The Fallow Brow

Christmas has come and gone in the blink of an eye, and I just realised I had forgotten all about you, my dear readers. Well, you are all eminently forgettable so it’s not really my fault – you should strive to be more interesting.  Since January is going to be another complete write-off time-wise I thought I would poop out a quick brain-dump for you to re-digest through your eye holes.

I have previously spoken about building a dice tower from scraps I had lying around. Recently, for fun, I built the “Ultimate Dice Tower” (not to be mistaken for the less appealing Ultimate Dice Tower 2) from Fat Dragon Games. I got this on sale from Drive-Thru RPG for about US$4 and it is truly awesome.

Fat Dragon games produce a range of great looking 3D terrain for RPG gamers which you print, cut and assemble yourself into small inter-locking units. These look a lot like real work, a major investment in time, and a potential life-long debilitating obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Let’s face it, you can never have enough dungeons, and once I completed one set, I can see myself wanting 2, 3 or prehaps a million copies of some sections.  I don’t think I could stop until I had enough to fill a football field. Before committing the entirety of my free time and spare cash for the rest of my life, I wanted to try out something small, with a definite end-point. So, I grudgingly forked out my precious copper pieces, and downloaded the printable PDF.

The first surprise in the downloaded .zip file is that it actually contains 19 PDF files:

• 14 one-page documents to print and cut out to make the pieces of the dice tower.
• an excellent twenty-six page “beginners Guide to Card Modelling” which details how to cut, score, and glue the correct way.
• a nineteen page document on how to specifically build this dice tower, which is comprised mostly of photographs with captions.
• 3 optional “charts” that can be inserted into the lower part of the dice tower (where the dice come to rest). One is a “hit-chart” so you can randomise what part of the body a blow lands on. Another is a “random dungeon generator” for building random maps on-the-fly. The 3rd is blank that you may create your own charts.

Some of the PDFs include layers so you can choose to print either “stone” or “grass” areas for some sections of the tower. As far as I can tell you need the Adobe PDF Reader to do this, as the 3rd party PDF viewer I was using did not support this feature. This is not a problem – I have both, but the 3rd party one is my default due to ongoing security concerns with Adobe software.

Areas of the dice tower which will not be visible in the final assembled unit are white (no rock,grass or brick pattern printed on them). This servers 2 purposes – to reassure you you are building the model correctly, but also to save on printer ink.  Nice!

The guide suggested using 110lb card stock for printing the tower pieces out. For the “rest of the world” who use the correct (metric) system this is about 150gsm (grams/square metre). I ended up going with some slightly heavier (200gsm) card that I got at Officeworks, because I knew from previous experience that my printer had no issues printing on it, and I already had nearly 100 sheets sitting on my desk.  This brings me to a couple of small tips for us “foreigners”:

1. The model is designed with US Letter size paper in mind.  Since this is rare and exotic I just used A4, and
2. Because A4 is a slightly different aspect ratio to Letter you must ensure that you turn “stretch to fit” OFF (or in some versions set “Page Scaling” to NONE) when printing, or your parts are not going to fit together.

You may find the printing of some lines gets cut off on the very edge of one or two pages, but only on the gluing tabs, which is not a problem – just cut where you think the lines should go :-).

Apart from these small adjustments, I followed the instructions to the letter, and it all went smoothly. About 5 or 6 hours (spread over 3 nights) I had a beautiful looking dice tower.  I am no expert at this paper modelling caper, and I am quite sure that a more expert user could manage this in less time, and probably get a marginally better finished product.

The only thing I changed was gluing a second copy of the base to the bottom of the model after it was finished for a little more structural strength (and it also covers up some of the gluing tabs, and hence makes the underside prettier – no once can accuse me of not being anal).

So, was it worth the 4 bucks + $1.80 worth of cardboard and some cheap generic 3rd-party printer ink? Hell yes.  It’s so impressive I want to start building them as presents for all my friends and family! What my octogenarian mother would do with an awesome medieval looking dice tower I have no freaking idea, but she’s getting one OK! Suck it!

So, if I never publish anything on this blog ever again, blame the arseholes at Fat Dragon Games. Next time they should make products that suck, like the the Ultimate Dice Tower 2.

Here is the finished product:

* Disclaimer: I am not receiving any money/goods/services/sexual favours from this blog either directly or indirectly (through affiliate programs etc.). I have no conflicts of interest, and don’t know anybody who has ever worked at Fat Dragon Games, Drive Through RPG, Officeworks or any other entity mentioned in any of my gaming posts, so screw you Mr. Smarty Pants who think I am a shill for Big RPG. I am doing this for +1 karma.

First some good news: Wizards Of The Coast have made my preferred version of Basic D&D – the 1983 Basic rulebooks A.K.A Mentzer, A.K.A BECMI – available for online purchase ($5 each for the Player and DM books) as a downloadable PDF over at D&D Classics, RPG Now, Drive-Thru RPG possibly other places. Previously they only had the 1981 – A.K.A. Moldvay A.K.A. B/X – version.

(BTW: does any-one know how these 3 web sites are linked? They seem to share their back-end infrastructure. Weird)

More good news: I scored a free copy of the D&D Essentials “Dungeon Masters Kit“. It’s gone into the cupboard for now, but it looks very cool and I’m looking forward to playing this. It contains:

rules and advice to help Dungeon Masters run games for adventurers of levels 1–30. It also includes useful DM tools such as a Dungeon Master’s screen (with tables and rules printed on the inside), die-cut terrain tiles and monster tokens, and fold-out battle maps.

I got because an online store mistakenly shipped it to me (I ordered something else). When I rang them they told me to keep it, and they sent me the correct item!  So, they are somewhat incompetent but I guess their heart is in the right place. I won’t mention their name because I’ve had other problems with them on other orders too – don’t really want to endorse them 🙂

And some bad news. I am probably the last person to hear that the my favourite author of all time, Jack Vance, has died. I only mention it here because the magic system used in D&D (where magic users forget spells once cast, and have to re-learn them), was “inspired” by Vance’s Dying Earth novels.  I highly recommend reading every word the man ever wrote, and The Dying Earth is a pretty good place to start. Farewell Jack, and say “Hi” to E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson for me.

Then even more good news: I found a very cheap place to get polyhedral dice sets. For between AU$4.00 and AU$5.40 (and that price INCLUDES shipping to Australia) you can pick up a set of 7 polyhedral dice in an assortment of colours. The price also includes a dice bag (with a choice of 3 colours).  SUPER Bargain. I have ordered stuff from them twice now, and so far had no problems (but don’t expect overnight delivery, OK). You can see their eBay store here. Again, I have no affiliation with these guys, and at that price they couldn’t afford to give me a kick-back 🙂 I also have no idea how long they will continue to sell this stuff!

Now, on with the show…

Bargle has fled.

Our brave fighter (now named “Coocoo” apparently) has made it back to town and his wounds have healed.  The next thing that happens is that he visits the local smithy and gets some better armour (British/Australian spelling only, please), and then learns a little more about the game mechanics of slaughtering monsters.

Once the administrivia is done, it’s time to head back to the caves for some more monster bashing. Here you will learn some rudimentary mapping skills, and fight some more monsters: rats, goblins, skeletons, and a rust monster. Coocoo died a couple of times attempting this, but he got there in the end. It helped once Alpha got into the mindset of being a savage fighter and just started killing everything at first sight (so they couldn’t call reinforcements).

In the caves you will also discover some hidden clues, an  assortment of treasures, a magical riddling mouth in a wall that can double the treasure you are holding, or take it all away. On the final attempt at this dungeon, Alpha held off on visiting the mouth until the end when she had collected all the other treasure.  That’s thinking!

By the end of the adventure Alphas character had reached level 2! Huzzah!

Once you finish up in the caves, you head back to town, where you can go shopping to replace any of the items you used (oil for your lamp, weapons and armour eaten by the rust monster etc.), and maybe treat yourself to a few extra bits and pieces for your next adventure using your newly bulging treasure sack.

Once this solo adventure is complete, it’s time to read the rest of the players manual which explains races and classes, prime requisites, alignment, adjustments and saving throws and everything else a player might need. It talks you through how to roll up a new character and how playing with a group differs from the solo adventure you just completed.

Overall, this was very entertaining.  I am already getting hassled about when we can continue the adventure, but at this stage I still need to get a few other players up to speed. There is a further adventure in the DM’s guide, but it requires multiple players.  I suppose I could just run BSOLO (one player module) or M1 SOLO (old invisible ink module) with her in the mean time.  The invisible ink is no longer functional, but you can find the hidden text online (or if that link goes down, here).

One of the issues that came up is that there was a lot of scribbling out of Hit Points.  To stop us having to do that, I threw together a simple 0-99 counter (pictuerd below).  This is made of 200 gsm cardboard (thicker would be better, but my printer won’t go much thicker than that).  After printing, I put clear “ConTact” over the whole thing before cutting it out, and attaching the wheels with some small brads.  For anyone who wants to make these themselves, I am putting the 1-page template for download as a png file here.

See you next month, nerdy folk.

Dungeons and Dragons comes in more flavours than Baskin-Robbins. Original,  Basic/Expert, BECMI, Rules Cyclopedia, Advanced 1st, 1.5th, 2nd, 2.5th which was followed by Dungeons & Dragons (with no ‘Advanced’) 3rd, 3.5th and 4th editions. Then there’s the clones, like OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and so on. And following the religious schism between the 3.5th and 4th edition Pathfinder (sometimes jokingly referred to as 3.75th edition) came into being, and begat the ultra-sexy looking Pathfinder Beginner Box. Where on earth do you start?

With younger kids you are going to want to start with simple rules. The point of these articles is also to keep it as cheap as possible, without resorting to moral dodgyness and illegality. Oh hell, does that make me Lawful Good? Dammit – that’s annoying 🙁

For me, the conclusion I came to was to go with BECMI because I had books, and even though that makes it seem like a no-brainer, the decision was still excruciating. For the uninitiated, BECMI is the 1983 revision of the basic rules by the Madonna of Role-playing Frank Mentzer. It stands for Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal.  Each of these “levels” has a players handbook and a dungeon masters guide (sometimes separate, sometimes in a single book). The “Basic” set (set 1) covers player levels 1 to 3. Expert covers levels up to 14. Companion covers levels up to 25 and so on. I don’t expect to ever get the kids beyond that, as we will probably move on to Pathfinder or AD&D at that point. The Basic books contain a minimal set of rules, with more being introduced s the players move up the levels.

BECMI is a gentle introduction to the D&D world. it comes with separaThen there’s the clones, like OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and so on. And following the religious schism between th3 3.5th and 4th edition Pathfinder came into being, and begat the ultra-sexy lookte Player and DM guidebooks. New players are guided through a “solo” adventure which walks them through core concepts (hit points, combat, saving throws, character classes etc.) one at a time.

If you don’t have BECMI books at hand (and you can’t find a reasonably prices second hand set at AbeBooks or Amazon) then head over to DnD Classics and pick up the 1981 Basic set (aka Moldvay) for $5.00.  This version of Basic D&D came with the player and DM guides in one book. This is a legitimate copy, and will be watermarked with your name at the time of download. The text of the PDF file is searchable, and you can print out the entire manual if that’s what you’re into. Super bargain! While you are there you can also pick up any or all of the old Basic modules (numbered B1 to B12) for $5 each (or $50 for the dozen). For complete beginners, I would suggest one the following introductory modules:

• B2 – The Keep on the Borderlands
• B1 – In Search of the Unknown
• B11 – Kings Festival (and then it’s sequel B12 Queen’s Harvest)

NOTE: I do not get any money or other benefits from any of the links in any of the posts in this series including the above.  I am dong this out of nerd altruism, not some fantasy of profiting from it.

My alternate choice would be the Pathfinder Beginner Box, which you can get delivered world-wide from The Book Depository for around AU$35. Pathfinder is what D&D 4th Edition might have been in an alternate universe.  If you are willing to forgo all the fiddly fun of printing, cutting, and planning it would be well worthwhile paying for this and getting everything you need in one box – dice,  play-mat maps, rule books, character sheets (both blank and pre-generated), card stock miniatures (with stands), and a starter adventure – the only thing you need to provide is a pencil, and your imagination. The publisher (Paizo) web site also has free downloadable additions to the Box to help you continue the fun and transition to the full game. I confess I bought one of these, for when the kids get a little older and/or more RPG savvy. I think it might be a touch beyond Beta (6 years old) at this stage, and I like the cutting and pasting busy work of making, maps and miniatures. I’m weird like that.
EDIT (2nd May 2014): Book Depository prices have been a bit volatile lately. You can get a comparison of retail prices for the beginner box by clicking here.

It is also worth noting that there are a multitude of non-D&D role-playing games aimed at kids as well such as Hero Kids, rpgKids, Fuzzy Heroes, Super Heroes Unite!, Buggin’, Meddling Kids, GURPS Lite etc.  You can find a nice round-ups of kids RPGs at tlucretius.net, DriveThruRPG, and the Young Person’s Adventure League.

See you next month, and as always feel free to register and leave a comment (your details are will not be loaned, sold or given away for free – such an action would bring disgrace on my ancestors and I would be forced to commit Seppuku).

Children are expensive. They are also obnoxious, frequently dirty, smelly and time consuming, but that’s a whole other series of blog posts.  An article about one couple not spending any money on their kids for a year got me wondering how I could introduce my children to D&D for free – or at least on a tiny budget. Surprisingly there is actually a lot of alternatives to coughing up the big bucks for rule books, miniatures, modules and maps. Using the resources in this series of articles you should be able to get up and running for less than $20.

Background: I have two children: An 8 year old girl (I’ll call her Alpha) and a 6 year old boy (Beta – although Beater might be more appropriate). I had some experience of D&D from the BASIC/EXPERT/1st Edition AD&D days, but had never been a DM.  Before forking out a lot of cash, I wanted a quick, easy, free way to introduce them to the D&D multiverse. If they showed any interest we could build up to something bigger.

Thankfully Wizards of the Coast (who apparently bought TSR during that 25 years I wasn’t looking) have a free adventure called Heroes of Hesiod which comes in the form of a downloadable PDF.  Print out the book, cut out the hero/monster cards and tokens (for use on the map) and grab some dice, preferably a normal six sided dice, and a twenty sided dice or d20.  If you don’t have a d20, the game makes allowances for you to use three six-sided dice instead.

The game itself only lasts about 30 minutes (although the first one may be a little longer until you get the hang of it).  It is designed for 5 or 6 players, and luckily we had a few of the neighbourhood kids hanging around when it was time to play.  If you have less players, it might be a good idea to leave one or two of the monsters out.

The game itself is an extremely simplified version of D&D. The “map” is a rectangular dungeon with a few obstacles (rocks and barrels) strewn around.  There are also four cages, each containing a monster, which the DM releases over the course of the game. If a player dies, the DM brings them back to life.  Once the monsters are all defeated each of the heroes receives a badge with their characters name on it (which is also included in the PDF).

Overall the kids had a good time with Heroes of Hesiod, although Beta’s attention started to wane by the end.

There is not a huge amount of replay value, but it is relatively trivial to come up with some new monsters and/or heroes to mix things up a bit (there’s not a whole bunch of stats to roll up). I made up a few extra adventurers and monsters, and a fancier map using some of the free resources over at Drive Thru RPG.

I already had a set of polyhedral dice, but for those of you don’t you could invest in some standard D&D sets of 7 dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D10 (tens), D12 and D20.  These can be purchased all over the internet.  Here is a few dealers worth trying:

• WarPuppy – Only ships within Australia. Nice Ch://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htmessex brand sets starting from AU$8.50 + about AU$7 postage. I’ve always had great service from them.
• EM4Miniatures – UK Based, but has reasonable overseas shipping rates.  TWO sets of 7 poly-dice including shipping cost me about AU$16.50 in total. Also sells stands for paper miniatures that I will be discussing in a later instalment. I’ve also had surprisingly prompt service from these guys.
• Milsims Games – Have quite a range starting at AU$4.50 including the beautiful but expensive Q Workshops dice. Shipping is AU$7.50
• Or, you could just find your local games store (if you are lucky enough to have one). Damned if I can find anyone selling this stuff around me.

(Note: Prices above were as of 7th Feb 2013)

If you don’t want to purchase dice, there are also free dungeon master programs (or web sites) to roll dice on your computer or smart phone. Below is a one line Perl program to roll a 20 sided dice. This will work out of the box on Linux systems (you like D&D, so you must be using Linux, right?). If your using some inferior operating system you might need to install the Free community edition of ActivePerl first.

   perl -e 'print int(rand(20)+1)."\n"'

Change the number 20 to the number of sided dice you want to roll.  Now that’s cheap!

Well, that’s all for this time!. If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to create an account, and I will do my best to reply.  Note: You have my solemn promise never to sell or otherwise disclose your email address or other details to spammers or anyone else short of being presented with a warrant from a law enforcement agency. If I break this vow, may every player character in every adventure henceforth have a true neutral alignment:-(

Cheerio until next month!