Mountain Monsters: A "Reality" Show for Cryptid Hunters

 

I subscribe to Max, and since the merger of Warner and Discovery, they've added all the Discovery Plus content. This includes a show I never knew existed, but I am now addicted to, called Mountain Monsters. The premise of the show is that a group of backwoodsmen attempt to encounter or trap (or even kill) cryptids in the Appalachian wilderness. It's such an obviously scripted show (the monsters are never shown, and when they are, it's clearly a CGI embellishment), but it is incredible fun. I look at it as a hillbilly version of Supernatural, the kind of guys that Sam and Dean would make fun of, because they're all gonna die approaching monsters this way.

However, I did have a wonderful idea. I haven't decided if I'll use an OSR ruleset, or Beyond the Supernatural from Palladium, but since each episode has some lore and imagery of each monster, I figured what better opportunity to adapt them for roleplaying! I've always been fond of Appalachian folklore and horror, like Manly Wade Wellman's fiction, from Silver John to his other characters. The down-home aspect of this type of fiction appeals to me, and seems all the more fantastical due to being in a setting I can relate to - I'm from just north of Appalachia myself, lower Northeast Ohio. I loved making my way down through the hills of Ohio on a drive, through forests and farmland.

That's the plan, then. I'll be posting them here, also, as I write them up. The plan is to take each of these critters and stat them out completely. Of course, since the lore on the show is usually paper-thin, I'll have to do a bit of research on each to make sure I'm giving them all the powers and abilities they need to kill player characters. I'll make sure to reference each episode, also.

Please note that this isn't a challenge to any copyright, or an attempt to use the show to improve this blog - I'm just a fan, and I wanted to make some monsters based on what I've seen on the show, and weave these cryptids into the fantastical landscape of Appalachian fantasy stories.

Stay tuned, so to speak. Monsters are coming.

Book Review: Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove

I don't generally review fiction on this site, I try to keep it all game-related, or at least musings about certain games, and so on. However, I remember the old Dragon Magazine book review column, and they would focus on what might be mined from a book for a game.

This particular book has ideas all throughout. I'll keep it short, however, so I don't ruin anything.

Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove is part of his loosely-related Pantheon series that focuses on different mythologies and the "what if" factor of what might happen if they existed and either ruled mankind or returned. In this particular novel, the Aztec Empire rules the entire world, keeping it under control with iron-fisted police called Jaguars, and with the Great Speaker's own crack teams of Serpent Warriors. The mythology is paid close attention to, and there's even a guide for proper pronunciation of Aztec words since they're used quite often in this science fiction tale.

I found the book a solid read, although I struggled with the slow build through the first 200 pages. Plenty of character development to go around, and plenty of inspiration for games. Since I'm on a Rifts kick, my mind immediately went to the possibility of a nation completely ruled by the Aztec pantheon (and if Siembieda has already done this, I haven't bought that sourcebook yet). Lines of people waiting for death through a sacrifice of their own life to the gods, police state oppression, the equivalent of mega-damage tech, and the return of the gods themselves all feature within the book, and an entire Rifts campaign could be culled form it.

The only criticisms I have is that the book has a bleak outlook on the divine, and I am assuming this is the author putting his opinions into the theme of the book. I'm a religious person, and even though we're talking about mythological figures, some of the statements the characters make about their now-damaged faith are fairly troublesome to me. The language is harsh at times, and I found the cursing a bit "try-hard" at times. Grittiness can be achieved without resorting to pages full of cursing. I have no problem reading it if it fits the story, but this felt a bit like the author relies on it too much to express a character's anger. The ending is a bummer, too, which I won't spoil for you, and I understand why the author did what he did with the no-hope-left resolution. It sticks to the Mayan calendar 2012 end-date. I get it. I just wish there was more book after so I could find out what happened, but I guess that's a good thing if I'm left wanting more.

If you want heroic sci-fi with a touch of fantasy and superheroics, this one's for you. I've deemed it a keeper, and it's staying on the shelf for a re-read eventually, after I finish the 3 other books in the Pantheon series I bought.

Game Hack: Tabling Out Rifts OCCs

One of the things I wanted to do for myself, for when I eventually run Rifts or another Palladium system, is to give myself the gift of organization. You'll see what I've done below, and I've started with the Crazy OCC from Rifts. 

(Please note: this post is in no way intended to infringe any copyright, it is simply an example of how I'm re-organizing class information for personal use, but it's interesting enough to show people how I've done it.)

I scoured the pages in the book that the class is presented on, looking for benefits that increase with level to table out, and then mapped the rest out in a tight format, but there's much information that simply won't be able to fit into this table due to the way classes work in Rifts. As such, this in no way replaces reading the description of each ability and making copious notes on the character sheet, but is an at-a-glance method of checking the abilities gained over time. I like it, so I'm working on converting info from each Rifts (and Palladium games in general) to this format in Microsoft Excel, so I can pop right to a certain OCC and see if they gain certain things at certain levels. All of us familiar with Rifts know that PCs gain a ton of abilities and skills right off the bat and then it's just gradual progression, but this is useful nonetheless.

See what I did:

Scribes & Scribbles: My Notebook Collection and Campaign Preparation

I have a habit that I haven't been able to figure out for years. I've collected notebooks and journals. Any nice, high-quality, usually hardback or well-bound notebook or journal, if inexpensive enough, finds its way into my collection. And once in a while I'll spring for Moleskine notebooks. Often, I will also buy composition books (like the ones we all used in high school and middle school for writing assignments) if they're unusual or the covers are especially nice.

Why do I do this? I have no idea. I'm assuming it's somehow connected to my grade-school dream of becoming a writer. Back then, in the 1980s, unless you were rich, writing within a program on a computer was pretty much out of the question, and since my family was poor, writing in notebooks was really the only option, unless I somehow was able to learn to use the old typewriter my mother left accumulating dust. The keys required a lot of pressure, and I can't count the number of times it made the tips of my fingers smart, or the number of times I managed to get my fingers stuck in between the keys, resulting in skinned-up fingers around the first knuckle area. A few of the letters wouldn't work properly, either, the arms being bent or too close to the surrounding letters. I played with it, but that was it.

For a long time, I wanted to upgrade to an electric typewriter. I thought it would solve my writing problems, since I was stuck with the low-tech option of pencil, pen, and paper. That was the desire for a while, until I learned to type in middle school in our computer classes (which tended to simply be games of Oregon Trail on an old Apple computer). The typing instruction did help, though, and my speed was built up by re-typing old articles from the Polyhedron Newszine issues I had laying around, to compile them for use in a campaign that never happened. I now type 80-100 words per minute, or thereabouts. The classes gave me the basics, I did the rest.

The dream then became owning a computer, and I managed to get one for 500 dollars or so after I had graduated high school and moved into my first apartment when I was 19. Yes, I moved out and supported myself when I was 19. On 7.50 per hour. That's an impossibility today. But in the year 2000, it could be done. I learned a lot about desktop publishing, Word, and other programs. This is a self-education that continues to this day.

But I digress. Obviously.

I've come to realize that with about 100 or so notebooks in my collection that it's time I do something with them. And, since I also collect vintage and high-quality pencils (think Mitsubishi, Nataraj, Apsara, and the incomparable Blackwing), I figured I must once again put pencil to paper to start collecting my ideas in some sort of organized fashion, rather than a jumble of computer files.

In this act, I have found peace. I am putting to use old things that people donated to thrift stores (I get some fantastic pencils and notebooks from thrift stores in Holmes County, Ohio when I venture there). I am practicing an act of resurrection in this way, taking the unwanted and unused and pressing them into action once more. It's satisfying, and therapeutic. Satisfying in that there is visible progress as you turn the page, and therapeutic in being able to touch the book and the paper in it, hearing the scratch and scribble of the pencil, and even in the sharpening of the pencil to a perfect point.

But how does this relate to roleplaying games? I hear you asking that question if you've read this far. Here's the answer - in each notebook, I am choosing to record ideas for each separate campaign I choose to dream up. When I have enough material written in them (meaning they're full), I'll take those notes and begin the process of putting them into a manuscript on the computer, collating and cleaning up the ideas and presenting them in a cohesive fashion, either for my use, or for possible publishing projects.

I'm currently working within two separate notebooks. 

The first is taking form as an apocalyptic modern fantasy horror campaign that focuses on the war between Heaven and Hell on earth, sparked by the return of the Ark of the Covenant to earth, which awakens magic and the supernatural on Earth. There will be demons, angels, magic, and a war-time footing within the campaign, and multiple other supernatural elements. A fantasized pseudo-Christian theology is the basis for the milieu. The characters will experience the return of magic, the arrival of the forces of Heaven and Hell, and be the focus of plots to either stop the war, or turn it one way or the other. Intrigue and special quests will feature large.

The second notebook contains my scribbles for a dark action horror campaign in a modern setting. It may sound somewhat related, but the tone and content will be different. I haven't decided the details yet (it's still early in the notes stage), but the world has been overtaken by different supernatural creatures in the aftermath of the war between Heaven and Hell. The Rapture occurred, taking all the worthy humans to Heaven (it's assumed so, anyhow), and those left in the wreckage fight for survival on a daily basis. Creatures that took part in the war that did not leave Earth for whatever reason have set up their own domains, and factions have formed. The human characters will exist in a sort of "points of light" setting, but the points of light are few and far between. It will be bleak and hellish, with fantastic supernatural creatures abounding. Exploration and shoot-em-up action will abound.

I just had an idea today for a third campaign, so I'll break out a new notebook this evening and begin making notes. I have a ton of OSR-produced modules for OSRIC, so what I figured I would do is scour them, placing all the lost cities, dungeons, and forgotten tombs and temples in a sandbox-style campaign, so that anywhere the characters decide to go, I have the material to handle it with little work. It will be gonzo, anything-goes fantasy, a sort of RIFTS approach to D&D. I think I'll use the BECMI rules or possibly Swords & Wizardry as a base, and since it's so easy to bolt on aspects from AD&D or other clones, it will be anything goes, dream up the craziest thing possible, and clear dungeons. But, I'll put a high mortality rate into play. That sounds fun.

I hope I haven't bored you. This particular entry is mainly a way for me to organize my thoughts and do a little introspective self-reflection, but sharing this with you, dear readers, is satisfying to me. As I fill notebooks, I'll keep you up to date with my progress. It may be interesting to see how it progresses.

Tomes of Magic: Upcoming Campaign

Despite the name of this post, I am not going to call my new campaign Tomes of Magic. For one, it's far too on-the-nose, and it's just unimaginative.

However, magical works of writing will play an outsized role in the campaign, with the primary method of discovering new spells consisting of stumbling upon them in ancient lore or finding them scrawled on prehistoric tablets and scrolls. In fact, the PCs will be questing for the correct magical knowledge to take down whatever big nasty they may be facing as they progress through their careers (if they don't DIE of course).

In the spirit of this new campaign idea, I offer you a new magical tome, described below.

CROWN AND INFERNO

Author: Unknown

Crown and Inferno is large at 18 inches tall and 12 inches across the front cover, and is bound in red dyed leather with luxuriously smooth vellum pages. The tome seems ageless, remaining like new even over years of use and storage, with no fading inks or colors, and no wear to the binding.

Within the book, should a character peruse its contents, the hierarchies of Hell are explained in great detail, and the text abounds with purported True Names of demons, along with instructions for summoning their kind to the Material Plane. If the characters research the book before they attempt to read it, they may find out (an Intelligence check with a positive or negative modifier, depending on the accuracy of the research materials) that it may help to be warded against evil when reading. Just the first few paragraphs of the book are enough to potentially leave a character open to demonic possession. The GM is free to use the rules he likes for possession attempts, since many of these rules exist in different games, and many will work with old style rules.

Should the character(s) reading the text avoid any possession attempts that may befall them, they will be able to identify 1d4 different spells of any spell level, providing these spells can help in attempting to summon demons or extraplanar entities. The GM should choose the spells from the game rules he likes best, as long as they contain spells for demon-summoning. These spells may be transferred to a character's spell book in the usual time frame, and the spells may not be used from the book as a spell scroll would be used.

Only one attempt at spell discovery per character is allowed, and each will have to defend against demon possession. After the spells are discovered, the book remains in their possession, but is useful only as a reference for future research. It does not radiate magic, since it merely contains instructions for magical rites.

OGL 1.1 - An Article that Mimics My Own Thoughts on the Matter

Head on over to Grognardia and read what James writes about the OGL move WOTC recently made. His thoughts are right there with mine.

Here is your link.

Monte Cook Agrees About Game Balance

This will be old news for some of you out there, since the book has been out a while, but Monte Cook authored the following in the Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design put out by Kobold Press. He strikes all the points I've been trying to make on this blog in the last couple of months very succinctly:

"The second type of balance, dealing with characters and challenges, may seem related, having to do with characters being either too powerful or not powerful enough. At its core, though, such balance is a different issue because it has less to do with the players and more to do with the GM. 

After all, it’s the GM who is responsible for providing challenges for the characters—and the GM has no boundaries or limitations. When GMs complain about unbalanced characters running roughshod over their campaign and how that’s the fault of the game, there is a misunderstanding of the role of the GM. You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. If the PCs wipe the floor with the vrock, give them six vrocks to fight next time. Or a nalfeshnee.

No, it really is that simple. For every spell, there’s a counter. For every monster, there’s a tougher monster. If the players raise the ante by creating characters who are too powerful, the GM can simply use the sliding power scale of the game (which has no upper limit) to bring things back into balance.

What’s more, the GM is also the arbiter of the rules at the table and can disallow options. Ultimately, it’s the GM who truly understands what’s going on at the table, not some game designer thousands of miles away. No matter what the designer does or doesn’t do to balance the game, it’s a moot point. An illusion at best. It’s what the GM does that provides the balance."

All the points I've been making since I started writing on this blog again are made wonderfully and clearly in the text above.

Players Obsessed With "Balance"

Get ready, I get a little mean here. I'm having a get-off-my-lawn moment.

I've said before in this space that game balance is essentially an illusion, and that any DM worth his weight in rulebooks will be able to provide ample challenge for any so-called "build" at his table. My recent foray into all the fan-produced works in the Fifth Edition sphere has brought up a pet peeve of mine: players insisting something is under- or over-powered. 

Essentially it's all crap - concepts cannot be overpowered. Roleplaying starts with a character concept, a dramatic persona, and the rules are simply mechanics to bring that persona to life. This "game within the game" of what we used to call min/max-ing or power gaming back in the days prior to the OGL has become rather ubiquitous since the days of 3.0/3.5, then seemed to intensify a bit with 4th Edition since the building blocks of that particular system seemed to enforce this way of thinking. Honestly, I blame modern video games, but we'll not open that can of worms.

5th Edition has seen the same problem, even though it's much more of what I would call a freeform system (but not rules-light, obviously). Gone are the mental gymnastics and algebraic calculations of 3rd Edition (which really became heavy at high levels), where one shift in ability score affected about 8 or 10 different fields on the character sheet. It's not exactly BECMI, since there are a lot of fiddly parts still, but it's easy enough to modify on the fly and it seems to really embrace "rulings not rules." 

That may well be the issue for a lot of modern players. They seem to want it spelled out in some sort of official format, and make the game's rules a substitute for skilled play and their own imaginations. RPGs are an exercise in limitless imagination. You can do anything. The rules are just a framework for your character concept, not to ensure you have an average damage on par with other classes. That's just silly. All the complaining about the Ranger over the last few years is a good example of this. The DM ought to provide ample opportunity to use these abilities, even in dungeon settings. If he's not, he's not engaging his table properly. The player also has the responsibility to think creatively, since RPGs are a creative endeavor, not a video game where a player simply reacts to pre-programmed situations. Sometimes an ingenious plan works better than any ability the rules provide. It's not a suboptimal class, some players just have suboptimal imaginations and an expectation that the rules will provide for every circumstance that involves their character.

These sorts of issues were raised in the early days of D&D, but it seems it happened with less frequency and vitriol - not once did my group complain about 2nd Edition characters being "unbalanced". Of course, in the old days, a DM would just DO HIS JOB and change the game to his liking. A lot of modern players have either not figured this out, and are obsessed with rules-as-written, or perhaps aren't skilled enough or lack enough ingenuity to think outside the box and make their "suboptimal class/build" an enjoyable experience. Play the CONCEPT, not the RULES. That is the most important part. If a player feels like he want to makes a change, ask the DM. Players could also lobby for the kinds of adventures that their characters are geared toward. DMs often plan a world in a vacuum made of their feverish imagination, not considering the characters that are going to be created, and then toss a bunch of wilderness types into a dungeon, where they may not be in their element. 

Remember - imagination, skilled play, thinking outside the box. They all help. The rules are simply a malleable framework for a STORY. Remember that. Play the character you LIKE, not what you think is EFFECTIVE - just forget all that garbage about "builds" and "balance". You'll be much happier.

5th Edition: Bustin' at the Seams and Better for It

I was skeptical of 5th edition for the first several years of its existence. I liked the chassis it was built upon, since it wasn't terribly different from my favorite editions (BECMI and 3.5). I'll say now, nearly 10 years on (or has it been 10 already?), that 5th edition almost rivals the aforementioned BECMI as my favorite iteration of the game.

One thing I think that's really made it fun for me is the absolute avalanche of 3rd party and fan content. The OGL was key in this respect, much as it was for the popularity of 3.5 (and for the birth of Pathfinder). I've recently been digging into years of PDFs that I've accumulated and never really flipped through as thoroughly as I should have, and I've got ideas busting at the seams. Some of my favorite material are the classes that just regular ol' folks like me have created. I'll decline to list them - the discovery is the best part. Go and find yourself some gold!

Some people get all weird about materials that haven't been thoroughly playtested, and aren't comfortable using unofficial rules. I say this to them: you aren't having enough fun. If I, the DM, cannot contend with something a player brings to the table, then I didn't vet it thoroughly enough to begin with, thus not doing my job, or I'm not planning properly for the character in question - again, not doing my job! All these options, subclasses, extra spells, magic items, and extra rules allow me to choose whatever I would like and build my world upon it. Sometimes someone else's concept or rule will spark a wild idea that spurs an entire campaign arc to be written. House rules are fun. Do your job as a DM, vet what hits your table thoroughly, and above all, PLAN FOR WHAT IS ON THE CHARACTER SHEETS.

That said, I'm toying with a few campaign ideas now, that will eventually be detailed here as a way to keep track of it all. One campaign I'd like to get off the ground would center on the accumulation of occult knowledge, and the key to it all are dusty tomes hidden away in ruins and tombs. I'm gathering all the material I can that's been written about books and libraries in D&D, as well as magical items in book form, or lists of titled books - it seems there is no end to the products geared toward this subject on the internet. The characters would always need to quest after knowledge of some sort in order to fight against whatever threat has reared its head, which will always have a vulnerability to exploit via magic, but the magic itself could be half a continent away, or held as a secret by something even worse than the threat they're currently facing. In other words, +1 swords and magic missiles will not feature, but complicated rituals that exploit the fabric of the universe, will. I know it's all vague, but so are my ideas right now!

Another idea I'm toying with, because I've watched so much Supernatural apparently and I can't get enough of the angel characters on the show, is an Ultramodern 5 campaign (maybe - D20 Modern is just as good in my eyes), centering around the wars angels and demons fight in the spiritual realm that spill into the material plane. I've been collecting all the 5e material I can get my hands on that has embellished on the subject of angels in the game, but I've also been reading the D20 version of Engel, SJG's In Nomine, C.J. Carella's Armageddon, and the Malhavoc Press supplement The Anger of Angels. There are some other 3rd edition era books I need to find to further research all of this, as well, but they slip my mind. I've also been delving into Old Testament pseudepigrapha that happens to have a lot of detail on angels, mining it for subject matter. As for 5e supplements, I've found some excellent fan-made materials on the subject, and I can't wait to see what else I find.

Both of these ideas were born of the fan-made and DM's Guild supplements that I've read and enjoyed. This is why house rules are my favorite artifacts of D&D, and it also gives me a window into how other people are playing the game we all love. I can't get enough.