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Okay, so this session was crazy exciting from the get go. Everybody is chomping at the bit to play.

This was one of the rare sessions where there was zero discussion about what people wanted to do. Everyone was just going to go in the dungeon to collect the cult memembers for reward money.

This was a very large party. So many players! About as large as we have ever run.

Somehow, this tired one page dungeon was suddenly brand new. Every room was engaged with as if it were brand new and had never been seen before. We had people that had experienced different things there with different characters even so there was an odd schizophrenia that tinged the session.

The opening area featured two different rooms. One spelt of brimstone. The other had the sound of a cricket. The thief Tahoma goes ahead and explores the brimstone room, finds an empty dais which he does not touch, and maybe searches for secret doors. Upon reporting back, Eric recalls events from a previous session that no one else had heard about. So Eric volunteers to send his ranger to explore the cricket room due to his forgetting. The cricket then was dealt with. This turned out to be… a cricket. Which was assumed to be an illusion. Which was disbelieved. And then given a suplex. This dungeon exploration was very serious business!

The players then move along, up the cliff and to a winding passage and come to a place where they had removed a door. The thief Tahoma enters and then searches for traps. Entering the room DID NOT set off the recently installed pit trap. He then finds the pit trap. The players then want to disable it, which I allowed– but then the thief wanted to use his remove traps which succeeded. Something to think about here.

Moving on, the players come to an intersection and see some red eyes down one passage. The ranger does not want to leave this on their tail, so he goes in. I think it is several large rats that run away into a large rat hole in the wall. He has two wardogs, so he sends them in. There is the sound of fighting and (DM does not roll any dice) soon there is a yelping wail from inside. The ranger is angry and throws in three vials of oil, lighting up the whole thing. The players are afraid to explore inside.

Down the other passage there is another room to explore. Inside is the rotting remains of a body, which the ranger insists on searching. I keep describing how disgusting it is and he keeps engaging with it until finally he declares that he is throwing up in response to it.

Moving on, they come to the red rock room. The players had passed through here many times before and ignored these but the ranger asks what they are exactly. They tell him that if you cast a spell near them, they will flash yellow and then explode. Both he and Huxtable the assassin think this sounds awesome and fill up a bag or sack with the rocks.

The caller has a terrible map and directs that the party comes out and moves north towards their usual stomping grounds. But I have a carnivorous ape which I had restocked long ago on this level for a group that never ventured this far. I made it a four-armed white ape, of course. So several things happened at once here.

One thing was that Chuck Longdrag declared that he was casting detect magic. The reasoning was that the players had faced many illusions in this dungeon and they thought this would identify them as such. The human men-at-arms hunkered down in the back, set for charge. Meanwhile, the overzealous ranger charged the white ape.

The charge was devasting doing over ten points of damage. I was now concerned that my scary monster was going to die ignominiously. In response to the charge, the monster opted to grapple. The ranger would fend off the attack if he made an attack roll, but this failed. From there, due to the monster’s size, the white ape got an automatic grapple with an automatic stun. There was some debate over the rules and the ranger’s player questioned the ruling on the basis of (i think) what he was reading from the pummeling section.

So this was bad. But now we had the spell to resolve. At first I thought it was going to hit Huxtable, but then we remembered the marching order would actually be backwards in this situation. This placed Huxtable BEHIND Chuck Longdrag. So the spell goes off in the direction of the monster. Thus, the ranger’s sack of red rocks now begins glowing yellow.

Everyone declared their actions and my monster wants to run away with his next meal. The monster wins the initiative and runs off around the corner and… at the end of the round the players hear a gigantic explosion. This was one of the greatest player character deaths of all time. Even better… it was something the players inlficted on themselves. Perfect! Just an amazing sequence of events here. There was some effort to retroactively alter these events in favor of the ranger somehow, but given that the intent of the spell was to determine if the ape was an illusion, there was no way to relocate the events in the theater of the mind battlefield such that they transpired differently.

Moving along, the players come to another door that had been removed from its hinges. Then they come to another door which a successful search for traps roll from the thief Tahoma revealed that it would squeak if opened. The players then removed THIS door from the hinges. There cracks in the floor here which seemed a bit wider than the players remembered from before.

Entering the clifftop area, the players obvserve two figures sitting at an unlit table. The players are baffled by this. I describe them with one wearing a hawaiian shirt and another having a coat that looks like bearskin. This was intended to be an OBVIOUS HINT that there were ridiculous charicatures of people in the game that were riffing off of their profile pictures. This backfired because the hawaiian shirts were compelling to Tahoma’s player. He began to engage with this… thing… that was supposed to be an obvious trap, but now he was smitten. Partly because the thing encapsulated is own style and tastes– a devastating recapitulation of Narcissus here!

Now my idea of the trap here was basicially “De Tar Baby 2.0”. Tahoma’s previous character had been captured by the previous iteration of this trap, the now-notorious Flailsnail shell. So he starts talking to this figure sitting at a table and wearing a Hawaiin shirt. I tell him (and maybe he could not see the glimmer in my eye), “the figure does not respond to your address at all and you find this to be just about the rudest behaviour that you have ever encountered.” For whatever reason, this spoken word became reality and Tahoma was now getting angrier and angrier at this ridiculous manaequine sitting in a dungeon at a table and wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Finally, he strikes out at the thing in exasperation. I then inform him that he has become stuck to what is a recapitulation of the flailsnail trap. Everybody groans. No one wants to get hung up on this. Tahoma’s player suggests that burning hands will somehow break the spell due to how it comes out of the hands. I don’t understand what he is saying. I rule that the manequin is made out of tar– the it is really a tar baby. It bursts into flames and he is burned alive. Huxtable attempts to put him out of his misery with a crossbow shot.

The players move on to the next stage of the session. I think there is maniacal laughter off the right cliffside. The players move down and I think Garamond calls out to them that they don’t have to do this. It’s going to be a blood bath. Will the players pass it over? NO WAY!

So the players come up on this thing. It’s very simple. Baby dragon, Garamond, baby dragon, Pewter, Baby dragon. The outcome of the first round was complex. I can’t remember the exact order of events, but Chuck cast a sleep spell which was absorbed by a bag of rocks that Huxtable had thrown. Huaxtable was supposed to “take a bath” due to Garamond’s command spell. Chuck got commanded to “run away” which went off after the sleep spell took effect. One baby dragon on the right took a good bit of damage from Mr. T on the party’s right. All of the men-at-arms, 3 farmers, and Huxtable were killed by dragon lightning. Saving throws didn’t help anybody.

The next round was going to be brutal if I got the initiative, PC’s were just going to drop. I rolled a 5. Then the players rolled a 6! I made a big mistake here. The dragons could have done so much more harm if they went to claw and bite. Instead they were sitting ducks. The remaining PC’s managed to take out each dragon on either side. The middle dragon was eliminated by the exploding rocks. I may have forgotten to fire his lightning breath– it seems like he could have taken out one more PC with that if they didn’t save.

Garamond was killed at some point. Pewter was kind of a special case. I think Pewter cast light on Billy’s eyes. Billy was going to kill him with a thrown spear. Things didn’t shake out. There was a goof with the sequence of play and we rearranged things so that Pewter would get a chance to backstab his previous PC with his current PC. This did just enough damage to take him to zero hit points.

At this point the dead ranger player put in that maybe the party would want to keep this guy alive so that he could be questioned in town. This was not obvious, but the idea would have been that maybe his testimony could help his other character Goldenrod get out of jail. This table hadn’t played those sessions and didn’t think of Goldenrod as this big priority, so Pewter quietly bled out while players argued over how to divide up the loop.

It was super late, but I got one last ruling in. I declared that of course the thief would be able to palm Pewter’s coin purse. Mostly because it was funny. Players did not object because– hey, thieves! What can you do?!

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of November 11, 1982. 

Batman #355:  After all the Catwoman business, Bruce and Vicki are still an item, but Vicki's work increasingly means Bruce only gets a limited amount of her time. After a date cut short, Bruce returns home and gets attacked by Alfred. Except it isn't the real Alfred, and Bruce wonders if somehow he imagined the whole thing. Meanwhile, Vicki gets done with her work and calls Wayne Manor only to find that Bruce hasn't returned home. It's all part of the overly elaborate revenge plot of Hugo Strange.
While the real Dick Grayson goes looking for Bruce, Bruce is attacked by a fake Grayson in the phony Wayne Manor. Injury to that Dick Grayson reveals it to be a robot. Bruce goes into the Batcave and he finds a cleanshaven Strange dressed as Batman. Strange reveals how he faked his death, then he gives Bruce a spare Batsuit so that they can settle the score once and for all. The two Bat-men duke it out, but Strange's ruthlessness momentarily gives him the upper hand. Robin appears in the Batcave and is confused at the sight of two Batmen. When Strange Bats commands him to kill the "fake" Batman, Robin realizes who's the real deal and turns against Strange. Not wanting to be taken in, Strange apparently blows himself up and the fake Wayne Manor.
Dick and Bruce return to their real home just in time to save Alfred from a final Bruce Wayne robot. I guess Conway didn't like the way Strange died the first time? It seems a lot of effort just to quickly kill him again. Of course, he'll be back, but not in a Conway story. 

Flash #318: Creed Phillips is starting to unravel it seems. He kills his Butler who discovers the Eradicator costume he left carelessly laying around, then he goes on live TV and outs himself as the deadly vigilante during a TV interview. It turns out the Eradicator and Creed personalities are somewhat separate, and the Eradicator one chooses to kidnap Fiona Webb as they flee the station. This is all sort of (perhaps unintentionally funny) because elsewhere in the issue Flash and the lunatic, wannabe hero Captain Invincible have been trying to figure out who Eradicator is--then the guy just reveals himself on TV. 
While Philips/Eradicator and Webb are in a cave outside the city, Flash and Invincible are searching Phillips' apartment, which has been rigged with a bomb booby trap. When the bomb is triggered, The Flash vibrates his molecules to become intangible, but the blast wave knocks him out, and he gets partially fused with the wall. Captain Invincible tries to help, but overestimates the necessary force in breaking the way, sending them both plummeting to the street, far down below.
We get a Creeper backup from Gafford and Gibbons. The Creeper prevents a mugging in Gotham City, as enforcer "Thumbs" Tamblin tries to collect an overdue payment from discredited doctor Ben Goldstein. Jack Ryder has a new job, so he leaves Gotham and catches a bus to Boston. His new boss, H.J. Harrigan, suggests he start with an investigation into Tamblin, who has also moved to Boston after getting involved with his former boss's daughter. Tamblin's new boss, Wesley Winterborne, sends him to collect some debts, but the Creeper interrupts. Tamblin's goon shoots the Creeper, who falls out of the window into the Charles River.

G.I. Combat #249: In the first Haunted Tank story, the crew has been told one member of their crew is going to be representing the armor division in a nationwide bond drive tour. Each member of the team believes they're the best and deserve to be chosen, but a day of the typical sort of fighting the tank gets into, they return to base and tell their commander he'll need to pick someone else, because everyone in their team is more important than in other. They act as one.
In the second Tank story, the crew picks up a Major Kendall, who had just escaped from the Germans with important information. Ultimately, The group has to split up, with Rick and Kendall running off to lure the Germans away. They walk into a trap at an abandoned mill, however, and the rest of the crew must come to the rescue.
There's an O.S.S. story by Kanigher and Cruz where an operative named Eagle is taken to a German POW campe where he hopes to ferret out a mole. It turns out to be a man the other prisoners believed was simple-minded and harmless. Then Kashdan and Ayers present the story of an experiment Sergeant in Vietnam who finally snaps under pressure, but in doing so he still inadvertently saves his unit. The last story relates to ANZAC coast-watchers and intelligence provided before the Battle of Midway.

Masters of the Universe #2: I bought this issue off the stands as a kid, I reviewed it here. 
Saga of the Swamp Thing #10: Kay, now revealed as Helmut Kriptmann tries to force Swamp Thing and his allies to help in his quest to destroy Karen Clancy. When his psychic, Grossman, fails to hold him Kriptman, has to switch tactics and persuade them. Ultimately, they agree.
Meanwhile, Grasp and Sunderland discover that Liz Tremayne is still alive, and Kay is working on his own project. Grasp is ordered to hunt them down.
Feldner as able to fill Swamp and crew in on Karen's plans thanks to the period she had him captured. She needs the pendulum of Nazi occultist von Ruhnstedt who eventually died at Dachau. The group rushes there to find a hellish scene. Karen has raised an army of dead German soldiers while she flies overhead searching for Von Ruhnstedt. The undead occultist tells her that the pendulum is in the hands of a person with a collection of Nazi memorabilia in Berchtesgaden. Karen then destroys the entire camp in "an avalanche of psionic fury" and disappears.
When they've escaped the rubble, Kriptmann begs the others for assistance in stopping Karen. Barclay says that he wants nothing more to do with the sort of monster responsible for places like this. Kriptmann reveals that he wasn't a Nazi by showing the prisoner's tattoo on his arm.
In the Cavalieri/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, The Phantom Stranger and his ally are sentenced by living gargoyles to be killed by being crushed by the great clapper of the church's bell, but in a Raiders of the Lost Ark-ish turn, the two have to shut their eyes and not move as the power of God (I guess) punishes the gargoyles for their sacrilege.

New Teen Titans #28: Changeling continues his pursuit of the fugitive Terra. He finally captures her and brings her to Titans Tower, convinced the team can help her. Meanwhile, Brother Blood's cult strongholds are being systematically attacked and destroyed by the Brotherhood of Evil. 
While all this is going on, the other Titans pursue their private lives: Dick gets being kind of an ass to Kory; Donna meets Terry Long's ex-wife and young daughter for the first time, and it's a tense meeting; and Raven meditates. Kid Flash, Raven, and Cyborg are on hand when Changeling brings Terra in. After hearing how she had been forced to commit crimes by terrorists holding her parents, the rulers of the nation of Markovia, the Titans rush off to attack and subdue her tormentors but discover that the girl's parents have long since been killed. Changeling befriends Terra in her grief, but Raven keeps getting bad vibes about her.

Superman #380: Bates and Swan reveal the perils of time travel. Superman returning from a mission to the past and Superboy going home after a visit to the Legion of Super-Heroes. They both come across a strange gap in spacetime, and both make the unwise decision to fly straight through. They bump into each other and their consciousnesses get mixed up. While they are doing the usual heroics and trying to sort things out, but there's a man named Euphor who has to ability to absorb people's unhappiness. He's got ulterior motives, though, and plans use all of Metropolis' unhappiness to gain power.

 "The shadows of the Great War still loom large in this uneasy interwar period, coloured by the lingering trauma of unprecedented violence that swept the world from 1914 to 1918. Unsettled borders, crumbling empires, and new regimes leave the political landscape fraught with tension. Strange occult forces stirred by wartime bloodshed now threaten the fabric of reality. You take on the role of Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Radio Times, 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

It's rare that I find the One Dollar level of a Humble Bundle offers something of real value, but for a single buck, you can get the first 5 issues of the Rick & Morty Comic Collection. Sure, you can grab SIXTY issues for 18 bucks, for for a single buck, this is a great way to check out digital comic books.

Join the universe’s most notorious superscientist Rick Sanchez and his hapless grandson Morty on adventures across time and space—and beyond all reason—in this bundle of Rick and Morty comics from Oni Press! Based on the hit [adult swim] animated series, this collection features 60 issues from the acclaimed original run, taking readers from dimension C-132 to C-137 and a host of alternate realities in between. Lose yourself in the Rick & Morty comics multiverse, and help support BINC and The Hero Initiative with your purchase!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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Okay, this one started with a plan from Foam the Gnome:

Here’s the plan. I know it’s complex, but I have faith in you Jeffro. Pewter, Garamond, feel free to adjust.

Foam has been invited by Goldenrod to come to the tower to take possession of the Illusionist scroll: (See General Channel)

While he’s there he has agreed to go around the tower and inspect for secret tunnels, trap doors, chalk markings and other things a thief would notice.

A gathering of women appears to protest a short distance from the tower. Three of them will break off and approach the tower.

Phantasmal Forces will go off. In the egg room, a cloud of mist will appear (reminiscent of the one in the viney manse) and will almost obscure the room. The perceptive will notice the three eggs (or their container) rise as if lifted by invisible creatures and dash to the window and appear to feather fall out of it.
The women, who are each carrying a basket, will sprint away toward the protesting crowd, and once inside the whole crowd will swirl and then break off by twos running in all directions. Each pair of women has a basket.

While all of this is going on, our man on the inside has been passing the eggs out of the opposite window to three burrow owls (none of them Lenny) who will silently glide the eggs down to Pewter and Garomond on the other side to take them where they will.

Foam will not leave Goldenrod’s side while this occurs and will give every indication of trying to help her pursue the women with the baskets or whatever.

If the owls are spotted, Foam will explain that they live in the Mega Dungeon and only Lenny is loyal to him.

Foam will helpfully try to retrieve the eggs, even to the point of suggesting that Elbrecht may have a locate object spell that they could use to see which women had the eggs, or where they are now.

If it all falls to crap and Foam is apprehended, he will admit that his friends haven’t been the same since returning. He was so happy to have them back that he didn’t stop to question if they had been charmed. If they let him live, he will promise to help make it right, and remind them that his friends may not be at fault if whoever was behind the FailSnail has them in his thrall.

The session was at a game store and the players were made up of Goldenrod’s player and a new guy (5e type guy) and another dude that was totally familiar with the AD&D rules.

I sketched out the tower and kicked off Foam’s plan. It took forever to get it rolling, though. Every detail of the positioning of the forces was hashed out over and over. As each new development transpired, a horror overtook the players due to their being inside of an insidious plan which they didn’t quite understand. It was completely wild and totally unfair.

After the game, I would release the public account of these events which read thus:

As you know, there were a set of three Dragon Eggs in Elderbrecht’s Tower.

These were being guarded by a group of PC’s lead by Goldenrod during downtime.

Rumors are currently flying in Urgrecht about what has happened the past two days.

The general facts known to the general populace are as follows:

1) Foam the Gnome paid a visit to the tower, ostensibly to pick up an illusionist scroll that Goldenrod offered to give to him.

2) During the visit, a group of women began protesting nearby– baring their breasts, causing a disturbance, and calling out the evils of Humanocentric societies.

3) Witnesses report that a group of three women approached the tower carrying baskets.

4) The women were accosted by the female elf Goldenrod from the second story of the tower, told to stop.

5) I believe it is commonly understood that at this point, to guards at the entrance of the tower went inside to bar the door.

6) Concurrently with this, three eggs were seen floating out of said window, drifting to the ground as if by feather fall.

7) At a range of about 30 yards, women approaching the tower made a break for the eggs. Two of them were shot dead, but the third one placed the eggs in her basket and ran into a maze of teepees.

8) Shortly thereafter, Foam the Gnome was escorted out of the tower, illusionist scroll in hand.

9) A short time later– maybe 20 minutes or so, the captain of the Guard, Urglebrechtenburglebrechtenmecht arrived with a large contigent of troops.

10) Urglebrechtenburglebrechtenmecht took Goldenrod into custody, sent her to await trial for DOUBLE HOMICIDE, secured the tower, and banished everyone not part of the town guard from the tower and its surrounding area.

11) The next day, it has become known that a certain Garamond is wanted for questioning regarding these matters.

12) The hideout of the so-called Cult of Zobleb as also been raided, however it was evidently deserted by the time the town guard got there.

This only covered about a third of the session. The players went out into the wilderness, ran into a Lamassu which manage to overbear the monk, knock him unconscious, and then carry him away without the party being able to intervene. The players wanted to check the cave she was near and I thought I had made a mistake. But the treasure table indicated that she only had jewelry. So we now had a very dangerous and very rich monster loose in the wilds… with crazy valuable jewelry around her neck!

The players had this scheme to use chickens to set a trap for giant weasels in order to acquire spell components for Elderbrecht. I allowed this to work out, but rolled for number appearing and got only one. This could have been very dangerous for the party with nearly any other roll! They killed the thing narrowly and came away with 3,000 gold to split. So far so good.

Upon returning to town, the monk was replaced with a Paladin. Goldenrod had already been replaced with a ranger, I think. They all wanted to go to the dungeon and quickly found an obvious trap in the form of a golden idol with the head of an octopus and ruby eyes. The 5e guy managed to get it and played the rest of the session as if he were insane. Ah, yeah… I remember now. When they touched the idol these short jibbering monsters arrived, but could not attack the party due to the presence of the paladin.

Anyway, the players went on and found their way to the “blue men” area. They charged the speaker and overran him, but in the next room the players found themselves under fire from people shooting from arrow slits. The players considered fighting or getting the treasure and running out, but the paladin got shot so they ended up abandoning this scenario.

News of the theft of the eggs lit up the discord. I was immediately hashing out the game with the cult members and trying to figure everything out. Goldenrod’s character was also after me with heavy rules questions. I told him that even if there was a rule violation, I would not retcon it because I had already spent several hours playing with the cultists. This was not taken well. So finally, I checked to see if Foam could have cast the spell under the circumstances of the session and determined that by the rules, nothing happened that would have spoiled his concentration. Crisis averted! For the moment, anyway.

Every day for the rest of the week saw my phone lit up with text messages. I then had the idea to do a court room game and had players write up legal briefs. These were very amusing.

Finally, Saturday arrived. I handed out the legal briefs– the first time I had ever had props of this sort. Goldenrod’s player had lit up the phones of these people as well and it was unclear how to proceed. Finally I just made them read the stuff and we started hashing it all out. I think after a good two hours, it was basically decided that there was nothing obvious to do. The hints were too vague and there was nothing that seemed like could save Goldenrod.

At this point I released some more bombshells, there was some more discussion, but it was then decided that the patry should go to the haunted manse. Without any prompting, the fifteen year old guy at the table declared that this was in fact his family estate. They opted to split up– two clerics removing vines that blocked the main entrance and then the fighter and the elven thief exploring the house.

They quickly found a monster in the mists that knocked the thief down to exactly zero hit points. Very scary! It was decided that they should search the house a bit more. The basement seemed to scary to them, but the attic… well that might be better. Up there were these blood sucking bird-bats, though. They fled and shut the attic back up, but they still had these monsters on them. The dwarf cleric died, but the other two player characters narrowly survived.

From there they made it back to town. I can’t even remember if they had gotten treasure or not. At this point, for some reason it was determined that the party should go and find Foam the Gnome. So they went to Lothrivengrove, paid a troll toll of 30 gp, and then did indeed find the gnome. They started talking to him and the elf thief’s player gave such a convincing argument for why Foam would feel so much better if he came clean, I just went ahead and had him spill his guts– because the player did in fact feel guilty for the disaster. We wrapped it up there with most of the answers of the mystery given out.

But the game STILL was not done.

I went home and posted the following news bit:

Intense courtroom drama

Cult women give tearful, charged testomonies in cross-examanation

Goldenrood’s character defamed in every possible media outlet

Testimony from some pieced together by the prosecution used to paint a picture of Goldenrod as behaving VERY SUSPISCIOUSLY, inviting a known illusionist to the tower. Acting strangely immediately following the events of the murder, etc– “hmmmmm… are these eggs real or fake– huh huh– hmmmmm who can tell? Wink wink”

General opinion is swayed to the view that Foam the Gnome, Goldenrod, Garamound, and the entire cult of Zolbleb are clearly in league

At the very fever pitch of the intense courtroom debate, it is revealed that the eggs are IN FACT missing
Town criers are out in force reading the most negative framing of these events conceivable and dragging Goldenrod and co through the dirt

Garamond is wanted by the city. Foam is wanted by the city. Goldenrod is all locked up

SO HORRIBLE

MEGA MONDO NEGA CRISIS

Very distressing

Very sad for all the players as I don’t even know how they are going to get out of this SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS

I am Marlon Brando every day here

THE HORROR THE HORROR

Clearly there is NO WAY OUT OF THIS MESS AND THE TOWN IS DOOMED

This resulted in MORE questions and more attempts to discuss the details of the court case which I was already done adjudicating. I shut it down sayind Goldenrod’s character was in jail and could not discuss this but that players should PLAY THERE ROLES. There was still some pushback, but the constant play for something that was not going to make a good game in my opinion was too much. So I put my foot down:

We have already bled Goldie dry to cover legal costs. This journalism war is one that she cannot effectively win

I have used the face-to-face group to gauge what would be a reasonable outcome for what most people would think in regarding the courtroom sequence

The public knowledge revealed above represents what would be reasonable for everyone to know regarding this episode

Some of you may have performed more elitely had you been involved in the session, nevertheless… having four human beings kick this around for 2-3 hours tells ME everything that I need to know about this

My honest opinion based on observing them is that you all PROBABLY would not have done any better

The complexity of the situation was too much for it to be unraveled. In fact… adding more players to the proceeding would likely have made the intelligence of the group much lower

(Committee effects and so forth)

Debating this to death is not fun so per referee perogative I am putting a pin in this

The real question now is what you guys as a group of adventurers would even do on a Thursday night delve

Time is of course a tremendous factor in all this

If there are any questions about the broader campaign state that would pertain to the probably Thursday night session, feel free to ask and/or discuss

Finally I was free from this this constant always on game that would not leave me alone.

But it was now time to set up another session!

 “Barbarianism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is the whim of circumstance. And barbarianism must ultimately triumph”― Robert E. HowardChaos on Hyperborea has always been a very weird area for me as a dungeon master. There are lots of indications that sometime in the past of the passing of Old Earth and The Green Death something rather nasty took place on the flat Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Get ready for A Year of Crochet Stitches and A Year of Knitting Stitches - we've got both in this crochet and knit stitch-a-day perpetual calendar giveaway! Get a peek inside both of these fun new flipbooks here on Moogly! And then, enter to win your own - one of each for double the fun!...

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15

Forbidden Planet celebrates the new Doctors with a whole range of exclusive merchandise

Since last year Forbidden Planet have been marking Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary with a massive range of merchandise dedicated to every single Doctor. This month they come right up to date with t-shirts, sweaters, mugs, prints and more dedicated the current TARDIS team of the Fourteenth of Donna. More than that, they even have a full set for the incoming team of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday.

Most of the designs used the key portrait art of the four characters as seen elsewhere. There’s also a comic book style illustration of the Doctor and Donna, and items featuring the TARDIS, the Doctor Who diamond logo, and the Meep and Wrarth from The Star Beast.

The complete list includes:

• First to Fourteenth Doctors t-shirt (unisex)
• First to Fourteenth Doctors art print
• First to Fourteenth Doctors mug
• Fourteenth Doctor t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Fourteenth Doctor sweatshirt
• Fourteenth Doctor art print
• Fourteenth Doctor coaster
• Fourteenth Doctor and Donna long-sleeve t-shirt
• Fourteenth Doctor and Donna mug
• Fourteenth Doctor and Donna art print
• Fourteenth Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Fourteenth Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS sweater
• Fourteenth Doctor and the TARDIS art print
• Fifteenth Doctor t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Fifteenth Doctor sweater
• Fifteenth Doctor art print
• Fifteenth Doctor coaster
• Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby mug
• Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby art print
• Donna Noble t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Donna Noble sweatshirt
• Donna Noble art print
• Donna Noble coaster
• Ruby Sunday t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Ruby Sunday sweater
• Ruby Sunday art print
• Ruby Sunday coaster
• TARDIS long-sleeve t-shirt
• Pocket TARDIS long-sleeve t-shirt
• Doctor Who logo long-sleeve t-shirt
• Doctor Who logo hoodie (with TARDIS back print)
• Doctor Who logo tote bag
• Meep t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Meep sweater
• Meep in your pocket t-shirt (unisex and women’s fits)
• Meep pin badge
• Wrarth t-shirt (unisex)

The full list is available from Forbidden Planet now.

 

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials,25-11-2023, The Star Beast, Special 1,The Doctor (DAVID TENNANT), Donna Noble (CATHERINE TATE) Rose (Yasmin Finney),BBC STUDIOS 2023 ,Zoe McConnell and Alistair Heap Doctor Who returns on the 25th of November with The Star Beast on BBC One in the UK and Ireland, and Disney+ worldwide

 

 

The post Forbidden Planet’s 14th and 15th Doctor Who Merch Arrives! appeared first on Blogtor Who.

A classic fantasy RPG with daring heroes, fabulous wealth, and untold danger. Designed for new and experienced roleplayers.

There is no current shortage of OSR rulesets, and there seems to be no end to them. One of the latest rulesets to be Kickstarted is Dungeon Dwellers Roleplaying Game from Reaper Miniatures. Yes, that Reaper's Miniatures.

I remember Reaper Miniatures from my early days in the hobby but truly appreciated them when the various Bones Kickstarters hit the crowdfunding market. Amazing values and high quality are hallmarks of Reaper in my experience.

So, for the Dungeon Dwellers RPG Kickstarter, I am looking at the Collector's Box-level pledge. Three core books (in print plus PDF), a set of RPG dice (we all need more dice), fortune tokens, 17 minis (with more possible with further stretch goals), 2 PDF adventures, a sourcebook, and the box for 99 bucks. I do think that is the sweet spot.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

The post Video of the Day – Sky News, 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Doctor Who is back where it belongs on Christmas Day!

The official X (formerly Twitter) account for @DisneyPlus has announced that our favourite Christmas event returns on 25th December.

The episode called “The Church on Ruby Road” will feature the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa (pronounced SHOO-tee GAT-wah) and his companion, Ruby Sunday portrayed Millie Gibson.

The streaming channel owns the distribution rights for Doctor Who across all countries and territories, with the exception of the UK, where BBC retains the rights.   No word as yet on the time the Christmas Special will air on BBC One, but Blogtor is sure that we will see the return of the Christmas Idents.

Ncuti Gatwa takes hold of the TARDIS controls later this year. Console room render (c) Lewis Thompson

But we have a lot of Doctor Who to view before Christmas day.  There is the Colourisation and recut version of the First Doctor’s Dalek episodes on the 23 November followed by the first of three-anniversary specials, Star Beast. 

Doctor Who is back and bigger than ever! Doctor Who – 60th Anniversary – @BBC

The post Doctor Who on Christmas Day is Back as Disney+ Announces their Festive Season Programmes appeared first on Blogtor Who.

This Week!

Online Bible Study
Wednesday, November 8th @ 7:00pm-8:00pm

This small group is a safe place to ask questions and discover how to apply scripture in your life.

Join us on Zoom by clicking here

&

Bible Trivia!
Friday, November 10 @ 7:11pm-10:00pm

Join us for a couple of rounds of Trivia! We will have prizes to be won.
We will also be having a FREE meal together this Friday!

Next Week!

Bible Study (In Person)!
Monday, November 13th @ 7:00pm-9:30pm

Join us for bible study in the youth room.
FREE snacks provided!

&

Leader Hunt!
Friday, November 17th @ 7:11pm-10:00pm

In groups, find the Youth Leaders in disguise, hiding around the Mall.
An Activity Release Form is required for this event.
CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE ACTIVITY RELEASE FORM.
Meet at the church.

In 2 Weeks!

Gross Out!
Friday, November 24th @ 7:11pm-10pm

Who can stomach disgusting food? Show us your strength and grit!
Prizes to be won!

Follow us on Instagram for event and weather updates all year long! @ churchoftherockhsm Join us throughout the week on Discord! Here’s what you need to know:
First, please download Discord for your device! You can do this by downloading the application here.
Second, add yourself to our High School Ministry Discord Server by clicking THIS LINK.

We will keep you informed on what’s coming up AND spontaneous hangouts!

The post High School Ministry – November 6th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

This Week!

Students VS Leaders!
Wednesday, November 8th @ 7:00pm-9:00pm

Are you ready to face the challenge?
We are battling it out, Students VS Leaders!

Next Week!

Leader Hunt!
Wednesday, November 15th @ 7:00pm-9:00pm

In groups, find Youth Leaders in disguise, hiding around.
An Activity Release Form is required for this event.
CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE ACTIVITY RELEASE FORM
Meet at the church!

In 2 Weeks!

Gross Out!
Wednesday, November 22nd @ 7:00pm-9:00pm

Who can stomach disgusting food? Show us your strength and grit!
Sweet prizes to be won.

Follow us on Instagram for event and weather updates all year long! @threshold_jr Join us throughout the week on Discord!

Here’s what you need to know:
First, create a Discord user by downloading the application here.
Second, sign on to our Threshold Jr Discord server by clicking here.
You’ll be up to speed throughout the week!

 

The post Threshold Jr – November 6th appeared first on Church of The Rock.

We did some in my Gnydrion setting this weekend in the area of the Lake of Vermilion Mists using the rules lite game Grok?! Most of the players had the game, but none of us had ever played it, so it was a good excuse to take it for a spin.

I quickly put together new Background and Asset tables, but it was a rush job, and something I'm probably revisit over time. Anyway, the players were:

Aaron as  Nortin Tauss, an arcane dabbler possessed of a vial of hwaopt intoxicant for some reason.
Andrea -  Yzma Vekna, teamster with poor hygiene and a blunderbuss.
Paul - Antor Hogus, skinny vagrant with a stun wand.
Yzma and Nortin arrived in Phaelorn Gap on the stage coach out of Flinterjay. (Yzma was driving, Nortin a passenger.) Antor was already in town, sleeping in the stables and doing odd jobs. They all intended to eventually make their way to the hippy spectacle of the Festival of the Hierodule in the vicinity of the Lake, but at the moment they were looking for lodging for the night.
Finding the hotel a bit pricey, Nortin, on recommendation of the local constabulary, sought a room at the more modestly priced (and appointed) boarding house of Milda Brept. While Nortin and Yzma discuss the hiddened fees and riders associated with boarding with Matron Brept, Antor inquires if there is any work for him. Another stranger at the boarding house, one Kreik Gelmot, speaks up to offer him a minor commission.
In the boarding house's back yard, Gelmot explains that he has a quaklu (either a flightless bird with hands or a feathered theropod dinosaur with beak, depending on how you look at it, used as a riding animal) he wishes to part with. He wishes Antor to take the beast outside of town and make sure he doesn't return. Interestingly, the quaklu is muzzled, which isn't common. 


The three noted this as unusual and assumed something else was going on. Yzma examined the animal and found it to be sound to her experience eye for draught beasts. Nortin threatened to summon Shreev Molok. Fearing this potential income might be snatched from him, Antor quickly pulled up the stake and leaped upon the creatures back to ride away.
Gelmot was satisfied enough with this outcome and departed. Nortin and Yzma were still curious and followed on foot.
In the scrub outside of town, Antor removed the quaklu's gag. It was indeed one of those rare, atavistic specimens, capable of speech. It admittedly began squawking that it had seen a murder!

Jesus taught his disciples that if anyone strikes them on the right cheek they were to turn the other cheek also.

This doesn’t seem logical: your one cheek is already stinging and you’re to say, “Go ahead; hit me again?”

But our Lord’s words (Matthew 5:39b) are lodged in the Sermon on the Mount, the manifesto of Christ’s kingdom (Matthew 5 – 7) that Christians take seriously. But this saying may not have been fully understood by many believers.  

Commentator David Hill explains that the Greek word for strike means in this case to strike with the back of the hand. It’s not a fisted blow. I’ve heard this action referred to as a “backhander.”

Visualize the act as follows. Suppose A is facing B. A intends to insult or demean B. He uses the back of his right hand to deliver a quick slap to B’s right cheek.

According to Hill, Jesus is using the image of a backhander to represent the insults that may come our way because we are Christians. These insults are annoying, and when they come, Jesus says to us, according to HIll: “If a man insults you, let him insult you again, rather than your running off to the court seeking reparation at law.”

It appears Jesus is not thinking of a physical offense at all. He is creating this verbal picture of a backhander to represent the insults that may come our way because we are believers. He means to receive them as an annoyance and nothing more.

Elsewhere Jesus gives different advice regarding what to do about greater offenses that disturb relationships, threatening the health and harmony of the church. His sequence is, first go alone directly to the offending brother and present your complaint; then, if not effective go with one or two witnesses; then if more is needed take the matter before the church. (Matthew 18:15-17). Such offenses should not be “overlooked” like the backhanders already considered.

Did the early church understand this backhander message, that had been so carefully preserved by Matthew? Probably not in every case. In the early church, interpersonal issues arose and there were insults from outside too. Consider the carnal offenses within the Christian community that surfaced in the Corinthian church, such as playing favorites and behaving like immature children.

But the word of Christ as reiterated by Paul remained the same. When addressing the churches in Galatia, he composed the list of nine graces he calls collectively the fruit of the Spirit. These include, “long suffering,” more recently translated “patience.” His reference is not to patience when we can’t find our car keys. The reference is to patience when others offend us.

And even years after Jesus’ ascension the Apostle Peter wrote to believers who had been dispersed by persecution and were taking undeserved mistreatment in society. He reminded them of Jesus who, “… when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he trusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23b).

In summary, turning the other cheek is a distinctive response of Christians to moments of “mere” humiliation and scorn. We take this instruction as a key element in discipleship and Christian behavior.

And at the same time we pay attention to Jesus’ other teachings about more serious offenses, and stand resolute in the face of evil, speaking up for truth and fighting valiantly in solidarity with the saints and even heroes of many centuries past.

First published September 22, 2014; Revised Oct 30, 2023.

Image info: The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1877)

Children in Need and Doctor Who join forces once again this month as the Fourteenth Doctor stars in a special minisode

This year’s Children in Need will feature a special-one-off Doctor Who scene starring  David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. Fans will also be able to catch a glimpse behind the scenes of making the scene. An exclusive episode of Doctor Who: Unleashed, the new documentary sister show, which will be available on BBC iPlayer after the new minisode airs. The action takes place as part of the legendary annual Children in Need telethon. This year it takes place on Friday the 17th of November.

Apart from that, we know little about the contents of the scene. In the past some of these special scenes took the form of fun sketches not to be taken too seriously. In 2016 for instance, the Twelfth Doctor featured in a scene where he took a phone call from Newt Scamander about where to find Children in Need mascot Pudsey. But other times they’ve been genuine little slices of in-continuity Doctor Who. The 2005 telethon featured Pudsey Cutaway (later renamed Born Again) while slotted neatly between Parting of the Ways and Christmas Invasion to show us the Tenth Doctor’s first moments. While 2007’s Time Crash brought the Tenth and Fifth Doctors face to face. Together they prevented an explosion blowing a hole in the universe the size of… Belgium.

 

 

David Tennant and Peter Davison in Time Crash, one of the most celebrated Doctor Who collaborations with Children in Need c) BBC Studios Children in Need works tirelessly to support the UK’s most vulnerable children

Earlier this year Red Nose Day definitely took the former tact, with host Lenny Henry regenerating into David Tennant. (And, yes, that’s at least the fourth time someone’s regenerated into Tennant.) But Blogtor can’t help but suspect we’ll get something more like Born Again this time. Though where exactly it will fit in this Doctor’s mayfly reign is something we won’t know until the night.

BBC Children in Need has been helping children and young people in every corner of the UK be the best they can be for more than half a century. They believe that every child should have the chance to thrive and be the best they can be. They’re committed to being there for children across the UK when they need help the most. Together with the BBC and their partners, they inspire people throughout the country to support this work.

You can support the worth of Children in Need in several ways. You can make a purchase through the online shop. Products even include the charity’s Pudsey mascot dressed as either the Fourth or Eleventh Doctors. You can also donate directly to the charity, or take part in the many fundraising events across the UK this month.

 

 

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials,25-11-2023, The Star Beast, Special 1,The Doctor (DAVID TENNANT), Donna Noble (CATHERINE TATE) Rose (Yasmin Finney),BBC STUDIOS 2023 ,Zoe McConnell and Alistair Heap Doctor Who returns on the 25th of November with The Star Beast on BBC One in the UK and Ireland, and Disney+ worldwide

 

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The Cauldron Crew

It was already 19:30, a mere thirty minutes before I was supposed to GM my first session, and we were not yet in Hohenroda. We had come far and we had come fast on Hungarian State Railways, the Austrian Federal Railways, and finally Germany’s Autobahns, racking up a speeding ticket in the process while rain was beginning to fall in earnest, but we were just not there yet. The staff at the car rental agency were out for lunch at the checkout time, and would not show up for a nerve-wracking forty minutes, nor be accessible by phone. On our way North, we were caught in the congested traffic of München’s ring roads, and later rural Bavaria’s labyrinth of third-class roads. Stuck among barns and church steeples, we pressed on to the great Autobahns, heavy with traffic, and mired in cars due to a massive automobile accident. From a rest stop, we proceeded along an agricultural road, hoping the BMW’s state-of-the-art nav software would not lead us into an ambush by Bavaria’s backwoods cannibals (these, we would later learn, are organised and numerous beyond the Autobahn system). In the end, though, in Stygian darkness and incessant rain, the timber-framed houses of Hohenroda appeared in view, and, on a side-road, the central bulk and side-wings of an ominous structure: Schloß Hohenroda.

World's Least Surly HungariansWe travelled to the uttermost fringes of civilisation to participate in the events of Cauldron Con 2023, organised by the secretive German game club only referred to as “the Nexus”. Indeed, many brethren had gathered at the venue from the far-flung corners of Germany, the mercantile lands of the Dutch, the sinking island of Hibernia (at the time of the convention, just barely above the waterline), the icy wastes of Finland, and the barbarous wilderness of Skåne. From across the sea came Jonathan Becker, a slayer of men. All these, and the Hungarian delegation of five, would spend the next two days gaming, drinking excellent beers, feasting on suckling pig roast and the Settembrini clan’s bio-apples, and meeting people we had mostly only interacted with virtually.

It is often easy to overlook the work behind good organisation when everything goes smoothly. But things were so tight that it became noticeable: all the background effort translated into an experience where everything went without a hitch, and we could focus on the actual gaming. For being a first-time event, people organising mini-conventions could do well to learn from Cauldron. A lot of the larger gaming events are flabby affairs with plenty of idling, questionable seminars, and filler content. This con was all killer, no filler, with sitting down and playing at its forefront. A concentrated dose of dice-rolling over two days with local signup and a focus on the action. In the end, not only was the time spent well, there was still enough slack in the system to sit down for discussion by dinner, a bottle beer, or the miniatures table.

I ended up running three sessions and playing in two more with old friends and recent acquaintances. Only brief descriptions are provided here:

The Mysterious Estate

I GMed Urmalk the Boundless, an expedition to the Pentastadion Necropolis to recover the abundant treasures of a decadent magnate. A series of surface mausoleums were plundered, including one of the most dangerous ones (another was wisely avoided once the risks were calculated). While the adventurers did not make it down into the underground catacombs, nor find a way into Urmalk’s tomb, they made off with decent treasure, and avoided a costly confrontation with a bandit gang by bribing them with a valuable piece of loot coated with contact poison. Devin, 4th-level Cleric (Caelin), died in an assassination attempt after the session, failing to secure a valuable shield he was tasked to recover from one of the tombs to settle a debt. (I mix things up a little by letting players draw from a deck of random items, missions and curses before session if they so please.)

The Convention's Winner Claims
the Cup of Demise Best Player AwardI also GMed Catacombs of the Pariahs, one of the dungeon complexes from the City of Vultures. Transported to the depth of the catacombs by the sorcerer Padog Miir, the adventurers had four hours to emerge alive from the labyrinth. An undead lord and his entourage of concubines were defeated, the tomb of a powerful magic-user looted, cultists fought, an enigmatic device of the ancients messed with (successful saving throws helped out here), and a band of pariahs press-ganged into the party’s service. The players made it back up to the upper level reasonably quickly, avoiding the dangerous depths visited in a much earlier playtest. Morrill, 4th-level Magic-User (Patrick) was strangled by an invisible apparition who snuck up on the party. The company emerged from the depths with moderate but adequate treasure, and a magic sword.

Dr. Becker Racks Up the KillsI played in Storming the Forbidden City III, run by Jonathan Becker. This was a series of three self-contained adventures developing sites in the classic TSR module. Having suffered heavy casualties in the previous round in a humanoid lair assault, the Hungarian team was augmented with new reinforcements to seek the treasures of the yuan-ti in their most ancient pyramid-temple. The adventure started with careful reconnaissance (probably overly cautious for truly effective play, but the second round made the veterans cautious), and followed with dungeon-crawling beneath the pyramid. We saw one of the adventure’s three levels, and found one of the major treasure-caches, where got embroiled in a fight against a well of water weirds. The half-orc Cleric who could immediately dispatch them with purify food and water was the first to be dragged under, and while he could survive effectively with his helm of underwater action, this made the battle into a much more perilous affair. The adventure thus produced Cauldron Con’s signature casualty for Marcella, 7th-level Ranger (Max), who was drowned, revived, and subsequently fireballed by Chomy’s careless use of a wand of wonder. Another character, Thomas Peacock, a Thief-Bard, drowned ingloriously. Grabbing the bounty of the chamber and fending off the enormous giant spider that tagged along in the catacombs on the way back to ambush us from the rear, we emerged rich and victorious.

The Slyth Never Saw It Coming

I also played in Slyth Hive II, a high-level deathfest of a module by Prince of Nothing (now available on DriveThruRPG). This is kind of a scenario where you bring your best to fight the worst: the finest champions of multiple dimensions were called to face a world-ending menace. When your convention pregen is named Oberon, the Old Man of the Mountain, Jacques de Molay, Sir Giselher, Solomon the Magician, Brandoch Daha, or The Master of Summer, you’d better start paying attention (the most mighty of them all, the elusive “Kent”, was too powerful to handle by our group). Since this was a night session, we unfortunately had limited time to explore what is an enormous multi-level module, but we tore through two high-end setpiece battles, one with a horde of howling caveman in a cyclopean cavern passage, and a second with several hundred insectile slyth and their psionic overseers in a cavern littered with prehistoric bones. This is a tier of play where high and versatile player capabilities can be used individually or in combination, giving rise to unexpected hacks to regular AD&D procedures. We were somewhat constrained without a steady supply of mass killing powers that’d turn these confrontations into simple massacres, but ended up steamrolling the foe nevertheless with crowd control and targeted action. The session also featured gaming history’s laziest Djinn, whose expertise in avoiding having to do useful work impressed even this team of hardened adventurers.An Expedition to HohenwartFinally, I ran The Saint in Hohenwart, a Helvéczia scenario, where the group was tasked with saving their friend, the young mercenary captain Konrad Göttlinger, from the influence of a strange and ominous saint in the high valley of Hohenwart. Travelling through a mountain wilderness, a grotesque recluse engaging in deviltry was captured, tried and lawfully executed by James Raggi; a duel was fought between two Italian clerics who turned out to be life-long mortal enemies (the affair was settled in a tense card game, eventually won with the devil’s assistance); and Konrad rescued from his predicament. Willem, 2nd-level Dutch Vagabond (David), an agent of the Dutch East Indies Company not at all modelled on Prince of Nothing, was dashed on the rocks of a waterfall after trying to climb a slippery rock surface with a rope, and assuring everyone he had abundant practice in these matters on the high seas.
The Battle for Safeton Rages On

It cannot be emphasised enough how well things can go if players are focused on getting things done, and having a common interest. There was a lot of creative play demonstrated over the sessions, from clever spell use to bold and smart decision-making, and sometimes just pure on-the-spot improvisation. It helped that Cauldron Con was deliberately targeted at a specific kind of experience, and set up to deliver on that promise. But there was also the energy brought by the players, who all gave their best over two days. It was good to see that the con spoke not only to the grognards among us, but also a younger cohort; some recently acquainted with old-school gaming, and some entirely new to it, who came to Hohenroda to check out what this all meant. It was all focused, with a good fighting spirit and high cheer, and that’s the best thing.

The Revievers' Conclave Meets... Again!Beyond the games, the convention also hosted a surprise star guest in the person of Mr. Bryce Lynch, reviewer extraordinaire. It has been a long four years since our first meeting in Athens, Ohio, so when we heard Bryce was in the general area, steps were taken to arrange what was, truly, a random encounter. Unfortunately, Bryce was on a tight schedule – he was travelling “to take care of family business”, and the way he stressed the phrase, we decided not to probe further – so most people at the con missed him due to ongoing sessions, but it was an excellent opportunity to catch up on things and shoot the breeze for half an hour or so. It may be too early to reveal details about Bryce’s new OSRIC module line, but we can all be sure it will be a “No Regerts”. Tentative plans of a Crusade to get rid of the sub-par creators littering the “OSR” with irrelevant junk were outlined, and we can promise with some confidence that the response to this particular “problem” will be highly effective, even if it has to rely on Mr. Lynch’s “business associates”. Unfortunately, Bryce had to leave early in his black BMW, so the fine details are still to be elaborated.

Extra-Fabulous Collectibles

Finally, Cauldron Con featured an auction of riches from the community: treasures from 1980s German comic books to uncommon old-school publications went to lucky buyers, some after an energetic bidding war. Settembrini proved a skilled auctioneer at introducing the titles and their context, and generous lucre was gained by the sellers, as well as various charity organisations. On the final day, an award ceremony was also held: hand-engraved copper cauldrons went to the convention’s best player, most effective looter, the player who died most (“the Cup of Demise”), and the best GM – the mighty Jonathan Becker, who will no doubt fill it with the skulls of his enemies back in the U.S. of A. And that was Cauldron Con 2023. With the pace and energy, it felt a day short, although that may be asking for too much from the hard-working hosts. There was just a lot crammed into it, and there were things you’d inevitably miss – an ongoing multi-day Chainmail battle to determine the fate of empires in the German old-school scene’s shared Greyhawk campaign, an OD&D hex-crawl, the classily named Don’t Fuck the Priest, The Smorgasbord of Adventure, and many more. As always, you can’t come away with everything, but it felt like coming away with a lot. We also saw a pizza vending machine, which proves, once and for all, that greatness is still within mankind’s reach. 2024 sounds like a nice number. Appetites were whetted. Spielen wir AD&D!

An Assortment of ExcellenceUntil then, stay tuned for part II of the convention report, where we will present the Handshake Firmness Evaluation Chart. Strict records have been kept!

Vorsprung Durch Technik:
The Pizza Vending Machine

So it's the first weekend in November....which means we survived another Halloween and we have Turkey Day and the inevitable onslaught that is the Christmas season....

Just saying now, get your gaming group's gifts (you do get your fellow gamers shit, right?) figured out now because the next thing you know it'll be January, you haven't had a game in three weeks, and "where did the time fly?"

This PSA is just a bonus thing, hope it helps.

I think most of us could agree that we're going to be ramping up with the family, friends, and coworkers increasing demands for social interactions. For some of us there isn't enough time, energy/motivation to go around as it is, but some folks are also just gluttons for punishment and frankly I'm a little jelly.

Odds are if you're here reading this you're some flavor of nerd/dork/geek/dweeb/whatever and November is a big time for another flavor of nerd/dork/geek...you get it.....writers, or maybe just wannabe writers. November is when NaNoWriMo takes place. If you aren't familiar, follow the link or I can TL;DR it for you:

Wannabe writers of all varieties challenge themselves to pen 50,000 words during the month of November and there is a formal association of like-minded individuals that provide motivation and tools to assist.

My ex-wife was afflicted in this manner and I could write off her having free time come November. That 1,666+ daily word count was a PITA. Of course, NaNoWriMo doesn't care if your writing is any good, just that it's lengthy. I used to joke that I wanted to spend November coding a random adventure log table and have it spit out a year's worth of 1st party recollection of...well an adventuring party. Make sub tables that get called allowing party members to die, get resurrected or replaced, battles, licking wounds, etc. Get the tables working and then on November 30th have it spit out 50,000 words worth of log.

All kidding aside, I like how this is a shared goal that really only matters to participants. Those writers are supportive of each other and the only person you let down if you fall short is you. It's really an exercise in getting work done when you might not be motivated. Plugging away at a bigger goal that could become something later, but for now you just need to get that grunt work in, develop good habits that might pay off later.

I'm jelly 'cause I wish we had something like this in the OSR. A bunch of GMs or even players have a specific writing goal of contributing to creating OSR content. We don't have to have a specific format (so not the One Page Dungeon contest), nobody externally is looking for you to write stuff they can profit off of, but here's some tools to help out and if you end up sharing this with others, cool. If you want to keep it to yourself, hopefully you can learn and grow as a player..... 

Unfortunately we don't, or at least we don't as far as I know. Sure, we could take part in the actual NaNoWriMo, but at this point you are 8,333 words behind. For the record, that's like 1/15th of the length of this post up until this point.

So 2nd PSA is be nice to your writing friends this month....?