Taking a short break from blogging.

The blog has been rolling along quite well sine November 11th of 2018. I'm still enthusiastic about maintaining it and will be posting more in the near future. For now I want to take a short break to build up my list of blog subjects before returning to regular posting.

Thanks!

Magic Item: Gong of the Herald

Gong of the Herald

Struck to announce the arrival of a person of importance, this enchanted gong works to pacify potentially hostile audiences. The gong can be heard to a distance of 200 feet when struck, and causes non-elves and creatures above intelligence 5 to be charmed into peacefulness for 1 round on a failed save vs magic item. Attacking a charmed subject immediately breaks the effect.

The user and allies are unaffected by use of the gong.

Magic Item: Jeffry's Sock of Filtering

Jeffry's Sock of Filtering

This unique item is the long lost sock belonging to the halfling, Jeffry. It has become imbued with the ability to filter harmful toxins from anything poured through it such as making coffee through it. Any poisons of significance will be removed by the sock.

Drawback: All liquids filtered through the dirty sock smell like sweaty feet.

Jeffry doesn't miss the sock, he has more, and  continues making coffee with them when travelling on adventures.

New Spell: Sandstone

Sandstone

Level: 1
Range: 30'
Duration: 1 round per caster level

The caster throws a small piece of sandstone at the target. On a hit the target takes 1d3 damage and suffers penalties of -1 to armor class, attack rolls, and a 5' reduction of movement due to the severe discomfort of sand within its clothing or caked to its skin.

The penalties are ineffective against oozes, elementals, undead, and constructs.

Sepulchre of the Bronze Legion: Room 6

Room 6:
Laid to rest here is the majority of the Legion's swordsman and officers. The sarcophagus contains the remains of the commander, waiting for the time when the Legion is called to fight again.

The commander is wearing bronze breast plate, grieves and bracers in perfect condition. He is wielding a bronze long sword and bears a bronze shield.

Upon the sarcophagus is the Legion Seal, a symbol of a bronze shield crossed by sword and spear. If this is taken from the lid skeletons from every room will begin to rise to pursue and slay the thieves.

In the Southwest corner is a door with a clockwork mechanism. It can be opened once the procedure is determined (easy task).

In the Southeast corner is a secret door leading south.

Full Map:

Sepulchre of the Bronze Legion: Rooms 4 & 5

Rooms 4 & 5:
Interred here are the Legion's spear men. Found in two niches are bronze bladed spears (2).

Full Map:

Sepulchre of the Bronze Legion: Room 3

Room 3:
This small chamber holds the remains of the Legion's archers. In one nook can be found a short bow made of horn.

Full Map:

Sepulchre of the Bronze Legion: Room 2

Room 2:
In the secluded corner of this room is a burial niche containing a bronze shield in perfect condition. Beneath the shield of a trap that will launch a poisonous powder at anyone disturbing the shield. The trap will affect anyone in the secluded corner.

Full Map:

Sepulchre of the Bronze Legion: Room 1

Renowned for their skill and resolve in battle, the Bronze Legion built their own secret burial chambers. Here their dead are together in death as they were in life, ready to fight enemies that threaten them.

This is the third mini dungeon of an ongoing series that will be posted, built using Dwarven Forge terrain. The full map is at the bottom of the post.

Room 1: Pool of the Dead
This room is cold, barely above freezing. In the center of the room is a pool fed from an icy spring. It is fresh and clean. Marching in a line around the perimeter of the circular room are three skeletons armed with spears. They will ignore visitors unless they are attacked or thieves have stolen the Legion Seal from room 6.

Full Map:

Federation Commander

I had the pleasure of recently introducing my brother to Federation Commander. He was slightly familiar with its older sibling Starfleet Battles so the learning curve was practically painless.

We played the Doomsday Weapon scenario using two fleet sized ships against the squadron sized Doomsday Weapon. I know from experience that this match-up can be won by the ships, but it isn't easy. I gave Joe the ships so he could experience a variety of the game's mechanics in play.

Joe made a major tactical error and immediately put his ships in front of the weapon, a very Star Trek Original Show thing to do, but in the game, suicidal. His weapons barely scratched the weapon and then he felt the wrath of the return volley. One of his two ships was destroyed by a single volley from the Doomsday Weapon.

We had a lot of fun working our way through the Damage Allocation Chart marking off system after system until all of the frame boxes were marked off and the ship completely destroyed.

Since this was a familiarization exercise it served to help teach him the basics of the game and refresh my knowledge. I'm now looking forward to teaching others and getting into some good tactical matches.

If you are a fan of table top tactical games, and a fan of Star Trek, I highly recommend getting Federation Commander and getting your gaming group to play.

YouTube Viewing

I recently began watching Matt Colville's D&D videos on YouTube. As well as his campaign diaries and assorted other topical discussions he has a  series called Running the Game. Running the Game is both interesting and educational, full of great advice and ideas for use in your game. While the series is primarily focused on the current 5th edition of D&D, the ideas and  DM techniques work for any edition.

I highly recommend Matt's videos for novice and veteran DMs alike.

Gaming Conventions and Guests of Honor: Why?

It is traditional for most conventions to have one or more guests of honor in attendance. The primary reason is to draw more attendance to the convention to bolster ticket sales. Star Trek or other science fiction conventions have celebrities directly tied to the franchise in question, for example Bill Shatner for Star Trek. Who does gaming have that would have that level of star power to bring in people that wouldn't otherwise be coming there to play games?

Over the past few years more celebrities from TV and Movies have acknowledged publicly that they are one with nerd culture and either did game or still game. This is definitely a great thing for the hobby which seems to be growing rapidly, but could their presence at a game convention be enough to entice more attendance and non-gamers to come out to the convention? Who do we have that makes sense to invite as a guest of honor to gaming conventions?

These questions are based on two factors: 1) financial bottom line, and 2) boosting participation in the hobby. For 1 you only need to draw enough people to show up, pay admittance to see the guest, and not fall short of break even to cover the expense. For 2) you need someone whose drawing power and influence can convert non-gamers into gamers. Ideally the guest of honor should be able to accomplish both goals.

The objectives of financial draw and participation increase do seem to be growing in likelihood as more stars open up about the hobby, but do game conventions need them? The answer may be, not yet. Perhaps after a couple more years and more popular, high profile figures make themselves known as gamers, the hobby will have gained potential guests of honor that can reliably help conventions.  Still to be answered is why would they be needed and maybe they aren't.

Game conventions already draw dedicated followings that come to directly participate and not for any other purpose, so maybe enlisting star power, even those within the industry of the hobby isn't necessary. Still, the larger conventions do have guests of honor. It is up to the convention runners to tell us if the benefits exist or if this is just a way to say thank you to the people who designed or otherwise helped grow the hobby.

Magic Item: Wand of Frost Barrier

Wand of Frost Barrier

This wand creates a 5 foot wide by 15 foot long barrier of deadly cold. Creatures standing within or passing through the area suffer 2d4 damage. The wand has a range of 60 feet. When found the wand will have 2d4 charges remaining.

(See The Halls of Mugg the Mad in previous posts)

Example of wand.

Magic Item: Bracers of Bashing

Bracers of Bashing

This pair of thick leather bracers are heavy and lack decoration. The magic within serves a simple purpose, to make the wearer's melee and thrown ranged attacks far more lethal when using blunt weapons. Add 1d4 damage to attacks with blunt weapons including unarmed attacks.

(See The Halls of Mugg the Mad in previous posts.)

Example of bracer.