The Funnel. OF DOOM!!!

So we had a friend round last week and I ran the level 0 funnel adventure "The Portal Under the Stars" from the back of the DCCRPG. It was just two players so I had them roll up 6 characters each and everything was adapted on the fly to Labyrinth Lord. Despite not preparing for the adventure at all (it was very last minute) it all ran fairly smoothly and was close enough to LL that I could wing the stats without worry.

Our friend had never played an RPG before but took to it pretty easily. After some rash action at the beginning (getting 3 characters killed before my girlfriend had lost any) he slowed down and was a bit more thoughtful, he'll make a fine old school player with some practice! Hopefully he'll join in with our future campaign, even if it's only as an occasional player.

Some spoilers of the adventure after the picture, be warned!

Update! (or Damn life, always getting in the way...)

I have a few posts planned honest, but a birthday, illness and new job have taken over for now. Here's a quick update on what's been happening.

Random Coin Design Generator

It occurred to me that although gold coins are a huge part of D&D they are very rarely given any thought beyond the usual arguments about how much to give and whether xp should be linked to it. I thought a simple method of generating designs that are on the coins, representing the lost and alien civilisations that built the dungeons and left the treasure would be a fun way of adding some weirdness and highlighting that, actually, its pretty crazy that there are all these gold coins lying around.

So I made a D20 table, you can roll once for a quick generation or three times for extra randomness. Some of the ideas are taken from actual coins (horned turtle for example). I'm sure you could use this to add backstory to a dungeon, giving some explanation of it's origin or just as some throwaway flavour.

40k Without Number

I've been reading the Stars Without Number rulebook, and wow, it makes me want to hack it to run a 40k campaign. I'd probably struggle to find players with the people I know, but that won't stop me planning it.

The Retired Adventurer has done some posts on hacking SwN for 40k:

http://retiredadventurer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/40k-stars-without-number-eldar.html

http://retiredadventurer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/40k-stars-without-number-expert.html

http://retiredadventurer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/stars-without-number-40k-skill.html

http://retiredadventurer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/40k-stars-without-number-minor-xenos.html

Putting these here (in no particular order) as a reference for myself. I can't find anyone else who has done this so any links to other ideas would be appreciated.

Miniature Pics (Finally!)

The whole point of this blog was to show some of my painted minis. I started painting again at the start of the year after a decade (or more?). I don't claim to be a good painter but at least I'm reasonably quick! Most of these models were painted, not including drying time, in 1 - 2 hours.

Necromunda Gang Name Generator

This was created on a sleepless night as a way to pass the time. Thanks to my girlfriend for help when my brain stopped working!



Pretty self explanatory,  the "of [NAME]" part is definitely optional.

Alternate elves

Elves, everybody loves them (or not), everybody uses them. The basic D&D elves are very LotR-y, and being awkward I decided to do something different with them and not to have them as a playable race in my setting.

So elves in my (as yet unnamed setting) are physically typical elves; tall, slender, very long-lived etc. Their hair, eyes, skin etc subtly changes colour depending on the seasons and their surroundings, so over time an elf which lives in the desert will find his/her colouration washing out to bleached/sandy shades, an elf that lives in the mountains will turn pale shades of grey.

An elf which lives in one place for long enough continues to change (as their skin petrifies, turns to sand etc) and eventually is unable to leave the place they live, losing their personality and identity and becoming a nature spirit (nymph, sylph as appropriate).

Most elves consider this a curse and as a result rarely settle in one place but some become tired of life and accept the change.

Elves don't age and can only die through physical violence. They are very selfish and fickle, have no interest in other races for the most part. They will have been the dominant race at one point but have suffered a fall (basically stolen wholesale from the 40k eldar, but who cares right?). Magic items, ruins and other cool stuff came from them. They are super-fertile and able (and being degenerate bastards, willing) to breed with pretty much anything, giving me an excuse to put in some other races such as beastmen (yeah, Warhammer again).

I was intending to create half-elf variations for all the other races, but sitting down to it it seems slightly ridiculous and unnecessary, so if a player requests it I will, otherwise they just exist as occasional NPCs.