B/X and Labyrinth Lord Sheet

Blank character sheet for B/X and Labyrinth Lord games, as posted earlier. Hopefully no dreadful spelling errors.

Some of these elements were lifted from other sheets, such as one I did for Andy Solberg's Iron League. So it's a bit of an amalgam. But I really like the balance here. It's not too busy and it's nice and clean. Some things are not represented, such as alignment, but that's easily inserted ("chaotic magic-user"). I added "willpower" to the Wisdom uses because I use the standard modifier in my games for certain on-the-fly tests of willpower.

Hey, I fixed it!

EDIT: I corrected the sheet due to a few errors. Thanks for pointing them out, everyone!

B/X Ho!

This Wed at Jarfly, a local brewery, I will be running some good old B/X D&D. With house rules, natch. What house rules, you ask? Not too many. In fact I'm keeping the system-wide house rules to a small number that I just can't live without. Crits, luck, death saves, some stuff about magic-users, fighters using monster attack roll table, and of course THIEVES.

I will be employing Necrotic Gnome's lovely re-indexing of B/X D&D called B/X Essentials. I shall put those little books to the test.

Also, here's the character sheet I'll be using. I'm taking about 20 pregens to the table. Several fighters, magic-users, and thieves. A couple of clerics. And some oddballs like swineriders, neanderthals, witches, and summoners (some from Black Pudding, others not). Stoked!

Attack rolls: Those of you paying nerd level attention will note that a level 3 dwarf in B/X should hit AC 0 with a roll of 19, not 17. I decided that fighters and fighter-based classes such as dwarfs should not be hitting at the same rate as god damned magic-users for three levels. So they will be using the attack matrix for monsters instead.

Character sheets: These sheets are a combination of a few different sheets I have worked on in the past. They combine elements of a sheet I did for Andy Solberg's Tales of the Iron League with some other sheet elements I have used here and there. You'll also possibly note that the "special abilities, skills, and spells" type headers are copy-pasted straight from a Dyson Logos character sheet. This is because I had a whole other set of level 3 pregens that were on his sheets. I wanted to transfer them to my own sheets but I was too lazy to redo those bits so I just copied the necessary stuff. It's a Frankenstein's character sheet!!

EDIT: I swapped out the images on this post because the originals had the ability score list screwed up.

Once Again with the Thieves

In a couple of weeks I'll be starting a regular game at a local brewery. I plan to run B/X using B/XE at the table. I want as few house rules as possible. One rule is regarding thief skills... because as written, they really do suck the big one.

This is just a refinement of an idea I've ranted about for years. I believe this is a very simple way to handle thief skills and goes a long way toward correcting the (IMHO) poorly-designed thief skill set without changing the stats or adding too many fiddly bits.

-Thieves roll their skill on percentile dice + an ability check at the same time. If the percentile roll is good, ignore everything else because they have perfectly executed their subtle craft and cannot fail. Otherwise, go with a simple ability check.

-Non-thieves do sneaky stuff on an ability check, usually with Disadvantage. They cannot do super-secret stuff like climbing sheer surfaces or disarming complex traps (unless the player has a terrific plan).

The idea here is to say that thief skills are special. The thief isn't merely trying to be very quiet or trying to find footholds on a wall. They have been trained or have discovered lost secrets or have tapped into natural talents that normal people cannot access. The thief doesn't simply "hide" in shadows, they fucking disappear. If that percentile roll is a good one, the thief cannot be detected. They are as good as invisible, though not in a magical way.

Failing the percentile roll means they have not executed their subtle craft perfectly and they can be detected or they can fall to their doom. At that point, an ability check tells the story. But note that while non-thieves make their sneaky ability checks at Disadvantage most of the time, thieves do not.

And that's pretty much it. I think this method is intuitive when you describe the thief skills as being esoteric and carefully developed. It has logical consistency and definitely helps mitigate those god awful 10% skill rolls.

Bushido!

Here's a thing I picked up recently on a whim. Here's how it happened:

1. I saw a post on G+ where someone was selling Bushido RPG books.
2. I remembered owning Bushido in high school. It means something because it was the first time I got a money order and mailed off for a book. Special!
3. Noticed the books were not in original box. Nerd mind kicked in.
4. Found complete box set on eBay, sans the wacky tiny d20 that my original set came with.
5. Bought the damn box set.
6. Spent some time looking at it, flipping through the books, reading some bits I remembered from long ago. Smiled.
7. Posted about it.

The box is beat up but it's been 37 years so...

This isn't actually the printing of the box set that I owned back in the day. Mine was all black. I ordered it via a Dragon Magazine ad. I think it was $8 if I remember correctly. I was so excited when that package arrived! I do remember this stuff being in my box, but also a tiny tiny d20.

The good stuff inside!

The box may look like shit, but the books and other contents are in excellent condition. There is some wear on the books, but not much. The map and reference sheet are perfect. Almost as if they were never used... hmmm.

Thing is, I never played this game. I never even fully read the rules. I skimmed it, read bits, stole bits, and got inspired by it. I remember especially being fond of stealing the weapons table and using it for D&D. I even wrote up a budoka character class for D&D and rolled up a few PCs that I never used.

So the thing about Bushido is that I'll never ever run it in a hundred years. I'll keep this box set, mostly on the shelf, and I'll pull it out now and then to look at it. I'll maybe eventually read the whole thing. I'll steal from it and be inspired by it. But I have no illusions about running it. Not gonna happen. And since this is an FGU game I probably would not like the way it plays anyway. The presentation is crunchy and I'm not a big fan of crunch.

Of course if I found a group playing it I might join in at some point. That much is for sure.

Art Prints?

I did some research on reasonable prints and found that some services are pretty good and fairly reasonable. I ordered two prints from pixels.com and they really impressed me.

This one is the art I did for the cover of Winds of the Ice Forest. It is printed on heavy watercolor style paper. These prints are archival and have something like a 50 year guarantee against fading. They were shipped as rolled prints and I put them under a heavy book for a couple of months. So I signed this one and I plan to get a frame for it.

The other one is The Rat Queen Dies Tonight map from Black Pudding #5. This one is also on archival paper, but it's more of a bristol type. Like a heavy cardstock, smooth.

For this print I plan to color it by hand and then frame it. I think that would be a really fun way to create some interesting tangible art (most of my work is digital, you know).

I have no idea how to market these things. I suppose for now I'm just going to put them out there and see if there is any interest. If you like collecting originals and/or prints let me know what you think.

OSR

The fuckin' OSR. Who would have thought a movement about making and playing old style elf games could generate controversy?

For my part, the OSR is a creative movement and I love it very much. I fully realize there are problems within the various OSR communities and people who want to completely avoid them have every right to do so. I personally don't think of the OSR as a community. It's more like ten different communities with varying degrees of overlap.

No. Much more than a community, it is an artistic, creative movement. It's a way of making and playing games. It's a way of taking an old thing you love and making art with it. For me, that is. That's why I choose to play in this sandbox. Black Pudding is all about playing in that sandbox.

And the truth is that "OSR" is just a handy label. It's short, has a meaning I can get behind, and is recognizable. It's fully interchangeable with other terms like "DIY D&D" or just "old school gaming". And when you drill deep down into it, this isn't even simply about D&D. It largely is, I would argue, just by looking at the actual content being produced. But no, it's more than just that. Whether you're into Fighting Fantasy or Call of Cthulhu it's got a common core.

I was the kid who wanted to buy paper and pencils, not toys. I wanted the rub off decals and markers. Remember those 99 cent rub off things? I can't remember what they were called. You got a little plastic sleeve in which you found a folded up background image, such as Batman's cave or Road Runner roads. And there was a sheet of images of Batman, Robin, Coyote, Penguin, etc., and you would put the image where you wanted it on the background and then rub it off with a pencil or something. And BAM! you created your own image, story, scene...

OSR, RPG, gaming, D&D... it's all about games of WHAT THE FUCK IF. And I love playing what the fuck if better than anything. I guess that's all I have to say about that.

Black Pudding Character Sheet III

Another character sheet, specifically for the Black Pudding OSR Playbook. But of course it works for most OSR, especially Swords & Wizardry.

Alternate Ability Score Method

Some players are not comfortable with the swingy 3d6 method of rolling ability scores. Mainly because of those nasty low results. And why not? This is supposed to be a game of fantastic action, treasure hunting, monster fighting! You want a larger than life PC. And while I actually love the 3d6 method, I find it much better suited to DCC RPG style funnel play than standard D&D play.

Here's an alternate method that avoids the worst of the negative modifiers while still being random and leaving room for low stats. This is a snippet from Black Pudding #6. This section is meant to augment the OSR Playbook presented in issue #4.

Black Pudding #6... and more

Now that I'm in the latter half of my Xmas vacation I finally got around to working on something. Specifically, I'm diggin hard into Black Pudding #6. Specifically, at this moment, the Meatshields segment.

This segment is always super fun for me. I never plan it, I just let shit emerge. I grab sketches and bits of art here and there, strip characters out, reuse, remix, and just let the chips fall where they may. I'm proud of this super goofy bullshit and I hope it shows.

Example... I just gave chewing weed and a spitune to a busty paladin. Because I can and I did. And it's a glorious feeling to be creatively unfettered. I'm not trying to win any awards or impress any particular people with this project. Black Pudding is just my zine. It is exactly the kind of shit that I would do if given the chance to just do some shit. Which is exactly what I'm doing.

Not that I don't care about quality or doing awesome things. I absolutely do want this book to be cool and impressive. Just as importantly, I want it to be useful. Because as much as I believe RPGs are an art form, I also fully acknowledge they are a hobby pastime... a game. And there are practical concerns at the gaming table. I try to give you a bit of a random shotgun blast of fun stuff you can pluck out and use as desired. Much of it does fit into a greater setting-specific context, for me, but I try not to stuff the pages with too much of that.

Later, at some point, I may collect, revise, and remix a lot of this content into a setting book or standalone game. But right now I'm happy to keep letting the muses guide me down random paths of old school roleplaying goodness.

Dwarfen Saves

Heh. I did this last year for Inktober. A bit of a homage to B/X dwarfs. Also, that's the coolest thief I ever drew. He's skeevy and sleezy. The stripes suggest prison... oh so many stereotypes. I think I'll add him to the Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox.