Battle Beasts: Killer Carp for D&D Next

Killer Carp

Medium Humanoid

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 18 (4d8) 

Speed 20 ft.; swimming 90 ft.

Str 13 (+1)     Dex  11 (+0 )    Con 10 (+0)

Int  11 (+0)    Wis 13  (+1)   Cha  8  (-1)

Alignment lawful

Languages common, pisces

TRAITS______________________________________

Ruthless:  Once per turn, Killer Carp may gain advantage on his attack roll if there are not hostile creatures hostile to Killer Carp within 5 feet.

(Optional) Heart of Water: Killer Carp is vulnerable to wood damage.

(Optional) Riptide: Killer Carp is resistant to fire damage.

ACTIONS_____________________________________

Melee Attack—Fins: +2 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature). 

Hit: 3 (1d4) water damage.

Melee Attack—Wave Axe: +3 to hit (reach 15 ft.; one creature). 

Hit: 8 (1d12+1) water damage.

Ranged Attack—High Tide Missles: +2 to hit (range 200 ft./400 ft.; one creature). 

Hit: 5 (1d8) water damage.

ENCOUNTER BUILDING 

Level 4                   XP 250

DuckTales + Call of Cthulhu (with a bit of CHILL) = FOWL

Before we went to the Disney World parks, I got to hang out with two of my favorite people, my best friend Mark M. and his most awesome wife, Jackie.  He mentioned he's recently picked up a DarkWing Duck Disney Pin (if your not familiar with the Disney Pin craze, it  makes Magic: the Gathering look like amateur hour).

Then as I ventured the through the parks I began waxing nostalgic about DuckTales, DarkWing Duck, and Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics.  I really enjoyed all of those stories and once had a buddy, tell me about a Basic Role Playing session he ran with non-gamers where they were Ducks.  The final piece of the puzzle came to me in the Little Mermaid show at Hollywood Studios, when Eric ran Ursula through with his ship...a moment straight out of the Cthulhu Mythos.

And so I began contemplating FOWL (it's inspiration is taken from CHILL).  A high adventure game of battling the Mythos and it's shadowy minions.

Ursula = Cthulhu

Chernabog = Ithaqua

DeSpell family = Whately family

Maleficent = Mother Hydra

NegaDuck = Nyarlathotep

These are just my initial brainstorms but I'm planning on continuing to try to work things out.

At this point I'm leaning toward BRP, but I'll consider Savage Worlds, AGE and GURPS as options.

Back from Vacation & Star Wars

So we made it back home very, very early Sunday morning from our trip to Disney World.  My oldest daughter hadn't been with us yet, so this was her initiation.  I was lucky to have two friends, Freddie and AJ who are working at Disney World who were kind enough to help us throughout our trip.

By shear coincidence, friday was the first day of Star Wars Weekend 2013 and it cost me a ton of money.  But we had a huge amount of fun.  My wife and I got our likeness's preserved in Carbon Freezing and my three kids opted for Storm Troopers.  And we all thoroughly enjoyed the Hyperspace Hoopla.

I can honestly say, based on my experiences in the last week, that I feel very comfortable with Disney's understanding and appreciate of Star Wars.  I've truly looking forward toward Episode VII.

And then today I saw the announcement for the new Star Wars: Rebels animated TV show starting in the Fall of 2014.  It's set during the era between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.  Hoping it's pretty cool.

Pondering D&D Next's Future

Mike Mearls spent the last several Legends and Lore talking about changes to Feats, Skills, Backgrounds and presumably, the removal of Themes from "Basic" DnD.

In my Ironcloak's game, I have access to all of the characters on my hard drive, so I copied and made changes based on what information he's given.

I removed most Feats and converted them to a +1 bonus to an Ability Score on a 1 for 1 basis.  With Feats being optional, I assume the concept of Themes is most likely being jettisoned or at least moved to an option.

I added Areas of Knowledge (a +10 bonus to a Lore, generally) and Proficiencies (and left room for some of these to be added during play) to Backgrounds and excised Skills completely.  I figure, if the Ability check calls for it based on Background or other circumstances, I'll give the character Advantage on the roll.

Thieves still have +Xd6 to Skills called out in their Schemes.

It's reduced the level of crunch and I like what I'm seeing.  I won't be able to test it for several weeks, but I'm anxious to do so.

I realize Skills (mentioned as a hybrid of 3.X and 4E) will be an optional component, but at this point in my gaming preferences, I don't see the need for them.

EABA v2 Quickstart Now Available

Greg Porter's EABA v1 was a very interesting alternative to GURPS and HERO and he just released the Quickstart to v2.  Check it out here.

Goodbye, Mr. Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion photography has passed on at the age of 93.

I was introduced to Ray's work with 1981's Clash of the Titans, but the 7th Voyage of Sinbad is the film that made me fall in love with his work.

He will be missed.

Back This: Adventure Maximus on Kickstarter

Eden Studios has just launched a Kickstarter for an RPG for kids called Adventure Maximus.  It looks like quite a bit of fun and has custom dice and apparently much of the player's information is on cards (while I HATED this for FFG's Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1E, it makes a TON of sense for a kid's RPG).  Another interesting feature is that the Maximus Master can switch with another player in the middle of a session.

It looks to be influenced by Adventure Time, which is a good thing since my kids love that show.

Check it out.