Wandering Monsters

I consider myself sort of a "Dynamic" DM. Meaning, when I write an adventure for my players, I have an outline and maps ready and then I "Go with the flow". I will have certain encounters prepared, like BBEG's etc, but the rest is free form and I try to judge how the flow of the game is going and how battered the characters are.

Gaming Ads of Yor - Grenadier Miniatures

This is one of many ads Grenadier Models ran throughout the 80's in Dragon Magazine. Grenadier miniatures were some of the first minis I ever remember collecting. Looking back now, the detail and quality wasn't exactly as good as it is today, but I was ravenous for these boxed sets and had to catch 'em all.

Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana

I was just reading a post over at The Realm of Dungeons & Dragons about music and lighting during a game and I had to post about two groups of musicians that will add atmosphere to any game (or Halloween party)

I've been using music from Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana for a while now and I can always find something appropriate for a game situation. I would HIGHLY recommend you checking out their music.

Flashback Thursday - The Sword and the Sorcerer

Here's a little gem that I'm sure most of you would like expunged from your memories.

The Sword and the Sorcerer from 1982 staring Lee Horsley (aka. Matt Houston) and Richard Lynch (aka. that guy that everyone recognizes but no one knows his name).

Some of you might even recognize the Sorcerer as Richard Moll from Nightcourt fame, but I'm guessing all of you recognize that damn three-bladed sword that had a magical air compressor built into the pommel and would shoot two of the blades at enemies.

Damn you Conan the Barbarian for spawning these God-awful fantasy movies that forced me to waste my youth watching each and every one!

Gaming Ads of Yor - Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set

This second Dungeons and Dragons ad is a more "advanced" ad with updated graphics reflecting those of the new Basic Edition Boxed Set. While I like Elmore's work, this is around the time that D&D art work started becoming too polished for my tastes and started to lose some of the magic for me.

I believe this ad started appearing around 1986

Forgive My Ignorance

I'm still sorta new to the game blogging community and I wasn't really checking updates this weekend, but when I signed on this morning, there seems to have been some sort of shake up in the neighborhood. Can someone fill me in on what's happening?

All I can tell is that Zak S over at Playing D&D With Porn Stars is posting some videos of his game sessions with his friends (who happen to be porn stars) and now Chgowiz from Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog has shut his blog down (which I really enjoyed reading) and has withdrawn from TARGA.

I"m having a hard time figuring out the connection between the two incidences. Is there anyone out there that can explain what happened and why Chgowiz is so upset that he would shut his blog down?

I watched the video in question, I didn't see anything particularly offensive. There was no porn or anything in it, they just happen to be porn stars for a living and play D&D for fun as far as I could tell.

Clerics: Are They Too Powerful?

I remember a time, not so long ago, when no one wanted to be the party Cleric. I've written about them before in my hard hitting expose "Clerics: First Aid Kit or Second Line Fighter", and since then I've been doing quite a bit of gaming. I've noticed that no one has a problem being the cleric anymore. In fact, two of the last four adventures I've gone through had multiple clerics. That got me thinking: Are clerics TOO powerful now??

House Rule - Any Spell, Any Time

I'm thinking of implementing a house rule that spell casters can cast any spell that they know (i.e. in a spell book etc.) at anytime up to their normal number of spells per day. This would eliminate "memorizing" spells for the day but would still require rest and prayer to regain spell "power" for the day.

Flashback Thursday - Fire and Ice

Damn you "Spring Forward", you've once again nearly caused me shame and embarrassment!

Somehow, with all this "Set your clocks ahead 1 hour" hoo-ha, I almost missed Thursday. Did we switch to a metric week and no one told me? Anyways, I'm going to set the Way-Back machine to 1983 for the Ralph Bakshi/ Frank Frazetta classic Fire and Ice.

Comic Strip Tuesday is Changing

Due to a decided lack of comic strips to post, the Frothy Friar management team (me) has been forced to change the menu from Comic Strips to Gaming Ads of Yor...until I run out of those, then I'm screwed.

So for your entertainment, I'd like to welcome our first Gaming Ad of Yor. Put your hands together for...

This ad appeared in various gaming magazines and comic book around 1982 and, as you can see, shows our plucky adventurers from the Dungeons & Dragons commercial shown previously here at the Friar.

I Miss 1st Edition Magic Items

My gaming group and I recently started a high level Pathfinder campaign (15th level) and we were given a large sum of money to buy magic items with. At first I thought that it would be fun to go on a little shopping spree, but after a short while I started to realize that a good 90% of the items were just spells in another form. Which in turn caused me to start thinking (that's never a good sign), didn't magic items used to be a lot cooler or am I just realizing that they aren't that great after all? You see, I'm playing a wizard in this game and nearly every item that I came across in the book was just another way for me to cast a spell that I probably already had, so what was the point of having all these magic items if I can already do that stuff? Granted, it allows me to do MORE, but it's essentially what I'm already doing. This prompted me to go back and see if my memory was fading with old age. Maybe magic items weren't all that cool and I was just fooling myself all these years. Maybe magic items were just spells for people that weren't cool enough to play wizards. 

Flashback Thursday - Deathstalker

Released in the midst of the 80's, post-Conan the Barbarian, rash of really bad fantasy movies, Deathstalked embodied everything that was good and wholesome in a crappy B movie: Weak costumes, cheap sets, horrible makeup and effects and a distinctive lack of plot. Although I have to say, the pig faced man looks better than that abomination called Thoth Amon in Conan the Destroyer.

Very High on the Awesomeness Scale

Can't decide which one is gonna be more awesome....


Iron Man 2

or


Tron: Legacy

Best. Room. Ever.

I'm sure this has been around for a while, but this has to be the most awesome game room ever created...in a basement. 

If only my wife wouldn't divorce me if I did this in my house...

LVL 15 Blogger LFP (looking for paint)

I want to get back into painting some minis cuz I'm not satisfied with the quality of the Dungeons & Dragons minis. That and some of them are pretty expensive based on how good they are in their own game.

My problem is that my old Games Workshop paints have all dried up and there is no way in hell I'm paying $3.50 a bottle for paint!

So does anyone know a good brand of paint that I don't have to sell blood to afford?

Comic Strip Tuesday

This is an ad that ran in early editions of Dragon Magazine. Seems somewhat similar to the comic strip series that ran in comic books for many months. The adventurers are definitely similar: male fighter, female rogue (in the comic strip she was a cleric), and a mysterious older wizard (in this case looking like a cross between Doctor Strange and Dracula) and attacked by a leaping Jacklewere (as opposed to a leaping werewolf in the strip.)

Flashback Thursday

Dragonslayer

By far, the best dragon ever committed to film. Vermithrax is the standard by which I have judged all other movie dragons, and believe me, they're all coming up short. Especially that train wreck Dragonheart.

The movie starts off a little slow-ish, but believe me, the final battle is more than worth the wait.

BTW, that was a kick-ass spear. Made me want to use spears more in my D&D campaigns.

Comic Strip Tuesday

Episode 8 - The party reaches the Mountains of Ash and set off into them, straight into an avalanche. Saren is hurt by the avalanche and Grimslade uses a scroll to cast Dimention Door. The spell carries the entire party to an ancient castle. Could the end of the quest lie here?

Apparently so, since this is the last one ever published. Maybe the readers were supposed to pick up the quest here and role-play what they think happens from here.

Game Session Recap: What was I thinking???

Last night my gaming group embarked on our latest adventure. A quest to shake the heavens. An expedition that will cause bards and poets to put quill to parchment and scribe of heroic deeds and valorous combat. 

Mine was not one of those acts.

We started playing a version of A Paladin in Hell that my DM has modified for our campaign. The adventure starts with a fallen comrade's funeral at a temple near town. As the party arrives, the temple has been scooped up and taken to hell.

Long story short, we wind up with a ship that can take us to hell. While on the ship we end up in a fight against several huge demons that were submerged in water. Me being the "All Powerful" wizard decide I should unleash hell on these foul abominations who have kindly bunched together. I pull out a Maximized Chain Lightning spell and toss it to them. 

90 points of damage each! "That should end this fight quick" I thought, until 2 demons laugh at my puny electricity, 2 demons resist 20 points of electricity and then make their saves and the last, and best one, is immune and reflects it back at me. I quickly proceed to fail Spell Resistance and then fail my save....and died.

We weren't even off the damn boat yet!!

Not my most glorious moment. The only bard singing about this one would be Weird Al Yankovic...