tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41360705261041188782024-03-29T10:11:08.015-04:00Subplot KudzuPlans for 2024: Creation of an NSR setting for super-heroes; My D&D 3E campaign as an example of sandboxing via published adventure, and likely more.Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.comBlogger469125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-60339583744614134872024-03-29T09:16:00.002-04:002024-03-29T09:16:22.255-04:00Friday Book Recommendations (Mar 29)I didn't so much miss last week as not finish any books I considered worth recommending. Which is why this week I was up from 2 am -5 am finishing this, which I have been savoring my way through for the last 9 months. Don't say I never do anything for you. The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One by Catherynne M. Valente: This book is a delight from start to finish. Her prose styleBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-90736386594932650312024-03-27T11:27:00.003-04:002024-03-27T11:46:55.432-04:00On the Origin of MutationsJumping between the 1E (1978) and 4E (1992) editions of Gamma World and the 1E (1979) and 2E (1982) editions of Villains and Vigilantes and you can see some interesting changes in the depiction of character powers - the earlier Look at how much more detailed Mental Control is in 4th edition than it is in 1st, and so many of those are further limits on the power. Who it can and can't Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-64591236694704919012024-03-27T08:58:00.000-04:002024-03-27T08:58:00.293-04:00Gamma World's Hopeless CharacterI kinda love that this guy is in both the '78 and '92 versions of Gamma World as the prototypical Hopeless Character In my head cannon he is now an incredibly powerful psychic who keeps mind controlling players to leave him alone, mot take him on adventures, and just let him mind control fish into his mouth. Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-55379557309013264092024-03-26T07:30:00.001-04:002024-03-26T07:30:00.144-04:00Combat Charts and Gamma World Mutations In my last post on this Joshua Kronengold posted the question of how Gamma World's combat chart handled mutations: since the combat chart had weapon class 7 as "Robotic tentacles", was there any mutation that said "the mutants tail/hair/tentacles attack as weapon class 7", or similar things for say, laser rifles and mutant laser generation. The answer is "no", because mutant powers that Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-79036040889986062002024-03-25T07:00:00.001-04:002024-03-25T07:00:00.144-04:00The Battle For Vulture Point Act I Scene IVShortly after the noon hour, with the waxing sliver of the
sun providing limited illumination on the roads, our four nobles reached the
Blue Stone in. There, in no particular order they bathed in the inn's famous
hot springs (the act of which the Lady Floriane deemed 'Heavenly'), had a
restorative meal and wine to aid the healing of the wounded among their number,
listened to Hiram recount one ofBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-46430758010671847352024-03-24T20:16:00.004-04:002024-03-24T20:16:57.253-04:00Lore24 - Sudilitas: The Capital GuildsMar 18: The Capital Guilds are a relatively new alliance that practice an ancient organizing structure of guild control of various tasks. This turns out to be very helpful when it comes to training individual experts in skills and passing down knowledge. But they also integrate themselves into trade relationships, which can be helpful or frightening for the community.Mar 19: The Capital Guilds Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-9385094021888940502024-03-22T10:09:00.002-04:002024-03-22T10:09:20.546-04:00Combat Charts and Gamma WorldSince I just convinced one of my two kids groups at the library to switch from 13th Age F20 Fantasy to Gamma World (because some of them are just insane little chaos agents and many of them keep wanting to make guns and bombs), it's timely that I'm looking at the early Gamma World combat charts and their weapon/attacks vs. armor/defense tablesPreviously we had looked at AD&D and V&V, bothBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-4559164980409034632024-03-18T07:00:00.001-04:002024-03-18T07:00:00.237-04:00 The Battle For Vulture Point Act I Scene IIIAs they exit the room Dietrich discussed the carvings the
beast men left on the walls "it said that the key to the beast men's
return was buried safely in here, and the best men seemed happy with that.
Strange, yes?" Melas, apparently not listening, was focused on the damage
the masked man had done to his weapon. "It's an excuse to buy a new
one?" Hiram suggested.
"This is an heirloom; it has Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-2087788055107109122024-03-17T09:03:00.073-04:002024-03-18T09:39:24.554-04:00Lore 24 - Sudilitas: the Peace BrigadeMar 11: The Peace Brigade are now the mortar that holds the city together - otherwise we rocks would bash each other to pieces. The Brigade are looking for a few good sentients who can multi-task between diplomacy, problem solving, engineering, and combat strategy, and they will accept anyone in their alliance. Floreaux are drawn to them more than any other alliance in the area. Civilization mustBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-91376685832584197052024-03-15T09:16:00.004-04:002024-03-15T09:22:55.922-04:00Friday Book Recommendations (Mar 15)This week's reads: Dogs in the Vineyard by D. Vincent Baker: My work on my Lore24 setting caused me to pull this one back out and give it a proper read. It's quite clever in a lot of ways - the worldbuilding is solid, the voice to the reader is open and generally explicable (though sometimes I had to double back to make sure of something), and the dice mechanic is neat. I think as with Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-16033213345615921402024-03-14T08:49:00.005-04:002024-03-14T08:57:57.226-04:00Weekly Cooking Report March 14: Chicken Wings with Garlic and SumacSo yes, I should have given you this one before the Super Bowl, giving the wing consumption per capita that day, but better late than never and these are good at any time. Also, very simple as either the body of a meal or as the perpetual sporting event home viewing snack food. Last night we used them for dinner and my teenager was making audible "mmmmmm" noises as she ate. Note that in the Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-17592992346661807262024-03-13T21:05:00.004-04:002024-03-13T21:05:46.086-04:00New Salem: Renaissance - Armor Class and the V&V Combat ChartContinuing the thoughts from yesterday - reiterating the idea of Armor Class as literally the class/type of armor that the number code indicated, which in AD&D was then cross referenced to the weapon to see how well the armor protected you from that kind of weapon so that crossbows could do comparatively little damage but gained significant bonuses to score a telling hit on lighter armored Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-8805044771433878172024-03-12T09:47:00.006-04:002024-03-12T09:47:58.566-04:00Thinking About Armor ClassAs things gear back up for my B/X game I was having more thoughts on Armor Class , where it came from, and how to use it. Right there in the title we're in to old wargame design, where the Class is a number or letter code to let you know a) what the thickness of warship armor was and b) what column to cross reference on to see if a hit occurred. D&D and other F20 games just absorbed thatBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-46379254473150508542024-03-11T07:00:00.001-04:002024-03-11T07:00:00.128-04:00The Battle For Vulture Point Act I Scene IIDietrich and Melas stepped forward into the torch lit room,
with Hiram and Cybele directly behind them. The quartet quickly took in the
scene: the altar-with-chains in the room's center, a large crate to the right,
two smaller ones to the left, a large hole in the ceiling apparently excavated
to the surface, the monotonous clatter or rain on the altar rolling away in the
blood grooves across the Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-2790925730362929112024-03-10T16:55:00.002-04:002024-03-10T16:55:22.016-04:00Lore24 - Sudilitas: The SeekersMar 4: The Seekers outside the city have the support of those who still remain in Sudilitas boundaries... and its politic. It's a strange arrangement. Those in Sudilitas and partaking of its technology sending their petitioners to aid their (mostly Moreaux) brethren who abide by the more technophobic (and humanophobic) examples of that creed away from Sidilitas, but live under our aegis. MarBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-44995650482936097432024-03-08T10:58:00.003-05:002024-03-08T10:58:58.987-05:00Friday Book Recommendations (Mar 8) _All Star Superman_ by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely: The recent 'Discourse' around the upcoming superman movie made me pull this gem out to reread. I've never been an enormous fan of Quitely's artwork, but it works here, bringing a post 2000 sensibility to this re-presentation of everything that made the Silver Age Superman delightful: genius criminal Lex Luthor; Lois Lane being fought over Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-51186363830542623522024-03-07T10:07:00.005-05:002024-03-07T10:08:51.819-05:00Weekly Cooking Report March 7: Greek Branzino You may ask yourself "why does Brian do so much chicken cooking" and the answer is "because it's easy" but the other answer is "my beloved wife is a monster who doesn't like fish". This means the fish recipes only get trotted out for special occasions, which is a shame because they are easy and tasty. Like this one! The recipe for this one comes from here and here, but I do want Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-6896316902495748342024-03-06T19:06:00.001-05:002024-03-06T19:06:12.305-05:00New Salem: Renaissance - Physical MaximumsGetting to this in a roundabout way, but it's time to look at Strength (and to a lesser extent, Endurance and Agility), Carrying Capacity and Movement. Last week I laid out a calculation for resources that was mirroring the calculation for carrying capacity, albeit with a tweak. Time to bring that back around to its original use. V&V may be unique for how much it uses your Basic Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-60653472799738874702024-03-04T07:00:00.002-05:002024-03-04T07:00:00.128-05:00The Battle For Vulture Point Act I Scene IOn a dark afternoon, with just a sliver of sun waxing in the
sky, the Eastern Road to Emirikol is lashed with rain - the perpetual winter
rain had grown over the last four or five hours into an outright tempest that
even a skilled coachman of Imperial Service would have problems navigating.
Indeed, did have problems, as the coachman was forced to slow the horses and,
with much professional Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-43551553932185213182024-03-03T09:24:00.004-05:002024-03-03T09:24:50.835-05:00Lore 24 - Sudilitas: The RestorationistsFeb 26: The Restorationists are also always looking for sentients of clever mind and able body. The assumption that they are looking only for Fulgurators or other probers of ancient technology is a false one. They are very much as in need of courageous sentients as the Ranks, and there courage may be the greater for the lack of structure. Feb 27: Voyages for the Restorationists are simple inBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-20260887352394767412024-03-01T06:56:00.003-05:002024-03-01T06:56:48.903-05:00Friday Book Recommendations (Mar 1)_When Grumpy Met Sunshine_ by Charlotte Stein: it’s the Roy Kent romcom where a grumpy retired hard man footballer has to hire a ghost writer for his memoirs and gets a bright charming cupcake of a woman, sparks fly and flames develop. There’s an impressively realistic dance of two damaged people who wear different types of emotional armor finding out how well their core selves match. The Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-77971083122679011652024-02-29T15:16:00.000-05:002024-02-29T15:16:17.134-05:00Weekly Cooking Report February 29: Leap Day Agrodolce and other things Happy Pirates of Penzance day everyone! Also, today is the day you ladies can safely proposition your menfol... <holds finger to ear> Oh... Propose to! Yes, that tracks more to old folk customs. This week we're going to do some simple things in order to have fun with the sauce, which is also simple.The man body of todays meal is boneless pork chops cooked with Shake and Bake, couscous,Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-6235197201169697962024-02-28T19:05:00.004-05:002024-02-28T19:05:41.752-05:00New Salem: Renaissance - Resource CalculationMy original intent had been to do a weekly post for New Salem but the momentum for Character Creation challenge had me keep doing it daily. It was going to burn me out, so we're back on the original weekly schedule. In this case we're getting goofy and applying the concepts for carrying capacity to the resources. The rules for calculating carrying capacity in V&V are quite elegant, if a Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-45790066590016252952024-02-26T07:00:00.001-05:002024-02-26T07:00:00.130-05:00Emirikol: Merging Adventures and LocationsOne of the things you should do for any sort of D&D is
over-prepare your immediate setting as a DM so the players have actual options.
When you’re building a dungeon, you make more than one path, after all. Since I’m
doing the tying together other peoples work for this it’s easy to set a second “outside
the city” adventure, so if the players somehow decide that they are going to stay
in the Brian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136070526104118878.post-83937158446138330522024-02-25T11:07:00.005-05:002024-03-03T08:45:44.831-05:00Lore 24 - Sudilitas: The Ranks of the FitFeb 19: Any able bodied resident can petition to join the Ranks of the Fit, as I discussed before. Moreaux are, if all suitable, made officer trainees and a group is assembled for a scouting or patrol mission to gauge their fitness. If it is successful they can request patronage missions of more complex scope (or just agree to serve if they don't wish to be citizens, though the Ranks prefer theirBrian Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04343579626619689205noreply@blogger.com0