Dragon Warriors RPG PDF Currently is FREE!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you've liked the start of my Dragon Warriors series and have been thinking to yourself, "Man, this thing sounds neat but I'm not sure that I want to spend some money on it yet." then have I got a great option available to you! Right now, on Drive Thru RPG, you can pick up the PDF of Dragon Warriors for FREE! 

Go out there and download the book! It's fantastic and if you're like me then you'll find yourself picking up a hard copy of it too! So go check it out already!

DRAGON WARRIORS!

Thanks to +Andy Bartlett for the heads up on this fantastic deal! Three cheers for Andy!

Nobody Makes It Out Alive Free PDF

So one of the things that I've gotten a lot of request for over the last couple of month is a PDF copy of the short story Nobody Makes It Out Alive which followed an actual game that occurred. Today I'm happy to announce that I have finally gotten it completed with some revisions. Nothing major was done that might change the story. Clarifications to the text were made, a few misspellings were corrected, and the grammar was cleaned up to make sure that the story flowed better overall.

This story is still under my copyright and cannot be included in anyone else's publications without first receiving permission from me. That said you are free to share it with as many people as you like so long as it is linked back here and there are no alterations to the document or the text.

Hope you all enjoy it!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FILE

Or

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL ONLINE VERSION

Free Dungeons & Drunkards PDF!

You know how I mentioned earlier that we had been working on one last part to our Dungeons and Drunkards series? Well here it is! This is a combined PDF of the entire series in a single place that will allow you to take it anywhere! It features all of our articles in an easy to read format without all of the junk that comes along from jumping from one site to the next and having to wait on it all to load!

I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank each of my fellow contributors to the series for all their hard work. +Jens D. kept us on track when it seemed like no one else could or would and his mastery of the rules made his article a perfect starting point for the series. +Sean Bircher lent us his brilliant mind to create all of the monsters you find here and was always the first person available when anyone needed to talk about where things were going. +Stelios V. Perdios was a source of inspiration when it seemed like we were hitting a wall and reading his thoughts most assuredly helped inspire my own writing if not all of ours. We hope you enjoy reading the PDF of our series as much as we've all enjoyed doing it! 

DOWNLOAD THE PDF!

Dungeons and Drunkards

Part 1: A pub crawl through assorted editions of D&D (and some homebrew) by +Jens D. 

Part 2: The Dance of the Tarantella by Charles Akins

Part 3: Boozing it Up in 5e by +Sean Bircher
  Part 4: When the DM Gets Drunk by +Stelios V. Perdios
Part 5: Drunken Beasts by +Sean Bircher 
Part 6: B-E-N-D-E-R! by +Sean Bircher
Part 7: Wine Angel by +Sean Bircher
Part 8: The Drunk Girl and the Game Master by +Stelios V. Perdios
The Complete Dungeons & Drunkards PDF

If you liked this project be sure to check out the next one that's just been announced! 
We're still accepting new people for it!

Just When You Thought Everything About Gaming Was Terrible, Along Came the Console Living Room!

On November 1, 2014 the Javascript MESS project released 21 game systems and roughly 900 games to the Internet Archive. The Javascript MESS project describes their mission as: "The JAVASCRIPT MESS project is a porting of the MESS emulator, a program that emulates hundreds of machine types, into the Javascript language. The MESS program can emulate (or begin to emulate) a majority of home computers, and continues to be improved frequently. By porting this program into the standardized and cross-platform Javascript language, it will be possible to turn computer history and experience into the same embeddable object as movies, documents, and audio . . ." (JSMESS Homepage).

Of the 21 game systems that have been emulated I'm familiar with four of them: the Atari 2600, the Atari 7800, the Sega Genesis, and the Sega Game Gear. Naturally I checked them out and even the big boys are here. Titles like Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac Man, Golden Axe, Shadowrun, and more are here and ready for you to play them in your browser. It's a fantastic moment in the gaming hobby when you can find so many classic games - long since out of production and abandoned to time - available to play again. So check out the Console Living Room and discover some new games you've never even heard of, and rediscover some of your favorites from yesterday!

The Console Living Room

Quick Link to the Best Performers

Saying Horrible Things for Fun and Profit

One of the best parts of running the Underdark Wars game has been watching all of these really creative players come up with these complex ideas and fantastic insults. As the game goes along I'm compiling what they're writing to make it easy for everyone who comes along to read where they're going and what they're experiencing - because those sorts of records largely don't exist for any of our games, and this style of game really lends itself to a broader narrative.

Right now we're in the middle of a vote on opening up the Underdark Wars Community to the wider public so everyone can follow along as it goes. Spectators will have their own area where they can talk about the game, cheer on their favorites, and help stoke the flames of war.  

And because I've been having so much fun reading their trash talking I've collected everything so you cats who didn't have a chance to join in are able to see what you're missing! Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Click here to download a PDF of all the Trash Talk!

“Mark Van Vlack, shall we use plan 2.3 a 

or blitzkrieg 5.6 b to tromp them down?”

– James Aulds (Duergar)

“5.6 b naturally. Only we'll use the sneaky version this time.” – Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“Your plans will not matter while Nick Foster and I are feasting on your dwarven brains. It's quite a bit of work getting through the thick skulls for the tiny morsel inside.” – Jim Haltom (Mind Flayer)

“Correction ‘Duergar’ skulls, not our weaker surface loving cousins. As to the morsel you speak of will be foul and bitter, it contains only hate.” – Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“I don’t know what the hells going on here but I want in . . . Come to me spider queen in this time of great chaos!! May the world know your greatness at the hands of your faithful children, the TRUE rulers of the Underdark!” – Jarrod Shaw (Drow)

“Grind, Grind, Grudge, Grind , Grind, Grudge, KILL!!!!!!!!!!!”

-- James Aulds (Duergar)

“There are only grudges.” – Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“For you, there is only despair #slurpslurp” – Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“The chisels and spikes of war are being sharpened in the under-dark,pale eyes filled with hate.”

-- Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“There is no revenge for slaves. #slurpslurp” – Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“The most loyal servants of Lloth, those loyal beyond death, preserved with the Great Queen's own searing venom - the creche sisters, vestarches of the black city - have returned and call for war. All who are loyal to the spider queen shall march with them, and all others fall into the barbed web of destruction. 

“Lloth has marked the ancient enemy, the stunted mine worms, coal covered wretches, self style Duregar, scurrying grubs, that bastard band grown from the splintered stock of a stunted tree as the first to kneel. All else will follow. The Ghilman of Lloth are mobilizing.”

– Gus L. (Drow)

“Dwarves make good slaves and precious little else. #slurpslurp” -- Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“To all those who dare challenge the one great Beholder you shall call me Master or my visage will be the final image your eyes will gaze upon as life slowly drains from your worthless hide. “Praise to The Great Mother!”

-- Edchuck Sockmonkey (Beholder)

“What an eye-sore. Wakka, wakka, wakka!” – Mike Davison (Svirfneblin)

“You would do well to mind your tongue, gnome. The Far Realm is here. #slurpslurp” – Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“Tremble, all you angled and jointed weaklings! 

The True Voice of the Great Mother is here, 

the most magnificently spheroid of them all. 

I've got a very special eye on each of you...”

– Anders Nordberg (Beholder)

"We watch. And we wait. 

We have all the time in the world." #slurpslurp

-- Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

"Duergar are a lesser species, little better than goats. Hardly good for eating, they are tough and stringy. Dwarves make better slaves and are not fit to rule. #slurpslurp"

-- Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“Hurumph!” – Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“Thems fighting words if I've ever seen 'em!” – Charles Akins (Referee)

“Duergar attend only to the stone and those who should dwell within it. The Ithalid seem better suited to an aquarium, hardly a concern.” – Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“Concern yourselves with the stone, for it will be less that you have to work on when the Illithid emerge victorious. Be sure to make my chambers comfortable dwarf.” – Jim Haltom (Mind Flayer)

“I see you do not dare mention the might Beholders! That is wise, for we love calamares.” – Anders Nordberg (Beholder)

“The Far Realm is here.” – Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“Totally beat me to the Calamari reference ! .. DAMN YOU BEHOLDERS!” -- Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“Your pitiful holds will be washed away in a wave of slime and madness, gormless mortals that you are. #slurpslurp” – Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“Raises a cranium-cup To our oculoid cousins in the north: may lesser creatures fall before your armies, and the world be your buffet. May the slaves pay homage to your Great Mother, and slake her hunger.”

– Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“For too long now we have avoided conflict with the various other creatures of the Underdark. Our neutrality has caused many of them to deride us, to look down upon us as lesser beings to enslave or kill. Those days of peace are over. By the Beard of Callarduran Smoothhands, The Svirfneblin will not go gently further into the depths.

We shall rise above andprotect our own from all the evils

that this dark world presents!”

-- Christopher McGurr (Svirfneblin)

“The Darkness knows one boundary 

and that is the hopeless stone. Best to yield. 

For, the children of stone are all around you.

#Grudge #Gore”

– Mark Van Vlack (Duergar)

“In the Far Realm, stone is aqueous as the sweat from your pores. Tremble! The Far Realm is here! #slurpslurp” -- Nick Foster (Mind Flayer)

“Stone is for coffins - you should know to be afraid of what is within the coffin, not the inanimate stone - silly stunted insect. We march North to fill your coffins with your maggots and pay the ancient debts.” – Gus L. (Drow)

Cookie Jar by post world games

cookie jar is a game of wild accusations and denials that begs for you to play it while at a bar drinking heavily of the latest dark beer to go on tap. 

Play begins when one player, it doesn't really matter who so long as one person starts, accuses another of some imaginary crime or indiscretion; from there the accused must come up with a clever alibi or be forced into the position of confessor. When no sufficient alibi can be found, or the accused player runs out of dice, the game is over and the last player accused is the loser, while the last accuser is the winner.

A simple game, with simple mechanics.

Now there are a few caveats with this game. First the game requires that have fifteen dice to pay for your actions during the game, but they are essentially meaningless to the game's play. You could just as easily play with poker chips, rocks, pretzels, or even the loose change in your pockets all of which would be far more convenient than lugging around all the dice necessary for play. Additionally this is not a game for everyone. You need to know going in to this game that you're playing with people who will not cross the line of a fantasy game and move it into the world of real crimes and indiscretions. The final problem I have with this game comes from the writing style. The author, jim pinto, has written what is an incredibly fun game that can be played most everywhere and yet it has this sense of apathy about it that makes me ask, if you don't care about this game, why should I?

Regardless of those three issues the game is a very fun experience and can be played most anywhere with as many players as you feel comfortable bringing along. Just remember who you're playing with and enjoy a game filled with more lies and false accusations than Clue ever hoped to have.

Overall Score

Score: 7 out of 10

If this game sounds like one you'd like then you can download it for free from the link cookie jar.

A Free Copy of the Temple of Elemental Evil?

I was skimming along the Dungeons and Dragons Classics PDF store when I noticed that the Temple of Elemental Evil has just become available for free until September 28, 2013! If you haven't got a copy of this classic adventure, or your copy is as jankety as mine, I highly recommend you pick one up today!

Did I mention it's free? Seriously, pick one up.

A Map of a Post or Some Such Thing

The Dungeon that Never Was, But May Someday Be

I noticed a while back that Wil Wheaton had posted his map from the introduction of Tabletop under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. I tend to think that's pretty groovy of him as he could have just kept the map for himself and never shared it with the world.

As you can see from the map to the right Will's dungeon is fairly bare bones. In that way the map is fantastic. It allows for anyone who comes across it to quickly create their own little world and story-lines without having to work out all the details that Will squirreled away in his map.

For me, however, I wanted to take Will's original idea and expand on it by making his map my own. In this way I could create small visual cues that will quickly relate all the information about the dungeon that I need so that my game will run smoothly.

When I began recreating the map I added rubble in the southeast corner of the large room, in the trapped room in the center of the map, and in the store room in the lower center of the map as evidence of seismic activity in the area. I also allowed flowing water to run across the right wall in the room to the lower right of the map as a way of emphasizing that the dungeon isn't being properly maintained. These sort of clues will allow me emphasize areas of the dungeon that are currently in use and those that are being left to rot.

I added a series of islands in the underground lake so that I can test out some Troglodytes. I've rarely used these creatures over the last ten years and I would like to begin using them in my games so that I can throw new challenges at my players and keep the game from being stale.

In the secret cave system I added a second layer to the top cavern so that I could create a Grell lair. I love Grell - especially since they tend to be rarely used by other dungeon masters - so I try to fit them into my campaigns at memorable points. Using an illusion to cover the entrance into their caverns provides me with several opportunities to make this a memorable encounter and keep the Grell, a large predator, logically consistent in the underground environment.

I also added some webs in the large room. These didn't really turn out as well as I would have liked, but they're a great visual cue to remind me that I've populated that section of the room with Giant Spiders.

Finally I turned all the shelves in the store room vertical as opposed to horizontal. Vertical shelving is the norm in professional storage situations and presents a subtle reinforcement of the idea that the people you're encountering in this dungeon aren't just a bunch of amateurs who got together and started committing acts of evil.

Evil is their profession and they've got their shit together.

The Dungeon that Never Was, But May Someday Be Redux

My map is being shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you'd like to learn more about that, click on the links below.



Tabletop Map by Charles Akins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://wilwheaton.net/2012/12/a-map-of-a-dungeon-that-never-was-but-may-someday-be/.