This is an Awesome Post

No not this post. THIS POST, by the great Sham, is awesome. First it shows somthing he is doing. Second it illustrates a principle of game design. Third you get a great how to that you can easily replicate yourself and last it calls attention to awesomeness that is not his own. I am posting about it here because it needs more links to it so more people can go and relish in its awesomeness. And if you want even more awesome awesomeness read his thoughts on OD&D books I-III (too many to link to). You will never look at the monsters, treasures, heros (and antiheros) the same way again.

1d20 Dreams for the Dying and Unconscious

This table has taken a while to write. I have been coming up with the ideas sort of piecemeal on my lunch breaks over the past couple of months. The idea is that in a fight, when death is near and a character goes unconscious they might have a weird dream before they die or are revived. These are written in such a way that the DM can run with the idea and use it to describe to the player the character's movement towards or away from death rather than giving him a number.

Say if the player rolls a 1, and dreams of chains, the DM can describe the chains doing things that reflect the status of the character's current condition. It could be that they are the chains holding the soul to the body, or that they are a measure of how dead you are. Either way the DM can describe what is happening to the chains as the character improves or declines.

1) chains
2) dark forms
3) whispers
4) crawler in a pit
5) dancing cows
6) giant whirlpool
7) falling
8) drowning
9) fat man eating
10) spider web
11) giant black dog
12) tentacles
13) wings
14) maddening gibberish
15) body on fire
16) talking monkeys/apes
17) body freezing
18) thin man walking
19) fog
20) belching frog

More about my 4e Character

Overall I like 4e. It is a fun game and allows for the options I want in a way. It has a lot of what I look for in a system but my only problem with it is that it is largely driven by component. It's like the dev team is a buch of guys in a box trying to dream up new rule legos.

Many have said it feels like a video game. I agree in spirit, but I disagree about the video game it feels like. Many think this:















I think this:










Movement is a big part of 4e, almost in the same way that it is a big part of Dragonslair. And that was what inspired me to base my first character on Dirk the Daring as I stated here.

But something weird happened as I played him. He looks like this guy:















But given the history and the mercenary attitude I gave him he feels and acts more like this guy:



















So I have decided to roll with it and combine them. After all, cool + cool = 2cool right? I think the following picture best represents my 4e character:














Dirk is turning out to be one dangerous dude.

Currently Dreaming the Dream of the Black Lotus

I have not posted for a while as I am away with other things. I still have a slew of ideas to share and as my black lotus dream continues I gain more. But I have been working a bit here and there on Codex which has a new name, and hashing out some fiction that as life would have it right now may never see the light of day.

Since I have entered my dream state, many things have passed in this world. Many of them political. Since such petty politics are below those of us who plumb the dreamlands for deeper mysteries in our lotus inspired sleep you will not see my opinion on this blog nor in your comments with a name that links to this blog. Though I may clearly agree or greatly disagree my opinion (on many things) is my own and I will not share. Also, in the end, politics is bad for business.

Nor will you hear about my personal life. Again me complaining about how my life sucked today or yesterday or how I think something is neat is not good for business. You will only get madness and dreams particular to fiction and gaming.

Till I post again with further madness...