Traveller - Into the great divide

Friday night was Traveller Night. Here a quick write up of the events of the evening: The last episode ended with the group trying to start the loader they found. Unfortunately the loader did not have any fuel cells left. So the search for fuel cells was on.

Destroyed settlement
The arm in which we found the abandoned loader turned to an end after 50 meters. We knew that there were no cells to the left, as that was the canyon leading to the steel door. So we investigated the canyon straight ahead. About half a kilometer, we saw a small settlement of three bio-dome tents. Cautiously we brought the raft nearer to investigate. One of the tents was shredded to pieces. Behind the tent was a large hole in the ground with, which looked like, a generator on the bottom. Jack jumped from the raft and tried to open the door. When the combination lock did not work, he became impatient and put his shotgun against the tent, destroying the tent in the process. Inside we did not find the sought-after cells.

Insectoids
From upon the raft it was clear that the generator still worked. So that became our main interest. Again, the impatient nature of our friend Jack nearly killed him. He descended from a steel staircase that was fixed to the side of the hole. Halfway the stairs, two large, praying mantice-like creatures emerged from pigeonholes in the side of the hole. Startled by this sight, jack descended the stairs as quickly as possible. On the bottom of the hole he took his shotgun and blasted one of the creatures to a gooey paste.



Fortunately for him, Ed was rushing in to do his part in the slaying. This could not prevent the insects from taking a few good bites from Jack. On the brink of death, Jack was, once again, saved by Dr Max Alder.
[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="488" caption="Saviour of the day"][/caption]

Using the Loader
Charles climbed onto the loader and tried to steer the thing towards the metal plate. Fortunately for him, the wind shield on the loader was as good as bullet proof. The gun turrets we encountered earlier fired their ammo full blast on the loader. Suffering from the same impatience bug as Jack, Charles started charging into the wall. This did not have the effect he hoped. Studying the controlpanel he noticed a button protected by a plastic cover. Always good news! He pushed the button and saw a sonic blast building up at the tip of the pinchingarm of the loader. He aimed the blast at the soft rock to the left of the metal plate. This was enough to bring the heavy plate down.

Fighting the guard
Once inside we saw that the canyon led to a large open-roofed cave. The cave was heavily guarded by human guards and gun turrets. Swift action of Ed ensured that the guards could not use the turrets against us. No all to serious injuries were sustained in the battle that followed.

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society

In the seventies and early eighties, Traveller had it's own, dedicated, magazine. The magazine was called after the society in the original Traveller universe which aided wanderers across the galaxy with low-lost hostels in starports, and by providing a sort of Hitchhikers guide.

24 issues
The magazine was started by GWD. In total 24 issues were made. After the 24th issue, and the demise of GWD, the magazine continued as Challenge. The magazine featured new rules, adventures, fiction, background materials and Traveller news (see the free table of contents for a complete overview).


Online magazine
Currently, Steve Jackson Games publishes a bi-weekly online Traveller magazine, also called the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, or JTAS for short.

Reissue as PDF
The complete run of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society can be found at RPGnow

The best of the RPG blogs - week 16

The challenge of making money
Monte Cook, one of the epic heroes of RPG writing talks about his experiences with making money as a freelance RPG writer. The way he describes it, the DC must be at least 35. So, even if you "take 20", which you can't if you're going professional, you have to be seriously skilled. Bottom line: It's hard making a living as a RPG designer, so don't quit your day jobs, boys and girls!
Link

Gamma World: Europe in 2162 Part I: Geography

The year is 2162. 150 years ago a scientific experiment conducted in Geneva, Switzerland went terribly wrong. This event would be known as The Big Mistake. Instantly, all possible parallel worlds were condensed into one single reality.

In a series of posts, Behold the Dice will sketch a vision of what is left of Europe in Gamma World

The big changes
The costal regions of north-western Europe have fought a battle against the invading sea for centuries. In the events following the Big Mistake, the sea got the upper hand and claimed vast stretches of land. This has changed the coastal line of western Europe dramatically. In addition, several large cities, in particular the cities of Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin are nog submerged some 10 to 30 meters below sea level.



Temperature
Gradually over the past 150 years, temperatures have been rising as a result of the more corrosive atmospheres on some of the merged worlds. Seasons still hold, with hot and damp tropical summers, and bleak and wet winters. Autumn and fall are not well defined. Both are a periods of 1 or 2 months in which the weather slides from chilly to hot and vice versa.

The landscape
With the loss of a substantial part of society, nature has taken back control again in Europe. The costal region consists of mixed forrests and plains. In central Europe, vast pine forrests, ranging from the German western border to well within Russia have become dark and dangerous places.

Islands
The changes in coastal line have produced a series of new islands. Ireland has split into two islands of equal size. In addition, Bretange has become an island, and the south of Sweden has become an island. The most important new island is the city of London that is surrounded by seawater. The suburbs of the city have been taken by the sea, but the majority of the city rises proud above the waves.

Mountain Ranges
On the peaks of Europe not much has changed, apart from the glaciers, which are by now almost extinct. The cooler climate high in the Alps and Pyrenees have drawn several clans.

Traveller inspiration

Space: 1970 is an excellent blog that features artwork, photo's etc. from science fiction shows and films from the 1970's. Take a look at this wonderful picture of a capital ship.



The picture is from the 1979 science fiction film The Black Hole. The film tells the story of the crew of the Palomino that boards the long-lost ship Cygnus. Here they have to stand up to faceless robots that have unhealthy plans for the visitors.

The best links of week 15

It's Link-sunday again here on Behold the Dice. Reading the gaming blogs so you won't have to.

Adventure Design Deskbook
The Underdark gazette takes Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook Volume One for a testdrive. They show how an adventure is made using the random tables from the book. I'm really curious about the book!
Link



Thousand Suns
James Maliszewski talks on Grognardia about his Sci Fi RPG Thousand Suns. It's a game with limited background information. He talks about the challenges you have to face as a DM running an open ended sandbox campaign in the SciFi genre, while your characters have their own starship.
Link
Thousand Suns can be bought here from RPGNow and here from Rogue Games themselves.




Languages
Kobold Quarterly has a great post on the working of the Speak Languages skill. The skill doesn't work as a skill, since you either know a language or you don't. In the blog, the skill is modified to work as a skill, with examples of DCs for different tasks etc. I never really thought of this one, bu I like it! This will be employed in our campaigns.
Link

Traveller inspitation
The Zhodani base links to 5 free ebooks from the project Gutenberg to use as inspiration for your Traveller game. It's old stuff, but good stuff.
Link



Some of my own books for Traveller inspiration:




Gamma World adventure
Sly Flourish has an exciting Gamma World adventure on his blog. Go check it out!
Link

Review: Kobold Quarterly 17

This month, the 17th number of Kobold Quarterly was released. For those of you unfamiliar with Kobold Quarterly, Kobold Quarterly is a quarterly magazine focussing on Pathfinder, Dungeon and Dragons 4th edition, Dragon Age, and system neutral materials. Since the demise of Dragon, it is the sole torchbearer of quality RPG magazines.



Kobold Quarterly 17 is packed with ideas and resources for your games, review of fiction, and questions and answers. A few highlights of issue 17 are:

Rules for archenemies
This article from Michael Kortes describes a series of rules to make the recurring villain in your campign even more memorable. A really nice approach is to give characters certain benefits, such as improved diplomacy when aquiring information on the villain, or an extra 5 foot step to represent the extra mile characters are willing to go to slay the villain.

Interview with Jeff Tidball
The interview with Jeff Tidball (twitter) focusses on the practical aspects of game designing and working as a freelancer in the games industry. Very valuable to see a little bit of the inside of the industry.

Secret of the Four Golden Gates
This article describes new societies and new items for monks. A monks weapon that is presented in the article is a magic prayer wheel. Somehow it's a funny thought seeing a monk beating the living daylights out of a drow using a prayer wheel.



Fireworks
Jonathan McAnulty writes an article on fireworks, and the magical effects they can have. These effects range from being blinded to sustaining damage, and finding the way north in the wilderness.

Kobold Quarterly shows that there is an important place for print or PDF magazines in addition to all the online content that is out there. The articles and artwork in this issue generally are of a higher quality and higher editorial standards than blogs and other online content.

Kobold Quarterly is available in print and pdf

Farewell 2nd edition

A little over six months ago we started a 2nd edition advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The reasons we started the campaign was out of nostalgia for our old books, and to be able to play Night Below in the original edition. Now, six months later, we decided to leave 2nd edition and move to Pathfinder.

Amazing
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition is amazing! The history of the game, the depth of the products, the quality of the boxes, maps and artwork are all top notch. At the risk of contributing to the Edition Wars that are fought on forums and blogs alike, let me explain why we made this depatrure.



Rules
Playing 2nd edition again, after many years, really made me admire the work and effort that went into Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition. Advaced dungeons and Dragons is an organic ruleset, grown and adapted over many years, and the rules reflect this. In our group we had the growing sensation that the rules did not facilitate the game. Let's face it, the rules of 2nd edition aren't really all that streamlined or balanced. Now, this may not be a bad thing. A lot can be attributed to playing, and DMming style, etc. but still. I can say that 2nd edition isn't really all that suited to govern our playing style.

Playing style
We like to play a fast-paced game. Both in terms of style during sessions as in terms of character advancement. Our style can be characterized as epic or heroic, or pulp-fantasy if you like. The ruleset of Pathfinder natively supports this style, 2nd edition not so much. For instance, we like to use a lot of skills. Let's face it, its fun to roll dice, and we like to succeed. The thrill of succeeding a tumble check to get past an opponent, followed by an jump and acrobatics check to swing from a chandelier, and to finally make an attack against the villain on the balcony. That kind of stuff.



Living system
Last, and certainly not least, I want to be part of a living system again. 2nd edition with it's huge legacy is amazing, but largely static. It doesn't have the creative energy of the retrogaming community. Nor does it provide the thrill of buying brand new books and incorporating them in the campaign. Again, not for everybody, but it is something that appeals to me in Pathfinder.




To conclude
2nd edition is amazing. However as of the next gaming session were converting Night Below to Pathfinder. I'm very much looking forward to it.



*) Picture of edition wars is by the Weem, check him out!

The best links of week 14

Each week Behold the Dice brings you the best blogposts of the week delivered in a nice crispy package. Without further adue:

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
The hopeless gamer features a review of the graphic novel Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a graphic novel published by Dark Horse comics. As a fan of Fritz Leiber I'm very much looking forward to this one.
Link


Pricing
There has been some debate on pricing of RPGs, following Adamant Entertainment’s very low pricing of their products. Long story short, initially Adamant Entertainment sold more copies of their products, but the beneficial effect did not last long. Inkwell Idea's explains what they think is a suitable price for RPGs in PDF-format.
Link

Kobold Quarterly 17
The good folks at Kobold Quarterly have released another issue of Kobold Quarterly: Number 17. Look here for the contents.
Available here


Larry Elmore Western Art
We all know Larry Elmore's art from the elaborate dragon paintings he did. Grognardia posted some pictures from a different genre: Western. Fantastic to see this master in another genre.
Link

The best links of week 13

Pole arms
You think you know your weapons, right? Especially the pole arms hold no surprises for you. You know your halberd, glaive, spear, even the exotic naginata. Well, think again. Do this test at Wizards to see where you stand. My score? An 8 out of 22
Link



Artwork from MERP
Tales from the tower http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/ regularly publishes artwork and maps from the Middle Earth Role Playing game (MERP). Look at this wonderful collection of drawings:
Link



Space 1889
Frank Chadwick started a blog on Space:1889, and the steampunk genre in general. In the first posts he talks about France in the world of Space:1889, and on the position of steam punk in the pubishing industry.
Link



How to survive a gaming convention
Sly Flourish http://slyflourish.com/ Has a funny and insightful post on how to survise a gming covention.
Link