Neitherworld Stories

May 17, 2007

Current Projects

So many things are going on… At work I have a conference coming up at the end of June that I am planning – and this is a busy time of year otherwise. Personally, I will be going away for at least two weekends in June. This upcoming weekend is a friend’s wedding (tonight is his bachelor party – I...

May 15, 2007

Zir’an Frustrations

I’m finding preparations to run The Secret of Zir’an to be equal parts awesome and annoying. I’m creating pregenerated characters. Character creation? Awesome… and annoying. The concepts flow quickly. The process of creating a character uses a lifepath-like system that creates a well-rounded PC with unavoidable coolness. Unfortunately, the mechanical bits behind the lifepath system are less than intuitive and...

May 11, 2007

Elmer’s Spell Book: Wall of Gravy

The material enclosed in the box below is released via the Open Game License. Wall of Gravy Conjuration (Creation) [Meat] Level: Sor/Wiz 2Components: V, S, MCasting Time: 1 standard actionRange: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)Effect: Vertical plane of gravy, up to one 5-ft. square/levelDuration: InstantaneousSaving Throw: see textSpell Resistance: No This spell creates an opaque, vertical wall of...

May 11, 2007

An interview with Elmer…

“I have with me here today Archmage Elmer, whose researches into the Elemental Plane of Meat are well-known to all in the Order. Archmage, without your studies, the plane itself would be little more than apocryphal, and we certainly wouldn’t have such spells as Elmer’s Beefsteak Balm, Detect Meat, Power Word Marinate, and Wall of Gravy in our libraries.” ....

May 9, 2007

Tuned in to FM

In general, I like the idea of contested rolls in gaming systems, but I don’t like the actual reality of them. The idea that one person’s ability opposes another’s makes sense. Unfortunately, two rolls is not only a whole lot of die rolling, but it is also a whole lot of variability. I don’t know what the actual probability effects...

May 7, 2007

I’m running with it

I’ve been struggling with the decision of what to run for the C-U Run Club. I can’t delay any longer – my turn comes up on May 28th. I’ve decided to run The Secret of Zir’an. This is a game that I’ve neither played nor run, but I’ve had it since it came out. It has generally been reviewed positively,...

May 7, 2007

Creepy babies…

So, yesterday Angela and I had brunch at Dave’s workplace, and we were chatting about the Goblins of Gourm. I don’t know if it will make it into the adventure, but we came up with the idea of a swarm of goblin children (using the swarm subtype). The write-up presents some challenges, but I put it together sometime this week....

May 7, 2007

d20 Monster of the Week: Goblin Babies

As promised… I wasn’t sure how to handle their trip modifier. Tiny things with low strength are incredibly ineffective at tripping, but there are so many of these things in a swarm that they’d effectively be giving each other a ton of ‘aid another’ bonuses. I ended up treating them as size Large (they take up that much space, after...

May 3, 2007

That Darn Fourth Wall

At the Run Club on Sunday, we got into a bit of a discussion about breaking the fourth wall in rpgs. A DC Heroes adventure featuring Ambush Bug (that came with a mask so that the GM could pretend to be Ambush Bug escaped from the adventure) was prominently mentioned. I’ve always been tickled by things that break the fourth...

May 2, 2007

NPC tactical guides

So, this morning, Jeff posted some stupid Dracula tricks. I should probably just post this as a comment in his blog, but… ummm… I didn’t. So there. Unless you’ve already read it, that won’t make sense, so let me explain. This past Sunday, Jeff ran Lords of Creation for the C-U Run Club. If you are curious to know what...