More enemy types for Muppet Inspired D&D-- Now with actual danger.

In my last post I spoke about coming up with ways to fill in holes that crop up when one decides to take enemy types and make them PC races. Well, when I was working on that post, I took a look at an earlier post I'd done about taking Ultraman monsters (some of whom inspired a number of classic D&D monsters) and using them as inspiration for new monsters.

Well inspiration struck again, and two the monsters became the impetus for the next two new enemy types for this campaign setting. When I was fleshing out the basics of goblin culture, I knew that they would have to go out into the wilderness outside of Flopsburg to get essentials like food and wood for fires and building materials. The only places to get wood are The Gibbering Bog and the Gloomy Thickets. The Bog was safer, but the quality of the wood wasn't as good, so the goblins would have to go into the Thickets to get wood.

When I was doing research into the Muppets, I read that when Jim Henson was planning the Dark Crystal, he wanted to do a fantasy story that was scary, and played for keeps. Well, I'd mention previously that one of  the backgrounds I've been working on is the Stick Poker, who pokes things with sticks to ensure the safety of the other goblins who went out to hunt or collect wood.

Well, in the Thickets, it's a very deadly, and somewhat scary place. The goblins started to poke at things when they started to get attack by Stalkers, who could collapse their forms and disguise themselves as piles of leaves. As the Goblins became wise to the tricks of the Stalkers, the Stalkers upped the ante by preparing various snares and pits to capture the unwary in.

Thus Stalkers can take the place of Kobolds with only a little tweaking.
(There is now a racial bonus for Stealth when Stalkers disguise themselves as leaf piles.


Despite the deadliness of the Stalkers, the goblins rose to the challenge, and now actually enjoy the game of cat and mouse between to the two races that can change at a moment's notice. (Plus it gives the bombers someone else to throw bombs at).

On the other hand, when a Gose shows up, it's whn the goblins begin to feel fear.

With its ability to diguise itself as a large bush or a small tree, a Gorse can be more difficult to spot than a Stalker. Also, when it attacks, it can extend its claws, and if both hit, then the victim is entangled. One Gorse is a terrifying opponent, but if two or more show up, even the bravest of goblins know when to turn tail and get out ot the Thickets (preferably with large number of bombs to help cover their trails).

However, if the goblins can fell a Gorse with as few casualties as possible, then the wood of the Gorse can be used for a number of items and as building material. Gorse-bark armor is a highly prized commodity in the goblin communities.

Despite the ever-present dangers of the Thickets, the goblins have not let it dampen their spirits, and their culture continues on without fear of extinction.

Further insight into the world of Muppet-inspired D&D

One of the bigger problems of doing a campaign using what's normally considered to be low-level fodder as the main player race for a D&D game is "Who do you use to to fill in that hole in the enemy selection/ecology/hierarchy?" It becomes even more difficult if you're considering using another low-level enemy type as a possible race for p,layers as well.

Well, I was looking at some Legend of Zelda fanart this evening, and inspiration struck as I looked at a pair of Moblins, who are one of the initial enemies in the original Legend of Zelda game.

So where am I heading with this exactly? Well, one of the big themes in the early Muppet movies is that they're all a bunch of free spirits who manage to get by, even if times are bad, and will go out of their way to help out others who might need a hand or some other experience. The villains, on the other hand, tend to be more established, and have a lot of resources.

So what better enemy for a Muppet-Inspired D&D game than Moblins who are actual sterotypical gangsters, like this fellow over here on the right.
Now things were starting to fall into place. Moblins fall into the following categories;

Hoods (typical D&D Goblin stats) 85%
Wiseguys (D&D Hobgoblins) 14%
Dons, aka Capos, or 'Da Boss (Bugbears)1%

Moblins, always looking for a new opportunity, are frequently visiting Goblin villages and towns looking to recruit or to find suckers for their latest scheme. They typically get blown out of town.

This has not endeared the goblins to the Moblins.

Thus the Moblins, when not trying to recruit or con the goblins, are frequently plotting to destroy the goblins villages, which is somewhat difficult as the goblins are doing an excellent job in that regard.

Most Moblins carry around instrument cases and use them as clubs, (which have little to no effect on the Goblins), but a few (very few) will keep a dagger or a shortsword in the instrument case.

If asked, the average goblin says that Moblins can be great fun in small does, but they tend to get borin very quickly.

Work In Progress Backgrounds for my Muppet D&D game.

I had been planning on saving these until I got them finished (those tables are what's holding them up so far, but since +Jez Gordon declared today to be “Awesome Gamer Day, then I should least toss up a preview for the folks that are interested in this.

First up, and the most completed, the Mad Bomber. Since I'm going for a Muppet Show feel for some aspects of this game, I should mention that goblin bombs are not particularly dangerous, partly due to the goblins immunity to blunt damage. (it knocks out, rather than actually injures). When a goblin bomb goes off, there's a smokey cloud of soot, and most within its radius (around 5 feet) are knocked back or sent flying a short distance.

The inspiration for this background is Crazy Harry from the Muppet Show. This charming fellow would show up, and set off an explosion, and then there'd be some laughter.

Bombers do more than blow things (and goblins) up for humorous purposes, They also contribute to the well-being of Flopsburg by going fishing. A few well-placed bombs, and there's enough fish for a few days. The fish is the nearby Tenebrous Loch have adapted by multiplying on a larger scale than normal, thus preventing a potential loss of food for the goblins.

Up next are the Stick-Pokers, whose (potentially dangerous) job is to poke at things with sticks. (the areas around Flopsburg have a certain deadliness to them that can not be understated).

Many of them start out with long sticks, and those that aren't suddenly gobbled up by any number of unsavory things soon move on to shorter sticks, learning to rely on quick reflexes to avoid danger. Since most of them provide assistance to hunters and woodcutters (the goblins are constantly rebuilding Flopsburg), most soon learn how to field strip an animal, thus gaining the proficiency in the Survival skill.

While that's the general idea of what I have thus far, I'm still considering other Backgrounds for the goblins, including a Storyteller/Performer Background.

The initial hexmap for my Muppet D&D setting.

Here's where it starts to come together.

It's still pretty rough, but most of the areas are there. This version is a DM map, as it shows a few locations that I'm thinking of using as adventure spots. Flopburg is in an area with scrubs and small hills, and the goblins only go there if they get bored and decide to hunt there, as the wood does not work well for building.
Most of their wood comes from the Gibbering Bog, or better yet the Gloomy Thickets (though they rarely go too deeply into the Thickets). Each hex is roughly a human league (as per Jeff Rients, but since most goblins are small, it takes them a little longer to get through them).

Now with added river.

Muppet D&D: first thoughts and an inkling of a setting.

 Recently, an idea came to me, and while still currently raw and unrefined, has something that I can work with and add onto. My working title for this is Muppet D&D.

What Muppet D&D isn't is Muppet characters reenacting the Lord of the Rings or the Dragonlance Saga. What it is, however, is an attempt to craft a setting that takes the feel of the Muppet Show, and adapt it to the D&D milieu. (Your Muppet D&D may be different from mine, however).

South of the Barbed Crags, and the Gloomy Thickets, past the Nebulous Moors and the Gibbering Bog, the Exuberant Runnel flows southward, going past the goblin village of Flopburg

(though calling that fiasco a village is kind of pushing it) towards the dark waters of the Tenebrous Loch.

Flopburg, while a chaotic mess most of the time, somehow thrives regardless of whatever natural rules that may be followed elsewhere. The goblins spend most of their days building or repairing houses (or what passes for them at times), collecting food, tuning instruments, cooking or making things to blow stuff up with.

It is with bombs that the goblin begin to excel. While the method of bomb making is generally known to to the Mad Bombers of Flopburg, they will teach anyone who asks (and in many cases, didn't ask). The bombs tend to have two general purposes in goblin society; fishing and entertainment.

Every night, the goblins of Flopburg gather, and have a wild party, glad to have survived yet another day. These parties are accentuated with music, laughter, feasting, explosions and more laughter.

An interesting feature of goblin explosives is that they really don't injure anyone-- even when one is sent flying and hits something, it laughs, and runs back to the party. It had been discovered that blunt force trauma had little effect on anyone, other than perhaps knocking someone out for awhile. While goblins are curious and inquisitive, they long ago learned to shrug and get back to whatever they were doing, but did note that this effect only carried over to other sapient races, not to animals and many of the monsters (goblin explosives, however, had no ill effect on anything)

It is to this almost idyllic setting that I intend to introduce science fiction energy weapons, because such weapons in the hands of the goblins would be funny, even if they do happen to inflict serious damage.

Inspiration for new monsters in your games.

While it is known that a number of classic and iconic D&D monsters were inspired by a bag of plastic 'dinosaur' toys that were available in the 70s, it isn't known that a number of those toys were Chinese bootlegs of monster toys from the classic Jpanaese Ultraman series of shows.

So it hit me that if Ultraman toys were inspirational in the creation of some great monsters, then why not look at kaiju design from Ultraman (and other sources) for new monster ideas;

This charming fellow is called 'Gabadon', and looks remarkably similar to the classic 'Land Shark' or 'Bullette'.

Now here's a possibility for a non-combatant monster. He looks like a deep thinker, and could possibly a sage of great knowledge.

Obviously an insectoid or crab-man. Those claws look like they could do a d8 of damage easily.

Perhaps a feral relative of the common lizardman, much like the goriila or other great apes are to humanity.

This imposing fellow looks like a winged owlbear/hook horror hybrid.

Instead of a breath weapon, this dragon most likely has an eye-beam attack. A few structural mods, and you could have a suite of eye-beam dragons with different types of eye-beams.

A mad druid's tree-splicing experiment gone horribly wrong? A horror of super-science unleashed upon the world? You decide.

I can see the possibilities for this one. Eye-beams, claw/claw/bear hug, and can be directed by a smaller critter via the handlebars on its head.

Obviously an arboreal ambush predator, lying in wait in piles of leaves for unsespecting victims to wander by.

Using its bright colors to attract prey, this critter then uses its swaying movements to hypnotise its victims before going in for the strike.

This one looks strangely familiar...


And there you have it. Some potential new monsters to liven up your games. A few visual tweaks to any of them, and you have something new to play with.

Now with added features

Apparently the latest rage in the OSR blogosphere is a widget that allows users to print posts to pdf. This was all started by Jeff Rients of Jeff's Gameblog.

I don't know if anyone will use it here, but it was easy enough to install.

As I read through the Ready Ref Sheets...

As I mentioned in my last post, I acquired a copy of the Ready Ref Sheets (2nd Edition) yesterday. I've since gone through it a little, and thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

The first section is on city encounters. The charts are a bit on the crowded side, but there's some usable stuff in here. There's even a page explaining what some of the charts are intended for.

Up next is a section on npc women, starting with social status and profession. There's an interesting system on gaining favor with women through a mixture of communication and buying expensive gifts, which might actually dovetail in nicely with the infamous 'Random Harlot Table'.

There's even some complications that randomly crop up and make things more interesting for PCs.

After that, it talks about the likelyhood of women being trained as fighters in a militaristic society (just over 50%). It goes on to give a few locations where they might train, and then talks about daughters of nobles, including such things as their social rank, and circumstances revolving requests that will involve her father's intervention.

Turning the page, there a lot of tables for generating female npcs, ranging from disposition, their inclination towards the PC (and modifiers towards it), Houri garb, and physical characteristics.

Here's where it gets interesting.

The tables range from things like height, dress sizes, alignment (only 5 here covering Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, and a single Neutral) and finally complexion. It's complexion that really caught my attention. It starts off with with some realistic skintones, then moves into some SF/S&S/S&P inspired colors (red,blue and yellow). After that it's Downy Golden Fur, Feathery Down, Scaled, and Transparent to Bone. The first three of these have a asterisk after them denoting additional traits to the complexion. They are;

• also has feline tail
• winged
• half mermaid (?)

I was fairly surprised to see that one could very easily roll up a catgirl! Here's a trope/meme that really took off in the last 20 years, and yet I came across it in a supplement written in the 70s, over 30 years ago. Now I admit that there was a female Kzin crewmember in the animated Star Trek series, and Batman foe Catwoman dates back to the 40s (and there could even be something in the pulps that I haven't heard about yet), but this came out of nowhere.

Admittedly, this took a lot out of the discovery that they had also put in Lieber-ian ghouls (people with transparent bodies save for their eyes and bones).

Well, that's all for now. I'll come back later and give further impressions about the RRS.

New addtions to my gaming library

I went to the local game shop (I hadn't been in since last year) to look at the used gamebooks, and got some useful books. My haul consisted of an orange spine 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide and a Ready Ref Sheets vol. 1.

The DMG's a little beat up (and bears the name of two previous owners on the inside front cover), but when I flipped through the Ready Ref Sheets, I found a map of Arkham tucked inside that was in really good shape!

It'll take me awhile to go through these books, but it should be interesting.

Rethinking the party

I've been thinking alot about adventuring parties, and how most of the basics have been used since the origins of rpgs in the 70s, with a few set classes, and races such as dwarf, elf, halfling and gnome in addition to humans that make up said parties.

Now, I realise that this is set in stone for many people, and that they tend to rail against any changes to these basics, yet I think it would be fun to mix things up a bit and use some new racial archetypes to have in a party.

My first idea was to have a sort of armored bear, like the panzerbjorn in The Golden Compass, who would fill in the fighter's position, as contrast to the Dwarf. The bears would be black bear-sized, so as to be able to fit into the tunnels and passages that make up dungeon exploration. Since these bears aren't intended to be mounts, I envision them as having forepaws with opposable thumbs that would allow them to not only put on their own armor, but to wield ranged and melee weapons as well.

The idea would be to have a strong, hardy warrior that was versatile enough to switch between natural weapons and 1-2 handed weapons.

Here's a rough draft of an NPC/Monster version that might be met in the wilderness;

Armored Bear

AC: 5 (2 when wearing armor)

Hit Dice: 6

Move: 120' (40')

Attacks: 2 claws or with weapon

Damage: d6/d6 or weapon damage

Number Appearing: d4

Save As: Fighting Man level 3

Morale: 7

These bears, which can be up to 11 feet tall, tend to wear armor made in an unknown process that gives the protection of plate, but weight and mobility or leather. They are highly intelligent and have been known to trade or hire on with groups once reasonable (to them) negotiations have been met. Unless attacked first, their first response is to parlay, and deal with strangers verbally.

The fur color differs upon the terrain where they tend to live, ranging from black to brown to white. However, it is not unusual for Armored Bears to live in areas that starkly contrast their coloration.

Hot Halfling Chicks

I figured, why not?

Unusual Patrons part 1

A lot of adventures start with the party being given a treasure map, or being asked to recover a stolen item or a maguffin of some sort.

"Of course, my clients require the finest ingredients. I trust you will have no problem acquiring them." --Head chef of the 'Exquisite Delights' restaurant.

Decadent tastes call for dangerous ingredients. That's how many parties come to hired to collect such items as gelatin from Gelatinous Cubes and clutches of Griffin Eggs.
Simply put, the best food comes from the most dangerous of places.

This, of course, leads to some interesting logistical problems, like how to collect the gelatin without being burned by its acid, or how to bring back that Carrion Crawler before it starts to rot. But that's part of the fun of a food collection scenario.

Even more exciting is the prospect of having them escort a cook to the creature's lair so that it can be prepared on the journey back. Those groups of bandits, goblins, orcs and kobolds can become major complications that can lead to some interesting plans on the parts of the players.

Where does one find such dens of Iron Cookery? typically in larger cities and royal courts that have sizable amounts of nobles and other eccentric and wealthy types.
Sometimes 'underground' eateries open from time to time, moving from location to location in order to keep the clientele extremely exclusive.

Perhaps there are competitions where great chefs face off to show off their skill in the preparation of the rare shrieking ginger root.

In all of the cases someone has to collect the ingredients, who will it be this time?

I'm not dead yet.

It's come to my attention that I haven't done anything with this blog.
Which is true.

I guess that means I should get back into this once more.

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.