The Death Roll

What a long haul it's been!

Over two years ago we started a trend in our gaming club that remains one of the most popular features.  It's widely known that the games we run aren't shy about putting characters in the ground, and one of the most solemn and final things we do around here involves dead characters.  Yes folks, it's time to shed light on the Death Roll.

When a player dies (for real and without any hope of resurrection), the Game Master will draw forth the Death Roll.  In this tome is inscribed the name of the slain and the date and nature of his demise.  The other players intone "DUHN-DUHN DUHHHHhhhnnnn...." and the GM, in his own hand, illuminates the text with another entry.  So, every character at the Wargate who has met their untimely demise exists within this "tomb", interred with the memory of their existence.

Now, the Death Roll is so big it requires another volume.  We will continue this tradition until we can't any longer, that is, until the Wargate itself ceases to exist.  Hopefully, that time will not come soon (and it's not even on the horizon)!

So, as the first volume of the Death Roll is closed and a new one is opened, we take a moment here on the club's blog to take a look at the entirety of the Death Roll and see what has transpired since we started this morbid tradition.  What follows is the text of the Death Roll, with what game system the character belonged to added for the clarity of our online audience.

Take a look and compare the games and their lethality.  Only once have characters entered in the Death Roll been returned to active duty, their "seeming" death overturned by the DM as he revealed they had survived...but this is the lone exception to the standing rule that once a character is commended to the Roll, he is dead.  Truly and forever.

We now take a moment, and remember the Wargate's fallen.

1. Cephous of the Hold (Greg H.) - 08.01.2010:  Fell to Death (WFRP)
2. Imhol of Laurelorn (Henry) - 08.01.2010:  Fell to Death (WFRP)
3. Simon Doan (Dave) - 09.19.2010:  Shot by PC's (nWoD)
4. R. Spencer Fleming (Dave) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
5. Wyatt "Earp" Roberts (Skim) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD) - 
6. Ralph Wiggins (Greg H.) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
7. J.B. Anderson (Mark B.) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
8. Jay Calavero (Jaime) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
9. Randy Ball (Shawn M.) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
10. Kaliv Valdiz (Henry) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
11. Gigi Lamour (Ellen) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
12. Guisseppe Puzzo (Joe K.) - 10.24.2010:  Mass Suicide (nWoD)
13. Able (Greg H.) - 01.02.2011:  Head Crushed By Servitor (Dark Heresy)
14. Heinrich (Henry) - 02.27.2011:  Electric Lizard Pool (Pathfinder)
15. Art Vandelay (Shaun A.) - 02.27.2011:  Electric Lizard Pool (Pathfinder)
16. Chronyak (Joe K.) - 02.27.2011:  Electric Lizard Pool (Pathfinder)
17. Harska (Greg H.) - 02.27.2011:  Electric Lizard Pool (Pathfinder)
18. Nameless, AKA Steve French (Dave) - 02.27.2011:  Electric Lizard Pool (Pathfinder)
19. Feulgi Devito (Josh) - 02.27.2011:  Killed by She-Wolf (Pathfinder)
20. Sir Gregorious the Ugly (Greg H.) - 07.17.2011:  Killed by Hydra (Palladium RPG)
21. Slurg (Shawn M.) - 10.30.2011:  Killed by Dwarf (D&D 3.0)
22. Shartiz (Matt H.) - 10.30.2011:  Killed by Dwarf (D&D 3.0)
23. Scarlok (Greg H.) - 11.13.2011:  Killed by PC Snurg (Dave) (D&D 3.0)
24. Snarl the Skar (Greg H.) - 11.27.2011:  Killed by NPC Uri (D&D 3.0)
25. Darr'sloth (Jake B.) - 11.27.2011:  Killed by Giant Spider (D&D 3.0)
26. Snurg the Droop (Dave) - 12.04.2011:  Killed by PC Ching (Shawn M.) (D&D 3.0)
27. Karnarth (Greg) - 12.04.2011:  Killed by PC Targ (Dave) (D&D 3.0)
28. Targ (Dave) - 12.04.2011:  Hauled away by Mordor (D&D 3.0)
29. Talakus (Greg) - 01.01.2012:  Killed by PC Slikk (Josh) (D&D 3.0)
30. Blitz (Mark) - 01.01.2012:  Killed by PC Zrakh (Joe K.) (D&D 3.0)
31. Ching (Shawn M.) - 01.01.2012:  Killed by PC Slikk (Josh) (D&D 3.0) 
32. Skinner (Matt H.) - 01.01.2012:  Killed by PC Slikk (Josh) (D&D 3.0) 
33. Black Lorc (Jake B.) - 01.01.2012:  Killed by PC Slikk (Josh) (D&D 3.0)
34. Crumpwit Tumblewine (Shawn M.) - 02.26.2012:  Killed by PC Olo (Jerry) (WFRP)
35. Amendil (Shawn M.) - 05.20.2012:  Volcano Cave In (WFRP)
36. Jacque Chaucerez (Jake B.) - 05.20.2012:  Volcano Cave In (WFRP)
37. Olo Buttercreme (Jerry) - 05.20.2012:  Volcano Cave In (WFRP)
38. Stricken From Imperial Records
39. Stricken From Imperial Records
40. Stricken From Imperial Records
41. Stricken From Imperial Records
42. Ilsa Gustav (Ellen) - 05.20.2012:  Volcano Cave In (WFRP)
43. Grudal Skorgrimsson (Henry) - 05.20.2012:  Volcano Cave In (WFRP)
44. Exander Tul (Skim) - 05.27.2012:  Killed by Man-Feller (Pathfinder)
45. Angbornh Ingbaran (Dave) - 05.27.2012:  Killed by Kobold King's Mistress (Pathfinder)
46. Arjac (Dave) - 06.03.2012:  Killed by Angry Mob (Pathfinder)
47. Bonjon Loveleaf (Jerry) - 06.03.2012:  Killed by Angry Mob (Pathfinder)
48. Boris the Beautiful (Joe K.) - 06.03.2012:  Killed by Angry Mob (Pathfinder)
49. Carlyle Browning (Skim) - 06.03.2012:  Killed by Angry Mob (Pathfinder)
50. Elle McElferson (Jake B.) - 06.03.2012:  Killed by Angry Mob (Pathfinder)
51. Bilxob Xilbor (Dave) - 07.15.2012:  Burned Alive by PC Ralmarth (Jerry) (Pathfinder)
52. Lorcc Mac Dubh (Dave) - 09.30.2012:  Martyred to the Cause by NPC Chuin
53. Flarnagan of Fharlanghn (Josh) - 11.18.2012:  Killed by Moathouse Bandits (AD&D 1e)
54. Mac Olyn (Mark) - 12.02.2012:  Slain by Moathouse Zombies (AD&D 1e)
55. Sir William (Josh) - 12.02.2012:  Slain by Moathouse Zombies (AD&D 1e)
56. Em Cee Stubbs (Mark) 12.02.2012:  Slain by Moathouse Zombies (AD&D 1e)
57. Mannfred Finch (Skim) 12.09.2012:  Slain by Moathouse Bugbears (AD&D 1e)
58. Kran Stone (Shawn M.) 12.09.2012:  Slain by Moathouse Gnolls (AD&D 1e)

58 deaths in two years.  That's a little more than one death every two sessions, with some games (notably D&D and it's derivatives) being much more lethal than others.  Well, hopefully it will take two more years to fill the second volume of the Death Roll, but the current game is claiming lives quicker than any other game so far...while it might not have as many as some, it's certainly in the running for most lethal game.

Consider all that, and I'll see you on Game Day!

Terrain Log: Fantasy Village

Welcome to Hatesville. 

Earlier this year, the club's benefactors appropriated this awesome village from a caster in the UK.  I'm not sure what the brand name is, or if there even is one.  The caster no longer has these sets available, but they did have several sets and styles available, each one weighing in at around $220 US.  We got the one that had a lot of variety and best depicted what we thought of as a typical village.

Duplex Residence and Small Inn.

These are all made of good quality resin and are very resilient to chips from jostling.  The buildings are all made with removable roofs, and removable 2nd stories.  Best of all, they came entirely assembled and painted.  Well, part of that large price tag was shipping...but bang for buck this was a great deal compared to the alternatives we were looking at.

Church, Warehouse with Shop and Small Barn.

 The package was a great starter deal for a village in 28mm, and has served quite well over the past several months.  This was the first part of our "New Terrain" initiative that was a larger undertaking by the members of the club.  We'll be adding small doo-dads such as wells and fences and a host of other things to the village, but this collection is the basic building blocks we'll have when constructing new scenarios and placing terrain.

Residence and Large Home with Shop

 Those dark alleys make great spots to get ganked!  Keep your torch high, and remember:  when trodding the streets of Hatesville, make sure your blade is strapped close.  You never know who might rush at you from around the corner...

T-34 Tank Corps, 600 Points

T-34 Squadron and Company Commander (signaling).

I've decided not to do briefings like our other forces for the Flames of War armies.  There's enough going on about the Great War I felt I'd just leave the history pretty much alone...my own army having little in common with it's historical namesake.  A lot of different units bore the designation "6th", but I'm not going for full on historical accuracy with my gaming army.  That would be madness, tracking it all down and making sure it was all within the boundaries of what was then on the battlefields.  For my own 6th Guards Tankovy Batalon, they start the war in December 1941 at the battle for Moscow, and are entirely fictional.

We decided to start the club at Flames of War's recommended setting for low or introductory level play - 600 pts.  Well, browsing through the armor lists I noticed that I wasn't getting any heavy armor at that level.  Everyone agreed to play at 600 pts initially, so I had to find a company that would allow me to play at all our proscribed levels, 600, 1500 and 2000.  Looking through The Eastern Front, I knew I was going to be playing Soviets.  My partner, whom I usually play doubles with, wanted Rota Razvedki at first, but after another player dropped out decided to go full on infantry with a Strelkovy Batalon.

I found exactly what I needed in the plain old Tankovy Batalon.  It's not as flashy, not as elite as the other tank companies that carry several mixed types of chassis...but there's a lot to be said about a horde of T-34's...my chosen main battle tank!

The first squadron rumbles along a dirt road in the Moscow oblast.

At 600 pts there aren't very many, to be sure. I get six tanks, a total of 1 Company HQ tank and 1 Combat Platoon of 5 more T-34's.  This cost about $70 US, since I got 1 boxed set of T-34's and a single blister for the command tank.  Easy to paint up as well...there's really not much to it.  It was, however, the first time I used pigment powders on a model, and I used Flames of War's own line.  I also picked up some powders from Vallejo as well, and will definitely be experimenting with those pigments a lot more.  Overall, I liked how it turned out.  Carefully weathered decals and just a smidgen of No.2 pencil to show chips in the paint and voila!  Each tank turned out in about an hour, and thats with plenty of drying time for the various reagents.

I used some rubbing alcohol to bind the pigment before sealing it with a matte spray.  I inked the commanders with some GW Reikland Fleshshade and that turned out very cool.  This is the first project I've tackled at this scale, and it was very satisfying.  There's something about doing a bunch of tanks at once that can't really be expressed except as AWESOME.  Also, there's the fact I will get to collect an army that consists entirely of tanks to at least 2000 points...and no one will call be cheesy or beardy for it.

That's all for now from the Eastern Front!  Remember, only a few weeks of battles left for this season...so get to the 'gate early on Game Day to make sure your guns and blades aren't quiet for another week.  We're starting AD&D early to help smooth out the difficulties we had in the moathouse last week as well, so if you're dead or want to join the game we'll have a little extra time to sort things out.

See you on Game Day!

D&D Realms: Greyhawk Adventures

It's been since 1997 that I've gotten a chance to run a game on the Oerth.  Our group here, for the last month, has been based in the village of Hommlett in the Kron Hills - doing that thing you do when you're in Hommlett.  Though it's been quite some time, I remember this place like my long lost homeland - if I were from the Free City of Greyhawk.  For my players, it's a bit unfamiliar - like the Gygaxian traps that make this crazy dungeon crawl such a classic.

My players couldn't help but think they were going to kick in doors and take names, and that the Temple of Elemental Evil would be as much a pushover as most of my dungeons.  They are finding, by comparison, my homebrew dungeons are much more forgiving than the classic series we've kicked off.  Partly it's a dissonance of game design philosophy and partly that of adventure design.  The concepts AD&D 1e was built around are no longer in place for the larger gaming community.  It's like since 2004 or so, the MMO mentality has really taken over all aspects of gaming, so that the original designs don't seem to make sense in a context where you want a party to succeed at the adventure.  Also, a party with the newer concepts in mind will face a terrible dilemma once they start T1.

The original setting of Dungeons & Dragons, the world of Greyhawk is one of the most comprehensive and welcoming settings for any game anywhere, in my opinion.  There's a lot of material out there for the setting, and muddling through it all to place everything where it's supposed to be has been a fun chore.  Since I've separated all the editions' storylines, it's much easier to see the progress and development of the campaign setting and accompanying stories.  The idea with this particular setting is that it will sort of be the yardstick by which all others are compared.  We've started with 1e, but the only edition that Greyhawk doesn't have published adventures for is 4e.  Yes, I know about The Village of Hommletti for it, but I don't really count that.  That's more of a collector's thing.

So we will be visiting Oerth in every edition.  I'll be using almost exclusively the published adventures, ad-libbing only where needed.  The idea is that we experience the changes of Oerth from 1979 to 2008, in three editions and three storylines.

I also want to say if 4e had more Greyhawk material, I probably would have been on board from the beginning.

Greyhawk offers us a wide range of possible characters.  Though I'm restricting each game to each corresponding edition, anything and everything in D&D is on Oerth.  That means no restrictions on characters, except where placed by the basic rules.  In 2e, there's the Complete Humanoids Handbook, and in 3e...well, there's a lot more stuff.  Personally, I think the high water mark was 3.0 edition.  The "Option Explosion" happened, and (before the glut of splatbooks) the stuff that was available in hardcover, softcover and on the web was for me and my players a perfect cauldron of gaming goodness.

All the most fantastic of the D&D monsters are on Oerth as well.  Monsters that players have only heard about (jokingly or not) will rear their ugly head.  One example we learned from in the past few weeks is Green Slime.  Oh yeah, Green Slime is a nasty hazard, and I've read about it since the first Monster Manual. Yet, I realized I've never used it in an adventure.  We might have spoken about it before, but it's kind of hard to believe my players, die hard gamers that they are, have never heard of it.  They learned about it in the moathouse near Hommlett, and it's a miracle that none of them ended up as another puddle of Green Slime.

They were incredulous.  I can only assume we'll have more of this when we encounter bugbears (I've always used orcs & goblins), displacer beasts, gelatinous cubes, rot grubs and a host of other monsters I've either thought were too old hat and corny, or simply been too afraid to use.

Magic is a different beast on this world as well.  I've run low fantasy campaigns for years and years now, and Oerth is going to be a break from that.  I've said before that I feel that Oerth is completely saturated in magic and I've wanted that to show.  One side effect from a high magic society is that the tropes of adventure gaming have come to light.  There's always been an aversion at my table to the whole "we're adventurers, dungeon explorers, come to save you from monsters" attitude and roleplay that seems to be tongue-in-cheek jokes throughout a lot of the setting and rules.  No more says I...there will be magic, spells, monsters and crass foolery about the dungeons in a manner befitting characters in such a setting.  Not straight Looney Toons...it's mixed with a little bit of Shakespeare.

This is also the home of some of the most iconic names in D&D.  Bigby, Tenser, Drawmij, Mordenkainen.  Melf.  Lord Robilar.  You know...the old crew.  When players realize this, it tends to draw them into the world of Oerth just a little more.  They've all seen those names in print, just in the basic books.  I find there are few outside the realm of Dungeon Mastery that know the secrets of the Oerth, but these names have a definite resonance of familiarity even on other worlds.

For me, the Oerth is a vibrant place of great and powerful magic.  Terrors and treasures untold exist within this continuum.  There is a certain sort of crazy that applies to the Oerth, a sort of implicit lunacy that you must partake in just to accept the world as real for a few hours on Game Day.  Abandon the logic, the low fantasy tropes we've held to for the last decade or so.  It's not about gritty realism.

Greyhawk Adventures is about every single one of those iconic images that D&D is famous for.

Krampusfest 2012!

A few of the revelers this fine Krampusfest!

It's Krampusfest!

The last couple of years, we've been celebrating this fine holiday at our games club.  It's a great excuse to gather together and have a feast!  It only makes it better that it's a giant hairy monster we're celebrating, as well as the spirit of the holiday season!  Really, Krampus is the gift that keeps on giving.

This year our splendid Wargate Chefs (a.k.a. da Gurlz) spent a lot of time and effort bringing us authentic Germanic cuisine this year.  The layout was masterful: colorful grilled kebabs;  German style potato salad, sauerkraut, and even cheesy cauliflower (and broccoli)!  Homemade candies and fudge rounded off the meal, and as the beer and food flowed to explosive levels we set back into the Temple of Elemental Evil for more fun with Green Slime!

I want to thank everyone who made this Krampusfest as awesome as it was.  You all know who you are, so I'll just say it's good to have folks who care.  The Grill Crew & Captain were courageous and proficient as always, and the entire operation went off with just a few hitches.  Of course, any sort of undertaking this size is going to have hiccups.  It's good that no one noticed ours!

Next year remember to RSVP when Krampusfest invitations go out!

Next weekend we'll be starting AD&D 1e at 3 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m.  Let me know if you're going to have a problem making it over and plot a time.  Tabletop wargaming from noon to 3 p.m., so lets make sure to get some mileage this week on our wargames.  Both wargames are drawing to a close at the end of this month, so get your game on and cover those last few yards to the finish line!

Also, those of you willing to work on the next terrain project budget get with me this week.  We'll have a meeting where we decide what to fast track and I'll give a more detailed presentation of my vision of our collected worlds.

See you on Game Day!