[New Magic Item] Bag of Bags

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm not going to bore everyone with personal junk. Instead I will just dive into blogging again and hope for the best.

Over Christmas vacation last week, I got inspired for this new magic item. And given that it's a container, that means it belongs in the hallowed halls of...

Bag of Bags

This canvas satchel measures 12" long by 2" wide by 12" deep with a shoulder strap for easy carrying. Opening the bag reveals that it is filled to the completely with neatly folded burlap that appears to be sewn into the bag itself. No other items can be placed in the bag of bags. However, when the command word, a burlap sack may be withdrawn from the bag of bags.

The user determines the capacity of the sack when it is withdrawn (in cubic feet), but each bag of bags is limited to a total of 10d10 cubic feet of bags. The sacks themselves are very durable, but cannot carry more than 50 lbs per cubic foot of volume and possess no other magical properties.

Burlap sacks withdrawn from the bag of bags may be returned to it provided that there is at least 1 cubic foot of sack still within the satchel. Once the bag of bags is completely emptied, it becomes a non-magical canvas satchel with a carrying capacity of 10 lbs.

GaryCon V Recap Post- Part III: The Weekend

Ladies and gentlemen, sorry about the delay. This is Michael here, and I kinda agreed a while back to write up my last two days of GaryCon to get the lead-in to Dave's last two days. Sadly, I've been having a host of issues, so I've kept things delayed... a few months. I really need to finish this up. SO! Where were we?

Saturday started pretty well honestly. It was the one day Dave and I were going to be sharing two games, and the first game was Mutant Future. Or to be more accurate, using the Mutant Future setting to play out an episode of THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN! Ah, nostalgia and kids' shows. And the GM honestly rocked. ( +Tim Snider of The Savage Afterworld- Dave) I won't go too heavy into details, god knows Dave might want to, but this was a GREAT game, with the GM playing up the motif with the opening credits played on his laptop, as well as a commercial break. Lots of fun, imaginative playing of the setting, and honestly we really abused some of the opportunities we got. Great game and great start. I think we kinda beat it a bit early, got handed free settings books for if we wanted to do Thundarr ourselves, and went off to eat some before our next game. (Long story short, I managed to quadruplicate Ookla to defeat the enemy. -Dave)

Again, that was intended to be our first game, and I was looking forward to my second as well. See, the followup was a game of Dungeon! I really love that game, and I do need to get a copy of it myself. (I got one! -Dave) Wizards of the Coast did a reprint of the game so if you like board games, pick it up. Again, it was hosted by the creator of the game, who's name escapes me, Dave will probably correct it in. (David Megarry -Dave) And he told again the story of the game, showing the first edition and the tables it was originally played on. Very cool stuff. Sadly, I got to feeling unwell by the time the history was told, and had to excuse myself. So I got to miss out on the actual game itself. Went back to my room and rested most of Saturday away, using my laptop to keep in contact with people online and post some in forums. Even sick, I did some role-playing. Shush.

And that takes me to Sunday, and the last game on my list. The one I'd been looking forward to all con. Call of Cthulhu. Honestly, I'd never played it and I'd wanted to for SO LONG. I love the Lovecraftian setting and I really had been looking forward to it. By the time I got there, there were about five other players waiting, and more showing up as we settled in to talk and chat. Friends and people I'd met from prior cons, I was really looking forward to the game!

And the GM never showed up. Nobody knew what happened to him, where he was. Talked to the con staff, they had no idea what was going on. Table was bleeding players as people went to try and see if there were openings in second pick games when yet again the awesome con staff came through. There was someone with some experience in Call who was willing to GM for us. Great man, I REALLY wish I could remember his name (I am HORRIBLE with names) (Don't ask me, I was playing Traveler at the time- Dave) who more or less ran us through a condensed form of one of his basic sessions. Dave came along during the game, his own game plans kinda shot, and he sat to watch a good deal of the fun as we tried to investigate through a mysterious death and tragic murder. (No, my game went pretty well actually -Dave) All of it looked to lead up to an occult conspiracy and a plan to summon an elder god, and two of our impromptu group got captured by cultists and held in a prison under their base. The rest of us came in, not knowing they were trapped, and confronted the leader of the cult...

And I will admit part of this was my just being kinda tired and feeling ready to head home, but... When the cult leader asked us if there was anything he could say to get us on his side? I sold everyone out, kinda. I'd been hired, NOT paid, and had been working this nonsense without any hope of recompense. I think it rather tickled the GM that I was more than happy to be paid off, and my detective left the rest of them behind to cash his check and get on the first ship he could find to France, get as FAR away from all that nonsense as he could. Honestly? Great end to my last day.

Dave and I had already packed up the car so, we left. Got lunch at a nice out of the way place with... Crap. Dave, tell the rest of the story, my brain is pudding for names.

Afterwards we hung out with +Christopher Stogdill, +Carolyn Stogdill, +Paul Raasch and +Scott Schwartz at Hogs & Kisses in Lake Geneva for lunch before heading home. Overall, it was a great time.

In related news, GaryCon VI has officially been announced for March 27-30, 2014. For more information go to garycon.com

The GaryCon V Recap Post- Part II: Friday

[This is a continuation of the belated recap of GaryCon V that took place in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin last month. This recap also features my brother Michael as a guest blogger.

Also, I need to get this done so I can move on and blog about other things.]

Friday

One of the things I told myself I was going to do Thursday was to get everything together for the Shootout. That didn't happen, so for the second year in a row I was scrambling to get building models assembled and paper minis cut out. The glue sticks I purchased for the models didn't work at all, so I had to run back to Wal-Mart to buy tape. As for the minis, it turns out that I didn't have them with me when I left upstate New York. And my attempts to print out copies from the hotel's printer failed spectacularly as they didn't have any PDF viewers on their office computer. I decided to make do with the fantasy minis I used the day before and continued on. My only interruption being when Michael came back from his 9am game earlier than expected. I'll let him explain.

34 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon IV: Part II

So Thursday started off with something new. Me sitting at a desk in my underwear desperately trying to get about nine paper building assembled in time for the shootout. I managed to convince Michael to help me ans soon we had our buildings done and I got some pants on. Things were looking up.

After a quick bite we went downstairs to find our table and get set up. I was a bit disappointed to see that we were at a small table shoved in the back room of the convention center. It wasn't until well into the game that we were actually given three tables and had that entire room to ourselves. Players began to line up, the majority from the Kenzer boards. Though I never took an actual count, I would say that we had at least a dozen players going. And despite having around twelve people gathered around the table, for some reason everyone seemed to be drawn towards the bathhouse for their starting position. It even got named the "Bathhouse of Blood" for all the kills that occurred around it. One of the highlights of the game when +Barbara Blackburn joined in, said "Take that you man-varmint!" and shot another character in the butt.

The game went for about three and a half hours before everyone had their fill and there was one player left standing. Since I didn't have much in the way of prizes to hand out, I had to settle for giving the winner the cheap paper model of the bathhouse as a reward.

After that I went to the Kenzer booth where I managed to get +Jolly Blackburn, +Barbara Blackburn, and +Steven Johansson to sign my special upside-down bound Hacklopedia of Beasts. Michael and I had ourselves some dinner and around eight o'clock we were back downstairs for some more gaming. This time I was playing HackMaster instead of GMing it. Our GM was +George Fields, the Ironman of HackMaster GMs. George runs more HackMaster games than the freaking Kenzer D-Team!

One thing that I like about making the switch from game master to player is that not only do I get a chance to get out from behind the screen, I also feel that by playing under other GMs makes me a better GM. It's nice to take a look at how other people interpret the rules and handle players. Even if you don't agree with how another GM makes a call, it does give you insight into aspects of the game you may have overlooked.

George's game wrapped close to midnight, and I was spent. Michael went on to do some more gaming that evening. Within two years he went from the timid guy unsure about even going to the convention, to socializing with strangers at a moments notice. I, on the other hand, went to bed for a much needed rest. After all, there were still three days of gaming to go.

65 Days Till Garyon! PCs vs Parties.

One of the key differences between a good game and a bad game is how well the party interacts with one another. This isn't so much a matter of role-play or maintaining a 'balanced' party as it is having a group that's on the same page.

Now, I'm a big fan of individual character development. But in the context of a game, that individual is also part of a team, as so explained by Robert DeNiro in this scene from The Untouchables.

Think of your GM as Al Capone right there. Because if you try to put your own interests above that of the other players, you might find yourself on the wrong end of a TPK in no time flat.

So where's the balance. I've talked about this in the past, so I'll try to add a few more notes on what to do tp keep things together.

First, I think it's a good idea to find out what kind of game your GM has in mind before you start playing. If you are used to chaotic evil pillaging and plundering and the GM has a more cerebral game in mind, you may not fit in with the game let alone the group. Figure out what your niche in the game should be before you start.

Next I would recommend creating your party as a group. Too often we have cases of players either having too much of one thing or not enough of another. Or someone being forced to play outside their comfort zone to fill a needed role. Trying to bring a bunch of individual characters together for a common goal works in fiction, but that's because there is only one person controlling everything. Figure out what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are beforehand and you can avoid problems in the future.

Finally, don't grief the rest of the group. Having individual goals is fine. Playing an evil character is fine. But screwing around with the people that are supposed to have your back just because you can will just cause problems. Keep in mind your GM is also part of the game and doesn't want his or her adventure torpedoed due to your stupidity. If your character has a hidden agenda that runs counter to the rest of the party, that's fine. But intentionally screwing over everyone else that came to play isn't.

71 Days Till GaryCon! Inspiration in a World of Mass Communications.

As I mentioned in my review of The Hobbit, I never read any of Tolkien's books. In fact, outside of the first three Dragonlance novels, I never really read any fantasy fiction. Most of my exposure to fantasy came from television and movies. Thundarr the Barbarian, Beastmaster, Willow, those were the stories that I looked to for fantasy adventure. I got into D&D around the same time The Legend of Zelda came out for the NES. Not surprisingly, my first attempt at being a Dungeon Master involved trying to recreate the dungeons of that game.

It's one of those things that has left me feeling a bit excluded from the 'OSR' as it were. I know Conan The Barbarian from the Schwarzenegger films, while most other gamers have read Robert E. Howard's books. My exposure to Lovecraft came from an episode of The Real Ghostbusters. And frankly, I am more likely to quite season one of The Transformers than The Silmarillion. In fact I am more of a fan of science fiction than fantasy, despite my love for fantasy role-playing games. And I find myself looking to film and television more and more for ideas than the written works of my contemporaries.

So here's the question I have for everyone. Am I the only person like this? Am I the only one that looks at Ocean's Eleven and sees it as a Shadowrun campaign? Or wants to port the plot of Alien to a galleon on the high seas in D&D? Am I the only one that developed FASERIP stats for Optimus Prime? Heck, I'm running a play-by-post game inspired by a show on The Discovery Channel for crying out loud!

And in the future, as communications technology allows more and more people to develop their own creative worlds, what will the next step in creative inspiration come from?

93 Days to GaryCon!

I've decided to add a third game to my GM duties after all. Granted none of the games I have submitted have been approved yet. But just in case you were wondering what I was running and when, here's the list.

Thursday
8:00AM- Monsters in the Barn (HackMaster)
My introductory adventure, complete with tutorial on character creation. I'll probably retire this adventure after GaryCon 2013 since it's already been published in HackJournal #39. So this will be your last chance to play the adventure with the creator as the GM.

6:00PM- Steaks (D&D)
A short adventure for characters level 5-7. Not a lot of 'action' in this adventure, but it is made up for with the mystery hook and a lot of potential for role-playing. This adventure appeared in I13- Adventure Pack I, which I have literally owned for decades yet have never run until now.

Friday
10:00AM- Last Varmint Standing (Aces & Eights)
A big free-for-all shootout for new players and seasoned veterans alike. While there is a sign-up list for this game, it's really intended to be open to anyone that wants to drop in and play. Ideally people can rotate in and out as they cycle through characters. But if last year was any indication, there will likely be a nice core group of players to play with.

99 Days till GaryCon!

Laserbeak: Prepare to Roll for Initiative!

Prepping for a gaming convention means figuring out what you will and will not be bringing with you on your trip. There are a lot of essentials that one must remember to bring to a convention. And since I have 100+ days to blog about it, I'm going to stretch it out as much as I can. But I guess a good place to start is deciding what books to bring.

As you can see from the above picture, I have a decent collection of game books. This year I am running two games, a HackMaster 'Learn to Hack' session and an Aces & Eights shootout. Now for the shootout, I'll need my Aces & Eights book since I'm not as innately familiar with all of the rules, plus I'll need to verify things from the tables. For HackMaster, I'm running the same adventure I've ran at the last three GaryCons, Monsters in the Barn (which you can get a copy of in HackJournal #39 if you are so interested). Since I know that adventure like the back of my hand, I won't need to bring as much with me as far as needing material to refer to, HackMaster Basic is more than sufficient. However, I will likely be playing in a few games as well, so bringing my Player's Handbook is going to be a priority. I also have a 'unique' version of the Hacklopedia of Beasts that I would like to get signed by the rest of the Kenzer D-Team, so I should bring that too.

As for the other books, I am planning to play in quite a few other games while I am there, otherwise why show up at all? But in a lot of those games, I probably have the rules down pretty well, or I'll be sitting down as a newbie and learning from the other players. At best, I might bring my Rules Cyclopedia or Pathfinder Core Rulebook. But I don't know how much use I'll get out of them.

There's one other book I'll be bringing with me to GaryCon, though it has little to do with gaming.

Since I moved to upstate New York, my only way of getting to GaryCon is by plane. But since there are no direct flights from Elmira to O'Hare, that means a layover in Detroit. I got into the James Bond novels after Casino Royale came out a few years ago. Nowadays, I only seem to read the books when I'm at the airport. I'll probably need to grab The Spy Who Loved Me before I leave since I'm sure I'll be done with Thunderball over Christmas.

Any other game book/reading suggestions? I do have plenty of time before GaryCon to grab a few more.

The Trials and Tribulations of the Play-by-Post Game.

As of yesterday, my play-by-post game of HackMaster has been going on for five months. Five months is not an inconsiderable amount of time as far as role-playing games are concerned. Typically, a character advances in level once every four to five weeks of real time. By the end of level one, players will have received at least one decent magic item. Then you take into account the the amount of "game time" spent traveling, training and recovering from wounds and you would expect that in the game world the PCs are level six with some really good items and a year has passed since the campaign started.

In reality, exactly one day has passed in game time. The party has fought exactly one battle and haven't found any treasure. I have accomplished in five months what most campaigns get in their first hour. It has been so slow that at times I have had to railroad the party just to keep things going.

Another problem has been player attrition. I have had four players drop out of my game since it started in April. And out of that four, only one had the courtesy to give me a heads up. The rest just disappeared, never to post again. Fortunately I have been able to get the party back up to five players. Unannounced dropouts happen in normal games, particularly ones at game stores. But on a message board where a quick PM to the GM to say, "Sorry, I don't have time to do this anymore," is quite aggravating.

That's not to say it's been all bad. One thing I have enjoyed about the game being play-by-post is the amount of role-playing the players have put in. For example, out of the five PCs only one (a dwarven Cleric of the Guardian) doesn't speak a common language with the rest of the party. While there are two other characters that speak dwarven, one is a soft-spoken dwarf that rarely says more than a few words to anyone, and the other is an absent-minded mage that forgets to translate for the party unless prodded. It has led to some entertaining conversations to say the least.

Also, the pace has allowed me to flesh out some of the backstory for the archipelago. It has also allowed me to make changes to the setting that weren't part of the original concept. It's nice to come up with adventure ideas without feeling rushed.

Ideally, this would be a weekly game played either in-person or through something like Skype or Google+. But since I have to make due with what I have, I might as well make the most of it. I'll try to keep everyone appraised of how things go as the happen, no matter how long it takes.

R is for Riddler

The relationship between game master and players is a contentious one. There are those that believe that the GM must make a conscious effort to defeat the PCs by whatever means necessary. The so-called "Killer GM" if you will. On the flipside, there are people that say that the GM's role is to facilitate the story that the players are involved in, and help them see it to it's conclusion.

Opponents of each side throw out some valid points. A GM that is too adversarial with the players has a tendency to screw over the players with petty rules-lawyering if not all out rule-breaking. The other argument is that if the game master doesn't do something to challenge the players, then it's not really a game but one person telling a story with the players sitting around unable to have any effect on the narrative.

Ideally a GM should challenge the players, while maintaining an even playing field. This seems like it would be easier said than done. Truth be told, there is a model for an adversary that is a threat to his opponents while simultaneously giving them a fair chance to defeat him. And he comes from the world of comics.

P is for Party

Put the lampshade down, not that kind of party.

Role-playing games are a team effort. A group of hopefully like-minded individuals work together to accomplish a goal. If the party is not on the same page, things go pear-shaped quickly. I have played in and GMed for parties that have had problems. Here's just a little advice to any would be player that wants to avoid problems.

Fill a niche
This is better known as having a "well-balanced" party. For classic fantasy gaming it means having one member of each character class represented. In classless system it means each character having their own distinct skill set. But what you really want to accomplish is being able to do something that no one else in the party can do. Even if you are playing characters of the same class, you want to customize your PC to be unique. Having a niche in the game means that there is less of a chance of you getting shut out by other players trying to accomplish the same thing, which leads to the next point.

Don't try to upstage the other players
Part of playing as a team is working with your teammates, not against them. Unfortunately, some players are under the impression that they have to beat everyone else at the table in order to win. They get in the way, kill-steal and overall make nuisances of themselves. I know one game where a player was so obsessed with taking the limelight from the front-line fighters that he was completely ignorant of his character's ability as a long-range sniper, a skill set that would have been a greater asset to the party. But he preferred to be the center of attention, which only served to make the rest of the group resent him. No one is going to watch your back if you're constantly turning yours to them.

Speak up!
Not every person is an extrovert. Even my Myers-Briggs test has that big letter I in it. But at the same time if you're not giving any input into the party, you're not contributing anything of value. Sitting in your chair, playing with your phone and waiting for the GM to tell you it's your turn isn't adding to your enjoyment of the game, and it's certainly not adding to everyone else's fun. One of the nice things about role-playing games is the escapism involved. While it may take a while to loosen up and get comfortable around the people you game with, it will be well worth your while.

N is for Names

A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, but a bad character name can really stink up the joint.

Choosing a name for a PC is never easy. A good name should be appropriate for the campaign setting, as well as help establish the character itself. For example, when I was playing Engines & Empires, I played a fighter named Lt. Reginald Hornsby. The name was perfect for the character. First, it fit the pseudo-Victorian pseudo-England setting of the campaign. Second, the rank helped establish a sense of authority from a character that started with an 8 Constitution and a 9 Charisma. Third, the name was remarkably versatile in determining who was addressing him. Those that recognized his authority called him Lieutenant. To those who new him more formally, he was Reginald. To his best friends, he was just Reg. And you always knew when an enemy approached when they shouted "Hornsby!" By the time the campaign ended, he added "Lord Reginald" and "Baron Hornsby" to the list of addresses. It's of little surprise that he became the leader of the party. The only name that came close to my PC's in coolness was our party's scholar, Dr. Matthew DeVault. That was a name that said, "I am an erudite and cultured individual, and I slay monsters for a living." No wonder he ended up with the Sword of Dracus.

On the other hand, we had a few characters that naturally fell to the back of the pack. First there was Bob the gnome, a character that was sadly played by a woman who had no idea how to play an E&E gnome/tech. Bob's major contribution to the party was being cursed to grow an inch a week until he was 6'8" tall. Not exactly the stuff legends are made of. On top of that was one of the party's halflings. Engines & Empires replaced the thief class with the more versatile expert, a skill-oriented character that could quickly become a master of many things. Halflings were the demi-human counterpart to the human expert. So one would expect a character that made up for his lack of size by using intelligence and guile.

Instead we got Bayonetta, the halfling stripper.

Yes, a gaslight fantasy campaign filled with high adventure and political intrigue had a character named after a then-popular video game character whose weapon of choice was based on it doubling as a stripper pole. John eventually made the player change the character's name to something more appropriate, but I'll be damned if I can remember it. And why should I? The player obviously didn't give a damn about the game, and came up with a character that was only memorable because of some juvenile shock value. So it's no surprise that it fell into the ranks of the supporting cast. In the end, the party really consisted of four or five heroes and a bunch of glorified hirelings. and those at the front of the line were played by players that cared enough to give their characters a decent name.

After all, you can't make history if no one knows who you are.

J is for Jocularity

Nine out of ten times I try to run a normal game, inevitably there is a moment where the group breaks down laughing. And yet whenever I try to run an intentionally comedic game, the laughs never come. It's one of those little quirks I've come to expect out of game mastering.

Most of the time the laughs are from the joy of seeing a situation go well. Any humor that pops up is due to an amusing situation, either in or out of character. Someone will come up with a snarky comment, a die roll pops up a humorous result, or an attempt at role-playing goes horribly awry. But I have never been able to master the art of the comedic game.

Maybe it's because my players are looking for something in the action/adventure genre, where comedy is there as a means of releasing tension. Or maybe it's because comedy is so difficult to master, one person's silly is another's stupid. Or maybe I'm just not as funny as I'd like to think I am. Regardless of the reason, I have to to give credit to those that have managed to pull off the "humorous" game.

Sorry for the short post. I was reaching for topic on this one.

G is for GaryCon (Followup)

If you haven't seen them already, here are my vlogs from GaryCon for days zero, one, two and three.

First of all, it looks like plans are underway for GaryCon V. The estimated attendance this year was around 550 people. At the rate things are going the convention may have to move to a bigger venue as The Lodge. I actually wouldn't be opposed to that. When GaryCon II was first held at the Lodge, I thought it was a great venue. It was big enough for all the con-goers and had great amenities like a Friday night seafood buffet and a Sunday morning brunch as well as a bluegrass band in the bar on Saturday night. It was a gaming convention with a little bit of everything else to keep things interesting. Then the hotel changed management and next thing we know, the restaurant is closed for the convention save for some burgers and overpriced bags of chips. This year saw a limited menu of "gamer grub", but it pales compared to the good breakfast I had with the Geekpreacher two years ago.

As far as gaming went, I overextended myself this year. At GaryCon I, I sat and played what would become HackMaster Basic with the Kenzer & Company D-Team. At GaryCon II, I ran my first HackMaster Learn to Hack and played Aces & Eights. At this year's convention, I tried to run and attend as many games as possible. And I ended up too tired to engage in any of the festivities in the bar afterward.

F is for Fighters

Fighters are awesome.

They aren't required to follow a particular ethos, philosophy or religion. In the heat of battle, all are warriors.

Fighters are unrestricted when it comes to weapons and armor. The mounted knight with plate, shield and lance. The dual-axe wielding wild man dressed in skins. The unarmored swashbuckler with the sabre. They are all fighters with their own style.

Fighters can go anywhere. They are as comfortable in the city as they are in the wild. As deadly in the desert as they are in the tundra. As useful in the darkest dungeon as they are stark battlefield.

If you go through a fighter's belongings you will not find the tools of a thief, nor the gruesome components of a wizard, nor the religious icons of the cleric. They will not have to worry about being accused of being a criminal, or burned at the stake for being a witch or heretic.

In battle the wizard, thief and cleric laugh at the fighter as he takes the enemy's shots while they prepare their counter-attack. But in the tavern after the battle, the patrons will hear how the fighter went toe-to-toe with the ogre while the others, stood back, hid and prayed.

Give a knife to a wizard, and he'll tie up some helpless damsel to sacrifice her to a demon. Give a knife to a thief, and he'll skulk in the shadows and stab an innocent passerby in the ribs for a few coppers. Give a knife to a fighter, and he'll hold it in his teeth as dives in to wrestle with an owlbear.

Fighters get all the glory. Fighters get the stories told about them. Fighters get free drinks from appreciative citizens. Fighters get all the chicks.

Fighters are awesome.

GaryCon IV Vlog: Day One

New Monster: Clockwork Lich [Engines & Empires]

Image from Marvel.com

Hey, John Higgins! I got another monster for you.

Practitioners of magic aren't the only ones that try to cheat death. Occasionally, a wily inventor finds a way to extend his life in ways that would turn most peoples stomach. Through a combination of chemical treatments, mechanical enhancements and various medicines, the inventor becomes effectively immortal. However, the result is nothing more than a brain in a jar of chemicals operating a mechanical analogue of a human being. The inventor's voice becomes nothing more than a series of phonograph tubes playing different sounds in a hollow mockery of speech. His senses are now dulled due to the replacements not being as effective as living sense organs. Between the extreme loss of humanity and the alienation of others due to the inventor's horrific appearance, it is no wonder that these beings eventually go mad. These cyborgs, called "clockwork liches" by some, typically reside in their old laboratories as they focus on the only thing that keeps them going, their work.

Clockwork Lich

No. Appearing: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 300' (100')
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: as technologist class, minimum of 21st level
Fighting Ability: as technologist class
Damage: 1d10 + special
Save: as technologist class
Morale: 10
Intelligence: High
Hoard Class: Special

The clockwork lich attacks with it's mechanical hands for 1d10 damage plus a special effect depending on what the inventor's primary class. Physicists inflict an electrical shock that stuns the target for 1d4 rounds if a saving throw is failed. Chemists inject a psychotropic compound as per the 2nd degree ability. Biologists inject an anaphylactic agent that causes paralysis for 1d6 rounds unless a saving throw is made.

Clockwork liches are immune to cold, electricity and gasses. Their mechanical bodies are sturdy enough that they can only be damaged by weapons of +1 or greater. Contrary to their misnomer, they are not undead and cannot be turned. Curative magic cast on a clockwork lich will heal it as they do retain biological components. All clockwork liches are built using the kinetic engine degree, which accounts for the creatures movement rate and unarmed damage.

Being technologists, they can an will use technological degrees available per their level. It is not uncommon for clockwork liches to have 1d6 automatons that it can summon via radio. These machines arrive in 2d20 rounds. In a pinch, a clockwork lich may use it's own body to jury rig a device. This can inflicts 1d8 damage to the clockwork lich and can only be used three times a day before risking damaging the clockwork liches subsystems.

Undead Anonymous Week Next Week.

Back in April, I mentioned that I thought we needed to give the undead a rest. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a zombified cat chasing a vampire mouse these days. Personally, I think there are other ways to scare your PCs. So next week I will be throwing out my ideas for creeping out people without resorting to the living dead. Basically, I need an excuse to blog. So in lieu of another blog challenge or better yet actually getting an active game going, I have made up another topics a la Hitting the Bottle Week. Here goes nothin'.

[September of Short Adventures] Day 25: The Sky is the Limit

Woohoo! I actually completed this thing! Even after deleting four days worth of posts and starting over! Yay me! My next task will be to go through all the other blogs and check out their entries. I intentionally avoided checking out the "competition" for fear that I might either be unfairly "influenced" or "discouraged" from writing whatever popped into my head. One thing that helped with this strangely enough was my cellphone. If I got an idea for an adventure, and I wasn't at my laptop, I just opened my phone's "Notes" app and jotted a brief description of the adventure down. I think I had between three to five ideas written in it at a time.

Well, it's not over yet. It's time for the last adventure that just popped into my head a few minutes ago.

The Sky is the Limit

Synopsis: Two days ago, a sizable group of birdmen flew down from the mountains and into the manor yard of Lord McElroy, wounded some of his men and flew off with two horses. The birdmen claimed that they had every right to attack McElroy's home, and acted justified in stealing the mounts. McElroy claims that the attack was unprovoked, while he has sent men up into the mountains before, they have always steered clear of the birdmen and their homes. McElroy asks the party to deal with the birdmen and prevent any future attacks.

Background: McElroy is telling the truth in that he has never done anything to intentionally provoke the birdmen, and goes out of his way to avoid them. However, he has angered them nonetheless with one of his more greedy and gluttonous actions. Having grown accustomed to having guests at his estate, McElroy has taken to lavishing them with fancy meals. Recently, he has taken to having his cooks serve a remarkable breakfast feast. The main dish in this meal is a set of omelettes... made from griffon eggs.

Once a month, Lord McElroy sends his men up the east mountain to a griffon nest to take one or two eggs for this meal. On the last expedition, a group of birdmen spotted them and decided to seek justice on the griffon's behalf. The horses were taken as they are a griffon's favorite food. Though griffons are unintelligent, the birdmen see all winged creatures as kindred spirits.

Monsters: Birdmen (24)- AC: 7; HD: 2 (2 hp); Dmg: 1d6 (spear or bow); Save: F2; Morale: 8; Alignment: N; Exp: 30; Notes: Can fly 120' (40')

Griffon- AC: 5; HD: 7 (30 hp); Dmg: 1d4/1d4/2d8 (claw/claw/bite); Save: F4; Morale: 8; Alignment: N; Exp: 450; Treasure in Nest: A saddlebag with 4,000 ep

[September of Short Adventures] Day 24: The Old Fort

The Old Fort

Synopsis: The party arrives at an old abandoned fort. According to the people in the nearby town, the fort was the setting of an epic battle between the allied elf/human forces and an oncoming horde of orcs. By the time reinforcements arrived, the battle was over, but neither side survived. Legend has it that once a month, the ghosts of those involved rise from the dead to continue the battle until one side decisively wins.

Background: While the story of the final battle of the fort is true, the legend is not. Though that hasn't stopped a group of bandits from exploiting the legend for their own benefit. Once a month, they dress up in costumes and make enough of a racket to keep people from coming to the fort. In reality, they use the fort as their staging ground for raids and store the majority of their stolen loot there. They even have a few low-level spellcasters to through a few illusions to complete the charade.

The bandit horde is an eclectic , but balanced, group (one of each character class, including a dwarf, elf and halfling). If the PCs investigate, the bandits will attempt to trick them into thinking they are powerful undead. If that doesn't work, they will use their knowledge of the old fort to divide the party and kill them off one by one.

Monsters: A band of seven 1st level NPCs, four humans, one dwarf, one elf and one halfling. The magic-user and elf tend to use spells like darkness, floating disc, hold portal, light, and ventriloquism when attempting to scare off nosy people. Between the two of them, the also know charm person and magic missile (divide spells evenly between the two). Their treasure horde contains 4000 cp, 3000 sp, 5000 gp, assorted jewelry worth 2400 gp. The fighter carries a long sword +1. The cleric has a scroll with cure light wounds. The halfling wields a club +1.