If you’re a player and not a GM then this article may spoil some fun for you. How about playing through our free solo adventure, Sentinels Watching. If you’re a GM then let the awesome begin…
The mist is thick and swirling, lit ominously from above by the full moon and from your own torches. The mist seems both to glow and envelop you. It’s a warm mist, but the marsh water is cold and the mud sucking, making your passage forward difficult. You’ve come in search of the menace that’s been making off with sheep from the local farms, but you didn’t think the marsh would hold you up for nearly a day. You had hoped to be on your way home already. Now, in the darkness, all you can do is keep heading towards where you last saw the hills, but honestly you’re no longer sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Suddenly a light appears from up ahead. A lantern signalling, but it’s hard to tell, and you can hear no voice. The mist is so dense, after all.
This little adventure hook should fit into any fantasy role-playing campaign nicely, whether your party is heading into a dungeon, travelling through wilderness or just wondering outside the city gates for the first time.
“So, um, Sensei… how do we move our stuff?” I innocently ask. It’s time for the big shuffle. We’re about to start the new school year and every teacher has to move to be with other teachers with the same year of home room classes. In senior high there are three years, ichinensei, ninensei and sannensei (literally 1, 2 and 3rd year students). I move with my supervisor. “We move all the desks” is her reply. All the desks? I wonder. To where?
I now know why so many of the worlds video games come from Japan and why video games are really popular here: training for problem solving situations. When 1:30 came around every desk in the staff room started moving, rolled along by every teacher in the most beautiful display of coordinated desk Tetris imaginable. It was like watching a well rehearsed ballet.
One of the biggest crazes in gaming at the moment is MMORPG’s or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. These games are publicly disliked by “grognards” like me who believe the best games involve dice and a heavy dose of imagination. Okay, the loss of years of my life to games like Fallen Sword and World of Warcraft might say otherwise. Anyway, I just finished watching season 3 of The Guild, a web series based on the lives of six gamers who play in a MMORPG. I was disappointed by season 3 but go have a look at season 1 and 2 on YouTube if you’re at all interested in computer games or geek culture. You may just ROFL (roll on the floor laughing).
I Loot The Staff Room
So this is the part where I tie up my two stories into an amazing conclusion. First off, our one English sensei returned from California where they had gone on a home-stay: can you say “omiyagi” (souvenirs)?
Then some other teachers also went on holiday: can you say “oh yeah omiyagi!”
And lastly we have a bunch of new teachers, who of course want to impress everyone: can you say “om nom nom?“
As proof of my epic raid on the staffroom snack stack, I bring photo (yes, just one):
The haul includes:
White Chocolate Rusk (???)
Mayonnaise cracker (the one in red and yellow wrapping)
A Yoku Moku Cigare (not for smoking 🙂 )
Chocolate covered wafers (mmmm)
M&M’s. (m&m&m&mmm)
Jelly Belly beans in 20 flavors (not the American spelling)
Chocolate Almond biscuit (that looks a little like elephant poo)
A Russian Cake (that possibly has something to do with Tetris)
And a magnet of “Oranges in Tissue Paper” by William J. “Oros” McCloskey. See, even the inedible stuff is about food.
Another Thing About Dungeons
Don’t worry, this isn’t something you should be worried about. I have a healthy obsession with dungeons. It’s okay. Really.
Give me grid paper, a pencil and a fine-liner and I’ll be busy for hours.
This month is the One Page Dungeon Competition, which I entered last year with my Lunatic Labyrinth. This year I’ve come up with The Myriad Pyramid, which I’m hoping will score me even more loot. You can catch updates about this pyramid of plenty on my blog at Rising Phoenix Games or on the 1PDC site.
Furthermore, I’ve just completed my newest role-playing adventure offering for UPCON, the University of Pretoria’s gaming and animé convention. This one, strangely, doesn’t feature a dungeon but rather the deep blue sea, and pirates! Who doesn’t love pirates? Well, fictional ones at least. It also features zombies and ninjas, which like MMORPG’s are all the fad and bring us nicely back to games, since an MMORPG is a game. So I can end here having come full circle.
Rodney is the role-playing obsessed blogger at Rising Phoenix Games and numerous other blogs across the net. He’s way too easy to find on the web and loves writing about himself in the third person. Heck, he just loves writing. You can follow his Tweetings on Twitter @RisingPhoenixGame
A shut door is never the end, it’s the beginning. Have you ever thought that if something is holding you back, it’s a challenge to rise above the situation, not one to give into. I hope you can rise to the challenges you’re presented with.
Feel free to use this picture (for good). You don’t even need to credit me, but a link is always nice. I took it on my iPhone.
The party wizard walks over to the bookshelf and asks the dreaded question: “What books do I find?” Well, everyone likes random tables, so here’s my list of 20 random book titles to inspire you:
D20 – Random Book Titles
The Dullard’s Guide to Lock Picking by Dovid Blaine
The Tale of the Incredibly Long Walk by Jungo Rolando Rudolfus Trollkin
The Halfling by Jungo Rolando Rudolfus Trollkin
Alchemy – From Lead to Gold in Ten Easy Steps by William Nye “The Alchemy Guy”
Carnivorous Creatures of Cunning by Davidius Attenbroege
Living With Lycanthropes by Bella Crow
My Misspent Youth, Dating Death by Bella Crow
A Tale of Two Citadels by Charles Drockens
Gorilions in the Mist by Dianna Flossey
My Family and other Lycanthropes by Gerrundius Dorrel
Adolescent Transfigured Monk Terrapins by Kelvin Laird and Petro Southman
Elandril: The First Skybenders by Dante Konieso
A Long Time in the Future, in a Plane Close Bye by Lukus Georgius.
The Big Book of Gnome Tricks by Cori Terriduke Nurfumble
The Complete Encyclopaedia of Dwarven Grudges – book number XXXIII, by various authors.
The Halfling’s Guide to Friends, Family and Food. A Condensed collection in 36 volumes, by various authors.
Perfect Prestidigitation by Grundorf White
Are We Pawns of the Gods, Living in their Imagined World? by Nicholi Proest Cunningham
Aboleth to Zonethrope, a Naturalist”s Guide by Stevetheen Erlwine
Dungeons to Lava Flows, a Survival Guide by Rie Meer Si
Well, that was pretty random in more than one way, but hopefully it was worth a few laughs. Enjoy the game and let us know if you have any more random book titles to share.
Ever wondered what goes through the mind of a Japanese teenager? Well, a class activity revealed some interesting things.
To round off a lesson on shopping, I introduced the classic “I went to Makro and I bought…” game. For those of you not familiar with it, players take it in turns to name an item to buy. The catch: players must first name all the items introduced by the other group members, and then add an item beginning with the next consecutive letter of the alphabet. Here are some of the answers my students gave:
A Anpan (bread roll with bean paste filling) D Diamond, decorated cake G God H Hotdog, horse I i-pod J Jack Sparrow K Keyaki (a shopping mall in Maebashi), knife M Monorail O Original T-shirt, octopus P Peanuts cartoon Q Quiz book, Queen CD R Radish, roll cake (equivalent of Swiss roll), rice S Smartphone T Tiger, textbook U UFO V Violin, volleyball W Wonderland X X-box Y Yellow submarine
I could trace the origin of this blog back to many sources, but one of the most prominent must be when I started writing modules for the convention circuit back in Gauteng South Africa, specifically for UPCON and ICON. ICON was actually the first convention I ever attended, going there for comic books (Spider-Man mostly). I came out of that convention with a box of Warhammer 40k, which eventually lead to role-playing. So I kind of think ICON was where most things began for me in a way. But enough rambling, this year again I’m submitting a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure, Death in the Deep.
So, wouldn’t it be neat if players and GM’s could get additional information about the module online? Wouldn’t it be great if other interested readers could get a taste of the adventure? Well, that’s what this page is all about. I’m posting it now, but it’s sure to change as more information and downloads become available here.
#NEWS FLASH! – 30 March 2012# Just submitted the module and all the character sheets. I’m pretty proud of the outcome. I reckon this is my best work so far.
#NEWS FLASH! – 13-14 April 2012 Play Test# Our Japan group, who were a witch, wizard, fighter and stow away rouge (she only joined the fight when the Loreley split in two, managed to wound the sea serpent so badly that it ended up with a Dex of 8 and made it’s escape. The adventurers then made it to land where they sheltered for the night, uncomfortably close to a boggard camp. They then made their way on foot and by horse to Dead Mans Landing, passing the town of Gold Bridge, ruled by Duke One-Eye. They found Lantern Tower to be trapped, a store house for the 8-9-3.
Gear Up
It pays to be ready. All the following items are not required, but may prove useful to GM’s running the module.
Game Mastery’s Pirate Ship Flip Mat. We’re working on including our own ship map, but this is a super map. You can also check out these cheaper options: Battle Map: Pirate & Ghost Ship, which includes a nice ghostly version of the same ship. Fantastic Maps: Pirate Ship, which I think does a good job of showing where all the rigging is supposed to be.
Disposable Heroes Pirate Statix 1: I’ve never used Disposable Heroes before, but these don’t look too shabby. And it doesn’t matter if these mini’s get totally destroyed at the con.
For music check out this little Amazon widget for some ideas.
Player Characters
You can check out the player character sheets here. Please note, check the files for viruses, I can’t be held responsible if your computer crashes and burns.
Cromin Rist (male human wizard) (link to PDF 80KB)
Japan has given me loads of things, but more than anything Japan has given me an excuse to write. I’ve written for NaNoWriMo, I’ve written for my own role-playing blog www.risingpheonixgames.com (now managing a post a week) and I’ve written a little on this blog. At the moment I’m busy writing another module for UPCON, the University of Pretoria’s annual role-playing, animé and games convention. I thought I’d take a break from that to tell you about an exciting writing project I’ve started and am hoping to grow in the coming year and a bit…
Now, most of you know I love fantasy (and hence fantasy role-playing games). I’ve learnt that many of my students also love fantasy (many have tried to read Harry Potter in English), and so I thought a great way to help them learn was to create some reading material for them (win for me, win for them). Enter Bobbin the Goblin. Bobbin lives in my recently created world of Avernos, in the Dead Wood forest (well, it’s a safer version than in the RPG setting anyway). He’ll be having a load of misadventures and will hopefully find his place in the spot light as my writing improves and more people learn about him.
Boden raised his holy symbol high above his head, calling down a searing beam of light into the valley below. The seething mass of living dead bodies recoiled, flailing their arms in an attempt to shield themselves from the holy light and backing away from their victims.
“Evil will not triumph this day!” Boden muttered under his breath.
Boden raised his holy symbol…
The story of the battle of good versus evil is as old as time yet as engaging and important as always. We love the hero and we want him or her to win, and in their victory we learn something of ourselves: heroism, humility, honour, whatever it may be. You see, the story of the battle of good versus evil is our own story. It is tied to our existence and as important as the air we breathe.
For good to exist, at least in a story, there must be the opposite force. In any good story there is evil. In real life there may be two parties with opposing views, neither one necessarily evil or good per say, just not agreeing with each other. In a story like Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings, David and Goliath, Gladiator, and the Matrix, there is an evil that the hero must overcome, and by the darkness of evil we see the light of the “good” hero all the more brightly.
Because of the evil enemy, role-playing books are usually full of all types of monster, demon, devil and horror. They are the darkness that players want to defeat. Role-playing sometimes gets a bad rap from many religious organizations because of this evil content. It’s probably not surprising, even though there are Christian role-players out there, like myself. But in stories, we realize the need for that evil oppressor, the mad villain or the terrible dragon. Without Sauron, the Hobbits would have never left for Bree, Rohan would never have come to the defended of the White Tree and JRR Tolkien would not be as famous a story teller as he is today.
Edit: I came across a great post from Christian blogger Berin Kinsman that supports what I’m saying, so I’m plugging that in here:
Nearly everyone I know that’s involved in the roleplaying hobby, whether they play in fantasy settings, superheroes, horror, espionage, and any of the myriad styles and genres, typically engage in basic good-versus-evil stories. Even the folks I know who play games where they play monsters enjoy wrestling with and exploring the moral and ethical dilemmas and the angsts and drama. It is social, it is creative, but it is fiction. There is, on some level, a degree of redeeming social value to go along with the escapism.
The story of good versus evil teaches us a lot about our real selves. It teaches us, I think, that we want goodness and peace, we dislike oppression or unfairness, and we realize that peace doesn’t come from inaction but that often people had to die for freedom. As a South African it’s easy to think back on how activists like Mahatma Gandhi worked for freedom, through personal effort, suffering and hardship.
I think a wise GM looks at his campaign…
…and asks “what are we (the PC’s) fighting for?” It may, in a small part, be to defeat the tyrant, push back evil from the land or put the dead to rest, but what is the higher cause? Even if a new, more powerful set of armour motivates most of your players onto their next quest, I think you’ll find a deep hunger for the good to win out against evil. It’s part of what makes us human.
The Japanese sword known as the katana is a symbol of a time, a people and of beautiful yet deadly efficiency. Let’s rip open what makes the katana such a remarkable weapon, explore the essence and myth that surrounds it and slice a path to inspire more depth from this weapon in your own role-playing campaign.
The History
The katana was the traditional sword of the samurai. It developed from the tachi sword, which is similar but worn with the cutting edge down, while the katana was worn with the cutting edge up, and could be kept tucked in the sash (obi) around a samurai’s waist. The katana could be quickly drawn and a deadly cut made in a single, fluid motion. In fact, forms of martial arts, iaido and iaijitsu, were developed around this principle.
Samurai wearing a tachi.
The katana was traditionally worn with a wakizashi, which was a shorter sword used for enclosed spaces or as an off-hand weapon. While a samurai might put aside his katana, for instance when inside a residence, he would always keep his wakizashi. The katana and wakizashi together were called daisho, and were the samurai’s badge of rank.
The Making
The strength of the katana comes from the duel forging technique used to make the blade. On the outside of the blade you have a harder metal, which can better hold a sharp edge, while on the inside you have a springy metal that makes the whole blade less brittle. Parries and blocks were performed with the side or back of the blade to keep the cutting edge sharp. I won’t go into the whole process forging process here, but Wikipedia has a great page on Japanese swordsmithing that will give you plenty of information.
Basically tamahagane, the raw iron ore, is heated to about 1300 °C and then hammered and folded into shape. Once the blade has been shaped it is quenched (yaki-ire) using clay, charcoal and powdered whetstone as a mask over the cutting edge as it is dipped in water. It is this process that gives the blade its beautiful wave like pattern and different tempering. The blade is then sharpened and signed.
The Purpose
The katana was made with one purpose in mind: killing. However, as time passed, and the samurai spent less time on the battle field and more time in court, the swords became more ornate, a status symbol rather than a practical weapon.
Every aspect of the sword had some etiquette. Preserving the carbon rich blade from rust and the safe handling and use of the blade were all important. There was a culture to the sword that I think is hard for us to understand in our “want it now” culture. Your sword was with you always, it was kept clean, respected and known intimately. It was your life, your death, your rank, your mark of society and affected how people perceived you and the manners they showed you.
The Essence
It’s not surprising then that the katana was seen by the samurai to have its own spirit. For a samurai, his katana was both an important piece of equipment and a symbol of his own life. At his waist an ever present reminder that death could come quickly and brutally.
The Katana in Your Campaign
If your character weilds a katana, take a moment to think about what the sword means to your character. Is it something to depend on when enemies close in? Is it a thing of beauty? Do those who see such a weapon being worn immediately form an opinion of the wearer? What is the history of the weapon and is there any culture surrounding it?
If you’re a GM you can ask many of the same questions. Stat’s wise a katana might not be that much more powerful than any other sword, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be as awesome as it should be. Build a history and culture around it in your campaign world and see where it gets you. As an idea to start you off here are six random sword histories and six random cultural ideas for the katana.
Katana Histories – Random Table (D6)
The Bear Claw: this sword’s scabbard (saya) is covered in bear fur, and was the possession of an unknown samurai who opposed the lord of a neighbouring kingdom. It is said he approached the lord while the lord was travelling though a mountain pass and addressed himself as Father Bear, “ready to serve justice with his shining bear claw.”
Dragons Tear: this silver and gold blade was discovered lying on the palace floor besides the head of Fin Fiyang, an ancient gold dragon. To this day no one knows who his murderer was or to whom the sword belonged.
Arrow Biter: this plain katana was used by a warrior who fell defending his lord from arrows of the enemy. When he fell he was surrounded by dozens of halved arrows he had slashed in his desperate defence .
The Emperors Sorrow: this blade is covered in an ancient inscription, foretelling the death of the king. It is not known if the king has any knowledge of the blade or what he would do if he found out about it.
The Rolling Thunder: something in the construction of this blade has resulted in a loud rumbling sound every time the weapon is drawn.
The Dragonfly: this katana has a brown saya with fittings representing dragonflies. Rumour has it that it belonged to a lord who requested it’s construction to appease a water-fey who lived within his lands.
Katana Cultural Ideas – Random Table (D6)
It is considered impolite to comment on someone’s katana, so much so that polite phrases such as “may I relieve you of your burden” have taken on new meaning.
If a katana is broken then ancient law states that the sword must be recast into a single iron bowl and the owner of the sword should only ever eat from that bowl for the rest of his life.
The katana is such a venerated weapon that it is unlawful for any peasant to even touch such a weapon.
City law has it that weapons must be put aside when entering a tavern. However, a loop hole exists for the katatana, due to a passed mayor of the city wishing to impress a visiting samurai lord. Unfortunately, as legend tells, he fell foul of his own law and was assassinated by one of the samurai’s retainers.
Newly forged katana blades are kept in a local temple for a year for purposes of purification.
Silvered katana blades are prohibited in the area, a recent law. Meanwhile, there are growing suspicions that members of the court are involved in some type of night sport involving hunting game, and sometimes the waifs of the city.
Some L33T Facts
Just because I generally find it funny when I see anyone trying to handle a katana, here are some quick expert facts as a bonus:
If it’s at your side or in a belt, the blade should be held up.
You’d never touch the cutting edge, that’s moronic.
You keep your thumb on the tsuba (hand guard), to keep the blade in the saya (scabbard).
I’m indebted to all those who have taken the time to teach me about Japanese swords and their related martial arts, both in dojo’s around South Africa and in Japan. Much of the limited research done was from Wikipedia or “Introduction to Japanese Swords through Pictures” by the All Japan Swordsmith Association, with additional research done at the Tokyo National Museum. Their collection of nihonto has been the best collection I have ever seen. If you enjoyed this article and would like to hear more about other Japanese weapons, or even European or African weapons, please let me know by leaving a comment below.
After visiting a Brazilian shop in Japan with three American friends, we all went to a fantastic Peruvian restaurant for supper. One of the girls with us is of Chinese descent but has ties to Peru so she helped us decipher the menu which was in Spanish.
It was the strangest thing being a South African and giving my order to a Peruvian waitress in Japanese. I enjoyed a delicious meat dish finished with a glass of tangy granadilla juice – yum!
We may all come from different places around the world but one thing’s for sure, the language of beef steak is universal.
, a great supplement for battles at sea.
, includes all the monsters in the module.
