WarWalker! The Arena of Death!
Arena of Death!
This booth appears to be a large puppet theatre,
constructed and painted to resemble an ancient gladiatorial arena. There are two
wooden consoles bolted to the front: one with five, red-painted levers and
buttons, the other with five green levers and buttons.
Jesska, a red haired gnome dressed in an oversized
purple toga will try and sell them on “Experience a "Gladiator Fight To The
Death!", "DEATH! MAYHEM! MAGNETS!" "Just like Olden Tymes!” It is one gold per play per PC.
Once the gnome has been paid, she will disappear behind
the curtain and blow a short, off-key trumpet blast. Then she will pull back
the curtain revealing two marionettes: one a dented wooden gladiator with a
sword and shield both painted green. The other is a wooden Minotaur pained red. The backdrop to the theatre is an old
fashioned arena, complete with spectators bedecked in togas and a corpulent
emperor standing with his arm outstretched and thumb pointed with down.
A quick experimentation reveals that the levers on
the console, cause the marionettes to move and jerk. The green console controls
the Gladiator, the red console controls the Minotaur.
To play the game, print or copy the following
cards onto paper or (10) index cards.
|
|
|
|
|
HEAD
|
ARM, RIGHT
|
ARM, LEFT
|
LEG, RIGHT
|
LEG LEFT
|
DEFEATS
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Left
|
DEFATS
Arm,
Right
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Right
|
DEFEATS
Head
Leg,
Left
|
DEFEATS
Arm,
Left
Head
|
DEFEATS
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Head
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Head
Leg,
Left
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Left
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Left
Arm,
Right
|
 |
|
|
|
|
HEAD
|
ARM, RIGHT
|
ARM, LEFT
|
LEG, RIGHT
|
LEG LEFT
|
DEFEATS
Head
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Left
|
DEFATS
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Right
|
DEFEATS
Head
Leg,
Left
|
DEFEATS
Arm,
Left
Head
|
DEFEATS
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Head
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Left
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Right
Leg,
Right
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Left
Leg,
Left
|
BEATEN BY
Arm,
Left
Arm,
Right
|
The game is played when the characters throw a
lever (a mechanism does not allow more than one lever to be
pushed forward at a time), and the the marionettes slam into each other. Magnets tied to the end of the strings (connected to other magnets hidden in the marionette’s joints), disconnect when
struck hard enough, causing that part of the marionette to go slack.
In game turns, each side chooses a card from their
hand and plays it (if the gnome is playing one “side”, she draws randomly).The
two cards are compared and the losing side must drop their card. The winning
side can reshuffle their card back into their hand. The game can be played until
one side has no cards left, or for a set number of hands Hands (5 recommended)
and the side with the most cards left, wins.
If the Knight and the Minotaur play the SAME card,
there is a tie:
•The Minotaur’s horns allow it to automatically
WIN if the Minotaur Head card is played against the Knight’s Head Card.
•The Knight’s Right Hand card is carrying a sword
and allow it to automatically WIN if the Knight’s Right Arm card is played
against the Minotaur’s Right Hand Card.
•All other ties are settled with a Sleight of Hand roll. The Carny gnome running the booth has a SoH skill roll of (+6 +OR equal to +2 over the player’s Sleight of Hand Skill/Dex Attribute; whichever number is highest.)
•All other ties are settled with a Sleight of Hand roll. The Carny gnome running the booth has a SoH skill roll of (+6 +OR equal to +2 over the player’s Sleight of Hand Skill/Dex Attribute; whichever number is highest.)
Beaten By
|
Beaten By
|
Location/Lever
|
Beats
|
Beats
|
Arm Left
|
Leg Right
|
Torso
/ Head
|
Arm Right
|
Leg Left
|
Torso
|
Leg Left
|
Arm
Right
|
Arm Left
|
Leg Right
|
Arm Right
|
Leg Right
|
Arm
Left
|
Torso
|
Leg Left
|
Arm Left
|
Leg Left
|
Leg
Right
|
Arm Left
|
Torso
|
Arm Right
|
Torso
|
Leg
Left
|
Arm Right
|
Leg Right
|
This week in gaming ....
Tue:
About a month ago I started running an open game at the local geekstore. First night we had 4 people. On Tuesday, 15 of them showed up....
Never talked so fast in my life.
Also scored these marvelous manuscripts! I am most definitely running a modified version of Earthshaker! Having given it a skim, I already know that I'm going to have to rework the whole "organize a carnival for your domain" aspect, but I have such wonderful ideas. The naming convention in this thing also has to go. There is no way I'm going in front of a group and try to pronounce Vyolstagrad, Kolchitsky or Formiesias for two hours.
But other than that its a real treat! The rules and the maps for the robot are especially amazing.
Wed
Only two more sessions before the end of term, so we're doing in the middle of the big push to the BBEG. Next session they level up to 5.
\
Tonight
We continue our exploration of the Astral plane. SO happy I'm not DMing for a change.
Mindflayer Tower, Level 2
 |
| Map by Dyson's Dodecahedron |
This is not the final layout, but it gives me an idea of where the encounters are going to take place. The silver circle in the back is the acid cauldron where the electricity that runs the tower is generated.
Did experience a few technical difficulties during the set-up phase.
My D&D Mini
In the game that I play in the DM has a stockpile of LEGO mini-figs and parts that he lets us use as character figs. Just after the campaign started I had a few days off work so I decided to build something that would really represent the whole character idea.
It was a such a treat to empty out a box of LEGO and just build something.
Presenting Pffwyggyn Kebbla, 13th Stratum Wizard of the Inventors School, Professor-en-Absenteeism of Thaumnatics at the Gizmodic Institutionarrium of Marbleheart Seitch, testing out his potion powered jetpack with unicorn-horn guidance system while flying over his Gizmotic Neutromatic Archanomechanical Defensive (and Xploration) Amour, or G.N.A.D.A for short.
I got an Inspiration point for this.
Wonderful Wednesday
Back from a week off to a wall of work and three D&D groups to write for. Guess its go big or go home time....
Save vs Making Sense
And you may find yourself
Living from quest to quest
And you may find yourself
In a world of magic and adventure
And you may find yourself
Standing behind a large Dungeon Master’s Screen
And you may find yourself in a beautiful castle
With a beautiful Vampire
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?
And you may find yourself
In a world of magic and adventure
And you may find yourself
Standing behind a large Dungeon Master’s Screen
And you may find yourself in a beautiful castle
With a beautiful Vampire
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?
CBC Radio Spot: Autism NS and D&D
CBC Radio recently did a radio spot about our little Wednesday night group.
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/information-morning-ns/segment/15671139
And here is the article they did last year.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dungeons-dragons-autism-communication-social-skills-community-1.4433503
That reminds me, I have to finish prepping for tonight!
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/information-morning-ns/segment/15671139
And here is the article they did last year.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dungeons-dragons-autism-communication-social-skills-community-1.4433503
That reminds me, I have to finish prepping for tonight!
Its never too late
I read a FB post once that said something to the effect of, "I can't wait until this generation retires, the game nights in the home are going to be epic."
Like many fellow gen-X nerds, I played rpgs semi-regularly through high-school and university, then more and more intermittently while the old group slowly broke apart as life happened. I myself ended selling a lot of my old rpg stuff (I kept some and don't miss what I've given up. RIFTS crap takes up a LOT of room) and moving halfway across the country to get married. The good news here is that I completely missed 4th edition fiasco.
But I never stopped following the hobby and when life settled down enough I started going to pick-up games run out of the local-library (which is an AWESOME way for trying out new and different games and for playing with new people).Through them I ran a Ghostbusters game at a small con and found the notice from Autism Nova Scotia. With that going well, I ran some weekend pick-up games at a bar on behalf of a card-store, earning me my first paid DM's gig. All that gave me the confidence to approach a group I found online of local D&D gamers who run a collective group here in the city.
[I'm gonna digress here for a minute and explain how the group works: Organized on facebook, its a collective of about 20 gamers all living in the city. They meet up every few months and break into gaming groups. The DMs run an adventure over a couple of months and once all the groups are done, they meet up again, share stories and break into different groups. All the adventures take place in the same gameworld, so what you do might affect other games. Characters can be ported back and forth, or you can make a new one for each adventure. If you can find a group like this or know enough people to start organizing one, I highly recommend it.]
I'm at least ten years older than they are, but I've just started my second adventure and I'm having a blast.
Just last weekend I get a notice from the game/comic store where I run my Wednesday night group. He's looking for someone to take over one of the store groups and after some scheduling decisions and a discussion with my wife, I said yes.
As my mid-forties loom I'm playing more now than I ever did as a kid or teenager, and with dozens of different people from every walk of life, most of whom I'd never be lucky enough to meet or play with if I just stuck to finding three of four people to hack out an endless campaign with, which was kinda the way I though rpgs was suppose to work.
Learn sumptin' new every day.
---
Met with the new group last night and hashed out some ideas about where they wanted to go. I'm too overburdened to write another campaign whole-cloth, so I've decided that I'm going (unbeknownst to them) to use a pre-written module as the basis of the game. Narrowed it down to six or seven choices (depending on what I own and what I want to play). Next session they will begin in a tavern and I'm going to toss out some hooks out to see what they bit on.
The only issue I can see is that the old DM is joining as a player, and he wrote the gameworld they're playing in. I respect that kind of stuff a lot, but I'm worried how my more free and gonzo style is going to affect him. Not planning on anything world-breaking, but I also didn't have anything in mind for the wed night group when they were first brought together by the ghost of a little girl trying to keep her brother safe ... and now they are climbing an alien tower trying to stop the Mindflayer at the top from opening a portal to the nethersphere and summoning forth an invasion fleet of Illithid dreadnautilus and squidship.(the brother is the human henchman and the little girl's brain powers the bio-computer than runs the tower.
Whew! Just needed to vent a little. Thanks for reading.
Like many fellow gen-X nerds, I played rpgs semi-regularly through high-school and university, then more and more intermittently while the old group slowly broke apart as life happened. I myself ended selling a lot of my old rpg stuff (I kept some and don't miss what I've given up. RIFTS crap takes up a LOT of room) and moving halfway across the country to get married. The good news here is that I completely missed 4th edition fiasco.
But I never stopped following the hobby and when life settled down enough I started going to pick-up games run out of the local-library (which is an AWESOME way for trying out new and different games and for playing with new people).Through them I ran a Ghostbusters game at a small con and found the notice from Autism Nova Scotia. With that going well, I ran some weekend pick-up games at a bar on behalf of a card-store, earning me my first paid DM's gig. All that gave me the confidence to approach a group I found online of local D&D gamers who run a collective group here in the city.
[I'm gonna digress here for a minute and explain how the group works: Organized on facebook, its a collective of about 20 gamers all living in the city. They meet up every few months and break into gaming groups. The DMs run an adventure over a couple of months and once all the groups are done, they meet up again, share stories and break into different groups. All the adventures take place in the same gameworld, so what you do might affect other games. Characters can be ported back and forth, or you can make a new one for each adventure. If you can find a group like this or know enough people to start organizing one, I highly recommend it.]
I'm at least ten years older than they are, but I've just started my second adventure and I'm having a blast.
Just last weekend I get a notice from the game/comic store where I run my Wednesday night group. He's looking for someone to take over one of the store groups and after some scheduling decisions and a discussion with my wife, I said yes.
As my mid-forties loom I'm playing more now than I ever did as a kid or teenager, and with dozens of different people from every walk of life, most of whom I'd never be lucky enough to meet or play with if I just stuck to finding three of four people to hack out an endless campaign with, which was kinda the way I though rpgs was suppose to work.
Learn sumptin' new every day.
---
The only issue I can see is that the old DM is joining as a player, and he wrote the gameworld they're playing in. I respect that kind of stuff a lot, but I'm worried how my more free and gonzo style is going to affect him. Not planning on anything world-breaking, but I also didn't have anything in mind for the wed night group when they were first brought together by the ghost of a little girl trying to keep her brother safe ... and now they are climbing an alien tower trying to stop the Mindflayer at the top from opening a portal to the nethersphere and summoning forth an invasion fleet of Illithid dreadnautilus and squidship.(the brother is the human henchman and the little girl's brain powers the bio-computer than runs the tower.
Whew! Just needed to vent a little. Thanks for reading.
The Way We Roll
A couple of set up shots for the Wednesday night group's assault on the alien observatory that appeared at the center of the city after the party had been flung back and forth through time, emerging ten years after they'd first left.
The main gate guarded by a spiked wall, pzychoslaved guardsmen and a penned Displacer Beast in front of the main door. If they'd taken the sewers they would have been greeted by Skinface the Clown.
Rot Grub Wand
In appearance the want looks like a rotting skull still attached to part of the spinal cord. Careful handling is required as the decaying skull is home to rot grubs feasting on the rotting flesh.
To use the weapon, the welder must grab the wand by the spinal cord and point the rotting face towards their target. Upon activation, the skull spits a rot grub towards the target (Magic To-Hit roll).
If the attack is successful, the grub will do d4 damage. A Dex Saving throw is then required (DC being the Attacker's ToHit roll) to catch the grub before it burrows into the skin of its victim. If the saving throw fails, the grub will begin to feed, painfully devouring its victim from the inside out, doing d4 (necro) damage per round. Only a Cure Disease or similar spell will kill the grub. Healing spells and potions will restore lost hit points, damage, but the grub will continue to feed. While the grub is feeding, the victim must make a (free) CON Saving throw (DC=10+ # of rounds grub has been inside the body) before any action or else make the roll at a Disadvantage due to the almost unbearable agony.
Cutting, burning or using acid to kill the grub will require a successful Medicine Roll (DC =10+ # of rounds grub has been inside the body) roll and will do an additional D4+ #of rounds grub has been inside the body) damage (necro).
Dark Sun for 5e
Stumbled across this little gem, a 5e conversion guide to Dark Sun by Keil Chenier. Dark Sun has always been one of the most underrated of the D&D play-worlds IMHO. I've never personally run or played it, but I have an idea to include a version of Athas/Barsoom as one of the 13 moons of my personal setting of Yth.
Maybe if the group takes the bait and goes looking for that crashed spelljammer I planted I can plan a visit there.
Wonderful Wednesday
A very long and shitty January is the gorilla, her expression is me. February cannot get here soon enough.
Book of Loot: Climbing Claw
Climbing Claw
Made from the claw of a Axebeak, this magical item bestows an Advantage on all Climbing rolls.
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