New Blog

As promised, here's a link to my new blog. It's rather bare at the moment, but I'm planning to ramp up content over the next few weeks.

Closure

Well it's been five months since the last real post here, I guess it's time to officially close the doors. What was originally intended to be an extended summer vacation stretched into a long hiatus, and at this point my gaming is not really matching up well with the stated goals of this blog. A few things:

• I have no plans to take down the blog, and I don't think Blogger removes inactive sites, so there's no need to panic if you're using something here as a reference. It should remain for the foreseeable future.
• I'd like to extend a big thank you to the various folk who have followed and commented upon the stuff I've posted here. Feedback from readers was always a big motivator for continuing this project. THANKS!
• I have a vague plan to start a new blog with a broader focus sometime in the near future.  It'll cover traditional RPGs as well as MMOs, computer games, and various other forms of entertainment and media. Once I figure out what I'm doing I'll post up a link here for anyone that might wish to check it out.

That's about it. Thanks for reading! Good gaming!

Mark

Shift Change

I'm going to be slowing my posting schedule here for the next few weeks. There are a couple reasons for the change. First, I'm feeling a little burned out right now, and a short break will do me some good. Second, it's Spring, and the weather is excellent, so I'm going to get out and enjoy it while I can. I was quite the slug this Winter and I really need to get out and get some exercise! Third, I've started a second blog, which is consuming some of my writing energies.

I've been maintaining a five to six posts a week pace for over a year now. I expect to drop this to three or four posts a week for the next month or so. Don't worry, the blog isn't going away! I already have a couple weeks of posts queued up, and expect to maintain that lead with a slower pace of posting. As Spring turns to Summer I expect things will pick back up to the usual five to six posts a week pace.

Image

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpologist/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

A Quick Note on Comments

I've just swapped my news reader from Brief to Google Reader, and I'm still in the process of making sure all my feeds were moved over. I usually check the comments feed to insure I catch feedback, but I may miss a few in the next couple days. Apologies if I miss your comment.

The Science Behind the Blog

I crossed 350 posts sometime in the last week or so. Yay posts! I also just crossed the one year mark with my Google Analytics data. With those milestones behind me I decided to take a hard look at the blog and content. Specifically I wanted to see what people are reading and what they're ignoring. If you're not familiar with Google Analytics, it's a site monitoring tool that provides tons of statistics and numbers or any site you set up for monitoring. If you're involved in web publication it's definitely a valuable research tool. I've had it running here for just over a year, and I'm going to be looking at the data for that period.

So what are people reading? By far the most popular article was Deadly Maladies, a post that someone stumbled. That generated over 1000 hits in two days, so I view that as something of an anomaly. The next most popular articles were a post noting the availability of Diaspora, an article on critical and fumble charts, my TiddlyWiki tutorial (part one), and an old dungeon map I scanned a while back.

Notice anything there? Not one of those posts actually fits the stated purpose of the blog. Hmm. I might treat it as a fluke if the trend didn't continue, but the next 20 articles are about the same. Pretty much every fluff, advice, or opinion piece I've written has received more views than the regularly featured items, creatures and encounters posts. Even the lame filler post with the scanned image of my original Armory dice crayons made the top 25% of posts. Apparently I should stick to opinion pieces and posting scans of the ancient maps in my files. Heck I bet this article hits the top ten within a few days.

Looking at it from the other end, let's take a look at some of the worse performing articles. Now some of these were written before I started running Analytics, so the results are certainly skewed. Some also predate my joining the RPG Bloggers Network, which pushed up readership significantly. Nevertheless, the bottom performing articles are all items, encounters, creatures or treasures. Removing all the archive and keyword links the bottom five articles are:

• Curse of the Mistaken Face
• Sigil of Death Defied
• Indomitable Banner
• Chalice of Storms
• Mishta's Mischievous Mouse

Now in fairness, all of those articles (and most of the rest of the bottom 20) were all posted before I started running Analytics, so they weren't being tracked when they were fresh. But looking further up the list, the trend continues. Even search links like Moria or encounter end up garnering more hits than the average article.

It's a bit depressing.

The next thing to look at is where people are coming from. I expected to see most hits coming from RPG Bloggers, but surprisingly they ranked 5th in the list. The number one source was Feedburner, which implies a lot of people subscribe in an RSS reader, something supported by the 100+ subscribers Feedburner says it has. Direct links and Google searches come up next, indicating people using bookmarks or hitting links seen elsewhere. In 4th place, hats off to Jeffs Gameblog for sending me a big chunk of hits, beating out RPG Bloggers by a narrow margin (Thanks Jeff!)

The next couple entries are Google, Blogger itself, and Stumbleupon (that stumble I mentioned earlier). Sword+1 gets honorable mention for making the top 10 sources, one of only two blogs in that group. The 10th entry is the forums at rpg.net, which I'm sure is mostly people hitting the link in my signature.

Geographically the mix isn't that surprising. The USA is the biggest source of readers, with 10 times the hits as the next biggest source, Canada. The UK, Brazil, and Germany round out the top five. In the USA I've managed to garner at least one hit in every state, with California, Virginia and Texas having the highest numbers (discounting the many hits from me in Indiana).

So what's all this mean? Well, I'm not sure yet. It's clear from the numbers that most people really aren't interested in one-off ideas for campaign material. The dismal performance of that category of articles relative to opinion, advice or fluff pieces is significant. Maybe I could raise interest by using a specific system (D&D 4e I'm looking at you!), but I'm not sure that's a tack I'd like to take. Maybe I just need to alter my focus and broaden my writing to include the more appealing fluff, advice and opinion articles on a regular basis. Maybe I need to go bigger and start developing a larger product to frame some of the stuff I've already written here. Maybe I should reboot with a new format. Maybe people just think my writing sucks.

There's definitely some thinking ahead for me. I'm certainly not in this solely for the hit counter, if that were the case I'd have been gone a while ago, but the feeling of talking to an empty room definitely wears on me. That said, I'd like to take a moment to say two things. First THANKS to those of you that read and comment here. It really brightens my day when I see a comment pop up in my RSS reader. Second, no matter what, this content won't vanish. Even if I decide to reboot, this blog will remain available until Blogger decides to wipe it. Rest easy, my awesome chili recipe will be online forever!

One Page Dungeon Contest 2010

Just a public service announcement. The deadline for this year's contest is coming up fast! I've been thinking about an entry, but nothing has come together yet. Time to start panicking!

Here's the link with all the details!

Killing Things 2009 - Weapons

This is a summary list of all the weapons articles from 2009. Much like part one and part two of the bestiary, my goal here is to make it easier to find stuff from last year's articles. Here's the list in chronological order:

• Blastbone  - A potent weapon against the undead.
• Ahtep's Blade  - A sword for the paranoid adventurer.
• Butterfly Axe  - A basic goblin-slaying weapon.
• The Blade of One Thousand Fangs - A bloodthirsty sword with a real bite!
• Seraphim Sword - A powerful holy blade.
• Demon Bone Flail - And in counterpoint, a horrible demonic weapon.
• A Deadly Trio - Three short takes on various weapons, scimitar, hammer and spear.
• Rod of Mirrors - A magical rod with the ability to absorb and reflect spells.
• Witching Blade - A ritual weapon, perfect for the curse using wizard.
• One Liners - A collection of short takes, including a couple of unusual weapons.
• Ghostmaker  - A weak weapon with a terrible power.
• Touch Flesh  - A short sword capable of bypassing the toughest armor.
• Plainsman's Bow  - A potent ranged weapon with a beast theme.
• Sunlash  - A flail that traps the power of the sun itself.
• Liberator's Hand  - A potent charm and morale affecting item designed for a leader.
• Thorn  - A natural weapon with plant-based powers.
• Spirit Chaser  - A spear designed for the hunt.
• Dragonmaw Axe  - A potent axe imbued with draconian powers.
• Starfall  - A bow that captures the powers of the heavens.
• Dwarf Fist  - A powerful weapon with Dwarf-enhancing abilities!
• The Blood Seekers - A set of daggers with a thirst for blood.
• Sliverstone  - A unique staff made from thousands of stone slivers.
• Ransomer  - An odd weapon with a potent entrapment power.
• Stave of the Woodland Warder  - A perfect weapon for the outdoorsy type.
• Flesh Carver  - A dagger that grants great power, but only at great cost.
• Living Weapons  - Combat tools for aquatic races.
• Magic Missile  - A variety of unique arrows.
• Ice Maul  - A chilling warhammer.

So there you have it, the 28 weapons of 2009. Much like the bestiary, there's some bad mixed in with the good. Overall I'm pretty pleased with this set of articles. Hopefully you can find something useful here. Next up on the index list, armor.

Review: ThinkGeek Bag of Holding

I decided to pick up one of these bags after my recent trip to run my Moria game, which involved, among other things, packing up my laptop and assorted game stuff and taking it to Virginia. I've been complaining to myself about my current lame computer bag (the freebie that came with the laptop, a real piece of junk), so I took a look around. Part of the problem is that my current laptop, a Sager 9262, is a beast. Nevertheless, I poked around and found this bag, which looked like just what the doctor ordered. Reviews were scarce, but at $50 I was willing to risk being disappointed. I ordered one last week, and it arrived today, despite Mother Nature's best efforts to stop delivery.

The bag arrived via UPS ground, well packaged and in perfect shape. Par for the course these days, but still worth mentioning. My initial impression is generally positive. The bag is made of fairly rugged gray canvas, with a black nylon shoulder strap, briefcase style handle, and trim. Nice neutral colors. The Bag of Holding logo is prominently displayed on the outside cover flap. There are lots of compartments, six total (I think). Starting from the back (dimensions are available via ThinkGeek):

A slim outer compartment closed with a magnetic snap suitable for holding a thin ream of documents. Nicely placed for a map or other quick access, but the closure is just a single snap, so I wouldn't trust it with anything valuable.

A padded laptop compartment. My monster laptop fits snugly, so I'm fairly certain this bag will hold most any laptop made. The padding is pretty thin, and doesn't cover the sides of the case, which is a bit disappointing. I may retrofit an additional strip of padding along the bottom of the case to supplement the poor protection offered there. The laptop compartment is closed with a zipper.

A cavernous compartment with an interior pocket. This is a huge amount of space, easily consuming the 3.5 D&D boxed set along with my laptop's huge power brick and standard-sized mouse with room to spare. This compartment is also zippered.

Another full width, slightly shorter compartment, also zippered. I managed to fit a full set of 1st edition books (Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manuals I and II, and Fiend Folio) in this compartment.

An accessories compartment closed with a magnetic snap fastened flap. And by accessories compartment I mean 'good-sized women's purse.' There's easily room for a dice bag and miscellaneous junk, plus organizer pouches for cell phone, iPod, writing tools and other essentials.

Finally, there's a zippered outer pocket on the main flap (which covers all but the first document compartment and laptop slot. This pocket would be ideal for cell phone, documents, mints, cigarettes, or anything you need quick access to. Since it's zippered it's a bit more secure than the first compartment.

So how much does it hold? A LOT. I did a quick test and fit the following items:

• Huge laptop
• Laptop power brick (which is actually bigger than a brick)
• Standard Mouse
• 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manuals I and II, and Fiend Folio
• Three pads of paper (lined, graph, blank)
• 3.5 edition D&D boxed set
• Hefty dice bag
• Flashlight
• Sketch pad
• A dozen pens and pencils
• Cell phone

I had space left over. What I discovered was I could put more stuff into the bag than I was willing to carry.

Check out PBE Games on DriveThruRPG

So far so good, but there are a few negatives I should mention too:

• The two inch wide strap is unpadded, making for an uncomfortable fit with a heavy bag. Something I'll probably address.
• The zippers seem a bit cheap, having a tendency to catch instead of sliding smoothly. We'll see if usage smooths them out.
• The laptop compartment padding is very thin. I would have liked a bit more protection there.
• Magnetic snaps on a computer bag? There were probably better choices available.
• The organizers in the accessories compartment are all kind of stubby. There's no easy way to fit my mini-maglite in one.
• It's not waterproof, something that I'll remedy with ScotchGuard.

Overall: I think this bag is a pretty good value based on initial impressions. It has a few flaws, and I haven't really field tested it yet, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase. The fact that I can put more stuff into it than I'm actually willing to carry is a testament to its capacity. Tentative thumbs up pending field testing.

Using TiddlyWiki - Part 2

In the last article in this series, we talked about obtaining and setting up TiddlyWiki for basic use. In this article I'm going to focus on using it effectively. I'm not going to go into vast detail here, first because TiddlyWiki isn't that complicated (though there are quite a few plugins available that add features), and second because I believe in the KISS principle. Let's start with the basics, creating content.

Adding Content

Adding content to TiddlyWiki is as simple as hitting the new tiddler link on the right sidebar and typing text. You'll probably want to read a bit about markup and tagging before you really dive in, but you don't have to. The only requirement for a tiddler is that it have a name. See how hard that was?

Basic Markup

The last article already talked about how to edit a tiddler. TiddlyWiki markup is a way to add headers, lists, text formatting, links and images to your tiddler. Here are some of the most commonly used markup elements:

Basic Text - Just type. Any text without markup is treated as plain text. The edit box automatically word wraps. Use the enter key to denote the end of a paragraph.

Headers - Headers are denoted by one or more ! characters at the beginning of a line, followed by the header text. More ! are less important headers. A typical header:

! Section 1
!! Section 1.1 
!! Section 1.2
!!! Section 1.2.1

Lists - List entries begin with one or more * characters for bullet lists or one or more # characters for numbered lists. Multiple markers increase the indent level. Each list entry should start at the beginning of a line. Example:

* Bullet
** Nested bullet
** Another nested bullet
# Numbered
## Nested numbered
# Numbered again

Text formatting - Most inline text formatting is done with two marks on either side of the text receiving the formatting.

• Bold - double single-quotes around the text.
• Italic - double forward slashes around the text.
• Bold Italic - double single-quotes around double forward slashes around the text.
• Underline - double under-bar characters around the text.

Links - There are two types of links:

• Internal link - Either the WikiWord name of the tiddler or the tiddler surrounded by double square brackets creates a link to the tiddler.
• External link - An URL will automatically be translated to a link. If you want to use text and link to a URL, you can do it with double square brackets
  
  
  

  [[Some Text|http://rpgdump.blogspot.com]]

  creates a link called Some Text pointing to my blog.

Images - The basic image links are [img[Image Name]] or [img[Some Text|Image Name]] where:

• Some Text - the optional tooltip for the image when the mouse is over it.
• Image Name - the path to the file.

A bit more on images: If you place any images in the same folder as your TiddlyWiki, you can simply refer to them by name (no path required). You can also use a URL if the image is hosted elsewhere.

If you want to delve further into markup (and there's more available), check out the TiddlyWiki wiki, specifically the markup page.

Tags

Tags are labels you can apply to tiddlers as a means of organizing your information. With a little care they can provide very quick reference to both individual and groups of related tiddlers. Tags themselves are also tiddlers, so you can describe what the tag means in its own tiddler.

To tag a tiddler, simply place a label in the tag edit box at the bottom of the edit window. Tags can be single words or multiple words surrounded by double square brackets. My personal convention is to use all lower case letters for tags to avoid name clashes with content tiddlers.

The tags you use should fit the information you're trying to mark up. Using my recent Moria game as an example I have the following tags laid out:

• Creatures - One tag per general creature type, for example: goblin, orc, troll. These tags get applied to the stat blocks and descriptive text for the creature, along with any  encounters that include them or locations inhabited by them.
• Locations - One tag per broad location. For outdoor stuff, I use regions, towns or encounter locations. For dungeons, I use level names. This allows me to quickly find the relevant information for any specific locale.
• Stats - A singular tag used to mark any stat block. It's a handy way to find any specific stat block on the fly.
• Encounter - One tag per broad location. These match up to the location tags mentioned earlier, but are applied only to encounters. In Moria for example I have eregion encounter, hollin encounter, and moria encounter defined.
• Other - I have a bunch of other tags, like item to mark important or unique items, rules to mark house rules or special mechanics, and magic to mark any unique magic effects or powers I might need for reference.

Check out PBE Games on DriveThruRPG

Transclusion

What? Yeah it's kind of a silly word. Transclusion is including one document inside another without cut/paste. It's a great feature supported by most wikis including TiddlyWiki. Here's how to do it:

<<tiddler [[Some Tiddler]]>> 

That's it. What this does is automatically put the contents of Some Tiddler inline in the new document. Any updates done to the transcluded tiddler are automatically updated anywhere it appears.

One of the best uses of this is to include stat blocks in an encounter tiddler. Simply transclude each stat block and they'll automatically be appended to the encounter text.

Organization

That pretty much covers the basics of how to use TiddlyWiki. There are a few best practices guidelines to keep in mind if you decide to use this tool.

Consistent Naming - Wikis are picky about exact names and upper and lower case. Be consistent with your naming and it'll help avoid extra work. Here are the conventions I use:

• Tiddlers - Capitalized as titles, always surrounded in double square brackets when referenced. This is the most readable way I've found to name tiddlers.
• Prefixes - I prefix all encounter tiddlers with Encounter: and all stat blocks with Stats:. It allows me to quickly spot these crucial elements.
• Tags - All lower case, single word if possible, but clarity of grouping is more important than using a single word.

Save often and do backups - I have never experienced any problems with a TiddlyWiki, and I've used them for some pretty large projects. Prudence always wins though, and could save you a load of work if something goes wrong.

One thing, one tiddler - Keep this in mind when preparing content. Transclusion makes it easy to concatenate multiple tiddlers into a summary. It's more difficult to divide a huge mess of text into individual pieces. I generally use the following types of tiddlers:

• Overviews - a top level summary of a major location or group.
• Locales - individual locations within a region. In dungeons these are room by room. In towns they're business by business or location by location. Outdoors I stick with natural geographic areas.
• Stat blocks - detailed information on specific creatures, spells or items, one thing per tiddler.
• Encounters - locale plus opponents (often including transcluded information). Basically everything needed to run the encounter.

Link always - If you're referring to something in your text that you've already defined, link to the other tiddler. I generally do this with the first instance of a linkable word in a tiddler (i.e. the first mention of Goblins in an encounter gets a link to the Goblins summary tiddler). If you haven't defined the target tiddler yet it will show up in the Missing list on the sidebar. The real power of TiddlyWiki is being able to access related information quickly and easily.

OK, by now you're either sold or you're running screaming from the room. Hopefully the former. I hope this pair of articles has provided some insight into using TiddlyWiki for your own campaign notes. I'm happy to answer any questions that I may have left unanswered.

• You may also want to check out the TiddlyWiki stuff on my newer blog.

Using TiddlyWiki - Part 1

I've mentioned before that I use TiddlyWiki to store my campaign notes and write this blog. I thought it might be useful to write an article covering the basics of how to use it, along with some of the features I make use of in my campaign notes.

First a brief introduction. If you're not familiar with TiddlyWiki, it's essentially an implementation of a full-featured wiki in a single file. That means you can carry it around on a USB stick or email it with ease. The file contains not only the content you create, but all the tools required to edit and update that content. The exceptions to the one file structure are images and external files, which are treated as external links (more on that in a bit).

Obtaining TiddlyWiki

Getting a copy of the empty file is easy. Simply visit the download page here or here and save locally. Once you have the file downloaded you can move it around using the standard tools provided by your operating system (i.e. drag and drop or copy commands). The basic unit of information in TiddlyWiki is a tiddler, which corresponds to an article in standard wiki-speak. Each tiddler is referenced by a name either written as a WikiWord, or, if you like spaces in your titles, [[Surrounded by Double Square Brackets]]. My personal preference is to use spaces and double square brackets, but either method works.

If you're going to make use of TiddlyWiki, it's probably worth bookmarking the TiddlyWiki wiki site. There's a ton of useful information there. Here's the link: http://tiddlywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Startup


Now that you have TiddlyWiki in hand, let's do something with it.

• Create a new folder somewhere in your documents tree, and copy the TiddlyWiki file there. A separate folder isn't necessary, but it'll help keep linked images organized (remember they're not part of the base file).
• Open the TiddlyWiki file with your web browser. This is probably as simple as double-clicking it, but you may have to use the File/Open menu in your browser. You should see something like the image here.

The important features:

• Across the top is the backstage bar, tools to deal with plugins and imports. We'll ignore that for now.
• Below the backstage bar is the title area, defined by two editable tiddlers that allow you to set the name of your wiki.
• On the left is the MainMenu, an editable sidebar which you can modify to suit your needs.
• In the center is the main content area. Tiddlers you create/open show up here. Each tiddler has the following features arranged around it:
• Top right - the tiddler interaction links. These allow you to edit, close or check references on the current tiddler.
• Right side - the tags box will show any tags that apply to this tiddler. More on tags later.
• Top left - the tiddler title.
• On the right is the sidebar, providing access to basic editing and navigation features.

Check out PBE Games on DriveThruRPG

Customize It

Let's do a bit of customization to make this TiddlyWiki ours. Once you're familiar with how things work you can set up a default TiddlyWiki with most of this stuff already done to save time. The default TiddlyWiki configuration automatically opens a tiddler called GettingStarted, and it's a good place to begin. You'll see several links in this tiddler. Note that they're in italics, indicating the content they link to isn't yet defined. These happen to be special shadow tiddlers, meaning the system has a default tiddler it uses if they're not yet defined. Let's change a few things.

Click on SiteTitle to open the empty tiddler, then hit edit, which leaves you with the default tiddler edit window open. It has a main edit box, with a smaller edit box for tags at the bottom (see image). Replace the text with whatever you like. I'm going to use Demo Tiddler. Hit the done button in the tiddler interaction links. Congratulations, you've just edited your first tiddler.

Repeat this process for the SiteSubTitle. I'll use [[RPG dumping ground|http://rpgdump.blogspot.com/]] which is a fancy way of applying a name to a link (more on that later).

Click on the MainMenu link and edit. I'm going to set this up to provide a link to itself, to my content, and label the sections with a couple headers. Here's what I'm going to type (includes some basic markup for headers):

!! Content
[[Introduction]]
[[The Village]]
[[The Dungeon]]
!! Tools
[[GettingStarted]]
[[MainMenu]] 

Once you're happy with your edits, hit done in the tiddler interaction links. Note how the left menu has updated. You can click on any of these links to open the associated tiddlers (note that most of them are empty, ready for you to add content).

Click on the DefaultTiddlers link and edit. This tiddler contains a list of tiddlers that are automatically opened when you first open the TiddlyWiki file. The default content is GettingStarted, but I'm going to change this to read:

[[Introduction]] 

Last step: Fill in your user name in the box at the bottom of the GettingStarted tiddler. It doesn't really matter if you're the only person writing in this wiki, but it does let you track changes if multiple people use it.

OK, we've done some work, let's insure we save it. Click on the save changes item in the right-hand sidebar or save in the backstage bar at the top of the page. Note that your browser will likely complain bitterly about saving a file locally. I trust the TiddlyWiki site to provide a clean source file, but if you obtain one from elsewhere be careful. To save, check the remember this choice option and hit OK in the warning dialog. TiddlyWiki saved. The final result should look something like this image. The next time you open your TiddlyWiki file, it will look the same, except the empty Introduction tiddler will be open instead of GettingStarted.

The Sidebar

Before I close let me run down the sidebar options quickly. That will let me focus on content next time. Most of these are pretty straightforward, but can be confusing if you're not used to wikis. From the top:

• Search - This is a simple search box that will find any text you type and automatically open the tiddlers that contain it. Note that searching on something like ''the'' in a big TiddlyWiki can take some time.
• Close All - Closes all currently open tiddlers. Basically cleanup the display. Tiddlers stay open until you close them so it's possible to have quite a few open.
• Permaview - Updates your browser URL window with a link to the currently active tiddler.
• New Tiddler - Opens a fresh tiddler in edit mode, ready for input. You can also create new tiddlers by clicking on any link that names a non-existent tiddler.
• New Journal - Journals are special tiddlers labeled with the current date and time. Useful if you're writing a diary or session log.
• Save Changes - Saves the entire TiddlyWiki.
• Options - Provides access to additional configuration options, including auto-save, backups, and search controls. There's also a link here to AdvancedOptions, which allows you to tweak even more stuff.

Tabbed Window

This section of the sidebar changes dynamically as you add tiddlers to your TiddlyWiki. Here's what the tabs contain:

• Timeline - A tiddler listing organized by last edit time, newest first. Handy for finding what you just changed.
• All - An alphabetic listing of every tiddler.
• Tags - An alphabetic listing of every tag.
• More - Several tiddler lists that might need attention:
• Missing - Tiddlers that are linked to, but don't exist.
• Orphans - Tiddlers that exist but aren't linked to.
• Shadowed - Tiddlers that have default system values, generally built-in to TiddlyWiki.

OK, that should do it for today. At this point you should have a ready to use TiddlyWiki configured for your own project. In the next article I'll write about:

• Basic markup - How to do headers, formatted text, lists and links.
• Tags - How to organize tiddlers with the built in tag system.
• Transclusion - A handy way to include one tiddler within another.
• Organization - Some thoughts on organizing your notes.

Stay tuned.

Here's a link to part two.

The 2009 Bestiary - Part Two

Part One can be found here. The bestiary is a wrap up on all the creature articles from last year. Each article is referenced with a direct link and brief description for easy browsing. Tags are good, but sometimes a quick list is a good thing. Here are the rest:

• If you're decorating a wizard's tower, Living Drapes might be just the thing.
• Storm Swallows are constructed creatures with a shocking punch.
• The lowly Muck Worm is an underestimated dungeon pest.
• My own take on Mud Men, minor elementals with a thirst for the life energies of living creatures.
• Insidious Plants introduces a variety of flora that aren't really creatures in the usual sense.
• The parasitic Mind Eaters are a threat to sanity and intelligence.
• Sun Gliders are a pretty basic desert predator. Hey not everyone can be a super-monster.
• If you need a predatory plant for a swamp, Strangler Moss might be just the thing.
• And if you need a creature for the river that feeds the swamp, there are Giant Hellgrammites.
• Parachute Spiders are a lurking jungle predator.
• The Saguaronid is a plant-based desert dwelling carnivore.
• The Screwfish is a threat to unwary ocean swimmers.
• Need a guardian for a sandy tomb or beach front temple? Sand Constructs might be a good fit.
• Revenant Spiders are deadly necromantic hunters.
• The Door Haunts are extra-dimensional creatures suitable for a weird horror setting.
• Why populate the forest when the entire forest is a living Shadow Wood?
• When is a ghoul not an undead? When it's a Jungle Ghoul.
• The Drone Swarm is a step up from the average cloud of summer mosquitoes.
• The floating Sea Star is a potential threat to any passing ship.
• Shade Flock http://rpgdump.blogspot.com/2009/10/shade-flock.html is a manifestation of the plane of shadow.
• The lowly Mageworm is a magical pest with a big appetite.
• The Desert Wight is a potent undead foe.
• The Eye of the Demon is an artifact manifested by the Watcher with a Thousand Eyes.

If my count is right, and I managed to actually catch every creature post from the last year, these two articles cover 41 different creatures. There are a few stinkers in there (every bestiary needs its Flumph!) but on the whole I'm fairly pleased with most of these. I hope you find something useful for your own gaming here. If you do, please drop me a comment, I love to hear about anyone making use of these humble offerings. Good gaming!

The 2009 Bestiary - Part One

I got tired of digging around in blogger via tags to locate specific creature articles from last year, so I decided to create a year end wrap up covering all the various creatures and critters from last year. Hopefully this list, along with the one-liner descriptions will serve as a useful reference. The links below represent the creatures from January through June of 2009 and are in chronological order. Enjoy!

• Horrid Minions introduced Fungal Brains and Zombies, creatures that appeared in the Brother's Revenge adventure arc.
• Mishta's Mouse is a magically constructed familiar.
• Velvet Worms are creepy nocturnal worms inspired by a real life creature.
  
• Deadly Maladies introduced a couple nasty parasitic organisms from an old tropical dungeon game.
• Mishta's Stalker is a deadly serpent construct.
• The Gunja are restless undead spirits, intent on achieving final peace.
• The Tomb Guardian is a magical construct designed to use an adventurer's own body against them.
• Another creature based on real life, Giant Shrews are just nasty.
• The Crevice Creature is a lurking aquatic horror.
• Snow Monkeys are primitive primates suitable for cold northern climates.
• The Carnivorous Water Lily was something I used in my One Page Dungeon entry from 2009.
• The Demon Spawner is a malevolent demonic being that uses mind-controlling parasitic worms.
• The Venomous Water Spider was another creature from my One Page Dungeon.
• The desert dwelling, burrowing Sand Diggers are suitable for any hot and dry setting.
• The Malevolent Head is alive, sort of.
• If you're in need of a minor demonic summoning, then Hell Crows might fit the bill.
• Awww what a cute puppy! When the puppy is a Serpent Dog, not so much.
• The gigantic but decentralized Carnifungus can serve as both creature and locale.

Finally, no bestiary would be complete without my favorite monsters!

So there you have it, the first six months of 2009. I was expecting to finish off the entire year in one article, but the list is longer than I thought. I'll get the next part up soon!

The Weird Stuff I Find

I was cleaning up my RPG folder on my computer this week, a never ending process, and stumbled across this text file dating from 1997. It appears to be some sort of classless advancement system for AD&D 2nd edition, but I have no memory of writing it. It also appears to be implementing spell use based on a point system. It looks a bit incomplete too (some of the XP costs near the end are a bit sketchy too). Look familiar to anyone?

Advancement

The follow rules are applied to advancement:

Each player specifies their top 5 priorities for advancement. Experience is divided according to the following breakdown:

1. 40%
2. 25%
3. 15%
4. 10%
5. 10%

Hit Points

Measure physical toughness and ability to avoid damage. All characters use d8 for hit points. Each begins with 8 hit points modified by constitution. Each additional die costs : 1500 EXP

THAC0

The chance to hit as rolled on a d20. Characters all begin with a THAC0 of 20. Each 1 point of THAC0 improvement costs: 1500 EXP

Magic Power

The development of raw energies of magic. Each point of magic power corresponds to one point of magic power. Each point of magic power costs: 750 EXP

Magic Channel

The power to channel greater energies. Each point of magic channel allows another level of spell to be cast without penalty. Each point of magic channel costs: 1500 EXP

God Power

Like magic power, only for divine power. Each point of god power costs: 500 EXP

God Channel

Like magic channel, but for divine power. Each point of god channel costs: 1000 EXP

Minor Ability

Each costs: 100 EXP

Major Ability

Each costs: 150 EXP

Minor Level Related Ability

Each costs: 75 EXP per level of ability

Major Level Related Ability

Each costs: 75 EXP per level of ability

Minor Penalty

Each gives back: -75 EXP

Major Penalty

Each gives back: -100 EXP

Thief Skills

Each costs:

Percent	Cost
1-50	5 EXP per
51-75	7 EXP per
76-90	10 EXP per
91-99	15 EXP per

Non-Weapon Proficiencies

Each costs:

Percent	Cost
1-50	3 EXP per
51-75	5 EXP per
76-90	7 EXP per
91-99	10 EXP per

Weapons Proficiencies

Improves character abilities with a weapon of choice. Each costs: 150 EXP

Proficiency	Bonus
0	-3 THAC0
1	-1 THAC0
2	0 THAC0
3	0 THAC0
4	+1 THAC0
5	+1 THAC0
6	+2 THAC0,+1 DAM

Multiple Attacks

The ability to attack more than once per round. Each costs: 1500 EXP

The Failures of 2009

No, this isn't some bitter rant about all that was bad about last year! I use TiddlyWiki to organize my blog posts. I have a 'draft' tag I use to track ideas that have popped up but haven't really come together as an article yet. I started a new wiki for 2010, which left me with a handful of undeveloped articles in last year's file. I suspect these are ideas that may never come together since some of them are close to a year old, but I thought if I aggregated them they might spark something for someone else. Here goes:

Aberrations of Black Secrets

This was a book of spells I actually used in a 2nd edition AD&D campaign. Most of the spell list was pretty boring (though I did write about some of the spells here), but the book itself was a magical construct. It consisted of five sub-volumes, each protected by a magical seal. Attempting to open a sub-volume without the proper ritual released the section's demonic guardian to attack the interloper, but if the proper ritual was used, the demon could be invoked and controlled.

Gem of Knowledge

Another refugee from an old campaign, this gem was an artifact designed to reveal magical properties and abilities. In AD&D terms it allowed the use of Identify, Detect Magic, Read Magic and Detect Evil on a regular basis. In the end I concluded this was nothing special so it went nowhere.

Intelligent Worms

I wanted to create an NPC race based on the lowly earthworm, but it never really came together. Here's what I have so far:

Their physical form is earthworm-like, except their tail subdivides into a cluster of tentacles they can use to manipulate things. They exude an acidic slime that allows them to burrow through solid stone if need be. They are blind, but have well developed vibration senses (perhaps something else as well). Their body and mental functions are distributed across multiple clusters of nerve fibers, with larger specimens having more developed nervous systems and potentially, more intelligence.

They dig communal burrows with networks of radiating tunnels that cover large expanses. Individuals can communicate and carry out organized activities as a group.

Lizardman Variations

This was a skeleton article for a set of lizardman encounters that never really came together. I'll probably end up making use of this sometime this year, since I do love the lizardmen.

Numerology in the Campaign

This was a brief paragraph about implementing numerological systems in the campaign world, but it never really went anywhere. Another potential article for the coming year.

Orquelum

This was an article on an earth based magical material. I never really devoted any time to it, so it went nowhere.

Sandbox Toolkit

This started as a series of posts about creating a sandbox campaign from scratch. I hadn't looked at this article in a while and I was surprised to see there's a fair bit of writing here. I may revive this and finish it off sometime this year.

Token Magic

This is pretty much a cut and paste of a house ruled system I've used in the past to create magic items with short lifespans. It's quite dependent on the game system (2nd edition AD&D) and I never spent the time porting it to a neutral format. Another potential article for this year.

World Building

This was intended as an article on bottom up vs. top down world building, with some thoughts on using both methods simultaneously. I think this got lost in the shuffle, since there's the basis of a good post here.

So there you have it, the failures of 2009. Maybe some of them will see the light of day in 2010. Anything sound interesting?

Pretty Sweet Deals

RPGNow is offering some pretty sweet deals on RPG products now through January 7th. Might be worth a look! I'm looking at Fading Suns, Mouse Guard, and Legend of the Five Rings myself.

Props: Aged Paper

I was digging through my box of old game props and came upon these pages, props from a campaign I ran a few years ago. After reading over some of the text I took a look at the paper itself and realized A) it looked pretty awesome for a prop, B) it was really easy to do, and C) other people might like to use this technique. Here's how to do it.

Materials
This is a good place to start, feel free to improvise of course!

• Good high rag content paper - Typical laser printer or copier paper will just turn to mush.
• Writing materials that are not water soluble - I use either a laser printer or ink jet with waterproof ink, because my handwriting is horrible. Test your ink if you're unsure of its water solubility.
• A big Ziploc bag - for treating the paper.
• Dirt - just a few tablespoons worth.
• Water
• Water color or acrylic paint (optional)
• A steam iron and an old towel (optional)
• Matches (optional)
• A mug or cup (optional)

The Process
It's best to do this someplace that's easy to clean up, as it can be a bit messy. I generally do the messy bits outside on the back porch.

1. Create your document using your writing tools and paper.
2. Crumple up each page then flatten it several times. You can also fold and crease them if that's the look you want.
3. Place the pages in the Ziploc bag, insuring there's enough space for liquid to get between the pages. Don't overcrowd!
4. Add dirt and at least a cup of water to the bag. You want to end up with dirty water, not mud.
5. Seal tightly and shake carefully to get all the pages wet.
6. Soak pages for 30 minutes to two hours.
7. Remove pages from bag and spread on a flat surface to dry.
8. Once pages are dry rub them to remove excess soil that may have accumulated (or not).

You can stop there with some pretty good looking props, but for more options...

Before putting the pages in the Ziploc:

• Iron them flat by dampening your old towel and placing the pages between its folds. Iron using high heat.
• Carefully scorch the edges of the pages with matches (have water handy).
• Using your mug, create some ring stains on the pages (coffee works quite well for this).

After you remove the pages from the Ziploc but before drying:

• Apply some diluted paint (earth tones or greens work well for this) using a Q-Tip or crumpled up paper towel, allowing the stain to spread over the wet surface of the page. Warning: acrylic paint will permanently stain surfaces!
• Add more ring stains with your mug.
• Re-fold, re-scorch or re-iron if desired.
  

Your done!

Return of the New Minions

I mentioned a couple weeks back that I had introduced my younger nieces to D&D. They've apparently taken the concept and run with it, with their own personal twist. Christmas Eve they surprised the family by doing a piece of adventure / performance art called "Holly and Rudolph Save Christmas". According to the story Santa's Sleigh broke down, so he sent Holly the Elf and Rudolph the Reindeer off to recover a magical crystal to fix it. Apparently the crystal McGuffin was located in a scary cave on the other side of the continent, so they went on a trek through the Frosty Woods, flew over the Rainbow Mountains (to avoid the Abominable Snowman of course), and recovered the crystal from deep within the cave, saving Christmas. The entire family was greatly entertained, but the whole time I was thinking "Man, next time THEY can run the game."

4th Edition is just like WoW

It's a phrase guaranteed to give forum moderators nightmares as the overly-motivated flame out on the pros and cons of this simple statement. Is it true? Heck if I know, I don't play 4th Edition. My point in using this rather inflammatory post title is draw your attention to the potential benefits of accepting that MMOs and RPGs have some commonality. Let's face it, rather large chunks of the MMO and RPG markets share a focus on fantasy worlds with magic, strange monsters and players as characters within the setting, killing things, and taking their stuff. Why not take advantage of that fact?

Every GM I know uses media, be it books, music, TV, movies, or comics, to inspire their creative process, even if they don't admit it. Let's face it, we're all influenced by by the media we're exposed to. In my opinion we should treat MMOs the same way. After all they're simply another form of media. The biggest hurdle to treating MMOs as media is the fact that they cost money to play, and most people aren't willing to spend their hard earned cash just to pick up a few ideas for a game they're running.

Never fear. Most MMOs have been data-mined by fanatical players, who publish this information free of charge of the web. Using World of Warcraft, the 900 lb. gorilla, as an example, you can find information on every single item, quest, NPC, spell, dungeon, zone and skill in the game on WoW Head. A quick poke at their database reveals it contains:

• 35,936 items
• 20,895  NPCs and creatures
• 8227 quests
• 49,171 spells
• 161 zones and dungeons

Now I'll be the first to admit that some of this information is of no use. Quests for example, often boil down to either "Go kill 17 Gog-whompers. Return when you are done." or "Go collect 12 shiny bits from the corpses of Shmees you have slain." But don't scoff. MMOs are built by large teams of talented designers. There's good stuff in there. Browsing through the item data (organized by item type for easy searching), can turn up some interesting and inspiring stuff easily adapted to your game, even if it's just the name that catches your eye. Dungeon zones feature bosses with unique abilities and interesting layouts that you can take advantage of. The named NPCs are a little one dimensional (most are little more than filler), but the bestiary can provide some interesting twists on the mundane.

When stealing... uh adapting ideas from a resource like this, be flexible. Most games won't support direct adaptation, but with a liberal dose of imagination pouf, new item or encounter. Here are a couple examples:

Bloodthirst Breastplate (from here)

Leather armor made from the hide of some red-skinned reptile, the tiny, flexible scales provide Good physical protection without encumbering movement. The armor bears a Good enchantment of guiding and accuracy, allowing the wearer to strike blows with great precision and strength (Great damage bonus).

Nerub'enkan (from here)

A demonic spider lurking in the depths of a web-filled pit, Nerub'enkan is a terrible foe. His spider-like body is covered in dense steel-strong hairs, providing him with Great protection from physical attack. His fore-limbs bear heavy, mantis-like claws that shear through armor like paper (Superb physical attack which ignores two ranks of armor). Nerub'enkan can spray forth a patch of sticky webs that cover a 10' radius area up to 5 times a day. Anyone caught within this area must succeed at a Great strength check to break free. Each round there is a 50% chance 1-2 Shadow Scarabs will leap from the creature's body and attack the nearest foe. Shadow Scarabs are shadowy spider creatures that move with Superb speed and strike with a single Great bite that does Good damage and stuns their target for 2 rounds. Once they deliver their bite they fade away, leaving only a foul stench.

Worldcarver (from here)

Legend says this heavy two-handed axe was forged in the heart of a volcano by the dying king of the fire giants, who imbued the weapon with his own life force. Worldcarver has a heavy, rune-etched blade backed with a stout hammer head. Its haft is ironwood wrapped in thick, red leather, providing a sure grip. A pale golden gem that glows with its own inner light is fitted to its claw-like pommel. Worldcarver is an unbreakable weapon, enchanted with Epic combat enhancements to accuracy and damage. It grants its wielder the strength of a fire giant and provides Superb protection from fire damage. It can be commanded to burst into flame, inflicting Good fire damage with each blow struck.

So there you have it, my thoughts on MMOs and RPGs. Isn't using them as a source of information more fun than arguing about them?

Against Your Type

I was talking to one of my Return To Moria players the other day and the conversation turned to favored character roles. After a bit of discussion we realized that none of the players involved had picked primary characters that matched their usual roles. The "I don't care what I play as long as it's a magic user" player is playing a cleric. The two roguish, jack-of-all-trades types are playing a paladin and cleric. The bowman and thinker / support players are both playing front line fighter types, and the healer is playing a pure magic user. It's going to be interesting to see how the mixed up roles turn out. I'd be curious to hear if any of you have experienced a situation like this, and how it turned out.

The other thing that came up during this conversation was the fact that this group doesn't have any players that favor the front line fighter type. On the rare occasions that I play, that's my favorite role, but I'm usually GMing instead of playing. The combat types in this group tend to go for ranged or sneaky fighters. We usually have pretty big groups at the table so someone usually fills this role, but this game is going to have quite a few pure melee types. I may have to make some adjustments to my GM tactics to compensate.

The last thing we discussed was the fact that we spend waaay too much time analyzing our gaming...

Desert Island Games

Over at Ratty Ramblings they've proposed an interesting thought exercise. Choose the eight games from your current collection you'd want if you were stranded on a desert island. You get to bring along all the material you own for each game chosen. Here's my list:

1. AD&D - Pretty much a no-brainer for me since I have multiple campaign worlds for this rule set. If forced to chose a version I'd pick 2nd, since I can hack out the parts I don't want.
2. Traveller - For a Science Fiction fix, this is an easy choice.
3. AFMBE - If you're stuck on an island the only thing missing is zombies.
4. Call of Cthulhu - Hmmm two horror picks. Might not be prudent, but it's my list.
5. Amber - A diceless change of pace from the other games on my list.
6. Playing Cards - Because they're simply too flexible not to bring.
7. Cosmic Encounter - An awesome game to scratch the non-RPG itch.
8. Chess - Sometimes you can't get a group together, even on a desert island.

As for which is most important to bring, I'd say AD&D, simply because it's the system I keep going back to, and I have so much material for it. For a non-gaming luxury, I think I'd have to choose my music collection and some means of playing it.