Category: Gaming

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Rejecting Coins

One of the suggestions for the Kick Starter was to offer upgrades of metal tokens These awesome prototypes in Steel Electroplated Nickel Silver look fantastic but they are very heavy  adding 1.75 Kg to the case. They do come with the bonus of being able to stick to a Magnetic sheet.  I’m not sure GM’s will cope with having that much weight added to the case. Its a real pity because they look and feel fantastic.

D&D Wall

A large fridge magnet type plastic sheet with these coins would work great if you ever need a D&D wall where you could leave your tokens and campaign setup. Tell me in the comments if you think there is a market for such a product.

 
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Encounter Log Pad

These are to be added to the GMLight flavour packs. As a simple pad with double sided tear off sheets. The idea is to give a busy GM a way of recording a random encounter. Each tear off  sheet will have random example encounter maps both for on the road and underground for the GM to use if appropriate or ignore. Front Page adds

  • Date
  • Character record list
  • HP tracker/record for the encounter
  • Table of encounter colour * roll D10

Back page

  • Notes
  • Treasure given
    1. Coins
    2. Random Minor Magic items you can tick to add
    3. Random Minor Material weapons you can tick to add
    4. Random Gems you can tick to add
    5. Random Jewellery you can tick to add
    6. Possible treasure documents you can tick to add
    7. Minor Magic items you can tick to add

 

These are to add value to the flavour Packs for the Kick Starter any comments on how to improve them will be considered

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GMLight expansion packs and addons for the Kick starter

We are preparing to run a Kick starter campaign for GMLight Flavour packs: Add ons to GMLight  specific to the various gaming systems. The surveys we’ve conduct have shown that D&D 5e is the most popular FRPG played today. D&D 5e is published under the open game license OGL which  means that legal requirements for publishing works which make use of its intellectual property is contained and defined in this license. Other FRPGs that fall under the OGL are D&D3.5, D&D4e,Pathfinder 2e, Pathfinder and Basic Fantasy RPG.  The intention is to run Kick Starters for generating flavour packs for each of these FRPGs. D&D4e does not appear to have a strong following and so will be omitted from the proposed kick starter list.

 

Contents:

  • 90 Double Sided monster cards (up to 180 Monsters) Each with a drawing of the monster below its textual description
  • DM Screen for tailored to the FRPG
  • Sheet of peel-able Condition Stickers for Conditions in the RPG
  • Set of Initiative clippons to run a round

If you have any good ideas how we can add more value please answer in the comments

 

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Dice Roller Speaks

A request on our Facebook page lead to the development of Dice Roller Speaks.

Dice Roller Speaks was created to make Fantasy  role playing games more inclusive. Produced with the visually impaired in mind this App allows Dungeons and Dragons players and other Fantasy Role playing games to roll Dice with a vocal output.

This app is free and on the Google play store

  • The Left hand column is the number of Dice to be rolled (spoken)
  • The Dice Picture column Rolls the dice and speak the Result
  • The Up arrow increases the count of dice rolled
  • the Down arrow decreases the count of dice rolled
  • The + symbol rolls with advantage
  • the – symbol rolls with disadvantage
  • the GMLight Dice Symbol at top and bottom repeats the Voice of the last roll

Thanks to Colaborators

With thanks for Optician advice to Peter Croucher

Special thanks to Thomas Croucher for the Voice Over

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Calculating EXP in Dungeons and Dragons

The formal method for calculating the experience award for a character has changed in many ways over the versions.  But it still remains one of the most contentious issues as each GM is required to moderate the results and players generally argue that more experience is required. This article lists all  the prescribed methods in one place.

Basic D&D

Sum up the Gold Piece value of the treasure taken  the add 100* Hit dice of the monster  then  divide by the Characters Level

AD&D

  1. Calculate the Gold piece value of treasure taken. Each GP taken adds 1 exp to the total Experience award
  2. For each monster Add its BXPV to the HP*(XP/HP) add the SA*SAXPB and the EA*EAXPV to the total experience Award (These  values are derived from a Table)
  3. Divide the total Experience award equally between players

AD&D 2e

 

  1. For each creature calculate  the Hit Dice or Level of the Creature
  2. Add the additional Hit Dice or levels from the Hit Dice Value Modifier table
  3. Multiply by the number of Creatures of that type
  4. Divide by the number of the characters

D&D 3.0

3.0 and 3.5 used the same experience calculation

D&D 3.5

  1. Find each characters Level accounting for monster characters ECL
  2. Find  the CR for each monster defeated
  3. Lookup the XP award for a single monster in a table like:

** Note this table is an approximation not the exact values

4. Divide by this number of Characters in the encounter

5. Add up this EXP awards for all the monsters defeated by each character

D&D 4e

Each Monster description has an experience point value

  1. Total the experience points for all the monsters in an encounter
  2. Divide by the number of characters

D&D 5e

Each Monster description has an experience point value

  1. Total the experience points for all the monsters in an encounter
  2. Divide by the number of characters
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RPGs played in 2021

OK the poll is now closed. We asked 12 of the most popular Facebook RPG Groups “What TTRPG (Table Top Role Playing Game) have you played in the last year ?” and the the results are shown below.

The most popular by far was D&D5e (Definitely the Cocoa Cola of RPGs The surprise was that AD&D still appears to be the 2nd most popular with 3.5,2e and Pathfinder being less prevalent. The next amazing revelation was the sheer number of RPGs that are played.

Our draw for the lucky winner of a GMLight Core will take place today and they will be informed via Facebook Messenger.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and pandemic free new year.

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Starting selling on Amazon

Selling on Amazon proved to be a lot more work than I was anticipating I started to create a sellers account on the 27th of November and had finally created and account by the 5th of December the supporting documentation required was “extensive”. I then found that I should really register the GMLight Brand before selling items on amazon otherwise other sellers could hijack my amazon listing. So I started the Brand registry process. I also found out that I have to buy Bar codes to do this if I don’t want to create an amazon listing that may have issues later on ! when I  get a Bar Code. Specifically all the reviews and ratings may become “lost”. So this was all done in time for Chistmas (but not in time to sell stuff) GMLight Core

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A week of Gaming

Holiday in the Isle of Wight

A group of friends meet up in the idyllic setting that is a well converted barn in the rural wilds of  the Isle of Wight on the 24th October(already sounds like a Plot from the ICFTLLLS). Instead of roving picturesque countryside that surrounds us  we drag out of dusty bags and carryalls, pieces of paper and dice that have not  seen the light of day for a dozen years and start chattering about characters long not used. Generating new characters and starting to a prepare for the week ahead

Two games a planned for the first weekend with two others in the wings in case there should be a gap in the gaming. 

  • It came from the Late Late Late Night Movie Show
  • Golden Heroes
  • Space 1889
  • Melee,Magic and Maelstrom (my system) 

It came from the Late Late Late show (ICFTLLLS :Saturday)

Is a tongue in cheek role playing game set in the world of American B movies where players play vapid and silly characters through suspect plots with hilarious consequences.  Not at all serious this game resounds of with shouts of “Stunt Double !” as players try to muddle their way through a plot where cinematic treats such and red eyed zombies, EMP Bombs and cursed crystal skulls  try to eat,blow up or possess the characters

The scenario:  The players characters are  attending an audition for a Movie set in the grounds of Rochester Castle which also happens to be the site on an Archaeological  dig when a crystal skull is dug up by the Archaeologists! …. this explodes with an EMP blast  which beside being inadequately explained resulted in black out of Rochester! and most of the population of Rochester being converted into Red eyed Zombies. The characters are then pursued through the streets of Rochester by Zombies…… After a charge up and down the A2 in a double decker  bus the characters are pursued by supernatural forces and the movie climaxes with  the characters detonating the SS Richard Mongonery on Nore sandbank in the Thames estuary near Sheerness  to destroy  the  crystal Skull… A hugely cinematic ending to a days gaming.  

Golden heros

Never a sensible game we played a mixture of eclectic Superheros through a meandering set of encounters where the players failed to deal with two different alien races some mainly marital/martial super villains and failed to stop the end of the world plot that was only saved by one players misspelling of martial meaning they were a marital expert  rather than a Martial Arts expert and therefore could save the day. Far to little alcohol can be used as an excuse. 

Melee Magic and Maelstrom

The climax of the high level parties trip to hell culminated in the return of the high level  characters to the prime material plane only to find the BBEG laying in wait to ambush them  with a fight including dragons and spell jamming space ships bombarding evil nasties with cannon fire.  Suitably apocalyptic with my attempt to run two intersecting time lines where the away teams return from Hell was being intercepted by the BBEG and the characters left behind on the spell Jammer Charging in all guns blazing to rescue the beleaguered away team.

Space 1889

A game set in the Victorian era exposed the whole gamut of Victorian opinions, bigotries and inhibitions. The party, a mixture of minor nobility, anarchists , domestic staff and common tradesmen  foiled a Prussian plot to steal “secrets”  that would tilt the balance  of power. With cameo appearances from Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. The party followed the trail of breadcrumb clues down the Nile to a mysterious pyramid. 

Unamed

A system that still remains unnamed after more than 35 years of existence. A table top FRP game set in a bespoke medieval  fantasy world with magic and combat with 35 years of player lore and campaigning.  The players were tasked with finding out why NPCs were disappearing from a local community …. A classic and almost traditional trope for a fantasy setting. Resulting in a delve into local limestone caves populated by Bug Bears and Spider themed bad guys.

Nuclear Armageddon !!!

A number of table top board games were played through out the a week:

  • The game Warlord apparently “the Original game” that the Games Workshop game of the 1980-90s previously known to me as   Apocalypse was based on.
  • Nuclear war and Nuclear Proliferation

Bit of a Nuclear Armageddon theme I thought ! These games were played in a tongue in cheek Homage by those of us who grew up in the shadow of the mushroom  cloud and now are nearing retirement. Much to the confusion of the Younger generation players. 

The Little Barn, Dungewood lane, Shorwell IOW

 A great place to holiday with friendly and helpful management, Richard and Susan were fantastic hosts we heartily recommend this venue for your stay on the IOW. They coped very well with our group of eccentric table top game players. Thank you both we had a fabulous time

My only regret was that we didn’t make the  time to visit the stunning local scenery… Please pardon a bunch of philistines who don’t  meet up often enough for not taking advantage of your fantastic local sights. The sunrises thru the patio doors are Epic !

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GM Light

GM Light is an actual product now, rather than an idea in my head! I suppose I need to explain what it is and where it originated, well I have been a player of fantasy role playing games since I was at university in the 1980s initially as a player but very soon after, a GM. I have run many campaigns over the years and one thing that struck me was the sheer quantity of papers and paraphernalia that a GM ends up carrying to a game session. This is my attempt to reduce the amount of stuff you have to tote. Also you can bet if you roll a random encounter you won’t have the exact figure for the monster.

GM light is my solution. I have sourced 310 tokens of all the typical monsters and bad guys to allow a phys. rep. of the monster to be placed down. The numbers of the tokens lend themselves to creating a random encounter for most encounters. Rather than have a fold out battle mat which has issues with the creases and laying flat I have created two sided dry wipe tiles.

Because I wanted to cover as many role playing game systems as possible, I came up with the idea of the flavour pack. The full GM travel set comprises the GM Light core set and a flavour pack.

The flavour pack will have all the extras that are specific to a game system like monster stat cards,  a combat tracker, a GM screen and a spell template. This way generic monsters from myth, folklore and popular fiction can be reused with the flavour pack for each game system.

Possible flavour packs include :

  1. DnD 5th Edition
  2. Pathfinder 2nd Edition
  3. DnD 3.5
  4. Pathfinder
  5. Chivalry and Sorcery
  6. Runequest
  7.  Basic Fantasy RPG
  8. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E
  9. King Arthur Pendragon
  10.  Middle Earth Role Playing
  11. GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System)
GM Light  core could support all of them (once the appetite for GM light Core is proven) but practically, before paying for the development of flavor packs for games that may no longer be played. I need find some way to identify which are still relevant. Comments on how to poll the community please !
 

The GM travel kit will provide most of the reference material and game mechanics required to run a fantasy role playing game in a handy pack,  significantly reducing the amount of materials required to run a session.