Monday 19 October 2015

[D&D House Rules]

 [IN-GAME REWARDS]



 [INSPIRATION] becomes [INSPIRED ACTION]
[IN SUMMARY: READ 3 BULLET POINTS]

* If you make stuff for the session, you gain in-game rewards. 'Making stuff' means write a story, draw a picture, create a monster, etc.

* How inspiration works has been changed. You can read below or just let me explain it next time :P

* There are now Critical Hit/Fumble effects. If you roll a disastrous 1 or a disastrous(for them, motherfucker!) 20, something strange could happen! Details below.


[DM's Update]

Awesome first session, marred only by the fact that you just managed to avoid detonating a cart packed with explosives on the man you were paid to deliver it to. Just quickly going to highlight a couple of rule changes for our game.

I will highlight these again at the start of next session so we're clear on it.


[IN-GAME REWARDS]

To further build the narrative, if you provide something towards the game you can earn in-game rewards. These "somethings" may be:
* A story about your character.
* A drawing / portrait of your character or map or NPC or place.
* A re-telling of the events of the previous adventure.
* The creation of an NPC or ability or monster.
* ... etc.

Basically, if you make something that benefits our game, you will get an in--game reward for your character. This can be done up to 3 times.

Rewards: (each reward can only be used once per session)
* +1 Maximum HP.
* 1 Heroic Re-roll (you can decide to re-roll a dice roll of your choice BUT it must be BEFORE the effect of said roll has occurred)
* 1 Loot Token:  You can use this after any combat during the next session to 'find' some random additional loot.


[INSPIRATION] becomes [INSPIRED ACTION]

We forgot to touch on this last time but I'm changing the D&D rule slightly for inspiration. The current rule is: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/41852/what-is-inspiration

Our house rule changes this slightly:

If you take an action deemed to be well in-keeping with the personality of your character, your allies can request that action be INSPIRED to the DM.

Example:
A cleric has the Ideal "I would gladly lay down my life to save the innocent" and rushes an Orc War party to save a kidnapped child. The other players in the group can ask the DM to make it an "Inspired Action." The DM then decides the outcome of the Inspired Action. Perhaps, inspired by the Cleric, any attacks/checks made by the clerics allies that turn would have advantage.
(I've made this change to prevent us from 'hording' inspiration and using it on nonsensical situations.)


[CRITICAL HIT/FUMBLE]

This will add a potential random effect to your critical hit or fumble. This only applies to ATTACK rolls (as checks generally tend to have positive/negative consequences anyway) I will eventually draw up the table but this counts for things like:

Critical Hit with Sword: (DISARMED) You dis-arm the opponent... LITERALLY. They lose any off-hand weapon they may be carrying.

CRITICAL HIT with Bow: (PINNING SHOT) Your arrow sails through the enemy and pins it to the object behind it. It must use half of its movement on its next turn to wriggle free.

Critical Fumble with Sword: (Ping-woooosh) Your sword flies from your hand and lands 10 feet away. You must retrieve it.

Critical Fumble with Spellcasting: (CROAKY) You cannot speak to your comrades for one hour (spellcasting however remains unaffected)

This adds an extra dynamic to your super awesome and your super fail.
N.B: While these critical hit/fails do not apply to monsters, [Epic Monsters], such as the Bandit Leader you captured or whatever this Kobold Foreman is, CAN and WILL gain critical effects.

Peace.

Tuesday 13 October 2015

It's been a while since I brushed the cobwebs from this cold, dark, wonderful place and unleash my fettered ego upon my two readers from Estonia who constantly come back for more... This past year has been such a huge chapter of my eventual autobiography - available at all good book shops everywhere in the distant future - that Kicking Arse and Eating Brains hasn't been on my mind much at all.

This is an outrage!

My mid-year resolution is to write once a week. Many people do once a day but I'm more of an all-or-nothing guy. I can't smash out a new idea once a day and I'd need to finish whatever I do write in one sitting. Any who, let's grease up the monkey and--

Yeah. Not going to finish that sentence.

My apologies in advance but I've recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons again. For those of you that are too hip and cool, I thoroughly recommend it despite all the basement-dwelling geek stereotypes it's attributed with. Most DnD players I know are rolling in the dolla and ladies. Must be that high Charisma Score... Naha. You'd get it if you played. Loser.

My point being - consistent content but not all of it on theme.

Slay Safe,
Merke
Film: Into The Forest
Director: Peter Sollett
Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood.
Release: 2015

KAEB Rating: 6.5/10

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. While I was disheartened at the lack of gory Zombie movies, I did catch Into The Forest directed by Peter Sollett, starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood. Despite the absence of our flesh-hungry friends I felt the movie was worth a mention here and I do recommend seeing it should the opportunity arise.

It's a solid movie following a father and his two daughters. When power plants across the United States begin to shut down for no apparent reason, the family is thrust into a world without energy and forced to overcome the obstacles that brings, along with the rising dangers of such a situation.

The movie displayed some fantastic acting and decent direction, presenting many themes of the apocalypse genre; the main criticism being it gripped too tightly to the genre, making much of the film predictable. While I doubt that fact alone would ruin many movie goers experience, I however watch far too many apocalypse and zombie movies and had the plot foreshadowing slap me in the face every five minutes.