'Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,' the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. 'Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.'

-Robert E. Howard
Beyond The Black River

Corrupt Cliffs

Corrupt Cliffs
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Saturday, December 24, 2016

Forest Huts

Simple to build forest huts! Hope you find it useful.

Gift Idea 2016!

Need a last minute gift for that gamer in your life? THERE IS STILL TIME!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

DOOOM!

While following and participating in discussions on the new 2d20 system, and the concept of the DOOM mechanic, it was brought up that it could be used to build tension. As the players are adding to the doom pool and using it to build successes it is always in the back of their mind that the GM has this resource and it will eventually come back and haunt the PCs.

It is a cool mechanic.

While playing the system I found that while using a screen it prevented the players from seeing just how much DOOM that had accumulated. I had tossed around ideas in my head including a drawer like system that you could pull to your side, add doom, and push back to the PC side of the screen.

My final solution, which has not been used in a game yet, but I think has some cool potential.

It is a simple solution. 3x5 note card. Divide into 4 segments, draw skulls on them, fold them over. PCs add to the doom pool? Now that can clearly see how many skulls they have accumulated that may bite them in the ass.

What do you think? leave a comment below and let me know!

Thursday, December 15, 2016

28mm Horses for RPGs (and other games)

Horses are important in a medieval fantasy world. They allow your PCs to travel fairly quickly and provide a way to transport goods from town to town.  However if you use miniatures they can be on the expensive side.



You can go this route from litko: http://www.litko.net/products/Horse,-Character-Mount-Marker-kit.html#.WFLq2v7n_uo



Mounted characters from Reaper run around $10+ https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/horse/



A Pre-painted horse might run you $6 or $7+  http://www.miniaturemarket.com/pbrdi-025.html


OR



If you swing by your local Dollar Store you might find something like I found in the party favour section.




I found this bag of 10 horses for $4 CAD.  They are of course un-based, and I wasn't 100% sure about their size. 






But for the price I had to give them a shot. I have a few Mongol rifle guys and they have slightly smaller mounts, but next to a regular 28mm figure they were not unbelievable.   They have an ok selection of colors, and with the exception of one of the poses (2 horses) they all stand very well without bases.


And next to a Paizo pre-painted? Pretty much exactly the same size. $4CAD for 10 horses. Enough for a party of 4 adventurers, with 6 left to pull carts or work as pack animals. Great deal for horse figs!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Conan 2d20 play aids

After playing the first run through of Modiphius's new offering to the Hyborian Age, with Conan 2d20 I thought I would share some tools I used.  Mainly a simple and I do mean SIMPLE momentum pool and using note cards to track a mob as well as a Nemesis.  And how I use note cards to equip NPCs on the fly if needed.

Our hero in this example is attacked by a mob of 5 skeletons.   It's not the most complicated thing to record, but this is how I go about it.
I start with a blank note card and write the creature across the top.  "Skeleton Mob".  Next to that I write in the Armor Soak, and Shield Cover Soak if it is relevant.  You can place a spot for courage if that matters. I then write the total vigor for each mob member on the next line.  Finally I write down the numbers from 1-5 for each of the creatures in the mob.  
Hero rolls to hit!
Rolls Damage! 7!
Skeleton rolls shield.  3 cover +2 soak = 5 total soak.  Suffers 7-5 = 2 damage
Mark 2 'X's under the first member of the mob.  If you use Xs and Os you can track physical and mental damage.



And I use a similar card to track a Nemesis.  Although I would suggest having this prepped before hand as it is a little more time consuming to prepare, although not that much

As you are running a game and you need to be able to create an NPC with some weapon, armor and shield you can delay your game by looking through the manuals finding the relevant stats.  Instead I keep a generic human set of stats and a set of weapon, armor and shield cards handy so I can spend a few seconds getting the stats together vs digging through the book.
.

Finally the method I use to track momentum for the players involves a somewhat decorative bowl, some markers and a notecard.

Momentum markers and the pool.  I put notes on there for the players as well.  Max 6.  -1 end of round/scene.
The pool with 5 momentum

At the end of the day, anything we can use to help track and move the game along smoother should help to make the session more enjoyable.  I hope you find some good ideas or inspiration to help you run your game sessions.