Rogue Games Tabbloid -- July 8, 2009 Edition

8 July 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

ROGUE FEED

So there you go. Now if you will excuse, I am going to bed.

Some Colonial Gothic Updates JUL 07, 2009 09:53P.M. ROGUE FEED Busy few days. Look for some updates through out the week. Tomorrow,will be the next installment of 13 Chapters in 13 Weeks. I also plan on updating the New World Almanack. This update covers a few things. Here is the rundown.

Ruins & Ronin Released JUL 07, 2009 02:17P.M.

Rulebook physical and eBook As of today (7/7/09) you can purchase the eBook/PDF of Colonial Gothic Revised from the following merchants: • Buy it from Indie Press Revolution (IPR) • Buy it from Studio 2 • Buy it from e23 • Buy it from Drivethrurpg.com • Buy it from RPGNow.com • Buy it from Yourgames.now • Buy the Kindle edition The physical copies of the books have been sent to both IPR and Studio 2’s warehouses. They should be making their way out shortly from there. I have not gotten any copies yet, and once I do, I will be handling the mail out to playtesters and contributors. My day job has been crazy for the past few weeks, but these copies will be out no later than month’s end. I will be contacting each point of contact of the various playtest groups with the details. More old news, but Mike D of Sword +1 has released his chanbara-inspired version of Swords & Wizardry. Called Ruins & Ronin, it’s available either in print or PDF form from Lulu.com.

Updated Colonial Gothic PDFs As of tonight, updated versions of Colonial Gothic: The Defeated Dead and Colonial Gothic: Elizabethtown have been uploaded to the various online merhcants. These updates bring the PDFs inline with the changes made in Colonial Gothic. You should be getting the updated versions (if you have purchased them) from the merchants once the PDFs are in their systems. In addition, both Missing and Sin Eater have been updated and uploaded to the website, you can get them here.

I saw early drafts of the rules and I was very impressed with them. What I particularly liked was that no attempt had been made to create a historically accurate set of rules. Ruins & Ronin bears about as much connection to real Japanese history and culture as OD&D does to medieval European history and culture — and I think that’s just swell. What you get is an old school Japanese “flavored” fantasy RPG, where bujin, shugenja, and sohei all meet in the local tea house to plan their

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

8 July 2009

expedition into the ruins of Katsushiro’s Castle.

told tales and legends of the campaign.

If that sounds awesome to you, go ahead and grab yourself a copy.

I rather like this passage and think it does a good job of showing not only why saving throws are themselves an invaluable game mechanic, but also why saving throws whose consequences are “inevitable destruction” lend richness and texture to a campaign — which is why I do not now, nor have I ever, shied away from “save or die” effects.

ROGUE FEED

Save or Die, Part II JUL 07, 2009 10:02A.M. The term saving throw is common enough, coming to us from miniatures wargames and D&D. It represents the chance for the figure concerned to avoid (or at least partially avoid) the cruel results of fate. In AD&D it is the same. By means of luck, skill, magical protections, quirks of fate and the aid of supernatural powers, the character making his or her saving throw takes none or only part of the indicated results ... That’s probably the most exhaustive explanation for what a saving throw is in the Gygaxian canon, but, coming as it does in 1979’s Dungeon Masters Guide, it can hardly be called definitive for the entirety of D&D. (And if anyone knows of a lengthier or more detailed discussion of saving throws in Gygax’s works, I’d be interested in knowing about it). I bring this up at all, because my post last month on this topic generated a lot of valuable discussion, but also some disagreement. I treat saving throws, by and large, as a kind of check against a player’s foolhardiness. It’s a last chance to mitigate the consequences of his own stupidity. Quite rightly, some, including the estimable Dan Proctor, creator of Labyrinth Lord, disagreed with my approach, since it doesn’t explain why a character should get a save vs. a spell cast by an opponent or why a fighter has a better saving throw against dragon breath than any other class. That’s a perfectly valid criticism and, in light of the text quoted above, illustrates that, like many things in D&D, there’s no single overriding explanation for their existence. Saving throws have, so far as I can tell, a dual purpose. One purpose serves verisimilitude; saves are a way to represent the fact that not every attack is 100% effective all the time. The other serves “fairness;” it’s a recognition that D&D is a game and people often better enjoy games when they feel “there’s always a chance” that they might succeed (or at least avoid the worst effects of failure). Gygax himself was aware of this when he wrote later on in the same section of the DMG: Yet because the player character is all-important, he or she must always — or nearly always — have a chance, no matter how small, a chance of somehow escaping what otherwise would be inevitable destruction. Many will not be able to do so, but the escapes of those who do are what the fabric of the game are created upon. These adventures become the twice-

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