Cartographer's Corner: Tutorial

I forgot to add this excellent set of tutorial videos I found on Youtube. The gentleman who does them does an excellent job of explaining to beginners the necessary steps to create a basic map in Campaign Cartographer.

Here is the first in the overland mapping series. Enjoy!

Cartographer's Corner: Rivercross

I have no artistic talent. I wish I did, but I don't. I game with many people that do, and when I see them do amazing things I really wish I could as well, but I can't. Unfortunately this extends to map making. Christian who I game with regularly comes out with amazing color maps when he runs games. Those maps really serve to enhance the gaming experience by getting everyone on the same page by presenting a lot of specific information and presenting it in a way that is visually appealing. For a long time that was something I have been unable to do. Mapping is a necessity to a certain extent so I have provided some maps, but while they might have been accurate and specific they most certainly were not visually appealing.

So I did what many do when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem in modern age, I turned to technology. For the modern gamer who is similarly artistically challenged there are several options for mapping.

The first one I tried was Dundjinni. The program was fairly affordable at $39.95 and the example maps looked great. I really enjoyed the program at first, and did a couple of maps with it. There are a lot of symbol expansion packs both by the makers of the program and by the people that use it. But I found the software ill fitted for doing large scale maps such as I needed for continents and worlds so I decided to look around for a different program.

Here are the maps that I made using Dundjinni. The first one is a camp, the second a cathedral. Click on the image to view the full size. Please feel free to right click and select save as to save the image and use it in your own game.



The next software I decided to get was Campaign Cartographer. Now I had heard the reputation of CC as being very powerful but very difficult to use. As it turns out it is also very expensive. Fortunetly I was able to pick up a copy of the old CC2 software used. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the recently released CC3, but if it was too hard to use it probably wasn't going to be for me anyway.

As adverstised CC was very difficult to use. The interface can be somewhat overwhelming at first, but I was please to find that the program's potency was not exagerated. It took me a while, but finally I was able to produce my first map. Here it is, try not to laugh.


Like I said, it was my first map.

CC has many different parts to it and one was called City Designer. I thought I'd give that one a try next. Here is the town I made with that, and I was more pleased with how it came out than with the previous map.


CC is a great program and I keep finding more and more great features the more I use it. At its most basic it helps out artistically challenged people like me, and at its full potential it produces professional looking maps to rival anything put out by any gaming company out there. There is an amazing community that has developed over at the Cartographer's Guild. Those guys really know what they are doing and are happy to help people new to CC and other mapping programs. Those guys do some really amazing work.

As for me I am hoping my maps continue to get better. I'll be posting more maps regularly under the Cartographer's Corner heading so keep an eye out.

Pathfinder Sold Out Part 2

Just some followup on the news that Paizo's Pathfinder game sold out in pre-orders. I have been looking around to try to find some hard numbers on their sales, but so far Paizo isn't saying anything. So how much of a success are we expecting? I'd be shocked to learn that their first run was anything under 10,000 copies based on the publishers words. Erik Mona called the first run a, "Hugely ambitious print run." Regardless of how many copies they sold it's obvious that the game has exceeded Paizo's expectation which is a good sign for them and for the hobby. It should also serve to boost their PDF sales, which I don't think will stop people from ordering a hard copy when it becomes available.

Despite Pathfinder's recent success I'm going to take this opportunity to bring some of you back down to earth. I've gotten some emails from readers asking me if I think Pathfinder will outsell 4E. Paizo's numbers, whatever they turn out to be, will not be near WotC numbers. Pathfinder is just getting started, you can't expect it to instantly have a fanbase on par with the most popular RPG of all time.

That having been said, Pathfinder obviously has a lot of potential. People are paying afternoon and Paizo has an opportunity to develop a large fan base. As for the rest? Only time will tell...

Gamer Movie Review: Über Goober

Film: Über Goober (Documentary)
Year: 2004
Production Company: Scum Crew Pictures
Director: Steve Metze

Just as the film Trekkies was a documentary that examined Star Trek subculture, so too does Uber Goober examine gamer subculture. It even goes so far as to break gamers up into three main groups; Wargamers who play tactical miniature games like Warhammer, Roleplayers who play games like Dungeons and Dragons, and finally those who LARP (Live action roleplay) and act out their game like those who play Vampire the Masquerade.

Here is the summary from Uber Goober's Website...

Über Goober focuses on the often-misunderstood, sometimes-controversial, and always-kind-of-geeky world of Gamers. Metze examines several different groups including historical miniature gamers, role-players, and those known simply as "LARPers" (Live Action Role Players). The film also explores opposition from religious groups, negative media portrayals ranging from sit-coms to post-Columbine news coverage, and some of the meanest 'man-on-the-street' interviews ever committed to video. Meet the Gamers, learn their exotic language, see their bizarre rituals, gasp at their semi-authentic costumes, and thrill to the painting techniques on their miniatures!

I liked this movie. It's ambitions are in line with its budget and production capability. The makers of the film didn't try to do too much or attempt to illicit specific responses from those they interviewed as you sometimes see in documentary films. Rather they got their subjects going on a topic they are passionate about, Gaming, and let them talk about it and what it means to them.

Nearly all gamers will see some part of themselves in one of the people interviewed in this film. For me it was the cop who refused to be revealed on camera. He, like myself, is what is called a "Closet Gamer." We game, but we typically don't admit it to people. His tale about his wife finding his Dragon Magazine collection and telling her that he, "Only bought it for the articles" was probably my favorite part of the whole film. I have been dating my fiance for 10 years (we are getting married on our 11th anniversary). Just to show you how much of a closet gamer I am I didn't tell her that I gamed until... wait for it... 6 months ago. Yeah, I know... that's bad. But this guy on the film was much the same, and therein lies the greatest part of the film, gamers can relate to these people.

In addition to the very good documentary the DVD has some very entertaining special features, including a guided tour around the town where TSR started by the late great Gary Gygax. The DVD can be purchased here and is certainly worth the fifteen dollar price tag.

Like the Gamers this film is a great window into gamer subculture for those who are not part of it. So if you also haven't told you girlfriend what it is you are really doing on Thursday nights maybe this will help clear things up.

Overall Rating: 7/10 - A great documentary that will have you laughing at it... and maybe a little at yourself as well.

Pathfinder Sold Out!

Paizo has just released word that its Pathfinder Core Rulebook has sold out. That's right, sold out. Ten days before it's release and all that remains are the copies that they set aside for Gencon. According to their press release they originally believed the number of copies they had printed would last until the end of the year. Boy were they wrong.

My group plans on playing a Pathfinder game once we finish our Hackmaster Basic game. Fortunately one of our members pre-ordered the book months ago. The rest of us will have to make due with the PDF that Paizo is supplying for the very reasonable price of $9.99.

It seems Pathfinder may far exceed expectations, despite those expectations being quite high. We'll just have to wait and see...

Hackmaster Basic Player Aids

Continuing our support of Hackmaster Basic here are some great aids for players.

The Official Character Sheet - This is the official character sheet by Kenzerco. It has everything you need.

PDF Character Sheet - This is an editable version of the above character sheet.

Character Creation Worksheet - This was made by Topher from the Kenzerco Hackmaster Boards. I don't know him personally but I don't think if anyone outside the creators of the game are as knowledgeable when it comes to all things Hackmaster. This worksheet is amazing and really speeds character creation. If it is your first time making a character do yourself a favor and print out a copy.

Character Class Cheat Sheet - This sheet sumarizes everything you need to know when selecting a class from what free skills you get to what hit die you get to roll. Very handy at character creation.

Dice Cradle Reference Sheet - This is the reference sheet I keep in my Dice Cradle. Along with the copy of Gary Gygax's signature there is a list of special combat moves and a summary of what each does. It really helps... especially at 2am.

Hackmaster Skill List - This is a list of all the skills in HMB, what their associated ability is, whether they are universal or not, and their BP cost.

Hackmaster Basic Index - This index was originally intended to be in the back of the book, but it didn't make it in. Print it out and keep it in the back of your book to save yourself some time.

Anatomy of a Campaign: Legacy of New Lago - Part 3

When deciding which modules I wanted to add to my campaign I began with Dungeon's list of the top 30 modules of all time. Here is the list in its entirety...

1. GDQ1-7: Queen of the Spiders: Compiling the giants G series, the drow D series, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits
2. I6: Ravenloft
3. S1: Tomb of Horrors
4. T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil
5. S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
6. I3-5: The Desert of Desolation
7. B2: The Keep on the Borderlands
8. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
   
9. S2: White Plume Mountain
10. Return to the Tomb of Horrors
11. The Gates of Firestorm Peak
12. The Forge of Fury
13. I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
14. Planescape: Dead Gods
15. X2: Castle Amber
16. X1: The Isle of Dread
17. Forgotten Realms: Ruins of Undermountain
    
18. C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
19. N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God
20. A1-4: Scourge of the Slave Lords
21. Judges Guild: Dark Tower
22. S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
23. WG4: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun
24. Forgotten Realms: City of the Spider Queen
25. DL1: Dragons of Despair
26. WGR6: City of Skulls
27. U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
28. B4: The Lost City
29. L2: The Assassin's Knot
30. C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness

After looking at the list some of the names jumped out at me. Classics that I had head of, but had never played in or run before. They were...

G Series: Against the Giants
I6: Ravenloft
S1: Tomb of Horrors
T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil
B2: The Keep on the Borderlands
S2: White Plume Mountain

Going back to the basic idea that I wanted this to be an episodic campaign where the party gathers items of great power, I knew that I had to choose the modules that such items in them already.

The first module to jump out at me was White Plume Mountain. For those of you unfamiliar with the adventure let me give you the general plot. An ancient wizard who many had believed to have been a myth has stolen three powerful artifacts; Wave, Whelm, and Blackrazor. The party follow the only clue left by the offending mage, a letter which leads them to the volcanic White Plume Mountain. Once there they must pass through some great traps and battle some strange creatures to recover the items. Basically this module was absolutely perfect. It was even updated to 3.5 by WotC in 2005. Its lead villain, Keraptis, even got me starting to think about my big villain... more on that later.

The next module I decided on was Keep on the Borderlands. Somehow this became #7 on the list, but just about every gamer I've ever talked who played it rated KotBL as the best or second best module they had ever played. I could think of no better way to begin the game than this adventure, but it needed some tweaking. Not because there was anything wrong with it, but rather because it didn't fit the formula of the game. Some quick changes took care of this and it fit seamlessly into the game. Just to show you how good it is Kenzerco made their own version of the adventure called Little Keep on the Borderlands for Hackmaster 4th Edition.

Of all the modules on the list the one that I most wanted to run was Ravenloft. I had never played it, nor ran it, but everyone raved about it. Those who said the Keep was the second best module all set Ravenloft was number one, and I was determined to find out if it was true. Ravenloft has also been converted to 3.5 and even expanded to be an entire campaign. I stuck to the Old School 1st edition Ravenloft adventure for the most part, but did use the 3.5 book for stat conversions.The adventure was very easy to adapt to the campaign format. I simply had the players sent there seeking the symbol of Ravenkind. Though the adventure did not quite go as expected I will say it was a lot of fun to play. Strahd is a classic villain, perhaps the greatest in D&D. His character also left his mark on my BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy)

These adventures were a lot of fun to run and I highly recommend integrating them into your game if they fit. Here are the letters I used as props in during the adventure. You should have seen the players faces when they read the first letter from Ravenloft!

Speaking of that letter from Ravenloft check out this amazing video done by a guy running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (The 3.5 adventure/campaign).

So that's it for now. In part 4 we'll look at the dreaded BBEG.