Gaming with my girlfriend

Well my girlfriend for the longest time has never understood my obsession with d&d until now. Last night i finally talked her into playing her first game of d&d and it was great! She really expressed no interest in the game before and had no conception of how the game was played. I decided to run od&d with her and she rolled up a magic-user (male by the way) who apparently was also a time traveler of some sort. Even though she thought she wouldn't she loved it and played beautifully best player i have had in a long time. It was really amusing how well she fit into her role and really loved dragging on conversations with local npc's (forcing me to role-play more then i would have at the time). Regardless we both had fun and we plan on continuing the game so i will try to keep some postings of are sessions.

Vulkara

I have created a blog specifically for my Vulkara works which can be found here...

http://vulkara.blogspot.com/

i will be detailing step by step as i go on my creations..

Life getting in the way

Unfortunately i have been getting ready to go school and have not had an opportunity to game nor blog much about the subject and in about two weeks i will probably not have any gaming at all for awhile. I will still try to make an effort to make some kind of posts here for those that care and hopefully i can find some people that enjoy some good ole d&d in Saint Louis where i will be attending school.

AD&D Campaign session #1

Here is a recap of the first session in my ad&d campaign. The first session saw two of my regular players show up and my brother jumped in. The characters rolled up where a paladin, monk, and a dwarf fighter. They started out in my capitol city called Izulde the "the magic capitol" and heard rumors of a forgotten wizards tower (tower of xylathern) just a days walk from the town that had recently been uncovered. Their first venture into the dungeon saw them only making it into the main room and opening a door to another. Behind the door the uncovered a crypt full of coffins and on the far side a large coffin padlocked.
The dwarf immediately decided to break the lock on the coffin revealing that it housed an undead ogre ready for the kill. The dwarf was brought down instantly and the other two barely survived and managed to escape to the surface dragging the dwarf behind. Upon again reaching town they rested up and decided they needed another companion in doing so they met a strange creature, humanoid in appearance but completely cloaked calling himself a Yaki. This creature claimed he was a thief and was generally good natured but untrustworthy. So they ventured back into the depths this time avoiding the undead ogre but encountering a giant weasel which they bested quickly and another ogre whom the paladin managed to haggle with.
The dwarf discovered a elevator shaft to another level and activated it not knowing that it was one way only. He decided to call upon the power of the Yaki (whom apparently had various strange powers) Yaki made a deal with the dwarf and in short the dwarf died in the end by selling his life. After which time the chracters left to regroup once again ending the first session..

not very inetresting.. but things will get better..

Age Of Lore

This is going to my title for my new role-playing game. The rough draft is finished and here for people who would like to take a peek....//www.mediafire.com/file/wgrzymgnjuk/age of lore.pdf Feedback is welcome!

Thanks Gary..

I never got to meet Mr. Gygax but i did used to correspond regularly with him through email a few years back. He seemed like a cool guy and even though i never met him i miss him and am grateful to him for giving me hours and hours of entertainment and making me the person i am today. Cheers Gary I'm still having a blast after all these years.

Making a roleplaying game

I am currently working on a homebrewed roleplaying game. It will be a fantasy game based in medieval europe but more of a historical simulation with folklore and myth mixed in. I am currently working out the bugs and preparing for playtesting.

AD&D Campaign

In the past couple of years have started up several ad&d 1e campaigns but to no success. Well i have booted up another one. So far the players number in three and i have only ran one session. The characters are a Monk, Paladin, and a Dwarf fighter (the dwarf died already). I ran the first session last week kicking it off with an old school dungeon crawl Xalathern's tower which is a homebrewed dungeon i found online. The first session went well everyone had fun and i am starting to flesh out the world for the campaign. It will be a very generic medieval fantasy world but thats what i want for this paticular game. I will keep updates as the adventures progress.

D&D Documentry

I am on a posting frenzy today but for those of you that have not seen this check it out it is a very good documentary about d&d.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c8vhub_vMI

New Map

Here is the new map of Vulkara...
copy and paste the link below to check it out... I will be detailing all the locations in full in the future or whenever i feel like posting..
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6506/vulkara2.png

Magic on Vulkara and Airships

Magic at one time was a strong force upon Vulkara. The ancient force was at one time known as the weaving and the science behind the matter is not actually mystical to any effect. The ability to wield magic comes from the will of the mind to warp reality around ones self and create a desired result but with this great power comes a price. Warping the fabric of reality creates a paradox as reality fights back against the will worker. This paradox is what evidently led to the age of ruins and tore apart most of the material fabric of the world. Magic in the age of ruin has changed. The ancient secrets to wield magic have been lost and with it now wizards can only cast specific formulas that have been passed down. (Yeah i ripped the idea from mage so what..)

Another curious subject on Vulkara has been the invention of the airships. A recent invention created originally by the Wizards of Izulde. They found a particular crystal known as Ozua crystal that has unique properties. When combined with any source of magic creates a repulsion effect. This actually will make anything in enclosed space of the crystals to float. After some months the first airships where constructed from this discovery. The ship itself is made of wood just like a sea going vessel but with no sails. The crystals are stored in a wooden box/container in the center and lower decks of the ships. The box also has shutters made of metal. There are two shutters one on front and another in back, these lift and propel the ship depending on the amount of the shutter that is opened. Attractable anchors are also attached to the bottom of the ships to keep the ships from flipping when landing these anchors are raised inside the ship and when flying they are let down. After the 20 or so years most of the great city states have adopted this invention to create many fleets of airships that now roam the sky's.

Composition of Vulkara

Vulkara is like other worlds except it doesn't quite exist in the full material plane. Only parts of Vulkara can maintain material form and some scholars even venture to say the only reason that any physical existence remains is through the belief of those whom inhabit the plane. Even the small areas that remain physically stable still are occasionally disrupted by paradoxical fluxes. These fluxes can bring about strange occurrences usually minor but sometimes as great as slowing time, sending one to other place in time and space, or even bringing nightmarish dreams to life. Thus because of these dangers few travel outside the walls of the few city states that dot the landscape. Outside of the known world there is a place that continues on for said eternity only few whispers have been said about this realm and it is said to contain pure madness and one would have to be mad to venture there. The dead are also said to inhabit the outer realms for it seems that no one can truly leave Vulkara once they enter including dead.

The new origins

The old ones were an intelligent alien race almost human like in appearance. They spanned the universe collecting various lifeforms and resources with the ultimate goal of creating a world of their own through a planet forming device. After many eons of searching, they chose the planet that is now known to those that inhabit it as Vulkara. Vulkara was a young planet, newly formed with only primitive microscopic lifeforms living beneath the surface. The experiments to reform the planet went dreadfully wrong soon after changing the face of the planet. This change is now known as the age of the awakening. Soon after the device was ignited the creatures that were brought aboard were changed, and the planet under went a stage of creation that the creators did not imagine as the whole of the planet was sucked into a temporal rift sending the lands into an alternate dimension. The old ones were blocked off from their home in the heavens and forced to exist amongst the beings that they had brought there. The old ones were forced to reign the lifeforms that they could under their control and after many ages of containment, finally gained control of the plane. The best device of control they found was working from the shadows making themselves to be gods and directing the construction of a mighty civilization from sheltered seclusion. They taught the power now as magic to their servants showing them the greater potential of the mind and taught them the secret patterns to wield it. After many ages, they became more reclusive and retreated more into seclusion until they were only a myth directing the mighty civilizations that they secretly controlled. Eventually the power of magic would be the down fall of their master plan and slowly the acolytes of the old ones gained sufficient powers of their own and some were driven mad by the tampering of reality. These mad 'wizards' now known in the current age as the chaos reavers, sought to tear apart the temporal fold of the plane. Great cities fell, temporal rifts opened up swallowing whole continents and bringing the end of the age of reason. This is the current age after the age of reason the old ones are never seen and some believe them to be only a myth, few vestiges of civilization exist much longer. This is the age of ruins, the power to bend reality to the wills of those who can wield it has been lost,this is the time for adventures, this is Vulkara!

Vulkara reborn

A note to all i am very ADD so bear with me if you are following my posts. I was initially thinking of abandoning the Vulkara project altogether but after reading the blog of the weird world of quantiue i have decided to just take a different approach to the setting. I will be revealing little tidbits for the reworking.

Another sandbox idea

My imagination has just been flying away with me this weekend. I have conceptualized another sandbox world the basis would be this. Essentially powerful beings showed other beings the power within themselves known as magic. Through magic realities could be crushed and anything perceivable could be accomplished though reality can only be bent so much. Mighty empires where developed totally non dependent upon technology and a great civilization arose. Time passed and the power to conceive broke down tearing the fabric of reality and creating a world that does not exist in any reality except the smallest faction. Those who rose out of the ashes made a new city encapsulated within the fabric of reality that was left standing. A great city within the bounds of reality when outside monsters, horrors, and the left overs of past ruins are left standing filled with treasures from the past for adventurers brave enough to venture out.

Done..

The first sourcebook of hopefully a few is finished. It is very short and basically entails my houserules, the races, and brief descriptions of the world have fun! Pdf can be found here.... http://www.mediafire.com/?mnmtmmydnni

Sourcebook

I am currently typing up a sourcebook for vulkara. It will be released soon! Also another tidbit.. i am replacing the amazons with a new race called exer (fourarmed, insect martians)

- Fighters up to 5th level, Magic-users up to 8th level, and thieves up to 6th level.

-Being a mystical race honing the secrets and gifts of 'magic' they can memorize one additional level one spell

-Exer have four limbs and as such can easily use all of them for attack thus gaining a +1 to melee attacks.

-+2 vs. magic

Origins of Vulkara

Origins

Vulkara is a small planet circled with three moons ,(Plantis, Orsis, Rumis), and two suns one red and one bright white (Se and Une). Eons ago before the age of ruins and before the Blessed age their where the old ones, beings immortal with powers beyond comprehension. They brought all that was to the world of Vulkara, they are said to have descended from the heavens finding the primitive lifeforms ,they multiplied them into new life and gave them awareness. The lifeforms worshiped them as we would know as gods and the old ones ruled the lands protecting the lesser beings but with the cost of devotion and worship.

After more then 3 ages they ruled until the time of the awakening. The populace of Vulkara found that with ignorance came bliss until they realized they where nothing more then slaves. They rebelled against the old ones driving them back to the heavens to never be seen again. The new age brought a rise of mighty kingdoms ruled by various races which had evolved over time thanks to the mighty powers of the Old Ones. Rulers and kingdoms clashed in mighty battles over the jungles of tarnis to the slopes of the grul mountains until out of the ashes rose the empire spoken in the age of ruin as the Kingdom of Vex-ere. For over 50 generations the kingdom flourished until the mighty line of emperors and empresses had vanished and the lands were left without a strong ruler.

The lands slowly fell into decay and once mighty spires of the once great cities feel to ash. This is the time of ruins this is the savage lands of Vulkara.

I Thought i would go ahead and throw in a little extra tid bit that i worked on today. This is the initial map of Vulkara...

http://yfrog.com/4xvalkura2p

Races of vulkara

Races

Giant Kin: Can be fighters up to 6th level.

Being near tall and lumbering they have some natural strength that is just natural to their race as such they gain +1 to damage with melee weapons.

They are naturally magic resistant and gain +4 vs. magic and +2 vs. poison.

Giant Kin are easy targets and as such are at a +1 to hit

Being hardy folk they gain a +1 to all hit die rolls.



Lizard folk

Can be fighters up to 5th level, Magic-users up to 4th level and thieves up to 6th level.

-1 to hit because of their naturally hardened scales.

Can use their claws as natural weapons dealing one damage die

+2 saving throws vs. poison's



Moloch's (Primitive jungle dwelling folk)

Can be fighters up to 4th level and thieves up to 6th level.

+2 to hit with missile weapons

-1 to hit for small size

+4 saving throws vs magic

When being actively stealthy they gain +1 to surprise



Amazons

As per elf men and magic..



Just ideas that are subject to change..

Vulkara

I am currently working on my own supplement/setting for od&d. The setting will be a more pulp fantasy world, savage in nature drawing inspirations from many sources but namely land of the lost, Conan, lost world and Edgar Rice Burroughs and generaly comic book and paper back artwork from the 1950's-60's. I will fill in the details as i have the them and when i get time type them up for a supplement book. The working title right now is The savage world of Vulkara. Here are some of my initial ideas i have been tinkering with in my head.

None of the standard races as per the usual. Some ideas i have so far will be Lizard-Men, Giant-Kin, Morlocks (tiny subterranean race), maybe amazons or something of the like...
Fighters, and magic-users will stay i do not see any reason to change the magic system but i will be removing clerics and adding in a home brewed thief. I am thinking about re imaging the combat system to suite my tastes that will only need d6's and also changing saving throws to suite these tastes as well. I also am going to kind of sci-fi things up a bit with giant lizards as mounts and variant armor and weapons.

Level Limits

Oh yeah every ones favorite topic of discussion when it comes to od&d. Level Limits (insert dramatic music here). After prepping for my new swords and wizardry white box game i again began to question level limits. I really did not like the idea of level limits. Then i started looking through my white box set again and carousing over the monsters. It came to me that even the strongest monsters in the game have only maybe 12 hit dice and that's when i began to understand how it all equals out. Only the most epic of hero's say someone like Hercules would have over 10 hd. So i have taken this concept and applied it to my game. Yes there are level limits but for humans too! Humans can only reach level 10 but the kicker is that you still can achieve above the limit through only super heroic deeds, divine intervention, or say something like a wish. This makes all the more sense to me in a fantasy world.

Back again with a fresh start!

Welcome to my new blog 2.0 of codeman's nostalgia gaming. I decided to just start fresh and go from there since i have not even posted on the old blog in over a year. I will be posting hopefully about once a week with my ideas and thoughts and various subjects of nerdom but my main focus will be white box d&d (the original rules circa 1974) and role-playing in general. Hope this will be a good new start for the new year and hope everyone enjoys the new and improved blog.