RPG Geek
Latest Episodes
This Week in Geek History December 28 - January 3
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:36:41
/pic6325365.png)
December 28
December 29
December 30
December 31
January 1 - Happy New Year!
January 2
January 3
I'm sure this list is incomplete. Feel free to offer suggestions for this and upcoming weeks. If you want your birthday included just add it to this geeklist: RPG Geek Birthday List
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:36:41
by Steve
December 28
1612- First observation of Neptune by Galileo, not realizing it is a planet [microbadge=7749]
1922- American comic book legend Stan Lee [microbadge=45584][microbadge=1990]
1932- American actress Nichelle Nichols [microbadge=34963]
1934- English actress Dame Maggie Smith [microbadge=25470]
December 29
1862- The Bowling Ball is invented [microbadge=14687]
1876- Pablo Casals, the second-most famous cellist in the world, after Leonard Hofstadter [microbadge=10621][microbadge=7793]
????- fastfox
December 30
1865- British author Rudyard Kipling [microbadge=23101]
1924- Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems [microbadge=3510]
1953- 1st color TVs go on sale for $1,175 (over $11,000 inflated to 2018) [microbadge=42373]
????- Red Wine Pie
December 31
1904- 1st Times Square (then Longacre) New Year's Eve Celebration held in Manhattan (including famous 'ball drop')[microbadge=33895]
1937- Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins [microbadge=23884]
1943- English actor Ben Kingsley [microbadge=15613]
1995- Bill Watterson ends Calvin & Hobbes after 10 years [microbadge=29571]
2010- The Walking Dead premieres on AMC [microbadge=19254]
????- Engoduun
January 1 - Happy New Year!
1896- German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays [microbadge=23947]
1912- British-born Soviet master spy Harold "Kim" Philby [microbadge=4185]
1919- American author JD Salinger [microbadge=4611]
1925- American Our Gang actor Matthew 'Stymie' Beard
January 2
533- Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy [microbadge=47701]
1920- Author Isaac Asimov [microbadge=6050]
1959- USSR launches Luna 1, 1st spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun [microbadge=43579]
January 3
1892- English fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkein [microbadge=11110]
1929- Italian 'spaghetti western' director Sergio Leone [microbadge=23885]
1951- Australian actor Mel Gibson [microbadge=7613]
????- Wired_Wolf
I'm sure this list is incomplete. Feel free to offer suggestions for this and upcoming weeks. If you want your birthday included just add it to this geeklist: RPG Geek Birthday List
Review: Cavern of the Star Shard (BF):: An aimless series of mechanistic die rolls and skill checks with little glee in it
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:27:30
Explorer's Guild Publishing
OSR
Level 5
A Fallen Star. A Hidden Power. A Town on the Brink. When a blazing light crashes into the hills near a sleepy barony, mysterious events begin to occur. Animals, and even some people, are driven mad. Adventurers arriving in the region soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous mission that will draw them into the deadly crystaline depths of the earth.
This twelve page adventure uses about three pages to describe four rooms underground with a couple of mutated animals. Almost certainly a 5e conversion, it weirdly spends a lot of time in the lead up to the star-shard cave. An aimless series of mechanistic die rolls and skill checks with little glee in it.
You get attacked by a couple of weird wolves in the forest. Then you run across some mercs hunting them and they tell you Baron Fuckwit is hiring people to track down and stop these weird animals. Going to him you learn of a meteor crater and how dude sent two guardsmen to look in to it, with only one returning guy. You get to talk to guy. On the way to the crater you maybe have a challenge. THen you get to the crater and explore up tp four rooms, rolling dice to overcoming challenges and then eventually fighting a 6HD bear. You won. Congrats. Ain’t no treasure, but Baron Fuckwith might give you up to 1800gp. Which sounds great for a group of level fives as a reward. In 5e.
Yeah. No loot. Lots of skill challenge/attribute check shit. “Causes 1d4 radiant damage.” Uh huh. Conversion, yeah? Which doesn’t have to be bad but nearly almost always is. Hmm, or maybe nearly every adventure is bad anyway and therefore nearly every conversion is? Either way, it’s clearly not localized for the OSR. Which means it’s a fucking money grab. And, therefore Fuuuuuuck You!
Beyond the money grab aspect of a poor conversion, with it’s emphasis on die roll checks, I find the degree of lead in here quite unusual. The initial “hook” is a combat; you’re attacked by mutant wolves which leads to the merc showing up and telling you about the baron and his efforts/hiring./job offer. THis take at least a page to go over. And then the meeting with the baron and some follow ups, with the surviving guardsman and the home of the dead guardsmen perhaps. In another adventure I might look favorably on this. Supporting the DM, adding some flavour, etc. But in this the page count is off. There might be about five pages of this kind of lead in/.side trek stuff and then just a couple of pages for the adventure site. There is,certainly room for this sort of thing in an adventure. Investigation/bad guy lair, that sort of thing.
And the trip to the meteor site. There are four possible encounters possible, presented on a die roll table. This makes no sense. None of them really matter. In one you can find some game trails as a shortcut, if you have tea with a gnome. But there’s no urgency getting to the crater or the return. It’s just flavour. You need a reason to NEED a shortcut, or the shortcut is just the same as “the wind blows from the east now”; there’s nothing behind it. It’s just trivia.
It’s also hitting a pet peeve of mine, the use of the word “turn.” A decent example is “The water is the main vector of the curse, and if the party touches it, they suffer 1d4 damage per turn.” Every ten minutes? Round? Segment? Ten minutes seems off to me?
Everything here points to a very low effort conversion. But, beyond that, even as a 5e adventure, this seems like a throw-away. A disproportionate amount of adventure before the adventuring site. A mediocre hook. An overland journey that is pretty meaningless and should have been been handled as a static encounter that contributed to the adventure instead of just “I need a skill check” encounter. And then the disappointment of the adventuring site proper. A couple of challenges and then a fight with a mutant bear. The Steading, recall, was eight pages. I guess on the plus side there IS a cavern and there IS a star shard.
This is $3 at DriveThru. There is no preview. Sucker.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/542514/cavern-of-the...
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:27:30
by bryce0lynch
By Richard DavisExplorer's Guild Publishing
OSR
Level 5
A Fallen Star. A Hidden Power. A Town on the Brink. When a blazing light crashes into the hills near a sleepy barony, mysterious events begin to occur. Animals, and even some people, are driven mad. Adventurers arriving in the region soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous mission that will draw them into the deadly crystaline depths of the earth.
This twelve page adventure uses about three pages to describe four rooms underground with a couple of mutated animals. Almost certainly a 5e conversion, it weirdly spends a lot of time in the lead up to the star-shard cave. An aimless series of mechanistic die rolls and skill checks with little glee in it.
You get attacked by a couple of weird wolves in the forest. Then you run across some mercs hunting them and they tell you Baron Fuckwit is hiring people to track down and stop these weird animals. Going to him you learn of a meteor crater and how dude sent two guardsmen to look in to it, with only one returning guy. You get to talk to guy. On the way to the crater you maybe have a challenge. THen you get to the crater and explore up tp four rooms, rolling dice to overcoming challenges and then eventually fighting a 6HD bear. You won. Congrats. Ain’t no treasure, but Baron Fuckwith might give you up to 1800gp. Which sounds great for a group of level fives as a reward. In 5e.
Yeah. No loot. Lots of skill challenge/attribute check shit. “Causes 1d4 radiant damage.” Uh huh. Conversion, yeah? Which doesn’t have to be bad but nearly almost always is. Hmm, or maybe nearly every adventure is bad anyway and therefore nearly every conversion is? Either way, it’s clearly not localized for the OSR. Which means it’s a fucking money grab. And, therefore Fuuuuuuck You!
Beyond the money grab aspect of a poor conversion, with it’s emphasis on die roll checks, I find the degree of lead in here quite unusual. The initial “hook” is a combat; you’re attacked by mutant wolves which leads to the merc showing up and telling you about the baron and his efforts/hiring./job offer. THis take at least a page to go over. And then the meeting with the baron and some follow ups, with the surviving guardsman and the home of the dead guardsmen perhaps. In another adventure I might look favorably on this. Supporting the DM, adding some flavour, etc. But in this the page count is off. There might be about five pages of this kind of lead in/.side trek stuff and then just a couple of pages for the adventure site. There is,certainly room for this sort of thing in an adventure. Investigation/bad guy lair, that sort of thing.
And the trip to the meteor site. There are four possible encounters possible, presented on a die roll table. This makes no sense. None of them really matter. In one you can find some game trails as a shortcut, if you have tea with a gnome. But there’s no urgency getting to the crater or the return. It’s just flavour. You need a reason to NEED a shortcut, or the shortcut is just the same as “the wind blows from the east now”; there’s nothing behind it. It’s just trivia.
It’s also hitting a pet peeve of mine, the use of the word “turn.” A decent example is “The water is the main vector of the curse, and if the party touches it, they suffer 1d4 damage per turn.” Every ten minutes? Round? Segment? Ten minutes seems off to me?
Everything here points to a very low effort conversion. But, beyond that, even as a 5e adventure, this seems like a throw-away. A disproportionate amount of adventure before the adventuring site. A mediocre hook. An overland journey that is pretty meaningless and should have been been handled as a static encounter that contributed to the adventure instead of just “I need a skill check” encounter. And then the disappointment of the adventuring site proper. A couple of challenges and then a fight with a mutant bear. The Steading, recall, was eight pages. I guess on the plus side there IS a cavern and there IS a star shard.
This is $3 at DriveThru. There is no preview. Sucker.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/542514/cavern-of-the...
Afterlight - Chapter Four: Leaving A Trail
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:09:23
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:09:23
A new episode has been added to the database:
Afterlight - Chapter Four: Leaving A Trail
EP. 55 - Our 2025 Year In Review
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:08:32
Posted: Sat, 27 Dec 00:08:32
A new episode has been added to the database:
EP. 55 - Our 2025 Year In Review
Product For Sale: The Darkening of Mirkwood
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 23:58:45
Condition: Like New
Location: United States
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 23:58:45
by gcarter
$95.00 for RPG Item: The Darkening of MirkwoodCondition: Like New
Location: United States
Product For Sale: Loremaster's Screen and Lake-town Sourcebook
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 23:40:34
Condition: Like New
Location: United States
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 23:40:34
by gcarter
$25.00 for RPG Item: Loremaster's Screen and Lake-town SourcebookCondition: Like New
Location: United States
LPBS: March 1677 - two acquitted!
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:59:48
And so to the trials of Justin Thyme and Louis Severin Descartes. The temporary Minister sitting in State has to decide between the ranting, frothing-at-the-mouth Commissioner of Public Safety on one side and the barrage of favours, bribes and cajoling on the other. Given that the bar to convict is set high, CPS "Tiny" Thierry Toothpick cannot be surprised that both prosecutions fail.
The continuing feud between Toothpick and Guards Brigadier Terence Cuckpowder sees Cuckpowder order his Brigade into action again. However, Toothpick resigns his commission in the Royal Foot Guards to avoid accompanying them and switches to a cavalry regiment, courtesy of CO Balzac Slapdash. And then Cuckpowder's residence suddenly burns down.
More importantly, Rick Shaw has the backing of notable Parisians (such as Greg de Bécqueur and Louis Severin Descartes) to fill the position of Minister of State. The only other candidate, Camille de Polignac, is able to persuade the King to entrust him with the War Ministry.
There are plenty of social events this month. For example, Zeold von Tu’s gathering, a deep tactical discussion for the forthcoming summer campaign. First Division commander Zeold is particularly concerned about “how to keep Bordeaux in good condition when being carried in a charge.”
Meanwhile the French military launches an offensive against the Spanish Netherlands. THis month's target is Valenciennes, where there are rich pickings for the men of the Guards Brigade.
The full report is available on my website for six months - March 1677 - and new players are always welcome.
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:59:48
by Paul Evans
This month's duels demonstrate once more the siperiority of the heavy sabre against the elegancy of the rapier. And that the ability to absorb more damage than your opponent is a great advantage.The continuing feud between Toothpick and Guards Brigadier Terence Cuckpowder sees Cuckpowder order his Brigade into action again. However, Toothpick resigns his commission in the Royal Foot Guards to avoid accompanying them and switches to a cavalry regiment, courtesy of CO Balzac Slapdash. And then Cuckpowder's residence suddenly burns down.
More importantly, Rick Shaw has the backing of notable Parisians (such as Greg de Bécqueur and Louis Severin Descartes) to fill the position of Minister of State. The only other candidate, Camille de Polignac, is able to persuade the King to entrust him with the War Ministry.
There are plenty of social events this month. For example, Zeold von Tu’s gathering, a deep tactical discussion for the forthcoming summer campaign. First Division commander Zeold is particularly concerned about “how to keep Bordeaux in good condition when being carried in a charge.”
Meanwhile the French military launches an offensive against the Spanish Netherlands. THis month's target is Valenciennes, where there are rich pickings for the men of the Guards Brigade.
The full report is available on my website for six months - March 1677 - and new players are always welcome.
Wheel of Time Genesys 080 - A Darker Path
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:36
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:36
A new episode has been added to the database:
Wheel of Time Genesys 080 - A Darker Path
5 GMs Presents - Marriage and Merriment Ep. 3: Festival of Summer (w/ Anna Eliza)
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:30
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:30
A new episode has been added to the database:
5 GMs Presents - Marriage and Merriment Ep. 3: Festival of Summer (w/ Anna Eliza)
Into the Odd: Turn it Off #1
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:21
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:09:21
A new episode has been added to the database:
Into the Odd: Turn it Off #1
The Old Ways Podcast - Mage: The Great Beyond - Season 2, Episode Six
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:07:09
Posted: Fri, 26 Dec 18:07:09
A new episode has been added to the database:
The Old Ways Podcast - Mage: The Great Beyond - Season 2, Episode Six
