Flippin' the Script

Now that I have a firmer idea of how Daggerford is set up, and how it is settled into the nearby environs, I realized that the map of Moridis' Halls would work much better if I flipped it east to west, so that the sewer entrances were in the southwest corner, and the more remote entrances could be northeast of the town proper. I cleaned up the map just a smidge, inverted all of my concealed and secret door markings, and went back to an unkeyed master to work from. I had about a third of this stocked, and now I'm back to the drawing board (almost literally), but it's okay. I have some other ideas for things I'd like to do with some of these areas anyay, and I want to make the dungeon a bit more robust in general. This entire section was really the living and working areas of the D'Ro, with some of their upper prison pens, offices, and minor facilities. Their more experimental, magical shenanigans were on the second level, so while I an hint at such things filtering up from below, much of this is a straight-up dungeon crawl largely populated by undead and vermin that have wandered in from above. The D'Ro themeselves have largely relegated their mad works to levels 2-3, generally abandoning this area. However, I do know that at least three young dragons, all considered too weak by their mother Moridis, have been cast aside into these upper halls. All three have motivation to either get into their mother's good graces or at least muck up her projects, so all three could provide role-play and interactivity beyond waiting for heroes to kill them and loot their lairs.  

The New(est) Delvers of Daggerford

I went round-n-round in the old noggin about how to approach my actual play experience for the Halls of Moridis, and in the process went back through my actual plays and lots of notes for dungeon delving for the last few years (on and off). I decided to wipe the slate clean and start all over with a brand-spanking new group of adventurers, using the Tales of the Splintered Realm rules, although with an old-school edge - I went straight up 2d6 for all stats (organize as desired), and ended up with some deeply flawed characters. These are NOT heroes in any meaningful sense, but are literally a group of losers that a noble-minded elf has pulled together. I like that I spent all of their money, and she had thirty pieces of silver left - she has used this to pay off the debts of the other three (they appeared to her in dreams telling her to investigate the Halls of Moridis), and she has assembled her rag-tag coaltion. I mean, Sloth couldn't even afford armor, and most of them have CHA that gives a penalty. This is an old-school sort of group, and I couldn't love them any more.

Also, I have officially crossed a line as a game designer. For decades, I have repeated a process. I will get a few years past a game that I've written, pull it out, decide to play it for a while, start to immediately see where I could improve it, and start tinkering. Before long, I'm no longer playing the game, but instead working on the next edition. I don't think there will be another edition of Tales of the Splintered Realm. It's 'perfect' as it is. As I've been leafing through it, I've been pleasantly surprised, again and again, at how clean and sharp it is. For a moment, I had a pang of something akin to regret that I put friars in there instead of clerics (the only 'revolutionary' change), but then I watched the first half of Rogue One the other day, and realized that the church of the game world better aligns with that ethos - the true adherents of the faith are not armored clerics in churches, they are wild men like John the Baptist wandering the wilderness declaring that the true faith is not dead. Temples are often relics of the past or have been overcome by grifters and charlatans. The choice of character classes reflects this reality. You can easily build a 'cleric' or 'paladin', but the game is correct as it is. I was also astounded that I'd managed to get over 120 monsters in there - I started to think about how this game could use a larger bestiary, and then realized it didn't really need one - the vast majority of the classic monsters are represented and it's a great cross-section. I could literally play with just these rules forever... and I guess I just might.  

I did cheat JUST a bit and swap out Vessa's archer talent for two weapons in her Warden build - it's a minor swap, and I just have to accept she is no longer an official warden, but is a house-ruled variant... a mark of shame forevermore.

I'm looking forward to playing around with these four... 

Some Random Thoughts

I finished round three of chemotherapy yesterday, so that was something. I have three more rounds to go before we move into a 'maintenance' phase, and they're going to give me a rotation of radiation therapy directly on the tumor pressing against my spine for good measure in the interim, but I have a little time off. I was WIPED the last two days, but after a lot of sleep and figuring out how to manage my diet to rebound quicker, I'm feeling pretty spry today. I managed to update some links on the old blog here to make things a little more up-to-date and easy to access; a lot of my links were to previous iterations of Stalwart, and it made sense to at least have the first visit with the blog be with current stuff. I've got a FAQ, a dedicated post for S85, and a post about my other games that sort of summarizes all things in a bit of a handier fashion. At least I hope it is.

One thing I've been doing is organizing my Facebook feeds and following some things - I mean, there are some cool communities out there that I just had no idea about, and it's fun to reminisce about my favorite eras of professional wrestling and comics and gaming. One thing that jumped out at me was how much, in my wrestling fandom of the late 80s, I never really appreciated 'enhancement talent' (or 'jobbers'). It got me thinking that comics has its own tier of jobbers and enhancement talent, and that Stalwart '85 could use more of that. I have about 4 different illustrations I did when putting together Stalwart '85 that I never used because they ultimately came across as half-baked minor villains not worth the bother. A collection of several of these expert-level, one-trick villains might be a good first issue of "The Stalwart Phile" if I can get around to getting that going. I've got lots of ideas for it, so there's no good reason not to do it, and to keep pumping out content for Stalwart '85. I mean, I could do 20 or so of those and then collect them into a complete volume. Not a bad way to think about adding to the game over time.

I'm so happy to see the positive reception Stalwart '85 is getting as people get their hands on the print books. I was super happy with how they came out, and I'm glad to see that people generally share my enthusiasm. Every time I see a tag that someone posted a pic of their book, it gives me warm fuzzies.

I go back and forth (and back... and forth) about how I want to build the Halls of Moridis megadungeon for both Hack'D and TSR. Ultimately, it's a product for both, so I can build it simultaneously for both. I had planned to start it over with a new group of heroes (and I rolled them up), but then I thought maybe I'd take the characters I'd already been using for Hack'D and just come up with their comparable stats in TSR and keep going where I was. That seems like the better option - I liked those characters (they were based on the inside front cover of the Basic '81 rules - my favorite D+D image ever), so I could just keep going with them. Seems like I have some old notes to dig through and find...

My LEGO room is in full bloom. I've been able to track down a few sets I wanted, I've had many given as gifts (thanks to those who have sent those my way - much appreciated), and I've even gone through and pulled out some of my 10+ year old instruction books and cobbled together sets from way back in the day (I did the AT-ST from 2007 last week). It's a great room to just hang out in. I have all sorts of my old comics bagged and boarded on the walls, and I'm surrounded by nerd stuff. It's a glorious space in my basement.

For a guy who is battling 'terminal cancer', I'm actually doing quite well. I never know what tomorrow may bring, but I'm hopeful that I can still put this mother f-er into remission at some point, and squeeze another few years out of this body that kind of wants to quit on me.

Thanks for all of the support and good vibes. It's all been deeply appreciated.

Stalwart '85 FAQ

Some Questions People Have Pondered...

Q: How does stun work?

A: Stun means that you cannot act at all for the duration of stun, which may be in actions, rounds, or even longer periods of time. All actions against you are successful unless a 1 is rolled.

Q: Could you clarify action management?

A: It is generally an either/or proposition. As a character at tier D10, you can either take 2 actions at full strength, or 5 actions at a -1 downshift of dice. You can be at your best for a few actions, or water yourself down and spread yourself a little thin. It really comes down to the strategy of one foe where you want to concentrate attacks, or a number of lesser foes (or a time when you need to add some movement to your action management that round).

Q: If my character is attacking someone who's taken an Actively Defending action, my guy takes a -1 die shift - and that includes the Tier die?

A: Yes. This defaults to the same rules as listed under 2.4 on page 9.

Q: Can I stack impervious and invulnerable?

A: No. other defensive gifts (like resist) will stack, but I always saw impervious/invulnerable as either/or.

House Rules: Here are some rules I've been using to keep things keeping on...

Any 'super hero' (however you choose to define that - I'm going with expert tier or better) is able to deal, minimally, 1 point of damage with any successful attack. While you are still bulletproof against mooks firing their D6 pistols, the young archer apprentice with the D8 bow still has a chance of piercing your defenses every attack. I'm limiting this that any side or secondary effects requiring you to deal damage are not triggered unless you actually roll 1 or more points; this freebie point does not bring any automatic benefits with it, and is just an attaboy to keep at it. A superhero who hits another superhero in combat does something, even if it's quite minimal. 

Falling Damage. For every 30' a character falls, they suffer D6 damage (to a maximum of 5D6). The first 10' deal no damage at all (so 11' to 30' deals 1D6; 31' to 60' deals 2D6; etc.).

Action Management. In this option, each participant in combat attempts their first action in the rotation of initiative; each participant then takes their second action (as applicable), then their third, etc. Participants with many actions will then attempt their extra actions at the end of the round.

My Other Games

My Other RPG Projects

	Hack’D & Slash'D $1 PDF Fantasy RPG using D12   Resources: * The H&S Living Companion * Halls of Moridis Living Megadungeon
Tales of the Splintered Realm $.2.95 PDF Fantasy RPG using the OGL Resources: * The Halls of Moridis - a Living Megadungeon * New Delvers of Daggerford Actual Play Report
	Shards of Tomorrow $2.95 PDF   Sci-fi RPG using the OGL
The Stalwart Age $2.95 PDF Superhero RPG using the OGL Resources: The Stalwart Age Blog is a semi-retired resource including background and character stat blocks.
	Cupcake Scouts the RPG (2E) $2.95 PDF An RPG of Friendship, Baking, and Monster Staking
Dr. Mike Desing's Army Ants The Roleplaying Game PWYW PDF Print Version Your group of Army Ants defends Hill and Queen. Resources: * Comic Book Volume 1 PWYW * Comic Book Volume 2 PWYW

Ye Olde Fantasy Itch

I've been watching Lord of the Rings, built the LEGO Rivendell set, started on the LEGO Medieval Village set (all fun), and have been doing a lot of cancer-treatment related stuff (generally less fun). I ended up in the ER for something of a false alarm over the last two days, but better safe than sorry and all of that. I'm feeling pretty well considering I'm two rounds into chemotherapy - although I am well aware it is likely to get more challenging the further I go.

I also got the vast majority of the Stalwart '85 books sent out (I am missing maybe three addresses still), and have the KS somewhere around 90% fulfilled. I still need to finish the adventure I am writing, the comic pages I am putting together, the web site, and (ideally) some online support. Those are all relatively significant things, but the physical books being out in the wild was the BIG thing (and what people were paying for). The stretch goals I feel okay if they take a little longer to get done. I'll get there, and they'll be better if I wait for inspiration to drive them forward. I tried working on them after shipping lots of books, and it felt like work. That's never good. So, back burner for the moment, but on simmer.

However, I took out the rules for Hack'D and Slash'D, but felt like playing something a little meatier and more 'classic D+D' - which is fortunate, because I have one of THOSE games, too. I started to think about a dungeon crawl campaign for Tales of the Splintered Realm, and decided I wanted to create a classic cleric class for that game (which will be easy enough to do), and then put together a team to explore Moridis Halls, which I am placing beneath Stalwart Keep to unify things a bit. I managed to figure out how the existing map fits under the keep, and it's going to require some revisions of existing concepts, but it's all pretty doable. Here's the Stalwart Keep map with the overlay of the Halls. It's not very pretty (the blue dungeon overlay is a bit awakward), but it gives a sense of how the two fit together... and provides a scale for the upper keep in reference.

I can see a few ways into it... 

• There is going to be a secret door connected to the western well.
• The northern well descends directly into a pool. This will be blocked from the rest of the dungeon by a heavy portcullis.
• There is a stairway down into the dark temple from an unnumbered building towards the east (north of building 4) that is going to be a secret society of dark friars that worship Moridis.
• The northern exit will go outside of the keep, to a secret entrance used by goblins (I think) that is further down the side of the hill. Moridis has been calling the goblins to her.
• The northern section also has an entrance used by a dwarven clan of brewers who use the mushroom halls to get the mushrooms used in their strange but potent ales. Their connection to the earth has also allowed them to hear the whisperings of Moridis from the deep. They would have motivation to get some adventurers to go down there and figure out what's going on.

I have quite a bit of free time on my hands, so starting a long-term fantasy solo campaign is not a bad way to use that time. If I end up with some publishable content out of it, all the better. 

Happy New Year and Some Silliness

Happy New Year! Hope that you and yours have a wonderful 2025.

This morning, I was looking at bills that have to get paid in the next few weeks, and I decided that ‘water bill’ would be sort a ridiculous name for a character. And then I got silly. Blame my meds.

It’s a team of guys all named William with elemental powers, so they name themselves… 

• Electric Bill
• Water Bill
• Heating Bill
• Property Tax Bill (best I could come up with for earth-based powers... I mean, Dirt Bill? Clean Fill Bill? Pavement Bill? Stone Bill? Suggestions welcomed)

They had a fifth member, Income Tax Bill (his immense wealth makes him Luthor-like), but he went rogue and is now their arch enemy. Other enemies include School Tax Bill (a super genius – or maybe just a really strong brutish bully who always wants to meet you at the flagpole at 3 o’clock), Phone Bill (telepath – but he has to hold his hand up in the ‘phone gesture’ for his powers to work), and Insurance Bill (sort of like the State Farm chaos guy who goes around bringing destruction in his wake).

You know this is entirely idiotic, but you also know you would at least play a one-shot of this game. I was thinking that there could be a female somewhere named "Rent-To-Own Rhonda", but then realized immediately that the implications of this name are very... yeah. So maybe don't include her. 

Again, it's the meds. This is why I can't teach right now. I'd just start saying whatever crossed my mind, and weird stuff crosses my mind, and then I'd be sitting in a superintendent conference trying to figure out what exactly I said and why.