Humpday Blog-O-Rama 3.11.20

Blogs are an integral, vital part of the RPG hobby. They serve as incubators for new games, sounding boards for fresh ideas, and platforms for up-and-coming talent. They keep "forgotten" games alive, foster discussions, and build communities.

Every Wednesday on the Thought Eater podcast and blog, I take a look at what is going on in the vibrant RPG blog scene. Check out previous Humpday Blog-O-Rama posts HERE.

CLICK HERE for listening options or use the player below!






INTRO

https://anchor.fm/noahms456

https://thac0rpg.blogspot.com/2020/03/happy-birthday-to-blog.html

http://rpgbuyer.com/

https://strangevistas.org/2020/03/05/saying-goodbye-to-some-old-friends-2/



THERE AND BACK AGAIN

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2020/03/frodo-lives.html

https://frialigan.se/en/news/#/pressreleases/free-league-signs-deal-to-publish-rpgs-in-tolkiens-middle-earth-2979811

https://rollingboxcars.com/2020/03/04/a-look-at-the-heros-journey-2nd-edition/



MAPS

http://bearded-devil.com/2020/03/03/map-of-the-quill-coast/

https://graemedavis.wordpress.com/2020/03/09/monday-maps-8-a-noble-mansion/

https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=46042&page=2&p=414338#post414338

REVIEWS AND RETROSPECTIVES

https://www.tribality.com/2020/03/04/dms-guild-review-kakobear/

https://waynesbooks.games/2020/03/04/cyborg-commando-gary-gygaxs-first-game-after-tsr-1987/

https://dumpstatadventures.com/blog/deep-dive-the-beholder

https://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2020/03/far-future-dungeon-delving.html

https://flintlocksandwitchery.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-supercrew.html

https://tabletopbellhop.com/gaming-advice/quick-and-easy-two-player-board-games/

https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/611696561348640768/a-carbuncle-resembles-an-armadillo-with-telepathic

https://osrgrimoire.blogspot.com/2020/03/blackmoor-men-magic.html



RANDOM TABLES AND GENERATORS

https://throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2020/03/d20-magical-precipitations.html

http://rememberdismove.blogspot.com/2020/03/d20-more-magical-precipitations.html

FREE STUFF

https://polyhedralnonsense.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/hostile-traveller-cepheus-engine-character-sheet/

https://polyhedralnonsense.wordpress.com/2020/03/08/hot-zone-player-gm-handouts-traveller-cepheus/

https://thedicequeen.wordpress.com/osrd/

https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-hydra.html
https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-gnoll.html
https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-treant.html
https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-vampire.html
https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-gargoyle.html
https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2020/03/ose-encounter-activities-crab-giant.html

http://d20pirates.blogspot.com/2020/03/sailing-ships-for-savage-worlds.html

https://www.lythia.com/game_aides/diseases/

MISCELLANY

https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2020/03/03/a-pax-east-2020-roundup/

https://garycon.com/gary-con-and-grand-mitigate-risk/

https://www.geeknative.com/71569/at-least-15-creators-working-on-modiphius-dune-rpg

https://dmmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/03/in-this-day-of-march-we-remember-giant.html

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2020/03/04/today-is-the-dm-day-twelve-years-ago-gary-gygax-left-the-prime-material-plane/

http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/2020/03/its-not-easy-being-green.html

ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE 4E A CHANCE

https://gnomestew.com/system-splicing-dd-4th-ed/

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month.

Free and Pay-What-You-Want 5e DMs Guild Highlights: Week Ending 6.8.19

Every week, talented creators upload products to the DMs Guild, pricing them as free or pay-what-you-want in order to reach customers. Dozens of new free and pwyw products are added each week alone. It is a lot to sort through. My hope is that highlighting a few of each week's best supplements will help the designers get the attention they deserve.

You can find previous posts in this series HERE.

One cool thing about the DMs Guild is that creators often release a lot of material to support current storylines. The first three products for today would all be useful in a Saltmarsh/nautical campaign. 

Daerdan's Tall Tales: Ten Seafaring Encounters from Wyatt Trull

Shorter previews of longer products are sometimes throwaways, but this is an exception. What you have here are ten encounters taken from a much longer supplement, 101 Seafaring Encounters. The author utilizes ideas drawn from 4e's skill challenges, offering some creative scenarios for a Saltmarsh/nautical campaign. I really appreciated the monster and magic item index at the back. Bonus points for using a dragon turtle. 

Saltmarsh Ship Battle Maps and Sheet from Louis Porter Jr. 

This is my favorite ship sheet that I have seen so far. Really clean and easy to read. Also includes some maps with the different "levels" of a ship. 

Encounters on the Savage Seas III FREE from Multiple Authors

Woah! GMs are getting spoiled today! These six nautical "encounters" are more like mini-adventures. I really liked the "Gray Matter" encounter...reminded me of Creepshow 2. If you have ever seen it, you will know what I mean. Anyway, if you dig this, consider purchasing the other two in the series HERE and HERE. 

The Grim Reaper-Warlock Subclass from Midnight Tower

You had me at "zombie cat familiar".

Secret Spells of Gravity Magic from Art of Karthik

I absolutely LOVED this short collection of physics-inspired spells. Pull foes into an elliptical orbit, then let em' fly with Newton's Slingshot. Warp gravity and vanish with Pound-Rebka's Slow Time. Great stuff...but that Sphere of Annihilation material component is gonna be tricky. 

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month. 

Let's Clear Up A Few 4e Myths

Howdy. I had a few disparate blog ideas running thru the head, and I realized they all could be used to dispel a few 4e myths, so I have combined them together. First off, don't get me wrong, 4e isn't perfect and I don't claim it to be. Readers of this blog know that I constantly tinker with 4e to make it something I like more. That's sort of the essence of D&D after all: making the game your own. But I am undoubtedly a huge fan of 4e. Anyway, here are some common 4e myths and my response:





"It is difficult to convert old modules to 4e"

I don't now who started this one, but it simply isn't true. I've mentioned before that I drop Skill Challenges from my games. One of the reasons for this is that, on its own, the 4e skill system is very smooth, intuitive, and covers pretty much anything that comes up (and if something else comes up, you can roll with Ability Checks). Anyway, in my experience the 4e skill system works like a charm in updated adventures. I updated Ravenloft (I6) for 4e. There are all kinds of roleplay moments, exploration, etc where skills came up. I just rolled with it if the players wanted to use one, or called for a check if it was really needed. So there is really no conversion necessary for an old modules' out-of-combat material. It can be handled on the fly quite easily.

The monster conversion is where the real challenges would appear to begin. Now, I am not going to say converting monsters from 1e to 4e is as easy as 1e to B/X or 2e, because it isn't. But 4e does have a strength that those games lack: 4e monsters have specific formulas to work from. This can help DMs determine difficulty fairly accurately, but more importantly, it is very easy to make 4e monsters.

Confronted with the need to convert a monster in an old module, the first step I would encourage is to see if there is a 4e version within your party's level range. If so, check the source and see if it is post MM3. If it isn't, try these tips to upgrade old crappy monsters on the fly. If the monster isn't in your party's range, it is fairly straightforward to adjust. The design remains the same, you just plug in different numbers. Make sure you are using the DMG errata though.

If you can't find the monster in a 4e source, or if you don't like what 4e did the monster, build your own. This doesn't have to be laborious. Use this guide to make quick 4e monsters. Try to distill the essence of the original monster and keep it simple.



The last step is to make sure the adventure doesn't run like a sloggy mess. There are several ways to do this. You could drop the wandering monsters from an adventure and just run the prepared encounters, or you could drop a lot of planned encounters and instead just use the wandering monster tables. Or you could drop a little of both. This isn't just in response to 4e combat length (more on that below); the fact is, some old modules feel like a grind to begin with. You should also use Morale and Reaction Tables. If you are using an old module that has Morale scores, just port them over. Otherwise you can check my 4e Morale rules. Ok, so that leads us to the next myth.

"Combat was fast in old editions, never approaching 4e length"

This is simply not true. It is true that classic edition combat COULD be quicker, but it wasn't always. I know this because I DM and play old editions. At even moderate levels, old edition spellcasters could have a ton of choices, and adjudicating their effects was often not a cut and dried proposition. A typical PC's percentage chance to hit was often lower, so there are more misses. There were also huge throngs of monsters in old adventures, like all the time. I am reminded of one of my faves, Descent Into the Depth of the Earth, which was a combo module of D1-D2. There are like 20 Drow here, 40 Kuo-Toa there, 30 Troglodytes here. Heck, even in the Village of Hommlet, you will have 16 or more enemy combatants!

Now I KNOW combat can drag in 4e. I have tried to provide some tips and ideas to help with that. Simplifying monsters, using groups of the same monsters, using Morale, lowering hit points-all of this helps. But it is simply disingenuous to act like old combat couldn't take a while, especially when casters had some actual spells to cast. This has also been true of my experience with 5e so far. We had a two hour combat last week and we just hit level 2. Combat often takes an hour or more at level 1. I am not saying it isn't fun, or that this is too long, I am just saying that combat length can drag in multiple editions; it isn't only a 4e phenomenon.

"It is harder to houserule 4e than other editions"

I am tempted just to say "read my blog" as a response to this one, because there are dozens of houserule examples on here, but just to expound on it a bit, 4e is no different from any other edition of D&D. You can houserule it and make it your own with ease. The difference between 4e and classic editions is that the mechanics in 4e are "on display". The math is predictable and easy to grasp. This is already sort of covered above with monsters. This makes houseruling and homebrewing very easy. Since you have clear expectations for damage, defenses, DCs, etc at all levels, it becomes very easy to slide the scale towards "easy" or "hard". See Fourthcore. I have tweaked monster design, traps, disease, combat, and on and on, and I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. 4e does not deviate from D&D's proud history of homebrewing and houseruling, it embraces it as much as any other edition.

That's all I have for you today. As always, I welcome comments! Take it easy!

Trimming the Fat, Part 2: Shooting Skill Challenges in the Face

Today we continue to take a look at certain aspects of 4e that will be left out of my upcoming zine, 4e Forever. I want to say that these are just my opinions. If you like some of the stuff I mention, more power to you. I want everyone to play the way they like, and I am not here to diss anybody's playstyle. That said, I freaking hate Skill Challenges with a passion.

For me, it is really pretty simple. Despite the myriad long-winded defenses of skill challenges that I am sure you have read, and regardless of all the usual tidbits of advice that have been floating around since their inception, it is my opinion that Skill Challenges do irreparable harm to roleplaying. I like roleplaying to be free-form. I hate adding structure to it. I much prefer calling for checks on the fly, letting the PCs actions flow naturally, and having the possible repercussions of their failure come to me organically, rather than devising some pre-plotted outcome based on how many dice rolls a party fails. It was just a bad idea. I can respect that they were trying to add another mechanism to gain experience points outside of combat, but the whole "Three strikes, you're out", "Let's make some lists that extrapolate hypothetical skill checks, then force a few into every adventure", etc, was just a bad idea.

I realize that products like the DMG 2 and the Rules Compendium try to massage this a bit and offer alternatives, but to me that is just back-tracking on a crappy idea; polishing a turd if you will. It is too much, too late. It is kind of like when someone says, as if it is the secret of the universe, "Don't tell them they are in a Skill Challenge." I get two things from that statement. One: Skill Challenges are such a downer that alluding to the fact you are running one hurts your game. Two: you must not have a very high opinion of your players' intelligence, because any fool can tell when you are running one, whether you say so or not. "But it's different at my table." Perhaps it is, and I am happy for you if you like them. Seriously, I am. I just do not use them, and you won't see them in the magazine's adventures.

Now am I saying that PCs having to use some skills during a combat is a bad thing? Of course not. Am I saying that there shouldn't be consequences for failure? Of course not. All I am saying is that in my experience, roleplay works best when it is loose and natural, and there is no solution to Skill Challenges that I have ever read (and I have read hundreds) that works as well as simply not using them.

I hope nobody took offense! As always, I am interested in your thoughts, so leave a post!