The Grumpy Gnome‘s Fantasy Projects Blog (latest update on page 61)

[Grumpy Gnome]

Finally got to how I modify those walls....

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/04/26/walls-yes-walls-and-more/

Also, my opinion of Monster Fight Club bushes (TLDR I like them).

[CookAndrewB]

I'm not sure what you paid for the Hagglethorn Hollow stuff, but it looks good. Better than I thought it would when you started the first of two posts. It might need some touching up, but if the painted goods got you most of the way there, I think it is a win. Chances are good that no matter what the circumstances, you would need to do some work to pull it back to center with the rest of the world you have going.

Thanks for the wall tutorial too. I have to say that was a more involved process than I was originally envisioning!

As for the politics in gaming rant... I think sometimes games are just games. Maybe if they go sideways you have to look inside yourself to figure out whether that is the game, or the lump of meat in your skull, that is causing things to be dark.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I seem to recall with postage and add ons we spent just under 1k in Euros.

Politics, philosophy or painting.... if I am involved it is rarely simple.

[Grumpy Gnome]

And my latest blog entry.... focusing largely on Dungeons and Lasers from Archon Studios.

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/04/29/the-backlog-grows/

With some discussion of morality, ethics and politics in gaming.... if you are into that kind of thing.

[BZ]

Dungeons and lasers is a great concept, I didnt backed it, because I usually build my terrain from scratch. But the modularity is awesome, and the price is also fair.
Im very corius about the dragons! I really-really like them.

Shadow and Bone is on my list, but Im a bit afraid from it being too teen-series. But I will definitely take a look in it.

I never played D&D but for me, the question of ethics in it looks like this:
- Good: Mercy for an eye
- Neutral: An eye for an eye
- Evil: All the eyes for en eye

[Grumpy Gnome]

I assure you that Shadow and Bone is not very “teen”.

We seem to agree on D&L as well as alignment. I like your example.

[CookAndrewB]

Politics, philosophy or painting.... if I am involved it is rarely simple.

I think this illustrates my point. We bring ourselves to the table, and our gaming is colored by far more than the rules and ideas of the creator. Honestly, I don't think my gaming is very influenced by Gary Gygax. That gives him too much power and takes away my responsibility for the character I play or the world I create. Plus, when I started into D&D I had pretty crappy reading comprehension and I think any political innuendo was lost on me. I don't think any of us played as humans because then we wouldn't have cool traits like night vision, or improved dexterity. If anything, my lesson was that being human was mundane and average. If I'm going to role play I don't want to be me If I ever played an evil character it was because I wanted to wear black plate mail and have a helmet with bat wings. In my kid brain, you couldn't pull that off being lawful good. 

The D&L Kickstarter looks fun. I think I'm pretty set on not getting into these things. I have a couple of terrain sets that I bought, and if I back anything else it will be from a particular vendor. Also, at some point, I think you will have enough terrain to fill a 20x20' table if you keep it up 

I listened to a radio interview with the Shadow and Bone author this weekend. I think the concept sounds interesting. I discontinued my Netflix service as a way to save some cash, but when I turn it on (and likely Hulu or HBO off) again I'll definitely check this out. That, Cobra Kai, and Stranger things.

I'm looking forward to watching you work your way through the painting backlog with all that terrain. It seemed to go from famine, to feast, to being force-fed three holiday meals back to back!

[Grumpy Gnome]

As a larper in Europe who has organized a pretty big international group for a few years, it was interesting to see how D&D and WoW influenced American larders compared to Non-Americans with no experience in those games. That includes comparing US to UK larders and bearing in mind there are always exceptions to any generalization.

Another example is how my wife, with no wargaming or D&D experience tried to find a non-violent role playing solution as her Elven party in our first serious game of MESBG Battle Companies.... because her experiences in DSA (a German game similar to D&D) as a teen taught her the value of non-violent conflict resolution that was missing from the original AD&D.

Games, movies and books can influence people more than they realize. More than the creators sometimes realize. I do not think Gygax meant any ill in designing D&D but he did help establish a game that rewarded killing over non-violent conflict resolution. Power revolving around wealth and lethality. I can not help but wonder how Monty Haul campaigns and Murder Hobo role playing has influenced some young people and their values.


I have only seen part of the first season of Cobra Kai. It was ok but I have told it gets better.

Stranger Things was amazing. I loved it. But then I am a sucker for 80’s nostalgia.

[BZ]

I assure you that Shadow and Bone is not very “teen”.

Just finished the first part. Except the usual Netflix illness (main characters are too young and too pretty), its looking good. And it has hungarian audio, which means, I can watch it tired .

[Blackwolf]

Interesting posts fellas; a couple of years ago I got involved in a murderhobo Pathfinder campaign,lasted one night. Coming from a Runequest background frankly it was weird. The funny thing was that all the player characters (including me) pretty much followed their true to life characters .

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

I do not think Gygax meant any ill in designing D&D but he did help establish a game that rewarded killing over non-violent conflict resolution. Power revolving around wealth and lethality.

That's because D&D evolved from an historical miniatures wargame. Gygax and group were playing medieval historical miniatures, and being geeks influenced by Tolkien, Howard, Lieber, etc., they thought -- hey wouldn't it be cool if a dragon attacked the castle -- or maybe we could play the Battle of Pellanor Fields! And so they created Chainmail as a fantasy wargame. From there they said, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we did something smaller, like Conan and his crew in the Temple fighting that giant snake!  Thus was D&D born. Given its wargame roots character progression was originally based on concrete actions - killed something, got something, etc. Since then a whole range of games have evolved with differing designs and game philosophies, and D&D itself has evolved as well. And as a GM you can make the game what you want -- and on topic, the Adventures in Middle Earth 5e game is heavy on journeying and goal accomplishment instead of just killing stuff.  Cubicle 7 lost the release license, but you can still find the books and they are gorgeous! The original designers who did The One Ring have the rights back, and they just did a very successful KS for The One Ring 2e with fantastic production value and creativity. Looking forward to my set towards the end of the year.

[CookAndrewB]

I'm unfamiliar with the "murder hobo" idea. I infer this means the players are a roving band of "kill everything" characters who are not tethered to a castle or a town?

My own experience with D&D showed that there is a lot of value in non-combat activity. Sneaking and lock picking were probably the most obvious tasks (gotta burgle that gold!) but my friends and I had lots of fun trying to sway a local baron to fund our dungeon delve by way of charismatic tests, and lord knows it was great fun to make everyone attempt to jump over a pit trap. Yes, we hacked and slashed our way through skeletons, but what else would you do? They aren't good listeners.

I don't remember worrying about XP too much. We seemed to give ourselves levels willy-nilly or just start characters at level 30 if we felt like it. You really couldn't cast fun spells at level 1, so we rarely started at the very beginning. 

Maybe we were an oddity in the gaming community, but then we only ever played these games together. When, as an adult, I played D&D with others I found a wide range of playing styles. Some players even played "conscientious objectors" and only provided assistance to teammates without engaging in direct combat. I played a dwarf who grew up a simple miner in the family mine and suffered from dizzy spells if he was out under the open sky as he found the expanse very unsettling. So I would try to keep him under rooftops or trees and purposefully bungle about if I was forced into the town square, for instance. Role-playing isn't supposed to be a button-mash game like Diablo or WoW. If combat is the only thing, then I think video games are a much more satisfying way to accomplish that experience.



   

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Role-playing isn't supposed to be a button-mash game like Diablo or WoW. If combat is the only thing, then I think video games are a much more satisfying way to accomplish that experience.

Totally agree. The Talomir Tales system from Two Hour Wargames has a lot of non-combat encounters that require NPC interactions and skill tests to meet your goals. But then most of it really depends on the GM and group style - any system can be used for non-combat roleplaying.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Like most games, players have a way of utilizing D&D the way the want and not always the way the game designer intended.

Mrs. GG and I heavily backed the new One Ring RPG. We have the first addition books except for the core rule book, which unlike the other books we could never find a good deal on. We are keen to use the first edition source books with the second edition. There are many interesting game mechanics, as you mentioned SBMiniaturesGuy, in the One Ring that are far removed original AD&D... but I have to admit I have no idea what 5th edition D&D is like.

I am currently trying to get my head around morality and ethics in John Wick’s 7th Sea RPG (Second Edition).

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

I have to admit I have no idea what 5th edition D&D is like

5th edition has evolved into something like the 3.5 OGL model, very flexible - though unless you adopt some optional rules it seems that most combat won't be particularly lethal to your PCs.

I am currently trying to get my head around morality and ethics in John Wick’s 7th Sea RPG (Second Edition).

I played 7th Sea 1e a long time ago -- thrown off by the name John Wick, 'cause now I'm picturing Keanu Reeves in a pirate costume mowing down enemies while the lead villain yells at his son, "You stole his ship and killed his parrot! You killed his f&!*!@(!( Parrot!!"