Rogue Games Tabbloid -- July 31, 2009 Edition

31 July 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

ROGUE FEED

ROGUE FEED

St. Cuthbert to the Rescue

[13 Chapters in 13 Weeks] Chapter 12 — Here be Monsters

JUL 31, 2009 12:01A.M. Here’s one of many gorgeous illustrations from the The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Book, published in 1979 by Troubadour Press.

JUL 30, 2009 08:38P.M. So here we are, week 12. Next week brings the end of this series of posts. What is interesting is that this 13 week series brings us up to the week before GenCon. Kind of neat how that works out. Almost as if I planned it out. This week, I am going to talk about Chapter 12, a chapter working in conjunction with Chapter 11. Chapter 12 is also an important chapter in that is addresses one of the biggest knocks against the original version of the game–the lack of monsters in the rulebook. Yeah, we had background, and some essays about them, but the nuts and bolts of fully ready to play monsters? Yeah that was a boneheaded move on our part, and it is one of the biggest regrets I had about the game. That is why Secrets had them i, and that is why when I decided to do the Revised version I vowed this mistake would be rectified. Now, I could have taken the easy route, and simply run the whole chapter from Secrets in the Rulebook, and call it day. I didn’t. For me, that would have been a cop out, and it would have invalidate the reason I did the revision in the first place. I wanted Colonial Gothic to be as complete as possible, and I wanted to expand the monster rules. Expand? Nothing drastic, I simply wanted to give the gamemaster rules for creating their own monsters. So the first 14 pages of this 27 page chapter deal with just that, making your own monsters. How easy is the process? Very easy. There are still three types of creatures (Mundane, Spirit and Infernal) and in a nutshell, you decide what the power level of the creature you want, take the number of points, and spend them on Abilities, Skills and Traits. That’s it. What are traits? They run the gamut from such things as claws, bone spines, deadly gazes, and the things making creatures, well creatures. Using these traits, you can create as many different types of creatures your imagination is able to think up. Does that mean there are not that many sample creatures found in this chapter? No. A lot of the sample creatures found in this chapter are the same ones found in Secrets . There are also a lot of new ones, as well a number of mundane animals. So what type of monsters are found here? Demons, devils, typical undead, as well as monsters from Native American legends. The

1

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

31 July 2009

sampling found here offers the GM numerous options when it comes to challenging their players. In addition, these creatures are ready to be played as is. For me this is the most important thing, ease of use. This chapter is laid out and written to make the process of using creatures very easy for the gamemaster.

ROGUE FEED

Trent Foster Makes It Plain JUL 30, 2009 08:54A.M. Yet another awe-inspiring example of why anyone who cares about the old school renaissance should be listening carefully to Trent Foster.

So there you go, Chapter 12. Next week, I will finish this up, and cover not only Chapter 13 but the Appendix. With next week’s posting, this tour will be over.

ROGUE FEED

Unwinnable Scenarios JUL 30, 2009 06:54P.M. One of the great ironies of discourse on the Internet is that, while I’m being lambasted here as an old school fundamentalist for having expressed agreement with Trent Foster’s post at K&K, I am informed by others that elsewhere I am being excoriated by an inquisition of busybodies for the crime of having played, enjoyed, and written for games published in the 1990s! Quelle horreur! What a terrible straw man punching bag I am — possessing human depth, complexity, and even contradictions rather than being a nice, simple automaton of villainy, said “villainy” being things many of my commenters here probably wouldn’t believe. James played White Wolf games and liked them?! Impossible. Thank goodness I’ve hidden these dark truths from the world rather than talking about them openly. Why, if word got out I’d be kicked out of the clubhouse and sent off to the Gamescience dice mines to labor until my skin is flayed by precision-edged d4s! Seriously, guys, I appreciate all the interest in little ol’ me and my personality defects, but why focus on such things when there’s still tons of really important stuff to quibble about? I mean, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the Great Armor Class Debate and there’s still a lot of life left in the Crusade Against Skills. And of course there’s my continuing drive to collect enough aluminum foil and duct tape in order to sculpt an effigy of St. Gary to worship in my basement. So, please, in future, let’s keep things in perspective and remember why we’re all here.

2