B is for Bolas and Boomerangs and Bog Beasts!

Every group has one, at least once in its existence. It's the player that, for whatever reason, just naturally gravitates  to the "weird" weapons: bolas, boomerangs, khopeshs, etc., etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Now, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly ok to try one's hand at an exotic weapon to break out of the cookie-cutter mold of some classes. It's a way to make one's character unique. My cleric of Jupiter in our current Hackmaster game (4E) wears Roman-style armor and uses Roman pila as weapons. No, this is something else entirely. This is the guy who's looking for an edge to always have a gimmick or gadget that is the Ultimate Weapon (TM), the one that makes him the center of attention and the most useful member of society. In all, it's annoying as Hell for the DM and the other players.

Maybe it's just a need for attention, but it drives some people crazy, your humble blogger included, especially when it's taken to extremes. We had this one fellow in our group who decided that his dwarvan bounty hunter just had to be Batman. He was constantly slowing up the game trying to put together a utility belt and a bunch of other weird crap. First of all, this isn't V&V.* Two, it was WEIRD stuff...like trying to make a "servo arm" from the legs of a giant spider. Three, this might have worked if he was some kind of Tinker Gnome or something, but he was just a run-of-the-mill hill dwarf. Four, ok, this was semi-acceptable back in the day, but this was 2010 and this guy is in his 40's. Let's some depth and perspective here. Please. Before I pull my hair out. ~sigh~ [/rant] 

*Villains and Vigilantes is the first Super Hero RPG that was published in the 1970s.

Bog Beasts (Bullywugs)

AC: 6 [13]                                                   Special: Hop attack, camouflage
HD: 1                                                          Move:  3/15 (when swimming)
Attacks: Bite or weapon                               HDE/XP: 1/15

Bog beasts are a degenerate batrachian race that dwell in the dank places of the earth: swamps, marshes, bayous--places that are shunned by Men and their allies and with access to open water. Many bog beasts follow leaders of Chaos and Evil and there are rumors of depraved rites that lead to the breeding of these beasts with men to create half-breeds that serve vile creatures from the Outer Dark. Some bog beasts, however, merely wish to escape from the judgmental gaze of the Free Peoples and are merely shy and reclusive.

The bog beast has a natural camouflage ability that allows it to attack from the shadows with a 3-in-6 chance of achieving surprise; if combined with a hopping attack, this chance is increased to 5-in-6. When hopping to the attack, the bog beast gains a +1 to hit rolls and does double damage on a successful hit. However, unless attacking with surprise, bog beasts automatically lose initiative.

A is for Armor Class, Armor Type, and Anhkheg!

Well, April has arrived and with it the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. So, let's start off with Armor Class.

Some of the younger gamers (i.e., that being late 20's to early 30's) in my gaming group missed out on the glut of gaming material from the 1980's.  thus, they never experienced really crunchy games like FGU's Aftermath! and ICE's Rolemaster. One of my fellow gamers (Louie) is thinking about playing 40K and he met a guy probably about my age who has all the old Aftermath materials. At last week's game, we were discussing it and the amount of detail present in a game like that.

Let's face it: Armor Class, and by extension Hit Points, are very abstract in the way that they function. Ideally something like Aftermath with its 30 hit locations or something like Twilight 2000 with its 7 hit locations is probably a better simulation of combat. Rolemaster tries to take a middle ground....AT (Armor Type) determines how likely and how hard a character gets hit. And the crits...well, the crits determine a nice nifty location to hit one in and do even more damage. Let's face it: if most of us were hit by a psychopath with a broadsword, we'd be lying Kerrigan-like on the ground bleeding and crying for our mommy!

So, I guess my point is this: role-playing games are not an accurate representation of combat nor should they be. I love a good knockdown, dragout game of 40K or Panzer Blitz with the best of them, but roleplaying games, while derived from wargames and occasionally sharing some of the same terminology, are NOT wargames. They are ROLEPLAYING games. Yes, there is conflict, but conflict is not the end all and be all of the game. The point of the game is the story. It's about the players and their journey to fame and fortune.

This is why games like Mechwarrior (the RPG for Battletech) have never done all that well, neither at the gaming table nor in sales. The focus is combat, not the story. Battletech fiction is fun to read but, again, there is a disconnect between the fiction, the game and the RPG. There are things that are possible in the novels that are not possible in the game. There are things in the RPG that disagree with the novels. The focus is not the same.

Possibly this also why licensed properties do poorly. I mean, Kirk is THE captain, the Enterprise is THE ship. What room is there for the players and their story? Or what about Middle Earth? We know how the War of the Ring of the ends. We cannot be Frodo or Legolas; they are that world's Mythic heroes. Another example: Greyhawk versus the Realms. There are larger than life characters on Oerth, but they fade into the background. You don't have to ever meet Bigby, for instance. there's room. The Realms? Well, there's Elminster, the Harpers, that Drizz't chap, Khelban Skunkbeard and a bunch of other "chosen" who interfere in everything. Makes it hard for the heroes to shine.

So, is it not amazing how such a thing as AC can set the whole tone for a type of game?

Last, yet not least, a quick writeup of the Anhkheg for S&W WB.

Anhkheg

AC: 2 [17]; underside 4 [15]                         Special: Acid squirt
HD: 6                                                           Move:  12/6 (when burrowing)
Attacks: Bite                                                 HDE/XP: 8/700

An anhkheg is a burrowing insect that is the bane of farmers everywhere. Not only do they tunnel through the earth causing no end of crop damage, but they also like the occasional bit of meat, whether livestock or peasant!

Its crushing mandibles rip and tear for 3d6 damage in addition to secreting an acidic saliva for an addition 1d4 damage. The ahnkheg can also spit this saliva to a distance of 30 feet once every 6 hours for 4d8 damage. It will only do this in extremis because for the next 6 hours it does not secrete any saliva with its bite (i.e., no additional 1d4 damage per bite). A favorite tactic is to lie 5-10 feet under the surface and burrow up to grab its prey in its mandibles; it can do this with a 50% chance of achieving surprise on its victim.

Occasional several young ones can be found together (No. 1-6, HD 3 each, 1d6 bite + d3 saliva, no spit attack).

My Top 10 Comics #4: Spider Smash!!!

Chello!


Well, I'm running behind..as usual. Teaching, Labor Day, acolyte training...life never seems to stop, does it?


But, anyway, here we're up to #4. The choices are starting to get harder!! Well, today a bit of whimsy, I guess. Let's go with Web of Spiderman #70.





This issue is part two of a two-part story. The cover alone is  terrific! "Spider smash!" indeed! It's also representative of the craziness that is Peter Parker's life and indicative of a more subtle and profound change in the Spidey comics.

In the 1990s, Peter's life would get very complicated. It was like the writers at Marvel decided that nothing good could happen to Peter. Oh, there were bad things prior to this time [cf. Gwen Stacy, 1st app of the Punisher (gunning for Spidey)], but mostly his life wasn't the parody that it would become in the movies. He has some good times and some bad times; things always seemed to even out in the end.


Things would get worse. Venom and Carnage wanting Pete dead, MJ "dying" and then returning only to separate from Peter, selling his marriage to the Devil...the new Spidey just couldn't catch a break. Things seem to be more on the minus side of teh balance sheet--it's all in the red. Poor Peter.

By itself, this is a great storythat links all the way back to  Fantastic Four #51 with its villain. It's all just plain out FUN. Spidey pulling off the Bruce Banner signature move of getting angry and big and green. You have to read it to get it.