shemp development: yet another oracle

Following on from the previous article on shemp development (see Uncle Bear for definition and origin of shemp), I mused on the possibility of doing this by random generator based on a lifepath system. By freakish coincidence I was looking into fortune-telling using playing cards and then I thought of the oracles at Abulafia…

The result is an open-source, system-free way to add flair to your baseline shemp. Use to taste – there are multiple options for the system depending on inclination and there are multiple systems of card divination courtesy of Google to use if this method isn’t to your taste. Without further ado, The Oracle of Shemp.

(Token Disclaimer: Fame & Fortune discourage using this as a divination tool even if there were cartomancers using this in 17th century courts. No challenge to any kind of copyright intended – what do you think I’m crazy? C’thulhu fthagn! ia! ia! Must be this tall to ride. )

giving back to the community: the twisted spires

Another in the series of Adventure Fillers; this one takes place in deep caves where stalagmites protrude out the ground like church spires. The monsters are twisted, there’s flammable oil for the taking and food is scarce. What could possibly go wrong? As always – made with open-source software for your playing pleasure: The Twisted Spires.

even more gaming tools

Inkwell Ideas has some wonderful tools; while some people have pointed at the magnificent Hexographer, the Coat of Arms Visual Designer deserves it’s own mention for those of you who need a heraldic coat-of-arms stat. And if you’re a GIMP mapper, you’ll love these brushes that draw on the icons from D&D’s classic Mystara setting.

Dungeon Mastering have created a 4E monster database. This provides ready-made cards for your monsters and importable code into Obsidian Portal and HTML (for Epic Words, blogs and other wikis). There is also a database of shared monsters that will certainly grow over time with contributions. Potluck can be fun.

You may also find the Magic Set Editor (lets you make your own trading cards) of particular interest (and it’s open source too) – this is just dandy if you have a card system for contacts/ stuff you can pass to players. Speaking of 4E, an epic labour of love can be found in the Universal Card Set that could be used with the above.

giving back to the community: shrine of horned justice

Another bit of open-source 4th edition goodness for you hurried DMs!

An abandoned shrine created by dwarves that offers the secrets of dead criminals in return for their bodies. It’s now guarded by troglodytes, vine horrors and cave bears. Did I fail to mention the snaketongue cultists and the undead who just won’t stay slain? Well, I knew there was something odd about that place.

Welcome to the Shrine of Horned Justice. Tread carefully.

giving back to the community: the black midden

An opportunity for those harried 4E DMs who have just discovered that they can’t buy any replacement PDFs if their laptop goes phut. Now available for your downloading pleasure. Otyugh, Orcus cults and shadar-kai, oh my! Made with open source software, the latest Adventure Filler – The Black Midden.

giving back to the community: iron guard bridge

Another 4E item. Adventure Filler 5 – Iron Guard Bridge is about a bridge to the Underdark guarded by an alliance of dwarves and warforged against all comers. Included is a skill challenge for Underdark navigation and the special heavy shields of the Iron Guard as well as numerous other challenges for those 5th level parties who need a quick adventure.

It’s made with open source software so enjoy!

gaming for all

Have been away seeing the fruits of my labours blossom at a live-roleplaying long weekend that so far has been very well-received indeed. It was been a blast (almost no sleep for three days with stuff to do) so now I’m back to the blog with a vengeance. OK, so you probably didn’t even notice I was gone (cunning things, these scheduled posts).

6d6Fireball provoked a discussion about the pricing structure of roleplaying games and posits a provocative question about Dungeons & Dragons. In the background there is a vocal call to return to old-school retro-clone gaming. There is a classic dichotomy about play style as well as edition wars going on. You can find a sound-bite summary on the style issue at Penny Arcade.

I’m currently in the process of setting up my own publishing house (as it seems easier than going through a proxy, plus I’ve been curious about how you’d actually become a publisher after reading old Dragon editorials). Yes there are overheads – though this is true of any business an quality of output is always something you need to consider.

The traditional publishing model is undergoing a culture shift in an age of ubiquitous, on-demand information; whether you consider it reasonable to publish PDF only copies and let the customer decide what they want to print with your own backup regime or embrace the Book philosophy and need never worry about the cost of electricity at a slightly higher cost.

Newspapers are being replaced with websites and RSS feeds, traditional media packaging and distribution is being much more demand-driven by consumers. There are concerns about loss of value for such assets – after all if you’re only being paid pennies per copy rather than turning the denomination of your choice, that’s a tough market – good luck with it.

The ultimate game is like snow. It transforms the environment and encourages play yet there isn’t much evidence of this kind of behaviour. Digital distribution is something that gaming firms are still having some difficulty with – despite the successes made by people like Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay, you’re still looking at a propietary regime and subscription-based services.

Does it have to be this way? Probably not. Can the hobby survive the change? Definitely.

browser tricks, tiddlywiki things and writemonkey

Not-so-stupid browser tricks

Aviary is a graphics creation & manipulation website you may want to consider if you’ve forgotten your USB stick with Inkscape and GIMP. Developed by Adobe, it offers Web 2.0 versions of graphics manipulation, vector editing, effects and colour swatch creation.

Bookmarklets are a cross-browser friendly version of add-ons. A number of them have some immediate use for gamers but they also have the advantage of being cross-browser supported. If you use a bookmark synchroniser like Foxmarks, these come with you as well. Useful if you’re on the move and you need the functionality.

Also, TiddlySnip is a Firefox extension that cuts & pastes into a TiddlyWiki. Speaking of…

TiddlyWiki Things
Some time ago I extolled the virtues of TiddlyWiki. If you’re new to TW, then take a look at TiddlyWiki for the rest of us; a brilliant introduction to TW written in plain and downloadable for future reference.

Here’s six add-ins you may find useful but be warned, the more plugins you pile on, the slower it takes for your TiddlyWiki to get started so only load up on what you really need. If you want to know how to install plug-ins and macros then check out Mnteractive or WikiHow for guides.

twab – A contact list which can import or export various formats.
QuoteOfTheDay - Picks a quote from a list defined in a separate tiddler – a daily dose of random.
ReminderMacros – This gives you a calendar and things to do on your TW.
Rollon – A randomiser that can roll on lists within lists. Courtesy of Joshua@Tales of The Rambling Bumblers.
RSSReader – Good if you want to test a feed or two.
TagsTree – Creates a hierarchy for your tags which helps organise your TW.

Finally a review of Writemonkey by Pomerancha Software. This was suggested to me as an alternative to Q10 which is my usual Windows full-screen writing tool. So far it’s performing admirably in keeping me on-focus even if I do want to hit F1 to get the most out of it. That will fade in time – this always happens to me when using a full-screen processor.

The startup offers a moment of Zen which is transitory as soon as you click the Exit button.

Writemonkey has an extensive feature set including the ability to momentarily switch between windows. It is suited to portable use and can sit on a USB key with impunity. You can amend font, colour and other features in the Preferences settings (F10) and even preset preferred colour combinations (the default is neon green Courier on black paper) which is soothing on the eyes. Writemonkey has a good set of accessibility features which allow a user to adjust text width and size using a scroll mouse wheel or keystroke combination.

Files can be saved in various locations specified by the program and the repository. Navigation within the file can be done by using assigned bookmarks within a document (so you can move from header to header) or by jumping between assigned search strings (like the Find facility in a word processor). Editing text requires the keyboard, the program does not support drag-and-drop editing by mouse. Click at the start of a line and the program selects the whole line – a nice, intuitive touch.

It also offers a progress bar and timer for sprint writing. Those of you who partake in NaNoWriMo or similar events may find either of these useful. Overall, I’d rate this highly in terms of fast install, high stability and good feature set. I’d commend Writemonkey to anyone who needs a text-based full-screen processor for their Windows system.

Any more stuff you know about that I need to see? Leave a comment!

the orc gate

Another visit to the carnival – war is clearly good for business and another of the free open-source 4e things for DMs in a hurry to give a 4th level party some excitement. As usual, made in open source software

The Orc Gate has a ruined fort, a whole bunch of ornery orcs and friends looking for a scrap or nine and a skill challenge on how to escape from a fort being pursued by a horde of orcs as well as local geographical colour and some rudimentary information on orcish tattoos.

Available to download now.

recession-proof gaming

So, you’re facing the financiapocalypse. Made your saving throw? Good! Keep calm and carry on.

For those who didn’t, there’s still options if you’ve still got your Internet connection (and if you haven’t you can’t read this anyway). Prepare yourself a nice game of d20/3.5 edition D&D. And you only need the books when you’re actually gaming! All the preparation can be done via the Internet and isn’t even going to be difficult.

1. Hypertext d20 SRD – This is awesome and an example of why the OGL was a good thing. Hyperlinked, cross-referenced and extra tools on top. Namechecked by Monte Cook in a recent interview about Dungeonaday.
2. Dingle’s Games’ Monster Generator – I met with the author at the first UK Bloggers meetup and this was recently reviewed by Campaign Mastery. If you want to baseline monsters quickly, use this site. He also has a treasure generator as well.
3. Big List of RPG Plots – Cumberland Games offers a number of tools but this one is the one that sticks in my mind – a collection of creative kickstarts. If you’re feeling ambitious, use Polti’s 36 Dramatic Situations on top.

But what about minatures, battlemaps and all the other ephemera I hear you cry? Got yourself a printer? Good.

If you need miniatures, the following sites may be of use.

Arion Games have an impressive freebie collection and a bonus area if you leave feedback on their products.
Oversoul Games has a whole page of figures and other stuff for the princely sum of nothing.
Go to Ravenblight for just about anything gothic or horror; from paper miniatures to terrain to masks to book props.
Sparks fonts by Cumberland Games offer two free samples.

Terrain and cardstock models were the recent subject of a post from Mad Brew Labs so I’ll mention the one’s I’ve tried out.
Wizards of the Coast have free fold-up paper models of buildings (some assembly required).
ArchiKit (a French site – site translated using Google Translate) provide free models as well.
For sci-fi, you might want to try WorldWorks’ free ParticleBow frigate.

The Game Mechanics have shiny Initiative Cards. They also have a lot of other stuff which you can pillage for settings, one-off encounters with dragons, that kind of thing.

Invite your friends round, potluck and away you go! One or more evenings of recession-proof gaming. No subscription angsts, no guilty miniature buying, no edition wars, no making it difficult for people to have fun. May not be FLGS-friendly but there’s a time when shelter, electricity and water come first.

Don’t fancy d20/3.5? Want something different? OK – challenge accepted.

1. RetroRoleplaying has a number of free, simple pick-up games including Microlite74.
2. a/state lite – For gloomy high weirdness in The City.
3. Risus – Insidiously simple and yet effective.
4. Nemesis – For modernish horror involving unspeakable things and unpronounceable monsters.
5. Insylum – For what comes after the modernish horror.

No subscriptions required. No investment in the next sourcebook to keep ahead of the Jones’. Yes, you’ll still need dice. If none of these please you, then invite your friends over and put on a DVD, potluck and snark at the movie. You’re in no mood to game and it’s still a social occasion.

Got other legal recession-beating games or gamer tools? Plug them in the comments!