I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath for the reveal…
I know that curiosity has been gnawing at your mind and soul for hours now…
The final part of our delve into horror has at last come…
It’s finally time to unveil the secret part of our Trilogy of Terror!

We’ve twisted your mind with the RPG Survivor 103 question Left Behind asking who would you go back for knowing you were dooming those who were already safe?
We’ve made your nightmares manifest in the spell Terrain of Terror which we codified in no less than four systems!

And finally, tonight I sat down and crafted a universal, four scene zombie apocalypse scenario out of the recesses of my mind.

It’s been fun crafting these horror-related items for your gaming pleasure, so without further ado, I give you The Grocery Store.

Don’t let it’s simple name fool you, this scenario could be a nightmare. Download it and run your players through these scenes. Modify it to your rule set of choice and modify the scenes to be as tough as you’d like. I actually made all these things from scratch today, but I’m most proud of the scenario as it came together very nicely. I think your players will enjoy it immensely. Maybe let me know if you give it a run and tell me how it went.

My gifts to you on this Friday the 13th.

By all accounts, Jim Bishop is an eccentric. Many describe him as a madman. Certainly, his political leanings are to the right of conservative conservatives based off his continuous legal battles with local government. Building off a small, stone-work cabin on land purchased in the late 1950′s, Jim has constructed a castle in south-central Colorado. Other than a small amount of help from his father in the early construction, the castle was built stone by stone by his hands alone. No plans required or desired.

I first visited Bishop’s Castle in 1998 on a road trip with gaming buddies. The castle is amazing and frightening. The construction is stone, cement, and wrought iron. When I last visited it was maze that has grown over the last 12 years. While the lower portions of the structure are massive, solid chunks, the upper tiers are not for the faint of heart. Continue up as long as your will holds. The stone work gets less massive and the wrought iron stairs and bridges sway with every step.

Jim Bishop's Castle

Jim is a modern day hermit but not in the eremitic or recluse sense. He lives by his own rules. Ask him and you’ll likely experience a diatribe on the government, freedom and independence. His opinions are well documented.

Aside from his extreme viewpoints, Jim is inspirational. Building your own castle is a common dream of many role players. Actually building one is a beyond comprehension for most. Jim caught the bug and the results are open to the public. Follow his rules, enter and enjoy at no cost (donations encouraged).

I’m quite certain Jim wouldn’t have fit well in the medieval ages just as he doesn’t today. I would be hard pressed to come up with a more dynamic, oddball of society in a game context. He certainly would make for an interesting encounter in a modern day game among many other settings.

If you want to learn more about the castle and the builder, start with the references under the Wikipedia entry. I need to make another trip but my 1998 pictures are available. Do not miss his hand written signs.

I’m an old school guy. I want it in hardcopy form. PDF form is a plus but a non-starter. I want a book in my hand not something I need an electronic device to read. Before the idiots chime in about printers, yeah I have one of those. It needs to be bound in book(let) form.

I have no preferences on system/genres. I just want the recommendations on the best game material available.

Thanks for your help!

Random Thought: Why do theme changes and color choices get more comments than posts with good rpg content? Are we that shallow?

The word just rolls off the tongue. When I saw it the other day, I assumed the definition would be something trite like ‘place where hermits live’. We all know about assumptions. Turns out I learned something. My entire mental definition of a hermit as a general recluse only touches on the deeper historical meaning of the word. Roughly, my interpretation is partially accurate. In modern terms, my general idea is widely used if not historically accurate.

As it turns out, hermit has a significant religious tie. Most particularly, hermits were an early form of monks living in solitude. The Wikipedia entry on hermits is a fascinating read. In particular, the introduction does a fine job of redefining the word for me.

A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.

In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e., the forty years wandering in the desert[1] that was meant to bring about a change of heart).

In the Christian tradition the eremitic life[2] is an early form of monastic living that preceded the monastic life in the cenobium. The Rule of St Benedict (ch. 1) lists hermits among four kinds of monks. In addition to hermits that are members of religious orders, modern Catholic Church law (canon 603) recognizes also consecrated hermits under the direction of their diocesan bishop as members of the Consecrated Life.

Upon stumbling over this knowledge, I realised the hermit angle could be used in many different contexts with an RPG session. I’ve used them in the past but generally in a simplistic wise old guy living in the woods fashion. I’ve never utilized a religious context. The tie seems obvious now. Recluses of a religious bent are obvious choices for nature based gods.

My discovery did not end at the religious discovery. Turns out hermitages were not just found in remote areas. Nay, there were hermits amongst the townsmen of the Middle Ages. Once again, from the Wikipedia entry on hermitage, I found hooks usable in city or town settings.

A hermitage is a type of monastery. Typically it has a room, or at least a dedicated space, for religious devotion, very basic sleeping quarters and a domestic range, suitable for the ascetic way of living of the inhabitant. Depending on the work of the hermit, premises such as a studio, workshop or chapel may be attached or sited in close proximity.

Traditionally hermitages have been located in caves and huts, often in the desert or woods, sometimes abutting monastery buildings of a cenobitic community when there was an exchange of labour and provisions. In medieval times they may have been endowed by the Lord or Lady of a manor in return for prayers for their family, or in city dwellings, e.g. inside the city gate as remuneration for services rendered as a gate keeper. In modern times they are to be found even in large cities and high-rise blocks of flats, depending of the hermit’s means.

So many plot ideas rolling about in my head now. So easy to introduce in nearly any setting or campaign. Hermits are going to get a mental and play overhaul in my campaigns in the future.

I love it when a stereotype gets thrashed by random discovery.

I was doing some thinking this morning as I drove into work about the nature of faith in a multi-deistic fantasy setting. Here in the real world people go to war over differences in religious beliefs. But in most fantasy worlds, the deities tend to co-exist in relative harmony with each other.

Oh sure, there’s a grudge borne in antiquity between the Hammer-Chuckers of the Mighty Hurler and the Shield-Maidens of Mistress MissedMe, but that’s a different story for a different time.

I’m talking about the nature of gods who are jealous of their number of followers.

Do the gods in your pantheon jealously guard the numbers of their recruited followers?
Do they allow co-mingling with other worshippers? Sure, maybe when teamed to face a common foe, but what are the limits of that agreement? And what about in polite company?
Do they require conversion as an integral part of their doctrine? Mark touched on this question a while ago and it ties in nicely here. Are followers required to seek out new blood for the religion? What if they don’t?
Are the gods willing to send hardships on those who don’t display the appropriate level of faith? If someone changes religions, are they persecuted by the followers of their prior god? To what end will a god punish those who they deem as traitors?
How are the choices of the character seen by their god and what actions lead to, and are the result of the choices in faith of said character?

Consider the following bible versus:

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5).

That’s a powerful warning against turning to another god for salvation or assistance. That “shall not” is pretty much an iron-clad, bonding NO! There’s not much wiggle-room to argue your way out of a transgression. And what happens if a follower does break this mandate?

For they provoked Him with their high places,
And aroused His jealousy with their graven images (Psalm 78:58).

Woe be to the unbeliever who calls upon another god for assistance in their time of peril or outright converts! In a recent Convergence game, Randall’s player moved from one god to another with relative ease. I’m not throwing stones at Luke for allowing it, it did make things interesting. I’m just stating my case that I think there should always be more baggage that comes with such a decision… consider all the great roleplay possibilities that might follow. And for those who try to go back?

I am the LORD, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images (Isaiah 42:8).

Consider your capabilities cut-off if your activities are questionable in the eyes of your god.

The roleplay opportunities are myriad in a world where the gods are jealous and their worshippers are doctrinally commanded to both increase the number of their flock while lowering the number of another faith.

Oh, and for the record, the Chuckers are a bunch of ale drinking huncksters and the Maidens really don’t like men much… my money’s on the girls, but only because they’ve got that whole righteous indignation thing down and the men are a bit bleary-eyed.

CyberPunk 2020 had some pretty interesting net-runner rules. I like them but as part of a group, a single netrunner, just didn’t mesh well in the setting within the group I played. The system overall was decent but tedious. Character construction was lenghty and the combat system seemed overly involved. The lack of instantaneous death made it feel like people could play walking tanks. My players did.

Back to Net Runners. Times have changed quite a bit. The ‘Net isn’t quite as evolved as the game stated but the prediction of attacks, hacking and internetwork connectivity is growing. War is evolving from a front line, metal on flesh situation to network based attacks on infrastructure. If you can win a war by disabling critical infrastructure, why bother with the meat and metal?

Most current penetrations are nothing more than taking over your parent’s computer and adding it to a bot net. Multiply that by thousands and you have massive computational horsepower at your disposal. Not just for sending and receiving messages for a DoS attack but for anything you have in mind. Breaking crypto. Hiding your network identity. What if they get sophisticated and use massively parallel, non centralized algorithms? It may be already happening.

No computer on the ‘Net is safe. I don’t care what operating system, browser, or protection scheme you choose. Everything is exploitable given sufficient effort. Vile sounding isn’t it?

To me, it screams game but not a traditional RPG. The MMOG model fits much better than table based. If the mechanics were codified and published, could you provide a completely defensible node on the Internet? How about a team of experts attempting to do the same? Toss in Zero-Day exploits you cannot overcome is the rest of your network up to the challenge? Would you try? Or hire the service out?

Welcome to this addition of the OldSwords.com newsletter.

Parlez-vous francais – As the largest online resource for sword collectors in any language we have a large international appeal.  However, a large number of our users speak English only as a second language or have limited understanding of English. Therefore to help them we have just finished the process of making the site able to support multiple languages. The first language we have added support for is French (http://www.armesblanchesanciennes.com/). We have been working with French speakers to ensure accurate translation. If you speak a language other than French or English and would be willing to work with us to help translate the site we would love to hear from you. If you speak French and have any comments or feedback on the translation we would also welcome any comments.

Articles – Great new articles have been added. Amongst them are are a set of excellent works detailing the history of French sword development in the 18th century. More will follow soon.
http://www.oldswords.com/resources/articles.php

Gallery Items – More and more items are being added to the ‘Gallery’.  If you have examples of official patterns that are not listed and would be willing to share images then you can get free yearly access to the site…..possibly indefinitely (see Rewards) .

Rewards – We are always looking to expand the already extensive library of sword examples and information contained within the site. I really appreciate our users uploading images and descriptions, however we are also aware that, as well as getting a good feeling from providing fellow collectors with help, our users may like to see some reward for their efforts. If anyone now provides images (of a suitable quality) and details of a sword recognized as an official government pattern from any country, that does not currently appear in our ‘Gallery’, they can have an extension to their subscription of a year. If more than five items are uploaded then I will grant FREE access for life. More details are available here…
http://www.oldswords.com/rewards.php

Swords of the Confederacy – I am still working on a new project focusing on  Confederate swords and sword makers, including hundreds of examples, images, biographies and help in the identification of fakes. If anyone would be interested or willing to review the site and offer any help/advice then please let me know.

Mystery Items – We have a number of swords that are still awaiting identification. Are you able to solve the mystery?
http://www.oldswords.com/database/process.php?searchMystery=1

Chasing the Fox – I am currently undertaking some research on the ‘running fox’ mark and also the ‘Harvey’ family of Birmingham, England. If anyone has any images of related swords I would love to hear from you.

Bullets & Blades – Our sister book shop covering all areas of Militaria ‘Bullets & Blades’ (http://www.bulletsandblades.com) has some great new titles for sale and will try to better any prices around.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Mark Cloke
mark.cloke@oldswords.com
www.oldswords.com
www.armesblanchesanciennes.com
www.bulletsandblades.com
www.oldbayos.com

The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy! — Robert Burns, 1785

As always, pre-planning results in deviation. Spring Convergence proved to be no exception. Kevin and I both planned to run specific games but as it turned out, neither of us did.

After packing in our supplies into the Mount Evans Field Station / High Altitude Lab, everyone got settled in for the weekend. The location could not have been nicer but it was remote. To start the weekend, several individuals engaged in a fruitless search for a cell phone signal. You know the scene — the wandering about holding up the phone hoping a signal will magically appear. Rather amusing from my point of view considering I’d already stated it was unlikely. Alas, I didn’t snap a single photo of the location or the first “hunt”. If we do it again, I’ll certainly pack a camera.

Thursday evening we got started playing with me running a Top Secret session. The plot idea was conceived from a book plot I’d read a few months prior. I was pretty certain none of the other players had read the book so felt pretty safe. Much like running modules, I faired poorly. I’ve never been good at the over-arching plot lines or pushing players down a path. Top that with them not expecting me to try to do so; the result was a room of frustrated players along with a cranky GM. I figured it would be a few hours of fast paced fun. I failed. It happens. I accept the blame for not getting the momentum of the game running quickly enough.

Friday was a mixed day. Early on, it was the repeated search for the cell signal from several players. Finally, they broke down and drove down the mountain until they found a signal. During and after the search, the bulk of the daylight hours were spent playing Magic: The Gathering thanks to Randall bringing up a box of decks. Most of us hadn’t played in a decade so it was a respite from the frustration I caused the previous night. Great fun for the afternoon.

Luke turned us back to RPG’s during the evening hours. We quickly generated characters for a 3rd Edition D&D campaign. He made it quick and painless even though Randi and I had only played it once previously and Wheels had never played. The game got us rolling again but I had to bow out early to get some sleep. To be honest, 11 p.m. is far from early to me these days but it was within the context of the weekend.

Saturday dawned early. Due to my double booking, I was headed out at about 7 a.m. for a robotics contest. Kevin chose to join me for the day while the others stayed behind to do as they chose. To make a long story short, the contest was a bust for my team. Known issues were still present and I chose to not try to battle through them. Friends and a cool location were a little over an hour away. I chose gaming over bots. Kevin and I bailed from the contest shortly before noon and headed back to the field station.

Upon Kevin and I arriving back at the field station, Luke wasted no time in getting the game rolling again. He had a plan and was working us along nicely. As with all games, I occasionally questioned the plot in the back of my head but never let that stop me. We took a break for yet another cell phone repast, much shorter than the last since everyone had finally found locations to make calls.

After a bit of pizza, the group chose to continue to play the D&D campaign. In reality, it was a non-decision. Characters were in play. Shifting games would have sucked up more hours. So Luke lead us along an undead filled, twisted plot. Little by little, he sucked every character into the game more fully. The group played until the wee hours of the morning. Somewhere after 2 a.m. I don’t recall the exact time. I’d call that success.

Kevin and I planned games. Neither of us ran them. Did it matter? Not in the slightest. I relearned something about my GM’ing capabilities. Kudos to Luke for stepping up and running a great campaign.

Everyone was very happy with the location even with a bit of a hike due to the snow. Small hiccups were present but nothing unexpected. We’ll likely be back based on the feedback I was given during and after the weekend.

Good fun. Good people. Good location. Great weekend.

With that, I’ll let the others comment on the experience. I had a great time and look forward to the fall.

Well, according to the timer on the right it’s here; Spring Convergence 2010 is upon us. I’m just typing this in while my printer spits out a few more copies of some things I want to take to the gaming get-together. After this I’ll be Colorado-bound to play in Mark’s Homebrew game and Keeper my very first Call of Cthulhu game.

Current plans are to meet up with Luke in Northern Denver and then caravan to Mark’s place. Wheels and Randi should be getting there well before us so that part’s addressed. From there we’ll gather provisions and then all travel together into the high country for some gaming.

Here’s to hoping I can convince the guys to play a game of Mad Scientist so I can see how the card game fares among a group of five.

More importantly here’s hoping we don’t get snowed in… I’ll keep you posted after the fact since tech is taking a vacation this weekend and we’re headed to the hinterlands.