem gibt es hier praktisch keine Regelvorgaben. Man müsste die "high-tech"-Ausrüstung etwas abwandeln (Schusswaffen, Ferngläser, usw. usf.), denn Carcosa befindet sich eher auf dem Technischen Stand der Bronzezeit.

Das ganze sollte sogar so gut klappen, dass nennenswertes Niederschreiben der Änderungen überflüssig ist - die Konvertierung sollte "on-the-fly" funktionieren. Ich werde diesen Gedanken mal weiter verfolgen...

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Into the Odd - kleine Änderungen

Weiter geht es mit der Modifikation von Into the Odd...

zwei Dinge stehen auf dem Stundenplan:

1.) Charaktere starten mit mehr Trefferpunkten.

Bei mir wären das idealerweise 1W6+4 Trefferpunkte (Tp). Klingt irgendwie schief, gibt aber die hübsche Spanne von 5-10, außerdem kann die Startpaket-Tabelle weiter nutzen.

Warum das Ganze? Nun ja, in erster Linie erreicht man so eine etwas höhere Überlebensrate bei neu erschaffenen Forschern, ohne Kämpfe vollkommen ungefährlich zu machen. Ferner...

2.) "diminishing returns"

Hierzu müssen die Regeln für den Stufenaufstieg etwas verändert werden. Bei einem Aufstieg darf ein Spieler für jedes Attribut einen Steigerungswurf durchführen (vgl. S. 8 ItO Free). Für jeden Wurf, auf den der Spieler verzichtet, darf er seine Tp um eins anheben. Die Steigerungswürfe sind weitgehend selbstlimitierend - je höher der Wert, desto unwahrscheinlicher, dass er steigt. Die Tp hingegen steigen im Schnitt langsamer, als bislang (es sind mit der Regeländerung also 5-22 Tp möglich, je nachdem, wie viele Steigerungsproben eingetauscht werden). Die Option auf mehr Trefferpunkte besteht allemal, die Steigerungskurve ist flacher und im Zweifelsfalle ist die Steigerung garantiert.

Meinungen? Kommentare?

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2015 - the Year of Getting Shit done.

Ja, so schaut's aus! Blog gestartet, Notebook gewechselt, Providerwechsel im Gange... verdammte Axt, das Jahr ist erst 3 Tage alt, was kann noch alles geschehen?

So viele Optionen

Wie zum Geier kann man sich da entscheiden... das Layout des Blogs hat sich in den letzten 25 Minuten etwa fünfmal geändert. Aktuell finde ich es recht hübsch, aber auch sehr düster - was sagt ihr?

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Odd Shields Shall be Splintered

Das einfache Regelwerk von Into the Odd ist geradezu prädestiniert für einfache Modifikationen. Nachdem ich bereits Defensivhandlungen und deren Umsetzung beschrieben habe, widme ich mich jetzt einem Hausregel-Evergreen von Trollsmyth: Shields Shall be Splintered. Die Regel ist flott umschrieben: Ein Charakter kann sein Schild "opfern", um den Schaden eines Angriffs zu negieren. Genau so werde ich das jetzt für ItO übernehmen:

Schild - ein Schild kann zur Parade eingesetzt werden. Ein Kämpfer kann sein Schild opfern, um den Schaden eines parierbaren Angriffs zu verhindern (bevor der Schaden bekanntgegeben wird).

Meinungen?

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Kampf in Into the Odd

Into the Odd hat eines der interessantesten Kampfsysteme überhaupt. Es ist schnell, tödlich und regeltechnisch frustfrei. Der Autor betont in seinem Blog oftmals, dass es ihm wichtig ist, erfahrene und kluge Charaktere durch einen klugen Spielstil und nicht durch Regelelemente zu definieren. Das Design seines Systems setzt dies meiner Meinung nach gut um.

Dennoch gibt es einige Punkte, die ich gerne anders regeln würde:

1. Jeder Charakter hat in jeder Kampfrunde zwei Handlungen.
2. Maximal eine Handlung kann zum Angriff genutzt werden.
3. Ein Charakter kann für jede nicht genutzte Handlung eine Defensivhandlung durchführen.
4. Defensivhandlungen sind Ausweichen und Parieren
5. Ausweichen ist möglich, wenn ausreichend Platz vorhanden ist und erfordert eine erfolgreiche Agilitätsprobe.
6. Parieren ist möglich, wenn eine geeignete Waffe oder ein Schild zur Hand ist und erfordert eine erfolgreiche Physisprobe.
7. Nicht jeder Angriff kann pariert werden.

Die Änderungen erlauben einen ganzen Batzen mehr Taktik, ohne das Spiel wesentlich zu verkomplizieren. Ferner wird eine Art des Ressourcenmanagements eingeführt, die ich bei Spielen sehr schätze - limitierte Aktionen. Ein Charakter kann sich beispielsweise bewegen und angreifen (2 Aktionen) oder er kann angreifen und eine Aktion für Parade/Ausweichen parat halten oder ähnliches. Durch die garantierten Treffer bei ItO ist eine mögliche Defensivhandlung eine mächtige Option. Zudem kann man beim Design von Gegnern die Option "Parade nicht möglich" verwenden oder beim Entwurf von Szenarien Engpässe einstreuen, in denen ein sinnvolles Ausweichen nicht möglich ist.

Meinungen? Kommentare?

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Into the Odd auf Deutsch

Ich bastele zur Zeit an einigen Hausregeln für Into the Odd, dem regelarmen, altmodischen Rollenspiel von Chris McDowell. Wer das Spiel noch nicht kennt, sollte nicht zögern und es sich zulegen... wobei die Kaufversion aktuell nicht verfügbar ist. Das soll aber niemanden abhalten, sich die freie Version herunterzuladen.

Mit Rezensionen will ich euch (und mich) nicht aufhalten, schließlich hat Sophia sich dazu schon ausgelassen; weitere (wohlwollende Worte) zu ItO findet man hier.

Da ich es sehr bevorzuge, auf Deutsch zu schreiben, definiere ich hier mal ein paar Begriffe, um nicht in ein halbherziges "Denglisch" zu verfallen. Ich beschränke mich hierbei auf Begriffe, die nicht eindeutig zu übersetzen sind:

Into the Odd - naja, das Regelsystem wird nicht übersetzt; idealerweise werde ich es mit ItO abkürzen.

Odd - sonderbar

Ability Score(s) - Attribut(e)

Strength - Physis

Dexterity - Agilität

Willpower - Willenskraft

Hitpoint(s) - Trefferpunkt(e)

Save(s) - Probe(n)

Arcana - Arkanum.

Es sollte kurz erwähnt sein: Das ist selbstverständlich keine offizielle Übersetzung.

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Hello World

Hallo Welt...

...nun habe ich doch einen Blog!

Hier geht's um Rollenspiele (vor allem um die OSR), Bücher, Comics, Filme, Musik und alles andere, was (mir) Spaß macht. Aktualisierungen gibt es, nun ja, wann immer ich Zeit und Lust dazu habe.

Viel Spaß beim Lesen!

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