Idea to Encourage Sandbox Exploration

I found this YouTube clip interesting from a sandbox design perspective. The designer discusses about how they didn't want to just throw quests at players in order to motivate them to explore the world. Instead they tease the players by showing them interesting locations viewed from a distance as they travel from one location to another.  One more tool to add to the GM's toolbox.

All-New Captain America

Continuing on with the comic book talk theres a few other series I've started reading that show some promise. First I will blather on about what I think about the All-New Captain America? Read on and hear the good word my fellow nerds!

I really like this series so far because it feels fresh but has a certain amount of familiarity to it. Kinda like switching from briefs to boxers one day....or not. I guess since I have no real nostalgic memories or expectation tied to this series I may be in the minority here. But I've seen and read enough Avengers that I know who Captain America is. And honestly after Hawkeye, the Cap was probably my least favourite Avenger. 

ALL HAIL HYDRA!

Just kidding.  Fuck Hydra.

This review was approved by HYDRA
All hail Hydra!

But I'm not kidding about Captain America. He just never did it for me. Give me Thor, Give me the Hulk. Give me Hawkeye! Wait WHAT am I saying! No Hawkeye! 

ANYWAY moving on.

Spoilers to follow!!!! Consider yourself warned.

Ok now that the traditional disclaimer has been done hopefully there will be no nerd rage in response to what comes next. Who am I kidding, no one reads this blog anyway, and if this is where you come to get your comic book info, your probably in the wrong line bucko.

Soooo. Captain America.

So somewhere in the history of Steve Rogers, he goes to a Dimension Z, finds a new family, has an adoptive son who seems like an impulsive dick, loses his super powers by having the super solider serum sucked out of his body, grows old and passes on the Shield to Sam Wilson. Sam Wilson is the Falcon. But now he's also Captain America. I love it.

Somehow I feel like this could be President Obama
moonlighting as a super hero. If I was president I would make sure
as fuck I had a rad comic book I could call my own. 

So now Steve Rogers works behind the scenes helping Sam as the new Cap, who has teamed up with Roger's step son, Nomad. The cool thing is that Sam is still learning how to use his shield. He's interesting because of his flaws. His heart is in the right place, but he doesn’t come off as a super talented know it all. Issue 1 starts off with the team infiltrating a secret Hydra base and ends on a cliff hanger with our heroes neck deep in some serious shit. I don't know all of the original Hydra bad guys, but I have a feeling theres quite a few iconic ones that we see...

I would recommend this to people who are looking to get into comics. The story seems to hold some promise. Visually it's great and I look forward to reading the rest of the issues on my stack.

So what's your thoughts? Do you love or hate the the Cap? Let me know down below. Unless your my wife. I don't want you to yell at me for the mint I dropped on comics this week...

The Superior Spider-Man

So much awesome!

So as things intensify in my program reading for fun tends to get put on the back burner. It's not that I

don’t have the time. It's more of an issue of being too tired to actually have the mental power to focus and enjoy reading a good novel for any length of time.The thing is I really want to read. Then I hint on the idea that maybe something shorter and more visual might scratch that itch. I hit up a my local spot and chatted up the owner and he hooked me up with the first collected volume of The Superior Spider-Man*.

I've really enjoyed the story so far. In fact I just finished reading the second volume and can't wait to pick up the last four volumes in the series. The nice thing is that I've been told that series leads up to the new Amazing Spider-Man series which I have the first sixteen issues on the ready to read pile.

So if your like me and you're a fan of Spider-Man I would suggest picking this up and giving it a read.

*SPOILER ALERT!

The premise is that previous to the start of this series Doctor Octopus was dying. In order to save himself he did some sort of switch that put Peter Parker in his body, and him in his. Now Peter is gone and Otto Octavius has taken over with the goal of being a better- in fact- Superior Spider-Man!   

Spells Without Number

I've been working on a swords & sorcery fantasy hack of Stars Without Number. Basically I'm going with three classes. The Warrior, Rogue (Expert), and Sorcerer (Psychic). The first two classes are essentially unchanged from how they appear in the book, but the changes to the Psychic requires a bit more work. I was inspired reading in the psionics chapter about how Psychics can "Torch" their minds to cast their powers without paying the power point cost. This is a system that could be ripped out and used in any retro clone RPG for spell casters. Heres my personal take on it below.

Brundle the Sorcerer over-channeled one too many times...

Over Channeling a Spell & Mana Burn

A desperate, foolish or just plain unskilled sorcerer may decide to cast a spell when he no longer has

any mana points (or spell slots) left to do so. This feat of sorcery is accomplished by over channeling more eldritch energy than the sorcerer is capable of handling and suffering a mana burn.

Any level of spell can be over channeled this way but for each spell cast in this manner the sorcerer must roll a d10 and consult the Mana Burn Effects Table. Regardless of the roll over channeling a spell is a painful experience for the caster and will cause the sorcerer's body temperature to dramatically increase. Skin will turn red or blister and be hot to the touch. The air will crackle with a tangible eldritch energy that can be felt by those standing nearby and the smell of burnt hair and cooking meat will create a horrific stench that will suffuse the air and take days to dissipate.

Sorcerer's whose Wisdom or Constitution scores that drop to 3 or less become NPC characters under the Game Masters control. A sorcerer with a Wisdom score of 3 has gone insane and will be under the influence of some cosmic or infernal entity or quest. A sorcerer with a Constitution score of 3 has become so suffused with eldritch energy that they are no longer human. They have become an infernal, cosmic, unique undead monstrosity hell bent on world domination or some other maniacal scheme. 

Mana Burn Effects Table

Roll 1d10	Effect
1	Permanently lose 1 point of Con and Wis
2-5	Permanently lose 1 point of Constitution
6-9	Permanently lose 1 point of Wisdom
10	No Permanent Damage

2015 I'm making you my Bitch

Aint that the truth.

2014 is coming to an end. I started this blog in 2011. I haven't been as diligent at posting as would have liked but hey thats life and gaming took a hit with all the other stuff going on in my life over the years.

Since that time I've been laid off, learned a language, finished high school, got a new job, and am now preparing for my second semester of college.

Theres been almost no roleplaying going on these days which blows goats. However I've been playing Magic a lot and even winning a few local draft tournaments. Plus a bunch of us have embarked on learning Warhammer Fantasy miniatures. ORCZ FOR DA WIN!

A new gaming store has opened in my town and its amazing. The staff and people who hang out and play are all great people and it promises to be a great new year for gaming. I just wanted to thank those that stop in and read my blog from time to time. I will make an effort to put up new material and finally update some of my blog projects.

Happy New year to you all!

Tharzad-Dul: Map of Level 2

The Garden Level

I finally got around to scribbling this map out for the second level of my mega dungeon. I'm super excited to stock this sucker. Just a few notes. First I decided to go with a new room numbering scheme. Rooms are denoted with a X.Y format. So for example 2.1 means: level 2, room 1. Also I first refered to this level as the Farm Level. I changed it because I thought garden sounded better.

Martian Syphilis and Other Interstellar Diseases

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, Martians AND Mutants !

I should be getting school work done right now. But in the true spirit of procrastination I felt I needed to blog first.

One of the class that I should be working on right now is Western Civilization. I love this class. From a purely learning experience it has been amazing. History is rife with stuff we can steal for gaming. In fact I would argue the best authors have long ago figured this out. I find myself constantly inspired as I sit in class or read the text book. For example this paragraph inspired me:

“This essay will demonstrate that the Spanish Conquista of America in the 1520s and 1530s was more than a brilliant military victory. Aside from the Spaniards' military superiority, what other causes contributed to the rapid conquest of America? The spread of Old World's diseases and the weaknesses of native empires helped the Spaniards colonize America.”

For some reason this made me think of War of the Worlds. Obviously the Martian invaders in the end were affected by the bacteria of Earth. But what if it had been the other way around? What if the immune systems or the technology of the Martians prevented them from getting sick and instead it was Earthlings that were compromised by alien bacteria? What if this alien bacteria didn’t just kill those it infected, but in some cases it caused horrible mutations. What if in a small percentage of the human population it caused psychic powers to develop?

Of course the second part involving the weakness of native empires is easily translated into the fractious nature of humanity and its nations states. Lets face it, humans are dicks. We will always be out own worst enemy.

Ok, so I gotta get some work done now. Back to the books.