Apparently, I'm a d8

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a d8: You are the true adventurer! Dragons rescued, princesses slayed, and all that business while O Fortuna plays in the background. Your social calender is crammed with heroic deeds, and you've personally saved the world from ultimate destruction at least twice. You are reliable, perhaps a bit predictable, but overall a shining example of what happens when courage meets determination.

Saga Of Crystar issue one

Crystar was a fantasy series created and published by Marvel comics way back in 1983. There was a tie-in line of toys from Remco that I found to be interesting due to the fact that figures (with the exception of the two that molded to be mounted on the dragons that they came with) had bendable knees, adding some extra poesability. Anyway, I had an issue back in the day, and decided to get the whole series off of ebay.

The first issue is unusual for its time. It's a extended length issue that originally sold for $2 in a time when most comics went for 60-75 cents for regular length issues, and $1-$1.25 for longer books. The painted cover is also out of the ordinary, but not too much so.

The series is set in the world of Crystallium, where a lengthy war between Order and Chaos has just ended, through the actions of the wizard Ogeode (names in this series, at least those of many of the major players have some sort of punny connection to rocks and gemstones) and his giant magic crystal that drove away the forces of Chaos.

Crystallium is currently ruled by the two princes Crystar and Moltar, with some advisement from their uncle Feldspar. They are visited one evening by a hooded stranger who tells them that Chaos' curse is about to befall them. The stranger is none other than the aforementioned Ogeode, who promptly tells them that he can't do anything about it right now because winning the war took most of his strength. However, if things do get too hairy, he'll try to pull something off.

Shortly afterward, the princes are visited by another wizard by the name of Zardeth who wants to know if they'll join him and his forces of Chaos in a coming 'struggle'. Having been forewarned by Ogeode, they turn him down saying they just finished with one war, and have no interest in another. Zardeth gives them an ultimatum, and then walks away.

However, one of the guards, a fellow by the name of Warbow, sneaks out after the wizard. Zardeth spots him easily, and this leads to the two of them inflicting eye injuries on each other.

The princes meanwhile are arguing as whether or not to side with Zardeth or not, as he had threatened their subjects. Feldspar tries to calm Moltar down, as he's pretty soused at this point.

Moltar has none of this and knocks out Feldspar and stabs Crystar with a table knife.

Declaring himself King, Moltar, tries to sell the people on this while Crystar's gold-digging fiance Lavour decides to side with him because she wants the power that comes with the throne.

Elsewhere three guards loyal to Crystar-- Stalax, Koth and Kalibar, with the aid of Lavour's servant Ambara have secreted the prince and his uncle away, given them some first aid and wonder what to do next.

Ogeode drops in from out of nowhere, bringing his giant magic crystal with him. He gestures Crystar to his feet, and the prince walks into the crystal.

Meanwhile, Moltar and his followers are driven away by a rain of crystal shards. They flee to where Zardeth said he would meet with the princes and the wizard throws them into a volcano, turning them into magma men.

The newly-minted lava men are given thematic weapons and dragons and are sent off to collect Ogeode's head.

Crystar uses this dramatic moment to walk out of the magic crystal, but as Moltar and his ilk became magma men, Crystar is now a crystal man. The guards three decide that they want to be big damn heroes and promptly walk into the magic crystal.

The Lava Men invade shortly thereafter, Crystar and this trio hold them off for awhile until Stalax falls. Things look bad for our heroes until a well-placed crossbow bolt disarms Moltar, saving Crystar. The tide turns, and the lave men flee.

Feldspar shows up sporting a new body that's half crystal and half magma, saying that it's way to show his neutrality in this war.

Ambara is thanked by Crystar, and she responds by falling into his arms. Nearby, Warbow looks on and since he'd been shown earlier to be sweet on her, is hurt by all this.

There's an ad for the toys, and the back cover is a preview of the next issue, promising the appearance of a new character named Ika.

It's a fairly solid start for the series, and it'll be interesting to see where it leads.

3-D Dungeon Tile Elements in action.

I was doing some dry runs of tile layouts for an informal game I'm running for my sister, and I thought I'd share these pics.

I'm still getting the hang of using the camera, and as of yet don't have a good light source for taking these pictures. I hope to be able to get a new light source and thus have better pictures to share.

D&D Dungeon Tiles 3-D elements basics, part 2.

I'm back with part two of my brief tutorial on the 3-D elements of the Harrowing Halls Dungeon tile set.

first up, a 2"x4"x1" platform. Here's the pieces you'll need;

Making sure that the tabs on each wall point upward, slide the wall pieces' slots together.

when you get all four together, it should look like this;

Remember when I said to make sure that the tabs on each piece stayed on top? Well, now you can set the roof/platform piece's slots into those tabs. And because the tiles are reversible, you can have them in either wooden or stone dungeon walls and floors. (Shown with mini to show strength of platforms).

Next, my favorite of the elements, the stairwell. You'll need the following pieces to build this piece.

Begin by slotting the walls into the front wall piece as shown in the following pictures;

Then slot in the back wall.

Now the fun part-- setting in the stairs. Start with one of the steps with three slots (you should have two of them), and set it into the three tabs at the bottom. Then move up and add the two two-slot stairs. Finally, set the last 3-slot stair in at the top.

But we're not done with the stairs yet. There's also a 2"x2"x2" platform that sits behind the stairwell. Lay them out to make sure the tabs are on top, and then slide the slots together. Note I've shown the two slots parallel in this image to show how the slots will fit.

Like the 1" platform before, slot the walls together;

After that, set the roof/platform on, and then set the completed platform against the back of the stairwell.

And that's about it. Here's a picture of all of the 3-D elements in the set fully assembled.

If I haven't mentioned it before, these dungeon tiles are (c) and TM Wizards of the Coast 2010.

D&D Dungeon Tiles 3-D elements basics, part 1.

I recently mentioned the joys of the new 3-D elements in WotC's new Harrowing Halls set in an rpg.net thread, and was hit with questions about how to put the things together. A week later, after putting some thought to it, I decided to do a simple tutorial on the subject. I apologise about the fuzziness of the pictures, as it's both a mixture of not know how to use the camera to its fullest, and protecting myself from any possible legal implications.

To start off with, here's my 3rd set of the Harrowing Halls tiles, which I decided I needed after I wanted to do 3-D platforms for one of the encounters of the Kobold Hall adventure in the D&D 4E DMG.

followed by a brief glimpse of the contents;

Followed by a glimpse of the 1st 3-D tile page

To start with, let's build a table. Gently punch out the following pieces, taking great care with the inner pieces that need to be removed from them.

As you can see, I've already started to put them together. Assembly is easy; just fit the bottom slot of one leg piece into the top slot of the bottom piece.

When you're done, the bottom should be flush, so as to set it flat on the tabletop. Then, punch out a tabletop piece (I chose the round one), and punch out the inner cross-shaped piece.

See the small cross-shaped tab on your table legs? Fit that into the hole in your table top piece, and you have a completed table.

Next, we'll make a door with the following pieces. As before, be careful when punching them out and removing inner tabs from the slots.

Take one of the slender side pieces, and slide its tab into one on the door, making sure that the bottom is flush.

Move onto the next one, and stand it up. Now you have a door that you can move around as wish.

That's if for now, come back later as I show how to build platforms and stairwells.