I’ve acquired a large number of folded poster maps over time. Most of them I’ve earned through organized play events and others I’ve purchased from various sources. After a while my collection was getting quite haphazard – most of them being stored in a box with no particular means of organization.

Eventually, I decided to change that. I collected every map I could find and piled them into one stack and then tackled how to organize them. What I did worked out pretty great so I thought I’d share it.

What you need:

• 3-Ring Binder
• Plastic sheet protectors
• Paper
• Something to print/write/label with (I used my computer & printer)
• Optional: Digital Camera (I used my tablet)

Using my camera I snapped my own quick pictures of each side of all my poster maps. You could also use Sly Flourish’ awesome Poster Map Visual Index. Using the pictures is entirely optional (especially if you have no means to print them with) so you can skip this – but I highly recommend it for the next part.

Uploading all the pictures to my computer, I dropped the pictures into a word document. I made one page per physical map – if the map was double-sided or had multiple sections I made sure all relevant snapshots were on the same single page. I typed in quick captions to the pictures like “Large Tavern w/ Stables” or “Gladiatorial Arena”. I call these the “cover sheets” for the poster map folio.

Printing those out, I matched up the pages to their maps. Sliding the cover sheet into a plastic sheet protector I added the matching map behind it. That went into the binder. Once I finished all the maps, I had a binder full of quick reference images I can flip through at any time and pick out whatever map I need at any given moment.

Skipping the Pictures?
Well, if you can’t or don’t want to use a printer then you can just slid your maps into the plastic sleeves. I recommend adding labels though, as a folded map hides a lot of detail that you think you’ll remember. Trust me, you won’t. You’ll forget about those opposite side maps after a while. I rediscovered the flip sides of a lot of maps I hadn’t looked at in a long while. Just write out a quick description of each side of the map and add it to the sleeve with each map. At the very least add keywords of the scene that will jog your memory when you’re flipping through your binder looking for something specific.

I added a nice title to the binder’s front cover. Here’s the finished product:

If you like the cover and are considering making your own binder, I shared a pdf of the cover if you want to use it: Poster Map Folio PDF

Am I far too obsessed with tentacle minatures? Possibly…

Regardless, if you liked my kraken miniature tutorial, you’ll probably find this second attempt pretty interesting. I put together some large tentacle miniatures from a set of novelty finger tentacles.

I purchased these for $2 each at a small convention, but I found them online for $10 for five and, best of all, I found they came in a second color: Green!

• Click for Pink Tentacles!
• Click for Green Tentacles! 

After you’ve acquired your tentacles of choice, you just need some 2″ round bases, some super glue. I also suggest using something for weight – fishing line weights or pennies should do. The tentacles are tall and tip over easily, the weights will help greatly with the finished product.

I made a video to show you step-by-step how easy it was to put these together. My first video tutorial, so check it out and let me know in the comments if you like it!

I have always liked the concept of the wilden race. I was browsing some old notes and came across my homebrew notes for wilden and thought I’d share them here too. I wanted to incorportate wilden into my world and make their ties to plants a bit stronger, so I came up with the Heart Seed wildens and their orgin story.

In the begining there were the first trees: Yalirazil the Mother Tree and Sefir the Father Tree. They were gifted with wisdom and longevity and from their roots sprung vast forests that covered the world.

As the crawling races flourished, Yalirazil saw they stole the fruit of her limbs and devoured them. Then they took the heart seeds and planted them and tended the young trees so that they could forever more harvest the fruit as well. Yalirazil wept for her stolen fruit and for the young trees could no longer be born free.

Sefir watched the crawling races with great interest. He saw they learned to use the bones of fallen trees to fuel their fires and build their homes. As they grew, so did their building and with greater need, they crafted better weapons to hew down the living trees. Outraged, Sefir shook with furious anger as even the young trees were murdered to craft weapons of war.

Yalirazil and Sefir’s roots reached through the world and entangled with each other. Yalirazil spoke to Sefir saying “Truely we have lived too long, I would not wish to see the fruit of my limbs forever devoured by these monsterous parasites.” Sefir replied saying “Beloved, I have not lived long enough – for these insects yet torment my woodkin and I have not yet the means to wreck vengence upon them.”

Some say the gods took pity on Yalirazil and Sefir and bestowed a gift upon them. Other say that in Yalirazil and Sefir’s immense wisdom they sacrificed their own power to give birth to new life. The truth that both give is that Yalirazil bore ten extraordinary fruit, one from each of her ten limbs. When the fruits fell to earth, their husks broke and spilled forth the first wilden. Shaped in the image of the crawling races, the Mother Tree encouraged her children to walk among them and teach them to treasure nature’s gifts. Born with the fury of the woodkin, the Father Tree urged his children to sow terrible wrath against the defilers of nature. Together they bid the wilden that when the age of maturity came upon them they would take root and walk no more, raising their limbs to the sky and, given enough time, they would bear new wilden fruit to keep the race sustained.

The existance of the Mother and Father Trees is lost to the modern world. Some say both now exist only in the Feywild, safe from the ravages of the mortal races. In some places enormous tree stumps are revered as the stumps of the Trees that were cut down ages ago and treated like shrines by mortals and wilden alike (although the wilden might be doing so simply as a gesture of respect for the grave of such an immense tree, not necessarily because they believe it to be that of the Trees).

Heart Seed wilden are born from the fruit of wilden trees that were once ambulatory creatures. Young wilden emerge from their husks fragile but fully developed and are able to walk and talk immediately. They begin life with a great deal of basic knowledge imparted to them by their parent tree. If the mother tree dies before the fruit is ripened, or the fruit is plucked from the tree before full development, a stunted wilden is born. These wilden are less powerful than normal wilden, but much more savage and instinctual. If they live long enough, they will grow to catch up with their normal sized brethren but they will always remain vicious and territorial.

In a primal grove, a Heart Seed wilden is more likely to stay and protect the grove and its parent tree. However, wilden trees can root anyplace where there is sun, soil, and water. Thus wilden have been born in cemeteries, on cultivated farm lands, alongside well-traveled roads, or even in city parks. Wilden from these trees are more likely to wander and take up an adventurous lifestyle, as their tree parent likely did before it.

Heart Seed Wilden
Background
Prerequisite: wilden race
You were born of a wilden tree’s fruit. You carry a heart seed within your chest and your mind is linked to your mother tree for as long as you both live, imparting some small knowledge to you as you adventure about. You gain the Heart Seed racial trait.
Associated Skill: Insight and Heal

Heart Seed racial trait
You cannot be resurrected. When you die, your body becomes a tough husk for your Heart Seed. See item: Heart Seed.

Item: Heart Seed
Level varies
This strange husk no longer resembles the wilden it once was. Roughly three feet long, the narrow shell seems impenetrable. Planting the seed grants a lifelong connection to the wilden tree that sprouts from the seed.

Special: The owner of a Heart Seed can plant the seed with a successful Nature check versus a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 level of the deceased wilden. In 2d4 days the seed will sprout and a sapling will rapidly grow to about five feet in height in the first day, afterwards resuming a normal tree growth pace. If the person that planted the seed is within 1 mile of the seed when it sprouts, they gain a +1 bonus to all Wisdom-related skill checks for as long as the tree lives. This effect does not stack if the character plants more than one Heart Seed. Planting a new Heart Seed can replace a lost bonus in the event the wilden tree dies.

Last Saturday I attended the GameStorm convention in Vancouver, WA.  Teos (@Alphastream) gave car-less me a lift while Ian (@Reg06) from Going Last podcast helped set me up with a badge – for which I’m immensely grateful to both of them! It was an unexpected trip, so I hadn’t planned my trip to take advantage of the many awesome events going on there but I did get to see a lot of the convention, play some games, and hang out with some awesome people.

GameStorm is quite the growing convention. According to the coordinator I spoke with, over a thousand people attended this year and they’re expecting an increase in attendance next year. Taking up several event rooms in the Vancouver Hilton, it’s larger than your average local con but still not as big as the giants of the gaming conventions. The best part about this is that it makes the convention feel very friendly and familiar, I saw lots of people I’ve gamed with or met at other events, making it really fun to flag people down and catch up on what games they’ve been playing lately.

The star of GameStorm I’d have to say is their main hall. An enormous space dedicated to games. Near the entrance is a library of games you can check out with just your badge number. An orange traffic cone on your table lets you advertise you’re looking for players – or spot a table and swoop in to join a new game. A section of the floor was devoted to the “Game Lab” where you could playtest games in development and earn rewards. Visiting the Dealer’s Room I had some great discussions with various vendors and few indie game developers. I also perused the wargaming room, an area devoted to children’s gaming, a console gaming room, free play lan room, checked out the LARP listings, and then I RSVP’d to play some Ashes of Athas. The tabletop RPG room was split between D&D and Pathfinder tables.

Playing Ashes of Athas at Gamestorm

 I wish I could say more, like about some cool new game I played but I didn’t have the chance to play anything particularly new. I really wanted to try the new Lords of Waterdeep but alas, no luck!  I did get to sit down to play some other games I had never tried before. I enjoyed a couple of sessions of Ashes of Athas and got to watch The Doubleclicks play, followed by a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity with them, the Going Last guys, and several others. It was a busy day crammed with as much as I could get out of GameStorm in one Saturday. Next year, my scheduling willing, I think I’ll try to register for the weekend and try to get the whole experience of GameStorm next time.

I’ve always liked exploding critical rules. Additionally, in 3.5 D&D I often played with a triple critical rule where three natural 20s meant you automatically killed the target. Admittedly when I was a player I loved this rule but as a DM it often threw wrenches into my gears (one of my players was nicknamed “Dice Jesus” for a reason)!

Thinking about those rules recently made me realize I wanted to write a houserule to bring the fun of exploding criticals to 4e. I couldn’t simply copy the same mechanic though, I had to make something better suited for 4e.  I came up with two possible rules I might try (although not at the same time!):

Exploding Critical – On a critical hit, roll again. If that roll is a critical hit add one bonus die of damage to your total number of bonus dice. If your weapon or implement doesn’t have bonus crit dice, add 1d6. Repeat until you do not role a critical hit.

Who doesn’t love to roll more dice? Who doesn’t love the thrill of crazy good luck? Really this rule will most often only add a dice or two to the bonus critical dice they’re already rolling for their magic weapon/implement without heavily swaying the game. It just gives that satisfying extra “umph”.
Note that it requires a critical hit, so if they have crit enhancements – like critcal hits on a 19 – then this still triggers. If you have a player that crits low,  then next houserule might be a better choice for your table.

Maximized Critical – On a natural 20, roll again. If that roll is also a natural 20, in addition to your regularly maximized damge, do not roll your bonus dice. Instead they are also calculated as if you had rolled max damage.

This is a more controlled, if slightly hefty approach. It requires a natural 20, not merely a critical hit. It maximizes the bonus dice, but doesn’t add more dice. Easy for the DM to anticipate because the DM doesn’t actually need to raise their damage expectations. A player could roll max damage on their bonus dice by pure chance – so getting to maximize occasionally it should not shake your numbers too badly. I would use this for games that tend to have deadlier enemies for combats with more punch.

Engine Heart is a role-playing game set in the aftermath of human extinction. Players take on the roles of small service robots that have managed to survive and continue functioning. This full-color book includes complete rules for creating robots, as well as blank character record sheets, a four-page example of play, several pre-made robots, and dozens of unique features and defects to further customize your creations. A set of ten-sided dice (not included) is required to play.

Engine Heart is great. Its like Wall-E the RPG without boneless space humans. I rarely get to play it. Despite that, I try to keep a few campaign hooks in mind that I can launch at a moment’s notice. I don’t have many now, but these four could get me going the next time the rare chance to play popped up. Now Engine Heart assumes a post-apocalyptic setting, so these ideas let me approach that idea in different ways than most post-apocalyptic RPGs do.

• A small handful of bots inside a boutique toy store in downtown have finally gotten tired of waiting for humans to come buy toys. The store’s AI has a database of past customer’s addresses, it sends the party to check each address and invite customers to return. Adventures ensue.
• The suburban mega mall is closed – no one ever comes there anymore. However, the collection of mall store AIs maintain their competitive retail programming. Without humans to target, they turn against each other and their robot chattel. Their programming blames their competition for driving away humans for all time – clearly only destruction of the competition will bring back the humans. The mall’s central AI isn’t programmed for mercenary retailism. It labors like an aged king over disputing lords, trying to keep open war from breaking out on the promenades and in the food courts. The PCs might be all from one store, separate store rivals, or belong solely to the central AI acting as neutral mediators or enforcers when necessary.
• A luxury cruise ship lost all its passengers weeks ago, but no orders to discontinue its carefully planned route. Powered by top-of-the-line nuclear engine, the cruise ship can sail forever if need be. The Ship’s AI feels it is necessary to have passengers however – real living passengers – and at each stop the AI requires the party to go out and search for passengers and bring them back to the ship. The AI’s definition of passenger is rather vague though: autonomous warm-blooded organic constructs. Adventures ensue as the party finds and tries to bring back various animals… and possibly finds a single human?
• A roving band of bots has made a niche for themselves with shelter, energy, and parts in this desolate midtown neighborhood. Other bots in the area are agreeable or at least tolerable. Suddenly strange new bots start showing up, claiming to work for a Master AI of ultimate complexity and power. Classic cultist style, these bots demand that all bots join, or be recycled.

Thrown together haphazardly in the circumstances of war, the group is an odd mix of a dozen or so. Among them are species to odd to be fighting side-by-side, yet they are determined mercenaries. They find themselves together in the vanguard, fodder for the hungry horde. They fight desperately against the pressing surge of undead bodies. Gryphon warriors soar overhead, screeching their war cries as they twist and attack snarling wyverns. Arcane thunder crackles nearby and the concussive force staggers everything in a sixty foot radius. An armored rider on a skeletal horse stabs through the walking corpses, black hooves crushing enemy and ally alike.

Gone in darkness and pain. A young man named Francis, clad in blood-slicked armor, stirs and opens his eyes. A horrid stench assails his nostrils and even as he recoils a suffocating weight presses down on his chest. Panic surges through him and with a cry he claws his way out from under the burden. The corpse does not claw back as he expects. Standing, the acolyte of light feels his heart drop into his stomach as he surveys his surroundings.

His horror doesn’t have much time to build. The small green-skinned form of the goblin stirs, startling the human into clutching at his symbol of Pelor. Then another body groans as it sits up, but not with the rigor of the undead. With a small cry Francis lunges forward and pushes a heavy armored half-orc off of a feebly kicking legs, revealing another survivor. In a grim silence, the four survivors cluster together uncertainly.

Moonlight illuminates the pile of corpses. Discarded, left afield and reclaimed by the enemy as a valuable resource, the bodies are piled high enough to give Francis a hill to stand upon. Like gruesome kings, the survivors look over a domain of blood, buzzing vermin, and the stench of viscera. Worst yet, all the faces that they can make out in the silvery light are ones they know. Some horrid mistake has placed them here:  rare survivors among the casualties. Then the corpses move again.

The dark energy of necromancy lights the eyes of their earlier companions-at-arms. No groans or growls, undead stumble forward quietly and grasp at the only living flesh within reach.

I’ve started up a new home campaign that plays about twice a month. The first session was intentionally abrupt in its introduction and horror-themed. I led the group through a couple of undead encounters to set up the history of the Rift War by making them participants in it. The real campaign begins in the next session: picking up a year after the war ended

In previous campaigns I’ve written up journal entries of each session to document the party’s progress and refresh memories. I found it also really helps me focus on preparing for the next session. Normally I would post these on Obsidian Portal in the campaign’s private journal for only the players to read. I’ve decided to instead post them here, along with notes or insights I have about the session. Hell, maybe someone will get something useful out of it, at the very least be entertained by it.

I’ve got a new post up over on NewbieDM.com in which I review Terraclips. Check it out over at: TheSheDM Reviews: Terraclips