Pick of the Week
[SYSTEM: Legend]
An adventurer is only as good as his equipment, so the saying goes – and with this mighty tome, your adventurer will be the best-equipped he can be. From new weapons and armour, to the more mundane items that keep an adventure going, Arms & Equipment is a complete catalogue that will keep players coming back for more after every adventure.
$19.99 $11.99
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Other Featured Titles
[SYSTEM: Pathfinder]
The Zobeck Gazetteer brings award-winning designer Wolfgang Baur’s Free City of Zobeck to life for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!
This is where the campaign setting of Midgard was born: in the twisted alleys of the Kobold Ghetto, the schools of clockwork magic, and the ticking hearts of the gearforged PC race. Anyone looking for a new and different setting will find a clockpunk city forged in the fires of revolt, with monsters and magic drawn from the dark folktales of medieval Eastern Europe — plus details of devils, kobold kings, and plots galore!
$19.99 $9.99
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[SYSTEM: FATE]
Gosh, Spies! is 120 pages of information for your Agents of SWING games, expanding the scope of the game into the realms of Saturday Morning Adventure cartoons with a particular emphasis on girl’s adventures.
The book has information and ideas on running SWING games for children and particularly for girls. While the book itself is not necessarily for kids and younger teens, it should help you create and run games for them.
$5.99
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[SYSTEM: OGL]
Welcome to Wonderland, a strange, sometimes creepy alternate world that incorporates aspects of a fairytale land, the elements of children's nightmares, and a demi-plane of chaos!
This OGL sourcebook is inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll, including his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and a number of poems.
$7.99
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Also of Note
Meanwhile, Over at DriveThruFiction...
 The Pick of the Week over there is one of particular interest to gamers - Journey to the Heart of Luna (Space: 1889 & Beyond, #1). Untreed Reads is proud to present Space: 1889 & Beyond, a brand-new series of books based on the award-winning steampunk role-playing game created by Frank Chadwick. A universe in which Victorian science has breached the barrier of Earth's atmosphere and is spreading out among the stars.
The year is 1889, and mankind is out among the stars.
For almost three decades man has explored the Inner Planets, but still they seem to be very uninterested in what’s on their doorstep. Namely, the Earth’s moon – Luna! Two men, however, have shown unprecedented interest in Luna; crazed Russian scientist, Vladimir Tereshkov, and American inventor Doctor Cyrus Grant. Problem is, both men have gone missing... Click to find out more!
 One of the Staff Picks is also exciting, both as reading and as inspiration for any zom-pocalypse gaming you're doing - Gimme Shelter. The zombie apocalypse is here. This is what happens next.
Zombies walk the earth and a father finds food for his daughter in the wasteland. A gun travels from hand to hand. Teenagers make out in a barn while zombies rise outside, and a woman deals with the most important third-date question. Stories of suspense, horror, adventure, and romance meet in this anthology of short fiction.
The zombies are coming...find shelter where you can... Click to discover all the authors involved in this one!
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A Better Game
Iron Guts: High Adventure for Mid-Level Characters
We get back to gaming advice with the next installment of Stephen Chenault's advice to running various levels of characters. He discussed low-level PCs before the holidays, and now we're talking about challenging those mid-range characters who've thus far survived your traps and monsters.
Stephen Chenault, ©Troll Lord Games
 Through reckless adventure and brazen heroics and no doubt a fair share of luck the low level characters push their way through to the mid-level range it means that they have successfully cut their teeth on the horror and blood of the early trails. Green horns no longer they now begin the second stage of the journey to immortality. Mid-level characters enjoy many benefits of their growing power, hit points, wealth in armor and gear, as well a range of NPCs to access, and experiences to fall back upon. Against this stand increasingly powerful monsters, whose abilities range from the brute force to sorcerous weapons, new and strange. CKing mid-level characters offers the CK and the player several difficult challenges; for the CK the use of powerful monsters offer the risk of overkill, setting the characters against monsters whose powers prove insurmountable all the while maintaining an interesting, flavorful adventure; for the player its learning how to pit their growing skill sets against these new threats and balance their power in growing hit points, armor class, and magic without overextending themselves and getting killed.
In many respects mid-level characters are the most enjoyable to play as they offer a host of new monsters and allow the CK to pound the characters without instantly killing them, adding time to the equation of the running adventure, which in turn allows the enterprising story teller to really come to grips with the story and its threats and bring those down on the characters like a hammer. Whether carefully laid out and meticulously planned, or whether an adventure developed on the fly, the CK’s object lies in capturing the players interest and challenging them to overcome any series of obstacles. These challenges culminate in what is best styled the moment of adventure; that moment, or long series of moments that bring the whole party to the table by engaging their characters in some type of threat. This danger need not be one posed by a powerful monster, a group of creatures; a complicated trap or series of traps, a mystery the players cannot easily comprehend pose equally engaging moments. Mid-level characters offer the CK a whole new host of opportunities to develop their story arc and expand these moments of adventure.
Foremost the characters possess more hit points. Where before one or two good blows threaten a character, especially a wizard or illusionist, with a quick death, the higher hit points allow them take much more punishment. This expands the CKs story telling in two directions.
The increased hit points allow the CK to bring more smaller monsters to bear in the battle; multiple monsters offer a greater threat that equates into more excitement. Capturing a battle where the character must fight off a horde of screaming kobolds, raking, clawing, biting, stabbing at them brings personal combat to its highest form. The swirling hordes of their enemies circle them, cutting one off from the other, attempting to drag them out into their own ranks there to consume them in their own weight of numbers. Here the hero carves through a host of his opponents, hacking to the left or right just to stay alive; no longer bound by one or two spells, the wizard, cleric, druid, or illusionist taps multiple spells to keep the madness at bay. The added bonus here is that the piles of fallen foes embolden the players, encouraging them to play the fearless, almost reckless hero in their quest to conquer and overcome their foe.
Beyond the madding crowd of orcs, kobolds, and goblins lie a host of monsters in both the Monsters & Treasure and the Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde. These monsters possess powers the low level characters cannot overcome but challenge the mid-level characters. Here are new threats the players may not understand so that the challenge is far greater as they do not immediately know the proper defenses or how to fight them. There is a danger here for the CK, as pitting the characters against monsters whose powers, on the surface do not seem very difficult, often prove very difficult and dangerous. The enterprising CK must be able and willing to adjust and shift with these moments, curtailing affects of powers, devastating rolls, and the like if the situation should call for it.
This is the true challenge for CKing mid-level characters. Multiple monsters exist, traps as well, and magic items. Choosing them and balancing them is difficult. It is not the goal of the CK to destroy characters. Any such ranking that counts character kills is counter-productive to the story and the fun of the game. Reading the monsters and understanding the affects of their powers if very important. Many CKs fall into the trap of looking at a monster’s HD and setting that against the level of the players; four 6th level characters fighting an eight HD monsters sounds workable. But that monster’s abilities are the true test of its power, for the characters must make their saving throws against that hit dice and if those saves are on average against no primes the chances of failure increase. If failure means death or incapacitation then the CK may find herself facing a dead party. Balance the encounter by looking at the outcome if characters fail multiple saves as well as the damage that monsters might deal out.
Of course this is not to say that encounters should not pose the threat of character death as that is the final motivator for fighting to survive. If the moment’s danger becomes woven with chance or fate, and a characters poor actions fuels the flames and the character falls then it is what it is.
The best way to achieve the balance in the encounter is to utilize the story itself. If the encounter shifts to violently toward destruction, or even fall prey to the characters insane luck be prepared to change the encounter in mid stream. This is where playing behind screens proves most useful. Adjust the monsters hit points up or down as needed. The players need never know; adjust the AC through wastage; adjust the AC of the players through destroying shields; change the challenge level as needed. In short the CK must practice institutionalized cheating in order to salvage an encounter that proves too soft or too hard. Experience teaches CKs when this is necessary and when not; some encounters, startling dangerous that end precipitously through some bold action can be as moment inspiring as the long grueling fight that leaves scores dead and everyone wounded.
As always one of the best tools at the CKs hand in balancing these encounters lies upon the characters, literally. By shifting killing blows, breath weapons, magical attacks toward the character’s war gear or traveling equipment destroys the character’s worldly wealth but allows them to fight on. Crushing helmets, shattered shields, breaking hafts, and notching blades brings the reality of the battle to the player’s without ending it; furthermore the wake of devastation always echoes in the halls of memory...
For the rest of this article, click here for a free PDF of it as originally written by Stephen.
~ SPF (01-25-2012)
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Bring Dice and Chips
For a larger version of the comic, simple click on the image.
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Lord Zsezse Works Lost Map #8
For a larger version of the map, simple click on the image. For a PDF of the map, click here
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Avalon Models Presents #2
For a larger version of the models, simple click on the image.
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