The New Death and others

I must confess I was a bit surprised when I was asked by the author to review this book. 

"The New Death and others" by James Hutchings is an interesting mix of dark fantasy short stories and poems, which I found irreverent, amusing and sarcastic. Every piece has an original point of view, sometimes corny, but always cynical. I really enjoyed it.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Maure Castle game in Google+ Hangout

Last Saturday night, and after a year, we got back together to play some Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks to Google+ Hangout, five players from four different countries (Uruguay, Panama, Mexico and Ireland) gathered around a virtual table. I think we're participating in a revolution on how RPGs are being played.

We also took the opportunity to test the Tabletop Forge app ( http://tabletopforge.com/). Everyone liked the app and we successfully used the dice roller and combat tracker, but had some issues with the battle map and one of the players had some problems with his Internet connection (Telmex: you suck!).

The party continued the exploration of the Chamber of Antiquities (Dragon #124), one of the many levels under the ruins of Maure Castle.

Kentsui Inowe, Human (Mnk14)

Quinath Leafholder, Elf (Ftr4/Wiz8/Sps2)

Kamar, Human (Ftr6/EWM1/Ken7)

Kir'Orist Mithalvarin, Elf (Clr9/Lor6)

Jerry, Human (Rog14)

Last session, a year ago, Inowe almost got killed by a creature they identified as a hordling and the party decided to go to the Free City of Greyhawk. There the group contacted former member Orist (cleric of Boccob) and hired the services of Jerry, a skilled rogue. Denar, a cleric of Heironeous, stayed in the city (the player couldn't join the game). The group returned to the castle and picked up where they left. From there they explored a meeting room with an ornated large wooden table surrounded by a dozen of also ornate wooden chairs that bore an stylized M. An iron door led to another room with five statues of armor-clad warriors surrounding a low pedestal. Atop of the pedestal was a crystal box with a sparkling ring inside. Quinath send an unseen servant to retrieve the box, but when it picked it up the statues animated and destroyed the servant. Inowe threw one of the chairs at the box and knocked it from the pedestal, leaving it out of sight. She then tried to hook it with her kama but to no avail. Seen that Quinath cast invisibility on his homunculus and fly on himself. The homunculus flew close to the ceiling (10' high) until it was above the box. Meanwhile Quinath flew also close to the ceiling until he saw the box. The statues animated and two of them closed on Quinath. One of them jumped and managed to land a blow with his bastard sword. Quinath cast levitate on the box and flew from the room, but not before one of the guardians hit him again. The box levitated to the ceiling and the homunculus pushed it towards the door. The guardians followed Quinath but Orist cast stone shape and made a semi-circular 6' high wall on the door to prevent that.

Jerry the rogue examined the box for traps while Kamar stood in guard in case the guardians decided to follow. Quinath cast Grease on the wall in case the guardians managed to climb across. Orist recognized the ring as a Dragon Eye ring. while at it one guardian managed to climb the wall but fell due to the Grease and was hacked down by Kamar. The same fate met the second guardian. Quinath then flew back into the room and cast Cone of Cold on the remaining three guardians. Two reached the wall and one managed to hit Quinath who cast Wall of Fire on them and retreated. Those two guardians climbed the wall and jumped on Kamar who managed to kill one. Orist cast Harm on the other killing him. The remaining guardian returned to his post by the altar and back to stone.

And with that ended the Hangout. :)

Blog word count

http://timc.idv.tw/wordcloud/en/

Answering Brendan's 20 questions

You can look at Brendan's original post here.

1. Ability scores generation method? 
• 4d6 drop lower.
2. How are death and dying handled? 
• You're disabled at 0 hp, unconscious at 1- and dead at -10 hp.
3. What about raising the dead?
• If you can find a cleric powerful enough and can pay him, you're back!
4. How are replacement PCs handled? 
• Just roll another and you're back in.
5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else? 
• Individual.
6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work? 
• 1 always misses. 20 always hits and you can choose double damage or roll damage dice twice.
7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?
• Yes.
8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?
• Yes you certainly can.
9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?
• It's your choice, you can run or you can try kill everything.
10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?
• Yes.
11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?
• Yes.
12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?
• Resources closely tracked. Encumbrance more lightly.
13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?
• You don't need to train to gain new level but you have to wait for down time.
14. What do I get experience for?
• Treasure, defeating monsters (killing, bypassing, negotiating), cool ideas.
15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?
• Give me a description of what you're looking for and what you're doing, and I'll let you roll.
16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
• They are and the retainer's morale is the character's charisma score.
17. How do I identify magic items?
• Using them or by magic.
18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?
• In 3.5 yes. In LL no, just potions.
19. Can I create magic items? When and how?
• Yes you can. At the appropriate level, in a proper lab.
20. What about splitting the party?
• Sure, be my guest. Mmmwhawhahaha!!

Read An RPG Book in Public Week