The Last Isle of Dread Campaign and too much DnD

Last week I finished up my latest Isle of Dread campaign. It has pretty much been a year and a half of mostly weekly sessions. 

I have used Isle of Dread a bunch of times since I was a kid. I remember at around 17 years old at Loscon, a Southern California Sci Fi convention, with my girlfriend, my best friend and his GF, and a couple of other dude friends (we all usually played DnD together) spending around 8 or 9 hours over two late nights in one of our rooms sitting around the little hotel room table making a quick trip to The Isle of Dread. I managed to cram in a sea voyage with a surprise stowaway assassin attack and a fire, landing at the island native villages, and trekking to the plateau and partying with alchohol and sex loving Rakasta up in the clouds. I don't recall for sure, but I think we did do the plateau dungeon in the days after the convention. But the point is I had early memories of this module and have used it every several years in a major way. In later in life campaigns, I had a campaign "The Pagos Trading Company" where characters helped a start up trade company travel to the Island and start up a trading post. Though the Pagos company is defunct, one of its old merchants still works out of the trading post and even has a tiki bar! 

I know that sounds like its a busy place now, but it is still hard to get to. You know, that mysterious fog and monsters and pirates and etc. And the main island is as wild as ever. 

I really vetted hard to get a good group of players. The online forums and Discords with the best odds to reach potential players have become, at times, wastelands of lame and weird usernames and particular expectations. But I have gotten good at picking my shots. And I did not rush those early games. You might call them several sessions 1's. I started with a solid player, Christine, who had advertised on Roll20 looking for a campaign, and I sort of team up with her to get a few others together. Some good ones that remained. A couple that ended up not working, but by around sessions 4 I had a solid group of people.  And pretty much all those of us played together for that long year and a half. 

I did not rush them to the Isle of Dread. I hooked them up with Merlot Von Tanmoor, a very connected (knows the queen and proves it) wizard and academic from old Tanmoor money. I used him in the last couple of campaigns as an easy patron type. The characters included a couple of freshly arrived drow from the deep. A gnome artificer who also considered herself an archeologist, and who quickly became a mentee of history professor Merlot. Also Kork the dragonborn cleric. That was fun because Dragonborn are newly showing up in my originally 1st ed. setting. 

Merlot took them to the opera in a carriage one night, and the characters role played for an hour in it though the ride was probably only 20 minutes. He took them to a major party he threw for connected people and fought assassins there and later in the street. Got arrested for the street fight and I played rap music for that scene inside the precinct with them in chains and we all laughed.

They spent nights drinking at Merlots haunted estate house, and enjoyed the city through second level, then went to the island. All this time there was great role-play, engagement with my stuff, and I was really loving it all. 

An eventful couple of week sea journey, meeting the Tanaroa natives and drinking at the old Pagos tiki bar on the beach. Kork, and orphan who grew up back in the Tanmoor healing gods cathedral, found the secret society of silver dragonborn expats from the mainland that his parents were from. Fought a recurring group of Allosaurus the islanders called "The Seven Brothers," saved villagers from the big pirate camp. All the good stuff. Everything but the plateau (where now instead of the old dungeon I have the spaceship from Barrier Peaks). 

Never went there tho..

The campaign rolled along on the reg. In those early months I had some rough times. I had a family member pass, and I had a long struggle with a persistent sinus infection that could have killed me (takes forever to see a specialist in this town) and a surgery for it that could have blinded me. But the games were so much fun. So much great character interaction. In a good way (mostly) I could barely get a word in sometimes. I like to say, "Sometimes you run the game. Sometimes the game runs you." But I loved it. 

But it let me kick back a lot. The scenarios and campaign had a slow progression, combined with all of them pretty much were Eastern time zone, and since I like to start games at night we usually only played three hours. But for online gaming I have really specialized in getting a lot done in a short amount of time, even with all that role playing. And as a veteran DM, especially with people you are meeting online, I have come to understand most campaigns will not get to their conclusion. Live for the now.  

Early this year, maybe four or so months after my campaign was in swing and my rough times of late 2024, a couple of my regulars started their own games on other nights. Kate, a 24 year old from Tennessee who had an odd Slenderman fixation (who knew there was a "Slenderverse"?) and had a great energy also had a Legend of Zelda fandom, and was starting a campaign based in Hyrule (look it up if you don't know). She invited me and the players to play in it. I was the only one who bit. I mean, Breath of the Wild is a modern favorite of mine, and outside of the original game it was my entryway into the world. K was having trouble getting players at first, so I decided to play to be supportive (always the road to hell is paved with kind intentions). A week later she had found several people WAY into the "Zeldaverse" and pretty much all also aficionados of Pokemon, Digimon, whateverthefuckmon, and furry stuff etc etc. I mean, it was LBGTplus plus plus plus. But hey, I have had such in my games of recent years, but this was next level snowflaky floof 🌈.

I have to admit, K is creative, but I was just not into the Zelda stuff, the creatures and lore and all that. Though I had been playing BOTW for a long time, I could never get the names of the creatures correct. That shit did not matter to me in a video game. It was basically 5th ed DnD, but everything skewed to harken to stuff from a dozen different versions of this setting across games that are only slightly connected to each other. I invested myself into this character, a ruthless young hunter and wild child who was deadly with a bow. But the action was few and far between. There was once three sessions where zero action happened. And since at least one of the twinks (they openly referred to this term) and one of the PokePillow hugging cat ladies was uncomfortable with my character hunting and butchering wildlife. So I made her mostly a forager. Jeez. At least I had all those hours to work on my own campaign while long, out of game conversations broke out about "which Pokemon do you most feel a bond with." Ugh. 

And then another one of my players started a Sunday campaign, their first attempt. So I had to of course try to support that. Especially since all his players were pretty much recruited from my thing. It's a free world, but you know, I worked hard to gather this group and it would be good for to talk to me about it first, plus Sunday was meant to be my alternate day was kaput. Ah well. 

He was pretty good at it being a new DM.  This started I think while I was on an out-of-town trip, and I joined a couple weeks later (I talk about my monk character Zen in some recent posts).  But I dunno. I was never truly happy in these other games. I think it showed sometimes. Like I said I used a lot of the time to just be a quiet player and work on my own stuff (something you could never really do in face-to-face gaming). 

I have to say about this, in my life I rarely have been a player compared to my gamemastering hours logged. Since I was a kid. I don't know why, but the player experience never appealed to me. Outside of "story" or "agency" for any of this stuff, I just want to set a scene with a map and some description, sprinkle in some NPC's and maybe some interesting thing happening and let the characters romp around. I don't really want to do the romping. So when I realized I was not really happy with all this other gaming I started feeling burnt out. And though I always had fun within my sessions, which I think were some of the best of my online gaming life the last 5 years, I was starting to yearn for some new voices in my games. 

With the holidays swiftly approaching, this seemed like a good time to wrap up all my gaming for the year a bit early and to start working on a new one for next year. I have to admit, I have been building life rafts for months because I foresaw I was getting more and more dissatisfied.  There was a line in the show Mad Men where his soon to be ex-wife said to him "You only like the beginnings of things." And that's me in life in a nutshell. Relationships, jobs, or campaigns and game groups. The earlier parts are deliriously happy. But I get discontented with some situations that started out amazing. I actually like a lot of quotes from Mad Men because I feel kinship with lots of them.

 So yeah, I was doing too much of it for too long (a year and a half is longer than most of my romantic relationships). So I needed to cold turkey for a couple weeks before working on the new things. A new campaign. I might even consider playing in campaign of somebody as well. But three nights a week? It was too much. As with any drug you do too much, I am jonesing a bit now. And I did like most of these people. But life is getting short and like Duke Leto said to Paul "a man needs new experiences."

I am in a semi-weekly Marvel Multiverse thing the last few weeks to learn the system (so in my final weeks of my group I was actually in FOUR campaigns, though this one had none of my regulars in it). 

But now that I treated you like my bartender and told you about my gaming trials and tribulations sinking in a gentle pool of wine, I can mention the topic title of this post. "The Last Isle of Dread" campaign I will ever run. 

OK, maybe saying that is hyperbole. But look, I'm a GenX'er and I ain't getting any younger. Sure, been eating fairly healthy in recent years. Going to the gym every other day. Riding my mountain bike on the weekend in the Sierras. No grey hair yet. But why age myself? Well, this campaign was weekly but was still a year and a half. In large part due to fairly short sessions and all that role-playing by the kooks, but still. I wanted to touch on Isle of Dread in a campaign again for years. And here it was. I did it. A great campaign everybody liked, much initially being in the city which are games I love doing. Then the Island. There it is. I did it. Do I want to do another campaign with it soon? More sea voyages and time in the villages and going off to fight dinos and encounter interesting shit. I certainly did not get to do all I wanted. 

The campaign had to switch directions a few sessions in when player Christine, who was in my game and the Sunday one, suddenly had to miss my Saturdays because of some medical thing she did on Fridays that made her ill for a day or two. She made Sundays a couple more times then vanished fully without letting us know what is up. Now, I work in healthcare and I can only imagine she was in chemotherapy. Hopefully she is better, but who knows. The point here I guess is I was prepping sessions a game or two ahead of time, and the plan was to explore rumors ancient civilization ruins around the island. Hidden cities and maybe going to the plateau to explore the old ruins there (and finding out a big spaceship is up there). But when she dropped out I had to start improving. I liked Chris, and felt bad about whatever she was going through, and that took some wind out of my sails months ago to a degree. Leading to some of my disappointments with how things were going. But I changed course and kept going because when actually in my zone with my wheels greased during a session, I was loving it. 

But maybe that is a reason to have another party go back in some later campaign. I have all this prep work for ancient cities to explore. But I dunno. One of my players was a big Curse of Strahd campaign and fan and she turned me on to it, and I have been studying that a good deal. I have the Roll20 purchase for that material with all the tokens and locations with dynamic lighting already added and all this shit. But I am keeping open about what it will be to wait and see the make up of the next group. Maybe something more basic like a Keep on the Borderlands campaign. Or one of a couple other campaigns I created in recent years. Just use them again for a new group. 

Whatever happens, that big Goodman Games copy the Isle of Dread update will stay closed for some years I think. But who knows. If I am still gaming several years ago from now maybe it will get touched upon, if not a whole other campaign with it. But for now, I want to explore new situations with some new people. Duke Leto would approve. 

Cheers

Endless Retcons in your game world

 

In the long history of my game world (that I started as a kid) I always tried to maintain some consistency in setting, personages, and timelines. Very early on I started a journal that is now decades old and well worn with the hard cover missing. But it is still handy to go back to and look at. Sometimes I have to dig around for it, because in recent years I refer to it mostly a couple times a year at most. Sometimes just taking a quick look when I come across it when cleaning or something.  The important history and events in my setting will always be in my head, so I don't really need to always be looking back at old text.

What I did was every campaign or so since I was a teen I would scribble a paragraph about what was happening. The main beats and arcs, what characters were involved, events, locations etc. Most of my longer campaigns could span a year or more, and I would indicate the year, and there would be a couple or three entries of what was happening during a certain season within that year. I mean, I have been using this world forever, with groups of friends playing for years with me until different stages of life occurred. It can be big fun to look back and see things I forgot, see the names of characters of transitory occasional players I totally forgot about (a lot of time I cannot put a face to some of the character names from the 80's and 90's).

At the start of a new campaign these days I take a look just to brush up on the time line of big things from the past so new players can work up background stuff that may relate to changes in the setting that happened in those old campaigns. I mean, there is now around 120 years of play continuity since I created that first dungeon and a town. But the most meaningful events to modern times occurred in the last 50 years or so of the setting, so I can often just say "a few decades ago this and that happened." 

 In campaigns of yore I had a certain obsession with my game world's timeframe marching on.  After a campaign I would often have an in-setting year or two go by till the next campaign. If I had a major change in a group and took significant time off from gaming, a couple of times I had like 5 years go by. I feel like it lends and epic feeling to a world for actual play years to pass. But there could be funny side effects. I had a long-time female friend who played a lot in the 90's declare "stop trying to make my character old!"

Since I started running online with Roll20 around Covid, I had moved things forward a little slower. A LOT slower. I think the 4 major campaigns I have done in that time have all occurred pretty much within the same year. It makes sense. Online groups just don't seem to last that long. On average my sessions would go around 20 games before a couple people have life issues. I heavily vet people I cannot meet in person before inviting them into a new campaign, so I usually start with four or five players. When you only have maybe four regulars you are on a razors edge. Losing a player or two is the end of it. Certainly, my current group is an exception. We have played for around 14 months now, almost weekly, and its well over 40 sessions so far. But anyway the quicker turnaround of groups in my online game life has caused me to slow my roll on the time moving forward thing. 

What does this have to do with retconning? Well, a bit of general history can be helpful. Because things change. And I want to talk about two retconning issues I often adhere to, with the second being maybe the most pertinent to this discussion, as it's what inspired this post. 

Isle of Dread was about my first real module, and the one I probably dipped into the most. Since I was a kid used it probably every several years. This is an example of something I did not retcon, but it just went through organic changes with each group that visited. For that first adventure group or two, it was an untouched area. But later uses demanded a place that was no longer virgin territory as far as the mainland or the natives were concerned. There was now trade with the tribes, and even a dedicated trading company from the mainland that was subsidized by the crown, and in my current campaign there is a trading outpost on the beach near Tanaroa (run by a mainlander and also has a bitchin' Tiki Bar!) that is a go between for trade with the natives. And should the characters go to the great plateau they will not find the dungeons from the module but instead other stuff that has happened there since the first PC visitors (spoiler - I currently have a massive space ship like from Barrier Peaks up there... in keeping with my having the Kopru creatures have originally come from outer space).

But then I have areas I have reused and have started retconning in more recent years for new usage for new players. I have less of a mind for continuity because most of my old players will never play again. So new groups don't know any better. Even before running online I have done this for many the last 15 years or so. I have adventure locations I want to reuse. Things I have used over my lifetime again and again. I just reuse them as is. Examples of this would be favorites like The Lichway from White Dwarf magazine. And also Tegel Manor.

These are things I have run at least a half dozen times as major parts of campaigns. And I just don't change them (mostly). I just recycle and reuse. I love them that much. OK, Tegel has changed up a bit since I was a kid because I found some of the sillier elements easily adjustable without detracting from the fun. But pretty much they get reused as is. 

Now that I think of it, maybe this is not really retconning in the truest sense. But the world around these places change. OK, I have not used Tegal since I adopted 5th edition, and the changes in undead and such may make it a different thing. Dunno. But in my mind right now it is the same old manor. But I have used Lichway twice since going to 5th about 6 years ago, and it had the same feels. Last time the Susurrus was released and an army of undead now stalk the halls. To use it again I would probably just reset it. 

So how I think about these places is that they are affected by a powerful time loop situation. As comedy magician The Amazing Johnathan used to say "fuck you its magic!"

What happens in The Lichway or Tegel will have no affect on the greater world. New batch of players. Just run it again. I may be using Keep on the Borderlands next campaign, and I have used that a couple times before. Oops, all retcons. Its back to formula. the frickin' humanoid tenement caves are back to normal. 

OK, so here is the current retconny notion I have. Perhaps more contentious than that other retcon stuff. 

In the past in discussions during a game, we have talked about how in DnD (and any rpg with levelling) about how characters go from fairly weak to powerful heroes often in the course of a few months in setting. Hell, often a matter of weeks. DragonballZ always comes up (mostly from me). If you know DMZ, then you know what I am talking about. 

1000 times gravity!

Often, especially when a player complains about having to start at 1st level, they will say that they think of their character as starting out fairly powerful in some way, or at least fairly effective. Especially when they want the character to be older. By hundreds of years in the case of elves. 

For years my response has been this: OK, well, think of it this way. At first and maybe even 2nd level, think of it as the character is having a "bad day." or Week or whatever. Imaging that the weak foes like goblins are stronger when you meet them as well. A player might respond "but, it's only been a month and I'm 6th level now!" Cry me a river, player, this is dungeons and dragons. It's how it works. 

Sometimes I think these complaints are misplaced, or even kind of performative. I mean, they complain about this in their tabletop, but in the video games they play they fucking love going from 1st to 50th level in the first couple hours of play. 

But I have to admit that the fast levelling is kind of awkward when you think about it. OK, so don't think about it. Heh, easier said than done. But In a convo with a player in last weeks session, it came up while speaking with "K", who was running her drow wizard, was known to have come from a family full of fairly powerful members. An awesomely powerful house matron mother, and pretty effective siblings. She is 7th level in my game now (Isle of Dread will level you up lickety split), but it came up that she started weak. A first level drow who travelled from the Underdark to my main setting city. What is up with that?

So I suggested that perhaps we can look at things like her journey from 1st level is affected by constant retcon. It happens with any character you would want to look at this way. When you look at those earlier sessions, think of her as having been 3rd of even 4 level then. She just wasn't using those more powerful spells yet. Maybe those goblins did not seem as scary now when you look back at it. No big deal. 

Sure, even looking at it from that light, she certainly has had recent experiences that improved her ability and powers. People can learn and get better at things fast. A total noob at golf or tennis can get relatively much better than they were in just a month. Not a pro or anything, just way better than they were. But again the point is to explain a bit better somebody that went from 1st level to 6 or higher in a month. Retcon that 1st level by saying you actually started at 3rd level or something.

In 1st edition you had that having to pay a trainer to get your level. Spend some time with that. I guess that can be a less awkward explanation. But on the Isle of Dread, for example, where the hell do you find a guy to help you train with your longsword or whatever?

Just say "aw, at the start of the campaign you were better than you thought you were" and move on. YMMV.

Cheers.

When I realized my mildly alcoholic Monk could not get drunk anymore

 

Early this year I decided to play in a new campaign of one of my players (also mostly populated by players who were in my campaign). I have only sat down as a player maybe 5% of my gaming life, at most. GM is where my comfort zone is. I ran a Neutral good, meat and potato former soldier fighter I named Chase. 

(edit: remembered I actually came up with him originally about 3 years ago to play in a one shot ran by this girl who was in my regular campaign). 

Not sure he was the best choice for the group. Not that I really knew it at the time, but this would turn out to be a pretty edgelordy gang of characters. They were what he called "a gang of monsters and mendicants."  One of them was literally a monster, a Dhampir. The best of them, a female ranger, was a treasure grubbing murder hobo. Chase was part of the group (actually came in I think a couple games into the campaign...this all started around the holidays when I take most of my vacations) for months and stuck with them because they were sort of escaped prisoners from a cult prison on an island full of cultists and monsters. 

I kind of based Chase on Michael Bains character Hicks from Aliens. A hardened solder but kind and intelligent. He just did not fit with these creep characters haha. It started with him not being the type to jump right on chests. But the other characters did. Everyone took whatever treasure they found for themselves, and Chase swiftly got left behind in terms of power. I was unhappy and decided to try something new. When the characters got back to a civilized city, he ran like hell, got in a coach, and left the party behind without a word. A couple of thousand gold pieces richer, he would not have to find work for a good while. 

So I came up with "Zen" (birthname Sable Rialto).

Zen in her travelling/action gear.

Zen is of the Temple of The Four Master Elements.  The campaign is in the Forgotten Realms, and the temple is in some desert where we have actually ended up and are involved in this and that and bada bing bada boom (really don't need to get into all the typical adventuring and fighting details but fairly basic DnD).

Since the party was getting to higher levels, I figured it was my chance to run a monk already coming into strong power. Besides the elemental stuff, I figured the order to be true neutral. No gods worshipped, but the sun and stars and all things made up of the elements was what they revered. But in philosophy fairly Buddhist in nature. Constant individual search for balance. 

It kind of mirrored to some degree my own path towards balance and a certain enlightenment. I was raised by Catholic European immigrants and growing up that was not a pathway I wanted as I got into adulthood (though you can never really stop having been raised a Catholic). I dabbled in all sorts of spiritual things over the years, and in the last several years I realized that I had been searching for balance, which combined with some other things made me realize I was sort of following a Buddhist path. So nothing hardline, just a philosophy to find greater peace in a mind and heart that was at times in turmoil, especially in these crazy times we live in. 

Anyway, I imagined Zen, a young girl (25 years old but a third-elf so looks 20) whose parents died when she was around 12. Growing up in the monastery, she found herself a bit out of balance and strove for that middle place of peaceful neutrality. Prone to often less than balanced behavior, such as whiskey drinking for fun or to drown sorrows. Now on walkabout in the open world, she challenged herself to be a true ascetic and avoid the indulgences all over the place in the civilized world. This is when she met the party. 

There is a 1993 Hong Kong fantasy film I have long loved called Green Snake (you can find it on Youtube with or without English subs). In this film (and in the original legend) the powerful and self-righteous monk Fa Hai struggles against his "Evil Heart." Not really evil per se, but just trying not to give into earthly desires. So I kind of based Zens struggles for purity on this. 

FYI all the actors in these pics became huge
star in Honk Kong cinema in the 90's after this

So she joined the party all blessing and Namaste to you and all that. But as soon as she got below half her hit points for the first time she started going off the rails. The campaign has really tough battles, and at one point they even fought a small army of lizard men and a T Rex. But eventually we fell afoul of a powerful Lich who did a geas on us. We now had to perform a mission for him. This sent Zen into a shame spiral and she pretty much for a few sessions acted like a petulant child. She always kept whiskey on her and now drank as a full alcoholic. 

But the other game we were in the desert and ended up fighting giant Rocs on a hilltop. At the end of the fight they searched the bodily remains of victims and Zen found one that was a friend monk from the temple. A contemporary Jr. master. She took his awesome bracers (mentioned in previous post) and did rights upon him and burned and collected his ashes. 

By next morning the party had leveled up, and Zens main gain was she was now immune to poison and disease. Oh wait....booze is a poison. Straight up. It would no longer have an effect upon her. 

A new way of running her was in order. What I came up with was that her finding her fellow monks remains and her ritual upon them had a profound effect.  Her new physical immunities were a manifestation of growing consciousness. 

It will now be hard for her to go off the rails. With magic boots, bracers, and staff she is fairly formidable not even counting the elemental powers. So I will run her as righteous, understanding, and steadfast. A sober vegan (no more double meat double cheeseburgers). Even in the face of adversity, she will remain a positive light amongst the monsters and murder hobos. Not a true neutral yet thought. When off the rails she was leaning into chaotic neutral and now it shall be far into the lawful neutral. 

How I approach her journey back to true center will still depend on what happens in sessions to come. Perhaps they will need to get out of the shadow of the Lich before she can do that. But it should be interesting to see how her spiritual journey goes from here. 

Namaste. 

The Best Gauntlets a Monk Can Have?

 

In my last post I talked about Boots of Speed my Monk, Zen, had recently gotten in a campaign I'm in, mostly consisting of my awesome Saturday Night players. They let you cast Haste on yourself.

So in the last session we were attacked by a pair of Giant Rocs in the desert. We ended up in their hilltop next. In this encounter Zen, now 9th level Element monk, she really came into her own. she used an ability of called Fangs of the Fire Snake. You can do unarmed attacks ( she got with the boots activated she got four of these attacks. It is fire damage, and you may add 1d10 to each for a Ki point. I really busted on that big bird. 

It was a tough fight. But in the end we had some bodies of bird victims, including a fellow monk from Zens monastery. A friend in her same master circle. His remains were partial, so she got a fire going to make some ashes to carry with her (after her prayers of course). 

His own possessions of worth were these gauntlets.

These are created by the DM, and he calls them Bracers of Deep Striking (I think they may actually be from Warhammer). When equipped you get an extra 2d4 on each unarmed attack. they give you plus 2 to your AC. 

She loves her quarterstaff, but these make doing several unarmed attacks pretty worthwhile. The staff is actually a staff of stunning and comes in handy often. But with all these being her only objects, they are a great addition to her growing elemental abilities and spells.

You can imagine her wearing these items. Kind of comic booky, But I am a comic booky guy. 

Cheers

The Best Boots a Monk can have

 

So one of my players started his first DnD campaign not long after I put the group together in the late summer of last year (actually I am in two of my players campaigns and might post about them later). Though I rarely sit down as player, I decided to be supportive and be a part of it. 

I ran a fighter for a long time, a basic meat and potatoes sword and shield ex-soldier type. Not long ago I decided he was not working with the group (a long story, and I may post about that experience at some point, but enough to say for now they were all psychotic, and it is no fun being the sane one ). Characters were levelling up fast and we are 9th level at this point. So I thought that this would be a chance to get to run a high-level monk So I did a half elf master of elements monk I named Zen. 

Zen is inspired in part by Last Airbender characters, and also the monk Fa Hai from the White Snake Chinese legend (specifically my favorite Honk Kong Film "Green Snake" from 1993), who is conflicted and always trying to suppress his "evil heart." She tries to be true neutral, but usually wavers in law and chaos therein. 

The DM early on in the campaign lavished the party with magic items. Good ones. Belts of giant strength and throwing hammers that returned and all kinds of goodies. Lots of stat increasing items. Zen came in with almost nothing. But they were kind enough to give her a staff of stunning which often comes in handy. 

I knew from my experience with the previous character that if you do not jump on chests (and there were lots of chests...DM is a good guy but is new to running and is a video game guy, so, ya know. Lots of loot crates). So, when I brought Zen in I knew what I had to do. Have her jump on any chest we found, and her 45 base movement made it easy. She got this pair of boots. 

Big pimpin'...

Turns out they are Boots of Speed. Lets you cast haste on yourself. At least one other character wanted them, but it was obvious to most. A monk is the best character to have this. 

So if I am calculating right, she can use her movement and action to dash for 90 feet. Haste doubles this. So 180. But Haste also gives you and extra action, which you can use to dash again. So that is a potential 360 feet. That has to be close to 50 miles an hour in real world terms. 

Whatever it is, it's fast. But there are downsides. When your 10 rounds are up, you are helpless for a turn. In a difficult combat, like we are always in, it can be fatal to be helpless for a round. If combat is still hot when it wears off, you will will spend turn 8 or 9 trying to rush to a safe place. But in a dungeon or battlefield there are few safe spaces. She used them twice in a row in the same awful encounter. And when the time came to lose a round in both cases she was in serious dangers. 

The used come back after 24 hours each. If you use the boots three times in 12 hours you will get 4 levels of exhaustion, which is pretty bad. Long recovery times too. 

But shit, they are cool (in a cartoonish kind of way) and hopefully they can be used smartly. But sparingly. 

Cheers

James Raggi and the Albatross? revisited

 Bit of a philosophical ramble to come:

I posted late last year about James Raggi's reupping his working relationship with Zak Smith. That announcement was a Youtube video talking about Gencon, and in the last minute or so of that vid James gave Zak a bit of a soapbox moment to talk about his long running problems and that he will be "making games" with Raggi once again. While ZS kind of performatively huffed a smoke on the balcony of the apartment of the person he was long term couch surfing on, he mostly came off with a certain amount of bitterness, and it seemed less about Raggi's company or the work and more about his misfortunes which always seems to have to be the headline.

James Raggi the Third

I pondered if this was a good move for James. Ending his working relationship with Smith some years back, despite Zaks current claim that James was a "stupid coward," was from a business standpoint the best decision he could make. Fairly or unfairly, the name Zak S. had become toxic after the Mandy Morbid situation. Compiled to a large degree by negative interactions and bridge burnings with a lot of the online communithy. He seemed to have been eventually reduced to poverty and relying on others to live. He would end up posting mostly about personal hardships due to his cancellation, including being evicted and having several teeth removed (presumedly due to gum disease, which is most often due to lack of long term hygiene and regular cleanings before you need thousands of dollars to treat it)  presupposition apparently that he went broke from paying lawyers for all his lawsuits, though he claims to have won all those suits, so I am not sure how all that works (and I worked as a paralegal for several years). I have no deeper insight on that situation other than some guy named Ettin in Australia who had to pay what was theorized to be several thousand dollars (he said his several thousand dollar kickstarter for help covered it all). 

Just kidding, this is James

But because Raggi's company is based on edgy stuff, it may make sense to some that to have an embittered loose cannon is kind of punk rock to appeal to his die hard followers over a maybe more widely acceptable and consolatory "hey, I think these are great products and I look forward to working with James, the man who has given me a leg up despite the controversies. I hope people will give these high-quality books a look and will give me a second chance to work in the hobby I love. " It is clear that those bitter pills will remain, but will they help or hinder the company?

In the recent years that I am trying to be a fairer minded and balanced person, I don't want to pick on somebody who seems to have had their life turned upside down, deserved or not. We all get our lives turned upside down, and there can be various levels of self-sabotage or icky misfortune. So won't judge or make too much light of it. But I think most things are fair to bring up for context. 

For a big picture of the Zak controversies and a variety of lawsuits, the Coins and Scrolls blog has an extensive (and potentially biased to one degree or another) lay out of it all. Like with everything that comes from a personal place it can be taken with a grain of salt. Blog author Skerples is one of the folk who had negative experiences with ZS and posted about it extensively. It seems smartly laid out, and probably a lot true. The stuff you can research online if you cared enough. Like I said, for one reason or another, negative experiences. 

And most of those were in the higher profile days of the OSR blog and forum spheres. Tensions were high. In my own case for a time I was taking a sort of snarky Howard Stern, very forward (most often in a satiric sense I like to think) style and had some hot water situations that often were my fault to one degree or another to be sure. But I also didn't take any guff and I would often blog about it when maybe shoulda kept it private?  To me the real life rpg adjacent foibles are all part of the games that were in my life since I was a kid and I wanted to talk in an adult way about it all. Tales to tell in an often satire dripping way that might make it more humorous to some. YMMV.

When things got heated and I myself was having a lot of negative feelings, I stopped blogging and focused on actual DnD sessions when I wasn't working on a moving to a different state. That is were its at anyway. Doing the thing.  Running games. But Zak had this full cancellation, and he was clearly working on a brand up till then. HIM. HE was the brand. And looking forward from there who knows what was lost. A youtube channel perhaps started before all these Bob the World Builders and Ginny D people became big.  Could have ended up making millions I guess with luck and drive and a clear amount of talent that made his blog popular (along with the porn connection that was part of the brand, but with gaming the main focus. But mentioning big "gazongas" never hurts in looking for attention).

When Raggi does a youtube video, Zak involved or not, I have noticed that it often takes months for them to get a couple thousand views. So an online video log presence may not be fiscally lucrative.

And that may bring us to the current question. How are the new books, particularly Zaks, doing in sales? At the con and online.

Zak, far left, and DnD executive Mike Mearls at far right,
 a guy who game Smith the high profile opportunity to
consult on DnD 5e, and for reasons decided to sue.
This was about a decade ago and were happier times.

Raggi went to Gencon and sold the new line. And the online store has the new books (investments and collectables to be sure more than settings that will be used). They include Zak's remake of Red and Pleasant Land (many of his detractors love this book, which makes me kind of tempted to just have to look through) and his new Asia theme land meets Mystery Flesh Pit  the Nebulith. 

The last year or so I have been following James, though though not really buying as far as his material (trying to minimalize my life and collectables), which is high quality and often appealing to own. But I like Raggi's goings on for the same reason I like the backstage real-life story of what goes on in Pro wrestling over the actual in ring hoo haw. I think the guy (who seems a big wrestling fan) and his life is kind of fascinating. All the moving on a whim to another country (to stalk a girl maybe potentially? Citation needed. But hey, we all been in love, right?) and getting a grant from Finland to fund his rpg company and all the travel and all that. 

Raggi and Zak in 2017 Gencom booth wheeling
and dealing. I like Zak's cheery looking sales tactic.
"Please buy this eye sore!" ..but happier times. BTW
I think ZS is still banned by Gencon, so these two
hustling together at a high-profile thing again is unlikely

So I saw his quickie after Gencon video (that I cannot seem to find right now..deleted?), lying in bed, bemoaning a simple fact. Nobody at the con of note wanted to review the Zak stuff. No names given, but we can guess. Youtubers. Prof DM maybe. Seth Skokowski probably. Ginny D probably not. But seems they refused a copy. James bemoans this. But yes, the name is still toxic to some. 

Surely they will get sales online from the faithful.  But how did they do at Gencon? James must spend a lot on getting the books shipped ahead of his travel and all that. Did the curious see the shiny covers and quality paper and snap them up? Or any of the books for sale? Or were most of the people there to meet Matt Mercer and his vocal squad and buy 5th/2024 material? Fucking dice and oddball containers for them. At this point in time, are there a large amount of people in the states actively playing DnD who want to buy something, such as Zaks two that are full on settings, for mostly collectability or to a very small degree start new ongoing campaigns with these fairly unique combo settings/DnD performance art books by somebody they probably have not heard of. 

For some context to that thought, I moved to a new city in a different state/ I played at a local shop (didn't know nobody in town, yall) learning 5th ed, then since Covid several decently long campaigns online with Roll20. Lately I run every week, and am involved in two other campaigns run by players of mine (this is the best group I have every had). In all that, these last several years, I have asked local gamers if they heard of  Raggi or Zak at some point or another (in relation usually to the old school renaissance with no mention of controversies) and nobody has ever heard these names. 

In Los Angeles before I left some folk did. But these were all older school dudes. And many did not. But I had a guy in a bunch of DnD and Traveller games, a middle age dude who taught yoga or something, who said he was running Vornhiem. So some gamers knew. But that particular guy was close to 12 years ago, and right before I left LA I did not game for over a year. In that time Critical Role had billboards around the city. Current DnD was blowing up, and younger people were jumping in (and now all the players I am playing with on the reg are like 24-35). LOTFP is not on store shelves. Its stuff is only rarely brought up by bigger streamers. The bettter known old school forums like Dragonfoot the old timey regulars mostly talk about the frustrations of getting good takeout or finding replacement parts for their 40 year old lawnmowers. So who is buying the stuff Raggi makes?

I of course have no numbers. But that is the question. Inquiring minds want to know. Not to goof, but because it is interesting. That yoga guy I mentioned was running that setting 10 or 12 years ago. That  feels like still the golden age of LOTFP and Zak. Then If I recall Zak made like 70 grand off that Demon City kickstarter that happened right before the Mandy Morbid stuff and the cancellation (and Demon City was delivered something like 5 years late..at least to those who did not decide they did not want it and wanted their names taken off the doner list because reasons). 

Zak many years ago in happier times
(is there a theme here?). This photo is 
from his clearly self written entry, though
info about the abuse allegations are still 
there so I guess he could not get them removed. 

So now. Right now. With DnD still strong, many popular new things like Shadowdark going strong, is the market for this stuff still good? Like 80 grand a year good for Raggi to have a living after paying for the productions costs and convention travel and paying the artists. I know nothing, but my notion is that even for great looking books the market is way down from several years ago for alternative stuff that has little connection to the big poplar games right now. 

"Hey guys, do you want to try a campaign set in Alice in Wonderland plus Dracula?" It sounds kind of cool to me, and some folks of course would, but I suspect most more or less casual players who don't collect lots of game stuff would kind of laugh it off. 

I am guessing that most sales are to the faithful to Raggi and Zak who are getting older but have been on the ride thru the OSR. And of course, Europeans who eat up the odd grim dark. Then what after that, impulse buys of pretty bookies with cool covers? They ain't cheap, so I would think that is limited.

But maybe that is the thing. Collectability. That could make for a thousand or so sales, and for a book that cost around a hundred bucks or more maybe that is enough?

We will likely never see actual (proven) numbers, but I guess the bottom line is I would like to see Raggi and his company continue even if I never buy one of the books. I am all for alternatives. In love, in politics, in friends, and in my gaming. And the production of weird but high quality books that aren't just overpriced DnD supplements is probably a good thing. 

Cheers

Is the Fantastic Four...fantastic?

 Spoilers maybe potentially...

As a Marvel kid who from a very young age had comics in my collection from before my time, and a handful were very old (I had some issues that were between original FF issues 12-60...lotsa Wyatt Wingfoot, Diablo, and Dragon Man) and I really loved those. That eventually inspired me as a young adult in the 80's and early 90's to collect new issues for some years (until those fuckers started to cost like 250 or more a pop).

Loved those great Kirby touches. Like having
Namor take a big fish dump while watching TV

But so many of us who are not total seniors yet, we experienced Jack Kirby through reprints and graphic novels. That distinctive 60's futurepunk look for technology and outer space objects (often just a big wall made of abstract shapes and who the hell knows what it is kind of stuff). 

We don't really get it in its purest Kirby form in this new film, but it is there. That homage is what was making me hopeful about this. The Kirbyness was most present in Galactus scenes. 

First, the cast. Not bad. Pretty much unknowns except for very overexposed Pedro Pascal. He was fine as Richards, but he was a different Reed than I was familiar with. Quiet and moody. My Mr. F is a nerd, but also had a 60's manliness and a can-do attitude. 

and maybe a little rough when he is 
explaining to his wife how to listen

But I think my real problem is they got an overexposed guy to play him. I saw a commercial the other day for the FF appearing at Universal Citywalk or something, and that unknown Reed would have been better. For one thing, Mr. F and Sue Storm are kind of old for the parts. In the comics Reed is in his 40's and Sue in her 20's. A trophy wife deal. Vanessa Kirby is 37 and Pedro is 50. C'mon. 

There is some chemistry between the leads. Though at least Kirby is in a relationship with somebody else last I read, they had many instances of public affection at interviews. 

Yes, this blog is a gossip page now

But seriously, I'm pretty sure there is one main thing about him that would keep Pedro for pursuing his lovely lead...

not that there is anything wrong with that..

Ben Grimm was...ben Grimm. No cartoonish Bronx accept or way of talking. He sounds more like a college literature grad than the "Crips! Shut yer yap! Why I outta!" comic book Noo Yawk working stiff stuff. But ok. Johnny Storm is not as woke as I expected. I heard they were going to make him gay. But he is a bit of a hot shot, he liked to get sniz on the reg, but he is also often a voice of reason here, and I think also a bit of a scientist now. I think they all are. But yeah they keep the horndog aspect. He's hot for Silver Surfer, and she pretty much looks like the Oscars trophy. Really, Human Torch is the big standout in the film. Smart, funny, and fearless. He was the big suprise here. 

As far as FF films I still think ...

we all know what the best FF movie was

Some basic dislikes:

The eye candy was good, but it still moved too slow. The action was...not very actiony. Ben Grimms big display of power was running through some pillars to know a building down. 

I guess I mention Sue's age. She should be just out of college, not at an age where her biological clock is running out. 

Pedro again. Tired of his face. And his interview comments in the marketing leading up kind of made him the new Rachel Zegler (look her up). 

They are from the 60's but are coming to modern day. I feel like they will become about being time displaced. The 60's of their world has high tech thanks to Reed, but still they will be out of touch. How will they approach that. Constant Beetles references?

I heard Reed will be leading character in upcoming films, even leading the Avengers. So where does that leave the rest of the FF?

Some basic Likes:

Gratitude that Kang is no longer the threat (though I hear he will show up at some point). Should have been Doom all the way (though he might have been ruined in Ant Man 3).

Herbie. As a kid I hated that he was in the cartoon rather than Torch. But he works well here. 

The whole 60's vibe. Very Fallout..out of place tech.

The early montage where many FF classic villains were mentioned. Actual action against the Red Ghosts super apes and Mole Man...plus mentions of Diablo and Puppet Master. 

Cheers