I'm Taking My Talents to South Beach

Or maybe not.

However, I will no longer be blogging here. I'm done. For those of you who followed Thieves' Cant over at wordpress and here, thanks for your readership and interesting comments.

There are so many good bloggers/blogs out there, I find myself with little to add to the discussion. At least not on a 3-5/week amount. And if I have a blog, that is how often I want to update it. So, ultimately the blog 'makes me feel bad' because I neglect it.

I'm fortunate with my job and a bit of burgeoning freelance work that my writing calendar is filled up for the foreseeable future . . . which also makes it easier to let go.

That being said, I want to remain a part of the community, be it RPGBN, the general blogosphere or gaming in general.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've noticed a lot of blogs, smartly, gathering writers. I'd like to throw my hat into that ring. If you have a predominantly 4e or Pathfinder blog and you are looking for a 1/week column, drop me a comment and let me know. I'd like to see Thieves' Cant live on somewhere . . . if just because the title fucking rocks.

Then again if that is not to be, who knows when I may pop up again.

Again thank you.

PS - I'm not totally abandoning the interwebs. @thelastrogue on twitter if you are interested.

Today was a Good Day

Today was a good day.


I teach college courses as an adjunct professor. It pays the bills. However, due to a variety of reasons, I was only set to teach 1 course. After today, I’m teaching a total of 4 and have an interview for a full-time position.

The Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey Realm is generating some good buzz. I’m super proud of that product – maybe even more proud of it than the 4e version because of the ‘art’ of making good Pathfinder foes.

My article, All the Rage, has found a home on Kobold Quarterly’s website – it seems to be drawing some quality praise. I love that article. Look for part 2 soon.

Started a new Pathfinder game online. Had some technical difficulties (my fault – but fixable) and lucked into a group of enthusiastic fun players. I plan on posting their characters tomorrow. I also realized I may need to work on my organization for the game . . . but again that is a post for another day.

Lastly, I found out last night I’m going to have a daughter.

Thank you July 14th.

(Any other Pathfinder posts I do will be at my other blog: The Masterwork Scroll -- blogger hates me.

Now With More Ennie Cred

So many things to discuss:


First off the Fey Folio recieved two Ennie nominations – or real close, I got honorable mentions, which, in my humble interpretation, means that the Fey Folio was the 6th best e-book and the 6th best monster manual-type book. Hell, in the latter category, the Fey Folio was selected  in with the likes of the awesome Pathfinder Bestiary, etc. My thanks to the judges.

Ok, I’ll stop blowing my horn, but I am fairly proud of that work. Check it out on the cheap at RPGNow.

Second thing on the agenda: If you are reading this blog, I am guessing you have some level of interest in the D&D, the dungeons and the dragons, if you will. So why not play?

How does Wednesday nights, from 6-10:30 Eastern time sound? Pathfinder? Skype + Gametable? I’ve got a ranger, witch, and bard lined up, . . . what class do you want to play? Check here if interested.

Thirdly, yes that is a new blog. I’m trying some different stuff out there, stuff that avoids discussing 4e, which will more often than not be the focus of this blog. If you Pathfinder is your thing, I really think you may dig on that blog.

Adios.

Who Wants to Play D&D Online?

I do! I do!

Thus I will be starting a weekly, Wed. night game using Skype and Gametable. Details here.

Finding the Path to PCGen

Going a bit old school today. Well, not really I guess – I’m just talking Pathfinder.


At heart I’m a gaming schizo.

Love 4e, and enjoying the heck out of my campaign currently.

Love Pathfinder, and will be running an online game soon.

Developing a strong interest in Wyatt’s NAA D6 project and Savage Worlds . . . want to test them.

Have Warhammer Fantasy 3rd Edition sitting on my shelf in that big glorious box just staring me down.

Eagerly awaiting Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition.

Been fidgeting with my own design.

Yes the list above is a testament to my inability to remain focused on any one gaming system for more than a minute or two.

However, I’m lately on a Pathfinder kick (good thing too, as I’ve been given the opportunity for a large 3rd party freelance project within the system). I just wanted to post this short blurb to send Pathfinder gamers to check out PCGen.

PCGen is free software that, get this, generates PCs (or NPCs). I’ve been fiddling with the newest version for a bit now, and let me say it ROCKS! It has access to the Pathfinder rules, and I suggest you grab it. Most of you probably already are aware of the system, but I thought it deserved a mention.

Tomorrow back to the rules tweaks.

Rules Tweak #4 - Got to Eat

This is an oldie but a goodie from the guys over at the At-Will blog. They have so many sweet additions to the 4e ruleset it is hard to quantify. What I am stealing here though isn't that exciting. It is very mundane, but in a good way. Remember my point with this series was to discuss ways to make 4e a bit more gritty, a bit more mundane in truth, to strip away some of the high fantasy fare for a more earthy feel. Again, with the end goal being to use these houserules in a 4e Dark Sun game. Anyways, enough from me.

Here is my slight, slight, slight tweak of Ration Points from the At-Will blog
------------------

Ration Points

Rations represent the basic necessities needed to live –food, water, and the means of getting or storing these items.

Ration Points are used to abstract and collect what the players need to survive into on eas-to-track resource. Instead of spending more time than is necessary with everyone doing seperate book-keeping, Ration Points lump all that book-keeping into one resource.

Ration Points operate on these two simple principles:

Each Ration Point lets the party live comfortably for one day.

Each day the party loses one Ration Point.

To acquire Ration Points:

 Forage (using an acceptable DC for level) per Ration Point

 Buy them (1 Ration Point is equal to 1 gp per party member)

 Any other way the characters are determined to be clever…(i.e. roleplaying out hunts, stealing, or, gulp, cannibalism)

As long as the PCs currently possess Ration Points they suffer no consequences. The first day the party spends without Ration Points, and every day thereafter, they lose two healing surges. These healing surges cannot be regained until they the party has spent consecutive days with Ration Points equal to the number of days without. So if the party went three days without Ration Points, they’d need three days with Ration Points to regain the healing surges lost.

After 3 days without ration points the PCs are weakened until all healing surges are regained. Also, in the case that the PCs have no more healing surges, they instead suffer HP damage in an amount equal to what their healing surge would normally heal.

Hear Me!

Another short blog post today –




I had the pleasure of being on the Power Source Podcast recently. We discussed a lot of things, an in-depth discussion of the Fey Folio, notwithstanding. I highly recommend you check it out.

(Sometimes my voice fades a bit, but not often. Let me stress that was my fault . . . I was a podcast virgin. I was clumsy.)

But aside from self-promotion, let me give you a few solid reasons you should check out the Power Source:



1) Talking about 4e by people who play 4e, and sometimes have written for 4e. The host, Jared Glenn, has written for Dragon Magazine and has published some really sweet 3rd party stuff for 4e. However, Jared like’s to bring in a lot of cohosts, some of which are well-known to the gaming community for their efforts outside of publishing (Chatty DM, Jeff Greiner) and then those who are better known for their written work (Dave Noonan).

2) A very in-depth discussion of recent releases by WotC with an emphasis on DDI articles. This discussion of WotC’s digital content fills a fairly large hole in the podcast world, and, in my estimation is one of the two best things about the podcast.

3) It is community driven. Questions are asked by the community and answered on the podcast.

4) Campaign Advice. Each month the Power Source focuses on a different type of campaign and discusses adventures, heroes, villains, and arcs for each.

5) The other top two thing – the community-added bumpers at the end of the show. It was here I first heard Aberrant Rules, a great collection of houserules.

Anyways, the podcast is fun, quirky, and while they can go on in length they do so because of the enjoyment people get from discussing the game.