Saturday 23 April 2011

Lego Heroica Now Listed on Amazon UK

Following up on the Lego Heroica post last month, here's an update with more details of the four Heroica sets and their prices. The details are from Amazon UK and Thistle Games (I checked the US site but they don't seem to have listed them yet).




Castle Fortaan
The Goblin King and his horde have captured castle Fortaan. Infiltrate, recover the Goblin King’s battle plans and do a runner with the Helm of Protection.
304 pieces/ £19.99

Waldurk Forest
Beat up on the Dark Druid’s monsters and rob him of the Chalice of Life. “Use all your skill and power,” probably tells us much of what we need to know about the Heroica rule set.
225 pieces/ £14.99

Driada Day
More goblins, busy starving the local populace. Slay the Goblin General and his evil minions before skipping off with the Crystal of Deflection.
101 pieces/ £9.99

Caverns of Nathuz
There’s a Golem Lord busy using the Sceptre of Summoning for what it was made to do. Guess what? Yeah, kill the monsters, dismember the Golem Lord and pocket the sceptre.
217 pieces/£14.99

The prices are in line with previous lego games. In anticipation of these games, I've bought a couple of older games, that I think could be used as diy expansion sets for Heroica. They are: Lava Dragon and Ramses Pyramid, both of which are often available at discounted prices. I suspect the Heroica sets will also be discounted at various outlets, but maybe after they've been released for a few months.


Monday 18 April 2011

Dungeon Projector Rig

In our Stonehell game on Saturday, I tried out an idea I've long been toying with - a projected game map.  The idea is simple enough: take one data projector, rig a mirror at a 45 degree angle, and project a dungeon map down on to a 50 inch screen on the tabletop.  Here's what the end result looks like:





















Friday 8 April 2011

Exciting New Robin Hood Production...

...at my daughter's 5th birthday party tomorrow.  Not had much time for writing this week as I'm busy learning my lines as The Sheriff of Nottingham, for a short play we're putting on at my little girl's birthday bash.  If the photos aren't too embarassing I may put one up after the event.

Should be back to writing next week and I have a gaming session to look forward to next weekend as well.

Monday 4 April 2011

Oubliette Giveaway Results

I'm delighted to report that we gave away a total of 780 copies of Oubliette Issue 5.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the additional sales that were made of the printed compilation of issues 1-4, and the PDF back issues.  Thank-you to everyone who took the time to look at the magazine, and especially to those of you who bought back issues.

Going forward, I'd like to continue offering new issues of Oubliette as free downloads, for a limited period following their release.  To facilitate this, I'll also be offering a limited amount of advertising space from Issue 6 onwards.  I'll be putting up a ratecard with special introductory rates in the next few days.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Monster Book: Apes

Here's all the Apes going in the monster book.  Main changes from the Labyrinth Lord books are the heights and weight for each species.

Ape, Albino

NO. ENC.:  1d6 (2d4)
ALIGNMENT:  Neutral
MOVEMENT:  120’ (40’)
ARMOUR CLASS:  6
HIT DICE:  4
ATTACKS:  2 (fists)
DAMAGE:  1d4/1d4
SAVE:  F2
MORALE:  7
HOARD CLASS:  None
XP:  80
AVG. HP:  18

Albino apes are a white sub-species of gorilla.  A fully-grown male stands 5 feet tall and weighs 350 pounds.

Albino apes are adapted to living in a subterranean environment, only venturing to the surface to forage for food at night.  As such, they have lost all pigment.  They will vocalize and act aggressively if other creatures come near their lair, and may attack.  Albino apes may occasionally be found as pets to Neanderthals or Morlocks.

In addition to two fist attacks, albino apes can throw rocks for 1d6 hit points of damage per round.


Ape, Chimpanzee

NO. ENC.:  1d4 (3d4)
ALIGNMENT:  Neutral
MOVEMENT:  120’ (40’)
ARMOUR CLASS:  6
HIT DICE:  3
ATTACKS:  3 (2 fists, 1 bite)
DAMAGE:  1d3/1d3/1d6
SAVE:  F3
MORALE:  9
HOARD CLASS:  None
XP:  50
AVG. HP:  14

Chimpanzees are smaller than most other apes at 4 feet tall, and 120 pounds in weight.  A chimp’s long arms, when extended, have a span one and a half times as long as the body’s height, and a chimpanzee's arms are longer than its legs.

What they lack in size, they make up for with aggression.  They may attack with very little provocation, and have a taste for meat.  However, if caught young, they can be tamed and trained to perform quite complex tasks.  In the wild, they will often make use of improvised tools to obtain food or even scare away intruders.

Chimpanzees live in a wide variety of habitats, including tropical rain forests, woodlands, swamp forests, and grasslands.


Ape, Gorilla

NO. ENC.:  1d4 (3d4)
ALIGNMENT:  Neutral
MOVEMENT:  120’ (40’)
ARMOUR CLASS:  6
HIT DICE:  4+1
ATTACKS:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)
DAMAGE:  1d3/1d3/1d6
SAVE:  F4
MORALE:  8
HOARD CLASS:  None
XP:  80
AVG. HP:  19

Gorillas are large apes that measure up to 5½ feet tall and can weigh as much as 400 pounds.  Gorillas knuckle-walk using their long arms and shorter legs.  They can stand and walk upright over short distances.

Gorillas are exclusively vegetarian, and will normally only fight when threatened, or to defend their territory.  A typical group of gorillas will have one male silverback and the rest will be females (who are smaller) and youngsters.

Gorillas live in tropical rain forest clearings, wet lowland forests, and swamps - though they cannot swim.  They are able to climb trees, but do not do so very often.


Ape, Man-Eating

NO. ENC.:  2d4 (3d4)
ALIGNMENT:  Neutral
MOVEMENT:  120’ (40’)
ARMOUR CLASS:  6
HIT DICE:  5
ATTACKS:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)
DAMAGE:  1d4/1d4/1d8
SAVE:  F5
MORALE:  10
HOARD CLASS:  XIX
XP:  350
AVG. HP:  23

Man-eating apes are related to chimpanzees, but are much fiercer and larger than gorillas.  They can grow to 7 feet tall and reach up to 600 pounds in weight.

They have an insatiable desire to consume humanoid flesh, attacking with powerful fists and a bite, and if both fists hit the same target in the same round, the victim suffers an extra 1d8 rending damage.  Man-eating apes (average intelligence 8) are more intelligent than other apes and have sharp senses that give them only a 1 in 6 chance of being surprised.

Friday 1 April 2011

Final Hours of the Oubliette Giveaway

There's now just a few hours left to grab a copy of the latest issue of Oubliette for free, nada, gratis.  Tonight I'll be putting it up to the normal selling price.  Tomorrow I'll post details of the total number of issues that were downloaded.

The PDF can be downloaded from rpgnow.com

Then, if you like it, you can head over to Lulu.com and buy a printed version.