Castles & Crusades: Season 2 starts August 8th

Yes, the Company of Delvers weekly Saturday night session will return on August 8th. By that point it wil have been nearly 2 months since our last C&C Fantasy Grounds 2 game (we've been on a summer hiatus).

Tenkar, my Dwarven Cleric (who'da guessed? heh) just hit 3rd level at the end of last session. This opens up a whole lot of possibilities for Tenkar now... or if not a whole lot, then a wee bit more then being the secondary tank / healbot. Not that he didn't fill those roles well, but sometime a third dimension (in this case 2nd level spells) should add a little to my so far usualy strategy of "knock heads, heal tanks... rinse, repeat".

I find that C&C plays very close to AD&D in practice. As my younger gaming years were mostly AD&D, it has made the transition to using a VTT nearly painless. Then again, it didn't hurt that I had been playing in a almost weekly Dark Heresy game using FG2.

I am (hopefully) close to running an online gaming session or two myself. I am waiting on iTabletop to see if its all that it appears it will be. Fantasy Grounds I am comfortable as a player, but not as confident in my abilities to actually run a game session.

It's a Circus I Tell Ya!

I never imagined I'd be able to enjoy a podcast. I like to read and listening to people talk amongst themselves is what talk radio is for. So imagine my surprise when I saw that The Free RPG Blog was highlighting RPG podcasts this week.

I was intrigued, and decided to listen to RPG Circus. It was actually entertaining. Yes, mark me surprised. I doubt my girlfriend would want to listen, so headphones are advised to protect your family from the game speak you will find yourself being enthralled by. I listened to episode 3 tonight (the latest as I write this) and it kept me to the end. At over an hour that's pretty damn good. Then again, I'm a multitasker, so I was surfing other blogs at the same time. If you are like me and suffer from GADD (Gamer's Attention Deficit Disorder) DOWNLOAD the podcast and play it back using your favorite media player, otherwise you'll find yourself clicking links on the blog page that relate to the podcast and you'll loss the podcast.

I haven't checked out the other podcasts listed in the article but I'll be listening to them soon for sure. 5 out of 5 on the entertainment scale.

Plethora of PDFs - Upcoming Reviews

Lets see... recently I've picked up the Ultimate Toolbox, HeroQuest, The Day After Ragnarok, took a second look at some PDQ games I have, still need to download the latest Dragon and Dungeon mags I subscribe to... I have a full plate and then some of items to review and upload to my Kindle DX to test DX-ability.

Time to get off my ass and get to work on these reviews it seems.

Did I mention that iTabletop is offering 5 year memberships with 5 floating player licenses for 99 bucks? Not sure if that is good or bad in the long run, but in the here and now the price can't be beat.

Tenkar's Minor Tidbits - Thocar's Excessive Automatic Cannon

Thocar's Excessive Automatic Cannon was designed by a dwarven engineer with obvious gnomish influence. This magical item takes on the appearance of 4 inch cubed metal box with dwarven runes etched into the sides.

Upon activation with the command word the box transforms into a miniature cannon that stands approximately 2 feet high. Using the command word a second time will cause the cannon to fire at any enemy the user designates within 200 feet. The cannons projectiles inflict minimal damage (1 to 2 points), however it can unerringly strikes its target every combat turn. A third use of the command word deactivates the cannon and return it to its minimal cube size. However there is a 5% chance that they can will not deactivate and will continue firing at its previous opponent even if said opponent is no longer in the area or his now deceased. If this is the case the cannon will continue to fire for 10 to 30 minutes before deactivating.

A side effect of the cannon's projectile firing is the loud boom that accompanies each round. This loud boom is extremely distracting and causes a -1 adjustment to the combat abilities of all creatures within 50 feet of the cannon.

Thocar's Excessive Automatic Cannon was designed as a way to keep interlopers, rodents, and the random goblin away from Thocar when resting on the roadside during his travels. The side effect of the constant BOOMS drew the attention of local highwaymen, who promptly relieved Thocar of both his cannon and his life.

Swords and Wizardry - Quick Start Rules - Capsule Review

Some might have noticed I spend a good amount of time reviewing retro clones.  There is a simple reason for that.  Most have their rules for free in PDF format, and I just loves me some free PDFs for my Kindle DX ;)

Anyhow, on to the quick and dirty review of the S&W Quick Start rules - Holy condensation Batman!  An amazing job was done in turning already concise rules into an even easier, more concise format.  Heck, over half of the 30 some odd pages are taken up by the module / adventure (which includes GM advise).  You'll need the full ruleset to level past 1st level, but that not the point.  This little PDF is an excellent introduction to roleplaying.

5 for the amazing product, and a 5 for DX-ability.  Damn good piece of work!