If you want to check out the map in all its interactive glory, follow this link. Mashupforge is currently in beta, and they’ll probably add more features in the future but if you look for an easy and free way to turn your campaign map into an interactive map in the style of Google Maps, mashupforge is definitely worth a look.

Related posts:

1. Stargazer’s RPG Stuff
2. Google Friend Connect
3. Surfing on the Wave

Wanted Poster (Western Style)	Wanted Poster (Harry Potter Style)
Newspaper Handout	Behold the Great Cthulhu

I am sure you can come up with even more creative uses of PhotoFunia’s effects. Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Why is there no Harry Potter RPG?
2. A Study in Emerald
3. Dragon Age unboxing

In his series, specifically Part 8 he talks about this and touches upon the elevator speech, or elevator pitch, call it what you may. And I think this is particularly appropriate, the idea is to communicate the “value proposition”, in layman’s terms, why this campaign is right for you! Having worked in sales I can understand the value of this type of communication. Precise, succinct, to the point, and there is something to be said for getting your point across in a distilled form. It forces you to take a hard look at the campaign and reduce it to its salient features.

Of course, being creative types who have (probably) worked on this campaign for hours upon hours, you want to share every exciting detail with the players. My advice, be patient, there will be time for this. If you indulge my digression here for a moment, patience is also a valuable skill for a Game Master. In our modern “instant gratification” culture we want all the excitement and we want it right now, but if you pace yourself, set up plots and introduce information little by little not only will you have the satisfaction when it all comes together down the line, but you will keep your players engrossed and interested, coming back to your game for more.

But back to the task at hand, how do we apply this to the campaign primer. Ok let me recapitulate from the last post and give some structure to this:

1. Be concise! – Don’t drown players in information. If you must prepare hand-outs try the one page idea. Limit yourself to one single page handout per session. I normally try to prepare a slightly larger introduction to a campaign, a mix of history, rumors and set up for the first couple of sessions, and try to pace myself handing out information in small manageable chunks. This is a relatively new technique for me, and I have not used it all the time, but I believe it works. Normally the one page handouts have no illustration or fancy fonts, the idea is to share the most important information and get it out of the way.

2. A picture is worth a thousand words – I have said it in other posts and I think it bears repeating. We are visual creatures and when you can show an image of a place or an NPC the players grasp the idea quicker. My biggest problem is when I write and create and then spend hours scourging books and the internet looking for the image to represent just what I have in mind. You know an easy solution for this? Find the image first! We may not have the budget for art departments or to hire big name artists, but we can burrow their art and use it. I am not advocating piracy, or using any art for profit without paying the artist. All I am saying is to use it privately for your game to show exactly what you have in mind.

I remember a friend who, in the olden days before the internet was everywhere (well almost) would cut images from magazines, newspapers, textbooks and glue them on a composition notebook. He then would write the names of his campaign’s NPCs under each picture. No information, no stats write up, just the name and the picture. He would pass it around and we would spend hours looking at the NPCs. Likewise I would use the collectible cards sets of famous artists printed in the early 90’s, and the old AD&D trading cards, to represent NPCs, places or events. I would put them in trading card pages and then label each according to what it was. At a point the collection became quiet large. I still have the scanned images of all those cards.

3. It’s all in the presentation – I am well aware that the mere mention of Power Point may send shivers down the spines of some of our readers. If you have been victim to endless presentations with slides filled with text that the presenter, professor, salesman, whoever it may be, just reads in monotone, I understand your trepidation. But Power Point can be a powerful tool. It has become so prevalent that almost everybody will know what Power Point is. Don’t want to spend money on the program? There are options like Open Office you may explore.

My advice, use Power Point to illustrate what you are talking about. Select an appropriate and evocative background, set up a format and use lots of images. Remember point 2 on this list. I usually write a title, place various images and write small captions under them. I have used them to present NPCs, pahtheons, even illustrate adventures like I said in the previous post.  We live in a multimedia world; engage all your player’s senses!

4. “The dungeons are alive with the sound of slaying!” (with respect to Miss Andrews) – One of our readers, symatt, wrote a comment on the previous Campaign Primer post about using audio files to tell some of the stories of your game, having others speak different voices. I like the idea, but don’t have the equipment to produce the audio drama playing my in head. I simply may not have done proper research, but I like the idea. Another use of audio can be the campaign soundtrack. Michael has written some excellent posts about music for games before, and while for many years I was reluctant to use music in my games, now I am a convert and play music on my games to set the mood.

But on this instance I am not talking about music FOR the game, but music BEFORE the game, the Campaign Soundtrack idea! In our day and age it’s easy to burn a CD with a playlist; share existing playlists from your music devices, or create online collections. I have NOT done this yet but I plan to prepare one for when we retake our Pathfinder swashbuckling campaign. Simply put its collection of music appropriate for the setting, taken from movie and game soundtracks, some ambient sounds, classical music and music of specific cultures. Using the music of certain real world cultures to illustrate the music of a region or a culture in your game gives your players another mental short cut to associate with specific details from your campaign.

Let’s say that in the campaign soundtrack you identify, for example, a track of Russian folk music (like this one) as the typical music of a region in your campaign. When your players visit that place during the game, you can play that track and the players will associate what they heard in the soundtrack with what’s happening in the game and you’ll have reinforced another detail that makes your game come alive. Avoid music that is commonly known to your players unless you want to create a sense of familiarity.

Use specific pieces from existing soundtracks for NPCs or events, referring to them as the King’s March or the Dirge for the Battle of the Haunted Pass in the campaign soundtrack. Then when PCs visit the King’s court or travel to Haunted Pass you can play the music for added effect. I avoid well known soundtracks, like Conan or Lord of the Rings, they may be fine to set the mood during the game, but if they are too well known they will never be YOUR campaign’s music. Explore distant cultures and languages that sound foreign and exotic. For example, in my campaign the elven language sounds like Quechua. To illustrate what is sounds like I played Yma Sumac to my players. You can hear some of her music here. It may not sound like your idea of what elven sounds like and that is exactly the point! And of course there is this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ker24VSMImo

And this brings me to my last point…

5. “Video killed the GM star!” – I remember a client back when I worked at my FLGS who used to tell me stories about the games he would run (people telling gaming stories in stores, ludicrous I know!) and how he would show clips of movies for events and NPCs. The BBEG of his campaign was the “Lord of Darkness” from the movie Legend (Tim Curry as the BBEG, there is an idea). While I’m reluctant to just lift random clips from famous movies, as some are just too well know to gamers, I have used animations for alien landscapes, or clips from games to illustrate locations. This is perhaps the idea I have used the least, but it can be ideal for certain genres, like sci-fi, or if you play games based on movies or TV series this can be a powerful tool.

When we began playing our Pathfinder swashbuckling campaign I got together with my players to watch Treasure Island. Sadly I could not get the original Disney movie, so we watched Simbad movies instead. It might not have been exactly about the campaign, but it set the tone, they served as a primer to the type of game we would play.

Those are just five points you can take into account when you create your campaign primer. And I haven’t talked about tools such as Wikis, Blogs, I feel like there is a lot more ground to cover. I may just need to revisit this topic again.

Remember it doesn’t have to be all in paper, we can so do much more! I hope some of this may be of use to you. Please share your ideas of what you do for your game’s campaign primer, how you introduce your campaigns to your players. I’d sure like to know…

Related posts:

1. Campaign Primer Ideas! Part 1
2. Instant soundtrack for your Cthulhu campaign
3. World Building Part 8 – Kicking Off Your Homebrew Setting Campaign

Actually, my love for fonts can be traced back to my early gaming days. Perhaps many of you first discovered the idea of fantasy script with Tolkien, but while I fondly remember reading the novels I can’t say I was particularly taken by the funny looking script. The first time I made the connection that a made believe fantasy language could have a script corresponding to our own alphabet was reading the old Forgotten Realms grey box, in the book there were illustrations of the scripts of Faerun with the equivalent letters in the Latin alphabet and the Arabic numbers (that’s how I remember it and I’m not searching for the book at this our so do not thread over my memories!).

Something clicked right there and the concept of fantasy and science fiction alphabets were unleashed on my young and impressionable mind. That very same day I fired up a greeting card making software (yes we had such things back then in the olden days before the internet) and used the Cyrillic alphabet for a little greeting card for a sci-fi setting I was beginning to develop. That little card eventually became a full-fledged campaign, but I digress, that’s a post for another day. From that day on I began collecting fonts. At first I would by the font collections and install them on my archaic computer. Eventually Al Gore gave us the Internet and fonts were free to travel the Interwebz and into my gaming handouts.

Using a particular font can spruce up a hand out, set the mood and add whole new elements to even the most boring or writings. Well maybe not that last one but you get my point! I have selected fonts to represent each script used in my homebrewed fantasy world (which according to my players has TOO MANY languages and dialects… about 70!) and actually prepared a handout which illustrates the corresponding letters in the fantasy script to our modern alphabet. This was done with the intention that I could actually write messages in the fantasy script and hand them to players so they could translate them. Then I got to thinking, these languages would probably have different grammatical rules and I started tinkering with that… But I am no linguist and certainly no Tolkien so that’s a project that remains unfinished.

That however has not deterred me form continuing to download fonts. What are my favorite sources? Well glad you asked:

• Fantasy Fonts has an excellent collections of movie and fantasy inspired fonts, including some excellent symbol fonts
• Legola’s RPG Fonts Repository, who knew the elf hero retired and became a font maker? I have not counted them but the webpage says there are over 200 fonts there, and if it says so in the internet it must be true!
• dafont.com has a large collection of free fonts, not all fantasy related but well worth perusing
• Then there are Star Trek, Star Wars and a whole slew of other series, movies or even electronic games.
• There is even a page which tells you the types of fonts used in old TSR D&D products. You won’t find a link to all the actual fonts, but I find this reference intriguing, especially when planning a retro/nostalgia game!

This list is FAR from exhaustive! There are a lot more sources of free fonts out there, and many fine commercially produced fronts out there. Be sure to search for fonts that meet your needs. I invite you to share your sources of fonts, and tell us how you use them for your games. I hope this post reminds you is not just what you write, it’s how it looks!

Related posts:

1. Free Stuff Friday: Tolkien Fonts
2. Fire & Ice
3. The HPLHS Props & Fonts CD

So, let’s assume that you have some of your world done, maybe not all of it, and you also have a pretty good idea of the overriding theme and genre that the world is set in.  Now, I assume you have picked up a game system that you feel represents the setting well (you wouldn’t really want to play something like the Smallville RPG in a classic fantasy setting… duh), and have even managed to kidnap some gamers from your local FLGS, tied them to chairs, and forced them to game in your world (please don’t do that; rope can chafe, use duct tape instead its stronger and cheaper).

There are several ways that you can kick off a game set in your homebrew setting and I want to go over a few of those today.  Over at the RPG Table Talk forums, Wyatt Salazar recently made a post about developing a “primer” for his campaign world which he would give to players in order to explain in brief (5-8 pages) the gist of his world to his players.  If you haven’t had a chance to read a little bit about Spirits of Eden, you should go out and do that (I’ll wait…ok, you’re back).  I think it is a really good example of how you can develop your own homebrew world and share it with others.  I think the primer idea is a pretty good way to give your players a general idea of how the setting works and allow them something to hold on to and reference.  I remember playing a few convention games where, at registration for a particular event, they handed us a little stapled pamphlet explaining a few facts about the world and what you need to know before you start rocking out in it.  What you want to include in a primer like this can be a bit tricky though.  Try to keep things broad in scope and general in nature.  The really important thing to do here is to write down what your players need to know and what you think you, or your players, might forget to mention or remember when the time comes to actually play.  Also, with primers, you probably want to hand them out before character generation and preferably even before the first session gathering (which is usually to make character unless you do that at home before your game).  I know that I have been disappointed to come to a game with a character in hand only to find out that in that particular setting, things don’t work like I wish they would.  That can be pretty lame, especially when many hours were spent developing said character.  Sending the primer in an e-mail to your players in advance is a good way to make friends.

Another, very different way of kicking off a campaign set in your homebrew world is the dive-in method.  Instead of giving your players a lot of info about your setting up front, you just have them make their characters, do their own thing, and then throw those characters into your setting.  This method can work pretty well for vanilla settings where there isn’t a lot of extraordinarily odd or out of the ordinary things going on.  In my head, you wouldn’t want to try this method when your players might end up being crushed by the limitations that get thrown at them.  For example, you wouldn’t want one of your players having a Vampire in a world where the sun never goes down.  But, if all your players roll up generic fantasy characters and you are in a generic fantasy setting, they don’t really need to know all about your setting before they get started – in fact, a lot of the fun behind the dive-in method comes through Vanilla settings.  Instead of front-loading the game with lots of history and interesting campaign facts, you let your players explore the world and find out everything about it through play and role-play.  I could see introducing players who are familiar with D&D, but not with its settings, to places like the Forgotten Realms through this method.  FR, and maybe even Eberron, are close enough to the norm that you don’t need to do much, or any, explanation before starting your game (I might give a little info on Eberron, but not too much).

The other method, which tends to be what I do when I run my settings (since I’m really just too lazy to make a primer and my settings are usually kitchen-sink-level-RIFTS-esq.-insanity) is the Elevator Speech combined with a discussion.  Essentially, the Elevator Speech is less than a one minute intro speech in which you tell your players about your setting.  Jot down a bunch of notes and just read them off, telling your players the summed up general version of what you are working on.  If I had to write an Elevator speech for my current setting it would go something like this:

“This world is eastern in flavor, but not based around ancient Japan – think Meji Revolution meets Victorian Steampunk, but that’s not all.  The world is literally falling apart; massive storms ravage the planet while aliens from the void are subverting the powers that have been in control for the last 10,000 years – a point in history which will forever be remember because of the massive comet that destroying the cradle of civilization.  Oh… there are also giant robots, a litany of anthropomorphic bestial races, and a magical, psychic version of the internet.”

That speech would take me less than a minute to get through and would really give my players everything they need to know about the setting.  Use current examples to instantly make a connection and help your players understand exactly what you are trying to accomplish and get across with your setting (which is something I shy away from when writing primers).  The Elevator Speech also needs to give them a lot of interesting hooks to work with when they make their characters.  Like in business, the Elevator speech is all about selling the setting to your players; now, that might not work all the time (some of my setting proposals have been shot down by every group I propose them too… lots of them are just too far out there… ).  But, if your elevator speech is successful (which it probably will be since you have all your players duct taped to chairs around the table right now and nobody want to turn down a crazed DM who wields d20’s in one hand and a red-hot-white-erase-marker in the other) then you can move on to the discussion.  Let your players ask you questions and tell them freely whatever they want to know.  If they ask you something that is a secret, you might not want to give that away here, but then again, you might want to in order for your players to understand the world and make characters that better fit into that world’s theme.  Let them find enough info that they can make their characters interesting and fit in with your setting, but don’t give them so much that they would be overwhelmed.  You’ll probably end up at the discussion phase if you develop a primer as well, which is why I tend to skip the primers and just do an elevator pitch (but, for con games, or one-shots at a game store, the primer might actually be a nice little bit of advertising for your game setting, especially if you can get an artistic buddy of yours to throw some art into it, or if you can throw in a copy of the world map on the back).

Once you get your players immersed on the setting and you start playing.  Use them.  Get their help in developing the setting further through cooperative world building.  There are a lot of greats blog posts about this all over the net, so I won’t go into that here.  I’ll just say that using your players to develop your world is a really good idea and you shouldn’t try to tackle this all on your own (unless your players are too afraid of you to contribute effectively since you still have them duct taped to your dining room set… might want to let them have at least one arm free or they won’t be able to roll the dice).

As always, you can check out my blog – The Dump Stat or e-mail me at thedumpstat@yahoo.com.  I’m also on a bunch of different forums, twitter (@Shinobicow776), and MTG Online, so you will probably find me around the net if you look hard enough.  See you next week.

Related posts:

1. World Building Part 4 – Campaign Setting Genre
2. World Building Part 3 – Getting Started with World Tone
3. World Building Part 9 – The Don Draper School of World Immersion

What is this post? First and foremost a review of the GameMastery Plot Twist Cards… What are this cards I speak of? Well they are part of a series of GameMastery Cards produced by Paizo that illustrate treasure, items, NPCs, etc. While I was originally intrigued by the idea I was less than thrilled when I got the original cards. True having a card with the image of a certain piece of equipment or a magic item may be cool but I discovered that I forgot to hand them out or some players really did not care for them. Maybe I was not using them effectively. Paizo has gone on to produce decks themed to their different Adventure Paths and I imagine this must be a boon for those who play the Adventure Paths.

However the fine folk as Paizo then produced the Critical Hit Deck and the Critical Fumble Deck, both excellent products.  So after these two excellent products I was really interested in the Plot Twist Cards. Please indulge a little detour on this review… Let me tell you why.

Since beginning my, currently in hiatus, Pathfinder RPG campaign I wanted a different feel to it. I wanted to encourage swashbuckling actions and the feel of action/adventure movies. To accomplish this I implemented the use of Action Points (the old D20 variant that appeared in the 3^rd ed version of Unearthed Arcana not the new Hero Point rules recently published for Pathfinder, I began the game long before the book where they appeared was published) and included Scratch Factory’s Swashbuckling Cards to allow the players to alter the game in significant ways.

Over the last couple of years I have embraced the idea of shared storytelling where players influence the flow of the game. I have not gone full indie, all narrative no GM, “dice be dammed we are telling a story” storytelling just yet, but enough to allow the players to impact the flow of the game in significant ways. I don’t use all the Swashbuckling Cards; I revised them all and removed two I believed might prove problematic.

I also allow players to draw two cards per session and use them, either for the effect described or as a free Action Point. As a GM I also draw two cards I can use during the game with any opponent or NPC or use as Action Points for the player’s opponents. If I feel a certain card would simply ruin the game I can refuse to accept it and immediately give the player a new card. I have only done this once in over a year of playing.

My players have embraced the cards and their inclusion has greatly enhanced the game. So along come the Plot Twist Cards, I saw the cards and snatched them right away. They come with their own rules and each card has an evocative title, a small illustration and various suggestions how the card may be used in game. They are excellent as even the seemingly negative cards have suggestions that may be beneficial or fun. The idea is that player can use the cards to help them or make things more challenging, depending on the story they create together with the GM.

I doubt my players would use any of the cards to make things harder for them. They may prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening. Each card also has a rules bonus or penalty that can be used instead of the more esoteric opportunities presented by the card.

I think the open nature of the cards, the need to interpret and come up with possible applications for the cards will be the hardest aspect of the Plot Twist Cards. The Swashbuckling Cards I’m currently using, while open in many instances, have a specific effect that may need adjudicating, but it’s easily applicable. Rarely have we spent more than a minute or two clarifying a doubt on the card’s wording.

The Plot Point Cards require more interpretation and are much more open ended unless you simply use the penalty or bonuses printed on them, but if you limit yourself to this you are robbing yourself of the myriad opportunities the cards bring. They present a true opportunity to include the players in the creation of a collaborative story.

The rules that come along with the cards call for the GM to give two cards to the players at character creation, and an extra card when they go up a level. This seems too little for my current campaign, but that is the feel I am going for, larger than life adventure. The suggested pacing may work better for a traditional campaign.

Will my players like the Plot Twist Cards? That remains to be seen, I plan to show the cards to the players and discuss it with them. I am a little concerned with the open nature of the cards, I can see some players embracing it, other struggling, but I think that is part of the magic of the Plot Twist Cards. They encourage role-playing, to me that is a good thing!

Here is looking forward to the Condition Cards…

Related posts:

1. Fortune Cards, my two cents…
2. What about the GameMastery Combat Pad? A review…
3. What about the GameMastery Guide? A review…

This week’s Free Stuff is: A Death Certificate

I think we can all agree that when a player characters dies in an RPG it is sad. It’s sad for the game master and it’s sad for the player. So why not give them a little something for their death. Something like, oh I don’t know, a really cool death certificate! I don’t know about you but if I die in an RPG I sure would like to have a little something for my effort, and for the GM it’s official.

Here is your certificate of death. You are dead and no backing out of it buddy. Now go roll a new character!

On Ben’s RPG Pile website Ben wrote this stuff up: Remember all those silly paper awards you got in grade school (outstanding reader, math magician, etc)? Here’s a chance to use them in your own game but with some real flair and style. As Rob puts it, “Hey I respect your character, but man, he got jacked up!”

For DM prep, you simply have to fill in the gritty details on the template and print it out. If possible, stay classy and do it in color. Then take it to your next game session to award in a mini ceremony of sorts. If you’re feeling especially funny, don’t hesitate to get all munchkin on his ass as you hand it out.
So download the Death Certificate template today. Just don’t forget to thank Ben for the free stuff!

Related posts:

1. Free Stuff Friday: Saturday Night Delves #1: Revenge of the Iron Lich
2. Free Stuff Friday: Tolkien Fonts
3. Free Stuff Friday – Firefly RPG

Likewise my relation with the more “arts and crafts” aspects of our hobby has been more as an observer than a participant. I have friends who paint miniatures and do so with great skill, customize their creations and produce some beautiful work. I’ve been bitten by the bug before. In high school I ordered some plastic Warhammer Fantasy minis (can’t remember the set but I know it had dwarves and skavens) and some paints and tried my hand at it for the first time. I had no notion on how this was done and even though I understood the idea of priming the miniatures I overeager to paint and did not allow the primer to dry properly. Let’s just say that attempt was less than successful.

Later, in college, I tried my hand at it again and with some coaching from those aforementioned friends.  I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say when I showed the final product to a friend he asked me if I had just dunked the miniature in paint and set it out to dry. End of try two!

For years I did not play with miniatures so this was no big deal, but when D&D 3^rd edition came around I realized I needed some miniatures to get the most out of the combat system. I first I used my old HeroQuest board game minis, some other unpainted minis I had purchased thought a life of gaming, even some Mage Knight miniatures. My prayers were answered when the D&D miniatures came out and I was bit by the “plastic crack” bug (that’s what my friends and I used to call it). By now I have enough miniatures to play for a long, long while.

I am happy to move around the miniatures in a hand drawn map, or some of the tiles or maps made by Paizo and Wizards of the Coast. I’ve spoken about this in previous posts, but as I’ve met more fellow gamers over this past year through the Puerto Rico Role Players Group I’ve been amazed at some of the wonderful dioramas and models they create. These are labors of love that greatly enhance the feel of a game. When we had a table at a local convention promoting the group the reaction to the models being displayed was awesome.

So with another convention coming up we wanted to display some of those wonderful creations. Sadly both of the talented artists will not be able to attend the con, but both agreed to send some of their work and one of them actually offered to help us make some new terrain to display. I was reluctant at first. I’ve never been particularly handy and I saw little possibility I might actually be good at it, but never one to shy away from a challenge I said, “Why not!” What’s the worse that could happen? I end up with an ugly looking piece of cardboard that’s supposed to be a fort!

Last Saturday my friend Sara and I met with Jaime and Mario. Both make excellent models and terrains. Mario makes incredible pieces using everything from printed out models, to household items and even animal carcasses (I kid you not! You should see his dragon skeleton made from a rat’s skeleton…). Jaime, well Jaime is in a league of his own, he is a model maker, make up artist and all around great guy (Mario is a great guy too, I just don’t like to tell him too often or he’ll get too full of himself).

Jaime was an excellent teacher, providing materials, sound advice and patience, sharing his craft with us and actually getting me to do what I considered impossible, work on terrain for a role-playing game that actually LOOKS like what it’s supposed to represent.

We decided to work on a river bed and Sara, Mario and I each worked on a piece of the river. We carved the riverbed in Foamular and then used the same material to create promontories, boulders and rocks. We used a heat gun to give the terrain some features. Sadly I had to leave early but Mario and Jaime put the base coat of paint on the pieces and we’ll get back together next week to finish the river using some silicone.

I am so thrilled about the experience. I actually managed to make some terrain and at the stage I left it, it didn’t look half bad. You can look at the picture here in the post. I also know it had a lot to do with the teacher. Jaime is incredibly talented and patient; communicates effortlessly and gives good solid advice and encouragement. Best of all I felt this was something I could do. I am psyched about finishing this project, displaying it at the convention and maybe tackling some other projects.

I feel like I gained a geek level over the weekend!

Related posts:

1. Free Stuff Friday: One Monk Miniatures
2. D&D 4th Edition: Miniature Combat
3. Plastic Crack is Wack!

There are things like Igor Bars by John Kovalic out there! These sound delicious, but are probably heart attack inducing. But my reason for this post is just not to share recipes (we can certainly do that) but to talk about how food could enhance gaming and set the mood for a game!

I remember when I first read Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home. It was during my Dragonlance period, having just finished reading the Dragonlance Chronicles and was getting my hands on everything Dragonlance. This was NOT a gaming supplement; it was a collection of stories, poems and recipes. Yes you read that right, recipes. I was so intrigued, it was like having the cookbook of a fantasy Inn, and it seemed like magic. This was back in 1988 and I didn’t cook at all. In fact I avoided cooking for years so I never got to try Tika’s recipes.

The only time I had an edible prop in a game was during a Star Trek Adventure where the game master had Romulan Ale available for us. It wasn’t truly the legendary alcoholic beverage of the Star Trek universe, we were all still underage, but water with food coloring. I barely remember the adventure (sorry José) but the pitcher of blue liquid in the middle of the table really captured my imagination. And by the way, that last link has some nice recipes for mixing up alcoholic versions of the Romulan Ale, Star Trek party here we go!

Since then I’ve embraced the joys of cooking and the old storage room with the fridge and microwave has actually become one of my favorite rooms in my house. I love cooking and often cook for my players. My famous and artery clogging Gordopletas® have graced games and geeknics alike. Still I have NOT actually created a dinner to enhance a game.

When I began my current campaign, which is a pirate/swashbuckling themed Pathfinder RPG game, I wanted to take my players out to a restaurant called La Guarida del Pirata (The Pirate’s Hideaway, beware that last link is in Spanish) a pirate themed seafood restaurant. We didn’t go but I cooked for them, we watched a movie and discussed campaign expectations and character generation.

It was a great experience BUT I missed the opportunity to make food part of the experience. I want to change this, I really want to find an opportunity were I can cook for my players and make it part of the gaming experience. Perhaps we have a dinner party in game and then have food in real life. I want to play a zombie game for Halloween, I can already think of some possibilities. Brains!

Do you integrate food into your gaming? Do you cook or prepare something special for your players?

I better dig out the Leaves form the Inn of the Last Home. I’ll keep you update of my attempts to bring food into my games in a meaningful way.

Related posts:

1. Food at the table (or other designated gaming area) what to do… Ask the readers!
2. Ask the Readers: What do you eat at the gaming table?
3. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 1: Role Playing Games

“Cool” I thought, “I completely forgot I was apart of DM Rewards program.

When I got home I couldn’t wait long to open the envelope from Wizards. I cleared off a space on my dinning room table and opening the envelope and pulled out all of it’s contents.

The first thing on top was a Welcome to DM Rewards letter that reads:

DM Rewards Letter

Welcome To DM Rewards!

Contained within this envelope is your reward adventure entitled Tomb of Horrors, and update of the classic 1st Edition adventure for the 4th Edition game! You’re Receiving this reward for simply signing up and being a current active member of our DM Rewards program. Consider it a “thank you” from Wizards of the Coast for the time you take to offer your players the enjoyment of a Dungeons & Dragons game!

Each year you’ll want to update your contact information with us by logging into your account online at membership.wizards.com and updating your personal information. That way, you can be sure that you’ll continue to receive your free reward just for being a part of the program. In order to receive the reward for 2011, you must either have signed up for the DM rewards between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011, or log in to your profile to update your personal information during that time period.

In addition to your annual reward mailing, we’ll be sending you something special twice a year for DMing a minimum number of games during a 6 month cycle. Each game you DM is worth 1 point, and if you ear 5 or more points during the reward cycle ( which runs January 1 – June 30 and July 1 – December 31 each your), We’ll send you something cool that you can use in your games and show off to your friends! We send these rewards out twice a year in August and February.

Welcome to the program. We hope you enjoy the free adventure and all the great stuff to come!

Chris Tulach
D&D Organized Play Content Developer
Wizards of the coast

TOMB OF HORRORS! I have read so much about the Tomb of Horrors from Wikipedia and other sources on the Internet. I picked up the original Tomb of Horrors adventure written by Gary Gygax from Amazon.com earlier this year. You can also download a free 3rd edition of the Tomb of Horrors adventure form Wizards of the coast. I have also been eagerly anticipating the release of the  Tomb of Horrors: A 4th Edition D&D Super Adventure next week. After reading the Welcome to DM Rewards letter I made a mental note to log into membership.wizards.com and update my address information.

Encounters Ad

Setting the letter aside on my table the next item was an ad for Dungeons & Dragons Encounters. It read “Find More Adventure Every Wednesday At A Store Near You”.

After setting the Dungeons & Dragons Encounters ad aside I saw the meat and potatoes of my Wizards of the Coast package.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tomb of Horrors. An Adventure For five 9th – Level Characters. Gary Gygax • Scott Fitzgerald Gray. As well as a large battlemap.

4E Tomb of Horrors Cover

So that part is a little different from the Original Tomb of Horrors that came out in 1978. The original cover of Tomb of Horrors got players from levels 10 – 14 and on the cover of this version it says “an Adenture for five 9th – level Characters.

The introduction reads to the Tomb of Horrors reads:

The text above, penned by Gary Gygax, heralded Tomb of Horror’s assault on the unsuspecting hobby in 1978. One of the handful of now classic adventures modules published in the earliest days of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, The Tomb made it’s first appearance three years before as the official D&D tournament adventure at the original 1 gaming convention. It used the original Dungeons & Dragons rules, published in 1974. In the time since, the adventure has become a legend in gaming circles – loved by some, vilified by others, and indelibly burned into the memories of every player and D< who set their imaginations loose within it.

In 1998, the original adventure became the centerpiece for (and was reprinted as part) the legendary Return to the Tomb of Horrors boxed set for 2nd Edition AD&D. At the height of 3rd Edition’s popularity. Return author Bruce R. Cordell updated the adventure as a free release.

Now, the most legendary dungeon crawl in gaming history has been updated for 4th Edition D&D rules. In keeping with the spirit of the new edition, the challenges herein might prove more calculated and consistent than those of the original adventure. Be warned, however, that the challenges can be just as deadly. Characters who survive the adventure should attain 11th level and will have begun to make a name for themselves as they cross from the heroic to the paragon tier.

Tomb Of Horrors Map

This 4th Edition of the original Tomb of Horrors takes players from level 9 though level 11th. In fact it uses the worlds “Characters who survive the adventure should attain level 11th”. I think anyone who is not formiliar with the Tomb of Horrors should take heed of all the warnings in this adventure. The adventure booklet also continas a larg poster of the entier map thought it is not to scale for use of miniatures. The cardboard cover that the adventure sits in also contains another company of the map printed inside.

I also want to take amoment and talk about the art inside the 4th Edition of Tomb of Horrors. The art they use in this booklet is the same as the art from the orgion Tomb of Horrors. Not every single bit of art is used but most of it is that’s for sure.

Wikipedia states

Gygax designed the adventure both to challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign, and to test players who boasted of having mighty player characters able to best any challenge.

Wikipedia also has a quote from Lore Sjöberg of Wired on Tomb of Horrors.

This is a D&D adventure created in 1978 for the purposes of testing the wit and fortitude of adventuring parties at game tournaments. “Testing” is used here in the same sense as the sentence “We’ll be testing the dog for rabies.” Let’s just say the subject is not expected to survive the procedure.

Tomb Of Horrors Art

You know what? If you haven’t done it already check out the wikipeda page on the Tomb of Horrors and read the whole reception section. The point I am trying to make here is don’t just pull out this adventure module and run it for your gaming group until you fully understand what your going to put them through, and until they fully understand the warnings.  I have not even run my own party through this adventure because of that fact.

The original Tomb of Horrors is one of the best adventure modules I have ever purchased because of all the ideas it has given me for traps and map layouts. It has been difficult to try and convert the traps to a 4th edition version so this updated adventure module should be a big help.

If you would like to get free adventures and swag from Wizards of the Coast, then sign up for a DCI account in the DM Rewards program. It’s not the easyest thing to do, but the pay outs are pretty awesome.

Related posts:

1. Dungeonslayers: Tomb of the Witchking
2. GameScience Dice Review
3. Dungeons & Dragons Red Box Review

In planning this adventure I did things a little differently then I normally do. I picked up a copy of Sly Flourish’s Dungeon Master Tips book and used the game planning techniques inside to plan out this adventure. As a result the game went flawlessly. Not since my very first game of Dungeons & Dragons have I felt so prepared at the game table.

I have nothing but good things to say about Sly Flourish’s book. it’s filled with straight forward advice and checklists for creating a great Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Dungeon Master Tips book along with Robin’s Law should be required reading for anyone who takes on the roll of Dungeon Master.

My players first had to transverse the Forest of Illusion, navigate their way through a Black Crystal Cave with a  scary, sleeping, silver dragon and finally make their way through a labyrinth to dispatch some Minotaur. In the end my party was successful in obtaining the Royal Sword of the Elvish Plains People.

In this adventure I was able to use my battlemats for the Forest of Illusion and Minotaur battles. I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to have when it came to draw things out on the battlemats. I think it shows. In the future I am going to try my best to avoid being rushed when drawing out encounters. (Famous last words, right?)

The Black Crystal cave on the other hand turned out pretty well. I used several of my Hirsh Arts Castlemolds as well as my Combat Tiers. Though I was happy with how the encounter looked visually, it did not play out at all how I had envisioned in my head. Which was good in the long wrong. My players where think outside the box and I was able to go with the flow of something completely unexpected happening.

My players managed to sneak through the cave without waking the silver dragon or other hidden monsters I had lying around. They got through that particular encounter without a scratch. In doing so they also passed up two treasure chests and several barrels and boxes.

After the game was over my fiancée cooked up some freshly caught salmon a family friend bought for us the day before. We all sat around and ate dinner chatting about the game and other things going on in each others lives. Good times.

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3. The Worst Game of My Life

This weeks Free Stuff is: Firefly RPG

Here’s How It Is…

The Earth got used up, and we found a new solar system and used terraforming technology to create hundreds of new Earths. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided that all worlds should unite under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the Unification War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain’s goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

If you play the Serenity Role Playing Game then your going to want some free stuff to go along with it. How about some free weapons? Maybe you could use some free maps?  Perhaps you need a free ship to travel across the vers? I think your going to be happy with what Firefly RPG has to offer you. Plus it’s all free! You can’t be that!

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Recently I ran into an issue with my weekly D&D game. My players where trying to attack a dragon while it was flying away. It became increasingly difficult to track how high up and how far away the dragon was as it flew away. Because this was such a pain in my game I started investigating solutions.

Enter Combat Tiers by Tinkered Tactics. A set of durable acrylic platforms and stands with a one inch by one inch grid making it much easier to track your in air combat.

Paizo.com has a family pack of Combat Tiers for 40 bucks which is the set I bought.

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3. Ultimate Combat playtest for the Pathfinder RPG

This week’s Free Stuff is: Tolkien Fonts
Fonts? What the heck would I need fonts for? Well let me tell you buddy. Sometimes when I play an RPG I like to have notes or cryptic messages for my players to fine or decipher. They love doing stuff like that and just eat it up! This is one site I have used in the past to find a font I could use in my game. So Go check it out and down load some FONTS!

On the Tolkien Fonts website they wrote this stuff up: “Here you can find various Lord of the Rings fonts, especially the Ringbearer Font and Aniron Font“

So please check out the site and start downloading some free fonts.

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Today I want to talk about a product I found by Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture Inc. called Castlemolds. Castlemolds are silicone rubber molds used with Plaster of Paris to cast environmental pieces for your RPG. The molds they offer are by no means limited to just Dungeons & Dragons. Their flooring molds can be as small as ¾ of an inch to as large as 2 inches. They also offer molds for walls, doors, and many other environmental pieces that could be used in an RPG.

I have purchased several molds from Hirst Arts and have been very impressed with the results. The detail put into each casted mode really shines through to the finished product.

I found the Hirst Arts website was very helpful for someone like me who has never done any kind of mold casting or painting like this before. They offer step-by-step guides to help you though creating your mold casts, and painting them. They also have a forum where users talk about their own techniques and show off their latest creations.

There are aspects to using Castlemolds that might hinder some people. For one it takes time. Up to 30 minutes in some cases before you can pop out a block from your silicone mold. Then up to a day to let the blocks air dry before you can start painting them. You will need a place to store the finished blocks and molds in-between uses. With paints, brushes, Plaster of Paris, blocks, and molds these items can quickly take up a lot of space.

The plus side is that you get to present to your RPG players a rich and interesting environment to explore and unravel your adventure in.

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1. Review: L5R Enemies of the Empire
2. DM Rewards: Tomb of Horrors Review
3. Salmon and D&D

The Trail of Cthulhu introductory adventure which you can find in the back of the book is actually based on a real series of crimes that have been committed in Cleveland. After I’ve run the first half of the adventure I then decided to get the book that Ken Hite obviously used for research on the case.

The book called “TORSO – The Story of Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathic Killer” by Steven Nickel is recommended reading for everyone interested in running this adventure. Not only does it give you additional background information on the US in the 1930s, Cleveland and the case itself, but the information about the persons working on the case, the suspects and the victims might help you to flesh out the NPCs. The middle section of the book even contains a few photographs that would make perfect handouts for your game. If I ever run the adventure again for a different group, I will probably create a file consisting of the handouts contained in the ToC rule book, the photos from the Steven Nickel book and some mock-up newspaper clippings.

I have to admit that I regret not having bought “TORSO” earlier since my descriptions of some persons and places is quite different from the real deal, so I can’t use the photos anymore (at least not without contradicting myself).

I’ve also found a great high quality map of Cleveland especially created for the adventure which contains photos, handwritten notes and more. You can download the full 4 MByte version of the map here. I don’t think printing it on a regular printer might do the trick, but if you find a copy shop that can do prints in DIN A3 (or a similar format) the results should be much better. The map is very detailed and will help the players to get a better feeling of the area where the murderer dumped his victims, which has some significance to the plot.

Related posts:

1. Please show me your homemade GM screens! (Update)
2. Please show me your homemade GM screens!
3. My experiences with “Trail of Cthulhu”

If you have a cool homemade GM screen, please don’t be shy and send me some photos showing off your work! You can send your photos either to info (at) stargazersworld.com or just post links to the photos in the comments below!

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That’s why I would like to do the same here. Please send me photographs of your home-made GM screens. You can send the photos in JPG or PNG format to info (at) stargazersworld.com and please make sure, each photo is not larger than 1MB in size. If you want to send me more than one photo, that’s ok, but please don’t exceed a maximum of 5 photos per email. It would be great if you could also provide me with how you want to be called in the post, what game you use the GM screen for and you may even write down a paragraph about how you created it or everything else you want to share with us.

I will then select the photos that impressed me most and will post them here on the blog. If I get more photos than I can fit into one post, I will either set up a gallery here one the blog and/or split up the post into multiple parts.

If you already have posted your GM screen on the web you can of course just post a link to the photo in the comments below!

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1. Please show me your homemade GM screens! (Update)
2. Home-made GM screens @ System matters
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I haven’t tried creating my own map using this tutorial yet, but from what I’ve seen so far its easy enough to follow if you have some experience with Adobe Photoshop. Please note that you need to register at the forums to be able to access the attached images in the tutorial.

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2. Work in progress
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Especially fall and winter are perfect seasons for horror campaigns. The days are getting shorter, the shadows are growing longer, it’s cold and uncomfortable outside and oustide activities become less and less attractive. Usually when you try to run horror campaigns in summer and spring you encounter several problems. For one it’s usually easier to pull off a horror atmosphere when it’s dark outside. Most people have fear in the dark or at least feel slightly uncomfortable which definitely helps to set the mood. I also noticed that people are usually more willing to get into the right mood for horror when it’s cold and rainy outside. Your mileage may vary of course.

There are a few games I am considering right now. I am already running a Rippers campaign for quite some time now, but it’s not as horror-laden as I wished, but that’s something I can easily change. But my players are currently happy with the campaign’s style right now, so I consider offering them to run a second/alternative campaign over the fall/winter months.

As an alternative I could run a horror solo game with my girlfriend as I planned a long time ago. Alas this plan never left the development stage, but since the "stars are right” this idea may see the light of day (or the darkness of night) after all.

One of my all-time favorite horro games is Call of Cthulhu. Most of you are probably familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, so I don’t have to go into details about the setting here. Especially on a rainy winters day nothing is more fun than to fighting a losing battle against old gods, aliens and insanity. This time I am actually considering purchasing one of the classic CoC campaigns. I have run self-written Call of Cthulhu adventures before, but I just don’t have enough time to properly research, write and prepare an epic Lovecraftian horror campaign right now. So just using a tested campaign may be the best way to go.

Instead of using the Call of Cthulhu rules by Chaosium I actually consider using Trail of Cthulhu, which is using the Gumshoe system. The Gumshoe system was created for campaigns where the focus is on investigations and less on combat. And that is exactly what I am usually aiming for in any horror game. Pelgrane Press’ another horror roleplaying game Esoterrorists could be an alternative to classic Lovecraftian horror. As Trail of Cthulhu it uses the Gumshoe system, but this time the players have actually a chance to make it through the campaign alive (and somewhat sane).

Especially if your players are well versed in the Cthulhu mythos, Esoterrorists could be a welcome change. Instead of “just another Byakhee” or “not Nyarlathotep” again, they are confronted with new and original adversaries. Esoterrorists also allows you to run a campaign reminiscent of the X-Files, with federal agents investigating all kinds of mysterious events all over the United States (or wherever you want to set your campaign). If you haven’t done so, you should at least leaf through the book in your local game store. There are already a couple of supplements and adventures available including a full-blown campaign and even a soundtrack!

If you want some more action in your horror game, I would have a look at Hunter: The Vigil or its predecessor Hunter: The Reckoning. I recently acquired a copy of the latter in a garage sale and I enjoyed reading it very much, but from what I’ve heard, Hunter: The Vigil is a better game in all respects. First and foremost the updated World of Darkness rules are in my opinion many times better than the old ones.
The new setting in Hunter: The Vigil finally allows players to play real humans. In Hunter: The Reckoning the player characters had special abilities which made them just another kind of monsters. The updated setting of Hunter: The Vigil allows for a three-tiered game, where GM and players decided which power-level they prefer. Especially a tier 1 game could be a great basis for a horror campaign.

Ok, you’ve decided you want to run a horror game, you’ve chosen one of the many available settings and perhaps you have even prepared a campaign. Now you really should think about music and props. In my opinion both may not be vital for a good horror game experience, but if used right, they can contribute a lot.

As I’ve pointed out in many posts before, music can help to set the mood. And especially in a horror game mood is everything. Horror movie soundtracks usually work pretty well. I have also used candles for lighting in horror games in the past which usually works great. But beware candles on the game table can be a distraction, too. So, if your players are playing with candles wax instead of focussing on the game you should consider using electrical light instead.

If you ask me, handouts are a must in any investigative game. If the players find a newspaper article, a scrap of paper in the clenched fist of a dead man or some strange runes on the wall of an desecrated church, make sure you have an appropriate handout ready. If you have any artistic skill, a sketch of the monster they encounter or perhaps even a small statue may be pretty cool.

I believe these tips should help you jumpstart your horror campaign. As always I am keen on hearing from you. What horror roleplaying game is your favorite? And what do you use to set the mood? Please post your thoughts in the comments below!

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1. Horror Improved!
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3. The Cold War and the Cthulhu Mythos

Yesterday I even started to create my own Mercator-style map for my Asecia reboot. I am not quite done, but perhaps you’re interested in the result:

Please note, that you have to sign up at the Cartographer’s Guild forum to see the embedded images there. But luckily someone already created a PDF version of the tutorial that I decided to mirror here for your convenience.

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Last week I started working on a SF campaign after my players told me that they wanted to play “something with space ships and laser guns”. We checked out the SF campaign settings I already own (including Star Wars, Babylon 5, etc.) and then decided that we wanted something original. 

After throwing around several ideas in the back of my head I settled on a pretty hard SF campaign that focusses on the solar systems in close vicinity to our own sun. And in order to visualize the campaign area to the players I created a starmap. Using this map as basis I started by adding a nice backdrop photo and a hex grid. The suns and labels where created in Photoshop.

I have to admit that I am pretty content with how the map turned out. The grid is not very helpful as it is, but I gives the map this “Traveller sector map” look.

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1. Cheap battlemats!
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The process of making a font is quite easy: you download a template as PDF or image file and either print it out and fill it with your handwriting, or you can create the font on your computer using a drawing program. Then you reupload the filled template to YourFonts. Voilá! That’s it!

For more information on this service, check out the original Lifehacker post or the official YourFonts site. Please note that there a lot of tasks in the font generation queue, so it may take some while until you can upload your templates.

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• Ticket-O-Matic
  Create your own first class airplane ticket. The generator allows you to choose from 33 airline.
  
• MagMyPic
  This service allows you to create a fake magazine cover. 
   
• Old Photo Generator
  This nifty tool let’s you age your photos. That’s especially handy if you take some photos for your next Cthulhu session and age them to make them look like they were from the 19th century.
   
• Monsterizer!
  Ok, you can’t really use that for your roleplaying session… hmm … perhaps a very creative GM could make use of this tool, but it’s fun!
  The “Monsters Initial Stickers Name Generator” creates something like this (you can enter your own words of course):
  
   

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2. Newspaper Clippings
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By the way I think my fellow-blogger Uncle Bear has used this generator before to create newspaper clippings for his blog. So you obviously can even use this web tool to pimp your blog! Check it out!

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