LFR Weekend in The Realms

If you are in Cape Town over the coming weekend and looking for something to do, may I recommend coming through to Outer Limits in Cape Town and joining us for Weekend in the Realms.

Pregen characters will be available.

The Icy Queen’s Crossing: In a region so dangerous that even the most savage of Nar tribes fear trespassing there, a group of heroes has a chance to change the face of a war-torn land. This adventure has locations and characters from the Forgotten Realms novel The Fall of Highwatch. A Weekend in the Realms exclusive adventure set in Narfell for Living Forgotten Realms characters of levels 1-4.

More details on facebook

Sanctioning #: 09-11-2081106
Coordinator: David Muller, DCI# 1213167532

Dragon for DMs 365

So,

The second issue of the 4e run of Dragon has some nice bits ready to steal for a homebrew.  Including 1 article that caught me by surprise.

Backdrop Cormyr

I will admit that Cormyr is one of my favourite kingdoms in the realms, full of realmsian flavour, but still generic enough to transplant into a homebrew if you need a standard faux European kingdom.  This article brings some nice flavour to the realm, with some really nice plot hooks in the descriptions of the nobles and military.  Well worth a look if you going to be designing a chivalrous state.

Ecology of the Dragonborn

What looks like an article for players is full of ideas for a Dm to plunder,especially in the Dragonborn culture section.  Nice way to bring a dragonborn tribe, town or kingdom to life.

Codex of Betrayal Beleth

This article discusses Beleth, the spymaster for Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, a powerful demon who excels at being overlooked while keeping his fingers in as many plots as possible. More plot hooks and adventure ideas for a high paragon/low epic adventure than you can shake an imp at.  This article is definitely going to see some use in my campaign as Asmodeus might just be involved somewhere...

Roll vs Role Snake Tongue: The Coils Below
A neat article looking at a typical cult of Zehir.  Suitable for a low paragon campaign as written you can easily stretch the cult out as a long running for into mid paragon.

Dolruths Dawn
An unexpected treasure of an article, a town populated by reincarnated epic NPCs who remember nothing but their names.  I could easily see this being used as a setting in itself for a short epic tier campaign, the characters waking in the village, with no memories of their past.  Plenty of opportunities for social intrigue as well, as the npcs cover the full range of alignments.

Not as many articles as 364 to highlight, with 2 aimed solely at characters (The Artificer playtest and Character Concepts).  Bazaar of the Bizarre is worth looking at as a DM for ideas for giving magical items back stories and histories.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Dragon for DMs

So,

A little project from my side.

I am currently putting together a 4th ed campaign, based in a points of light world.  One thing I have been doing is going through the Dragon and Dungeon magazines, looking for articles which can be used to enhance a homebrew campaign.  So, I will be posting a review of each edition on a weekly basis, starting at Dragon 364, looking at which articles I have found useful from a dming perspective.

Dragon 364
Demonomicon of Iggwilv; Yeenoghu Demon Prince of Gnolls

Interesting article, although I am not planning to use Yeenoghu as a main adversary in my campaign the information on his cults and followers might make their way into gnollish adversaries that the party run into.
The adversaries covered in the article are best used for the epic tier, with the exception of Crocottas which make for a nice variation in Gnoll encounters for upper heroic tier encounters.
 
Vor Kragal City of Ash
Another good article, detailing the ruined city of Vor Kragal, the capital of the Tiefling empire of Bael Turath.  Awesome article if you are looking for a creepy demon infested ruined city to include in your campaign, especially at early Paragon.  I will keep this bookmarked as an adventure site, a hidden library could yield knowledge of ages past.
 
The Ashen Convanent
This article details a cult of Orcus with a particularly sinister motive.  The article includes the cults leaders, magical items and new undead mosters.  I will be using this article extensively, as reference to what a powerful cult might look like.
 
Wolves of Maldeen
This article provides the information on a mercenary guild which fights against evil, protecting the innocent.  It has a slightly underground, feel, more like Robin Hood than knights in shinign armour.
This article has already found its way into my campaign world.  My players have suggested some kind of fighters guild within the starting area.  Unknown to them, the guild which hires out mercenaries to guard merchant traffic in the valley has links to the Wolves, keeping an eye on the valley and its inhabitants and watching for the rise of evil.  They may take note of a new band of heroes in the area, and react depending on these heroes actions.

Creature Incarnations; Kobolds
More kobolds than you can shake a sword at, including a kobold swarm.  The article also goes into some details on designing kobold lairs.  As a bonus there is a chart to roll against in the unlikely event that a kobold manages to drop a pc.  Very amusing, and going to be useful.

Alchemical Imbalance
This article featuring an alchemically altered goblin tribe, shows how with a few simple changes you can create a unique encounter for your players.  Useful as is, or for reference for modifying monsters to a theme.

Expeditionary Dispatch Forest of Flesh
This is an Eberron article featuring a creepy, haunted forest.  Ripe for steeling for homebrews if you are looking to create an area where the terrain is as dangerous as the creatures inhabiting it and clearly designed to keep the curious out.

Summary
All in all many interesting articles for a dm to steal and use in his campaign, several of the articles are likely to see extensive use in my homebrew Enemy of My Enemy, all in all a strong and promising start for the 4e edition of Dragon.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

World Wide D&D Game Day: Dungeon Masters Guide 2

So,

If you are in Cape Town with nothing to do this Saturday morning, feel free to join us at UCT for the 3rd WWDnDGD.

Details here:

Date:	Saturday, 19 September 2009
Time:	09:00 - 15:00
Where:	Room L, RW James Building, UCT (This is where we were for the MM2 Launch) Cape Town, South Africa

RPGA Sanctioning #: 09-09-2025099

In the spirit of Dungeon Mastering, we're giving you the opportunity to create and show off your very own adventure! Work as a team to build encounters using the materials provided. After your team has finished, play another team's adventure or DM the one your team created. We provide you with everything you need -- maps, miniatures, monster stats, and how-to instructions. Just bring your imagination, a pencil or pen, and some dice!

This is a very special activity that has never before been a part of Worldwide D&D Game Day! But don't worry if you just want to play; you can participate in as much or as little of the adventure-building activity as you want. Nothing, however, beats the satisfaction of hearing another team howl in terror as they fight the foes and traps you placed for them!

A Passage Into Mystery is a special team-created 6th-level adventure that uses tiles from DU3 Caves of Carnage and monsters from the Monster Manual: Legendary Evils miniatures expansion. Come out on September 19 and be a part of the adventure!

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Running Iron Heroes 4E style

So,

I have an Iron Heroes game set in the L5R setting coming up shortly.  While we are going to running the system fairly untouched for the players side, on the DMs side of the screen I am importing some 4E elements which should hopefully help me minimize prep time.

Please note the following is still a work in progress and is subject to change as the game progresses.

These are my initial thoughts, which will be modified as they are playtested in the campaign.

The biggest issue I have with running D20 games is preparing npc and monster stat-blocks for sessions.  Iron Heroes immediately helps simplify issues, by not relying heavily on spell casters on either side of the screen.  I am looking at totally redesigning the monster stat-blocks.

The first thing I am stealing is monsters and npcs have the stats, ac, hit-points, skills and abilities I as the dm feel they need to have.  I am not going to spend time tweaking equipment, feats and class abilities and levels to get them where they need to be.

At the moment I will be looking at my player's attack bonuses and setting npc/monster ac according to the following guidelines: Hard will require a 12 to hit for the highest attack bonus, medium will require a 10 to hit for the average attack bonus and easy will require a ten to hit for the character with the lowest.

Saves will be set similarly, looking at the DCs of characters abilities.

As for hit-points, I will be using minions to bulk out fights, standard npc's should be able to last 2 rounds of focused attacks by the party and leaders should be able to last 5.

When it comes to npc attacks, I will be using an at-will/encounter/recharge system similar to that of 4e.  Attack bonuses and damage will be appropriate the strengths of the party.  Spell casters will be given 5 to 8 spell like powers, depending on their level and the role I want them to fulfill in the encounter.

Thoughts?

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

ROLPUNK: Reject attitudes, not games.

So,

Berin Kinsman posted the Rolpunk manifesto on his blog last night.  If you haven't read it yet, take a few moments and go do it.

Roleplaying games are about fun, if you are having fun you are doing it right!  It does not matter which edition of which system you are playing.  It does not matter how you have houseruled the system. It does not matter how much combat you have in a session.  If you and your group walk away from the end of  a session talking about how awesome it was and how much you are lookingforward to the next game, then you are winners.

It is ok to disagree with random people on the forums. It is ok to disagree with bloggers and game designers.  It is even ok to disagree with the way Gary Gygax designed and played games if it doesn't work at your table. But, and here is the important thing, even if you do disagree with the way someone does something it does not make them wrong if it works for them.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Local is Lekker Link List

So,

Welcome to the first Cape of Games Local is Lekker Link List

For this installment I will be looking at some of the South African Blogs you should be aware of.

First up is Tenletter, this a collaborative blog focusing on role-playing, computer gaming, board gaming, anima and related geek topics.  Jatori and his crew of loons can be relied on to provide interesting insights into varying aspects of geek culture.

Focusing more on role-playing, Awesome Gaming, contains interesting fluff for worlds, cities and NPC's as well as interesting rules ideas.

Next up, Kev's Lounge, contains various boardgames reviews and house-rules, as well as a growing collection of free dungeon-tiles (well worth looking at).

Finally Pfangirl Through the Looking Glass, provides a look at pop and geek culture in South Africa and is also the home of the Girlz 'n Games webcomic.

Please feel free to point me towards any South African blogs which I have missed!

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Greetings!

Welcome to Cape of Games

Unknown to most there is a small but vibrant role-, board-, war- and cardgaming community hidden within the shadows of Table Mountain.  There are even more gamers who are not aware of the community.  Cape of Games is aimed at reaching out these poor lost souls and bring them into the community, as well as promoting various gaming events happening in Cape Town.

Please come check the calendar regularly for new events which will be updated as I get the information.  Feel free to send me information on events, either via comment, twitter or email via my profile.

I will also add new links to South African gaming related websites and blogs as they come to my attention.

The blog will include previews and announcements of upcoming events, reviews of the events and some of my thoughts on various aspects of the hobby.

Upcoming events to take note of: Warhamer and Warhammer 40K regional tournaments, as well as the Worldwide D&D Games Day Dungeon Masters Guide 2 Launch, details here and here.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Just a test post

So,

Welcome to Cape of Games

This is just a quick test post to check some of the settings. I will be doing a full introduction blog by the end of the week. In the meantime, letme know of any upcomming gaming events in and around Cape Town so I can give the calendar something to eat.

Later!