Grumpy RPG Reviews: Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon, Part 1

Episode 33: Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon Review, Part 1

• A slight change of pace for this review, as it is a video and not a podcast.
• A brief history of the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon is presented.
• Acererak says Tom Hanks should have gotten an Emmy for his role in the movie, Mazes and Monsters.
• The basic plot of the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon is discussed.
• The Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon will be examined in terms of protagonists, antagonists and episodes.

Videos: D&D Ad n' Other Stuff

No posts...

No posts this week, ladies and gentlemen, as I am behind in my real-life work and trying to get my project for September ready to roll. 

Thank you.

Game Content: Fey Burials

Burials of Elves and Eldarin

Though elves are almost as long lived as dragons and eldarin come from (and return to) another plane, death finds members of both races often enough that funerary customs have been put into place.

After a death, clerics of fey gods of death notify the friends and loved ones of the deceased. They should participate in the cleaning and preparation of the remains. These same clerics, friends and loved one employ the Gentle Repose ritual to preserve the remains. They inter the remains on the morning of the first full moon following the death as part of elaborate and festive ceremony. Weather permitting, a sapling in planted over the grave – occasionally an elf or eladrin reincarnats as a dryad as the saplings matures into a tree. Elves and eldarin allow members of other races attend these events if they were close to the deceased.

In time between the death and the interment, elves and eladrin keep the remains of the dead in tombs, under guard until the final interment. Elves and eldarin consider it strange to employ a tomb as the final resting place for the deceased. However, certain items – such as arcane books, weapons, armor, magic items and the like – are stored in a family’s tomb until an appropriate heir is ready to lay claim to an object.

Elves and eldarin usually exile criminals and for serious enough crimes they exile them from the living world, forcing them alive by magic into the shadow land. These criminal do not receive proper interment and sometimes become undead.

Adventure Hooks

• A necromancer stole the remains of an elf from its tomb, where it awaited the next full moon. The party is hired to retrieve the remains before then.
• While walking through an elf forest an older character, who knew a now-deceased elf years ago, encounters a dryad claiming to be that dead elf… and asserting the character still owes her money.
• Valued friends of a dead eladrin, the party are excepted to participate in the funeral.

Grumpy RPG Column: GenCon 2011

Episode 32: Gencon 2011

• Grumpy is banned from GenCon for letting zombies into the cosplay event.
• Avererak and Baba Yaga are his spies in the event.
• Margaret Weiss Productions to produce a Marvel superheroes RPG
• Fantasy Flight Games has acquired the Star Wars license.
• White Wolf is being bold in the PDF market.
• Wizard's of the Coast is being timid in the PDF market.

Videos and Images: GenCon 2011

Game Content: Horror at the Long Stones

There are potential dangers to being an adventurer - something every adventurer knows. However, the danger extends beyond immediate threats of harm and evil to unforeseen consequences. Such as what can happen if adventurers are sloppy when they go on a spate of grave robbing...

Encounter Level 14
Having reached the paragon tier, the party has developed a reputation and a list of contacts during their careers. One such contact, a respected cleric or paladin, hires the PCs to transport the remains of a dead paladin half-orc to his home tribe, a community of formally non-evil orcs dwelling in the moors. When they arrive, undead orcs attack.

Grumpy RPG Reviews: Savage Worlds

Click to Play

A podcast review of Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition.

Episode 31: Savage World’s, Explorer’s Edition

• Grumpy slaps Acererak around.
• Savage World’s has good composition and art.
• The game encourages quick play.
• Though short, the game book is admirably complete.
• However, the speed and energy the game book encourages mean this RPG engine is probably not well suited to slower paced games.
• Savage World’s Explorer’s Editions gets a 15 on a d20 roll.

Links

• Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Savage Worlds

Videos and Images: Pulp Action!

Game Conent: Those Bastard Ravens

A significant number of speaking and fully sentient ravens have made a home in the city for centuries. On the one hand, they act as messengers and information couriers while on the other hand, they are raucous and filthy minded.

Speaking Raven Level 1 Lurker

Small natural beast XP 100

Initiative +7

Senses Perception +3; darkvision

HP 22; Bloodied 11

AC 15; Fortitude 12, Reflex 13, Will 10

Speed 2, Fly 7

Traits

Slip Away (Arcane) • Recharge on a roll of 4, 5 or 6

A Speaking Raven can slip from the material plane to the shadowfell, or move the other way and do it again when the power has recharged.

Standard Actions

[M] Peck (Standard) • At-Will

Attack: +6 vs. AC

Damage: 1d4 damage

Alignment Unaligned Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Primordial

Skills Insight +3, Perception +3, Stealth +8

Str 8 (–1) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 16 (+3)

Con 10 (+0) Int 10 (+0) Cha 4 (–3)

Speaking Raven Tactics

Usually, a speaking raven in combat will attempt to flee, simply by flying away if possible or employing the Slip Away. However, if a murder (i.e. a flock) of Speaking Ravens is present, they will employ group tactics against a foe and flee if bloodied.

Speaking Raven Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcane or Nature check.

• DC 15: They Speaking Ravens act as information brokers and messengers, taking payment in the form of shinny objects and eyeballs. Their value as messengers and information brokers means the city tolerates their behavior, which while neither evil nor criminal, is often objectionable.
  
• DC 17: Speaking Ravens are contrary and like letting filthy and morbid jokes – and respect people who can keep up with them in these terms.
  
• DC 20: The Speaking Ravens arrived in the city about 200 years ago, fleeing some calamity in their native Shadowfell. Over the ensuing decades, they came to call the city home.
  

Birds of a Feather

Speaking Ravens work as a messenger and courier service – assuming the package they are to deliver is small enough for a single raven to carry – and accept payment in terms of shiny things, eyeballs and secrets.
In the delivery of message and (small) package, they are diligent, working to deliver to the target first and quickly.
They also act as information brokers and they are canny at keeping secrets. Their tendency towards raucous behavior and telling sexual and morbid jokes (they assert they created the first “Dead Baby Joke”) as a kind of dodge, intended to lull people into underestimating the Speaking Ravens. They are also keep observers. They might tell everyone in earshot about how a wagon ran over a man who drunkenly wandered into the street. However, the Speaking Ravens are discrete with the fact someone shoved the drunk into the street. They require information for information and can be trusted with a secret so long as no one offers information of equal value.

Grumpy RPG Column: Yet More General Thoughts

 Episode 30: yet more General Thoughts

• Introduction; Ripping someone’s lips off,
• Podcasts; Past, Present and Future,
• Nevermet Press and the Great Heist
• Camp; campfires, hunting shacks and adventure possibilities.
• Conclusion; it is about living.

Link

• Nevermet Press

Videos and Images: Patten Oswalt and Zod