Wiki dumps for Islands of War

I just thought some of you out there would be interested to know that I've setup a repository for dumps of the Islands of War Wiki.

They're available here. There's also a list of the dump archives, here, in the Wiki.

Drawing Maps, Part II

I just thought someone out there might like to see an updated version of the map of the Archipelago from Islands of War.

I've added ocean depth and mountain detail. This works much like adding topographical detail to a traditional map, with a slight twist: I colored it to make it appear similar to a satellite map.

If you compare to the previous map drawing post, I believe you'll find this version far more beautiful.

I guess after I finally get around to finishing the mountains I should add a compass and a distance scale. That will require deciding what that scale should be. So far I've been a bit deliberately vague about how far apart everything is, but I guess the whole area is probably the size of a medium continent.

On the other hand, I could slap a "Not to Scale" label on it and continue being vague. Heh.

Still alive...

I just wanted to tell everybody that I'm still alive.

I haven't been updating the Islands of War Wiki very much because I'm currently running a side campaign involving an anti-alien unit of soldiers.

I should be getting back around to Islands of War soon, so you should see some updates soon.

Every once in a while, it's just good to do something different. Hence the short-term anti-alien campaign.

Dungeon Mapping in Inkscape

Just today, I started experimenting with drawing dungeon maps in Inkscape.

I've built a nice little file for this with pre-made bits you can copy and paste on to a map.

If you open it in Inkscape, it should be nicely setup and ready to go. I don't know if any other SVG-capable program will be so friendly.

You'll find it here along with instructions on how to use it.

Pre-generated Characters

I've been mulling an idea through my head for a while now.

For any RPG campaign I run in the future, I'm going to build at least seven or eight characters that would fit in the campaign.

This serves a few purposes:

• Players new to GURPS won't have to build their own character while still learning the system. This gives them a chance to play without being overwhelmed with decisions.
  
• Players new to the group won't have to build their own character while still deciding if they even want to play in the group.
• Players get a whole bunch of example characters that they can compare to and get ideas from.
• New players will get to see characters that are actually balanced and they'll consider giving their characters more than just combat skills.
• If a player likes one of my example characters, they can just keep it and I just build another one. With GCS (see previous posts), this is easy enough and fairly quick.
• My players will see some of my very unique creations from their side of the table, instead of having to fight them.
  

Near as I can tell, there's only one down side to this plan. I have to build seven or eight characters for each campaign, in addition to everything else I have to prepare. I think it's worth it.

Drawing Maps, Part I

For quite a long time, I've been looking for a map drawing tool for my various campaigns. I tried a few programs, but didn't quite like any of them.

Yesterday I read a suggestion from a slashdot.org user recommending using a regular vector-based drawing program instead of a map drawing program. It was in an Ask Slashdot article asking for suggestions on such programs.

I decided to try Inkscape, since I've heard of it before and it's available in Ubuntu's repositories.

I'm satisfied with the results so far. My first map is somewhat crude, but it's better than nothing and it's enough to play with. By the way, it's for my campaign setting wiki, Islands of War. Check it out if you haven't already. It's growing every day and getting more detailed with each edit.

Power Stones or Pwnage Stones?

I've got to say it: Power Stones bug me. I can't even figure out why they're in the GURPS books.

I've only ever seen them abused by players. I've seen them terribly abused, actually. I just can't fathom any reason that they're in the books.

They let players trade money for a major advantage, something that I've seen the books suggest is a bad idea elsewhere.

In my opinion, Power Stones (Pwnage Stones, anyone?) should be purchased with points using the rules for gadgets on p. B116-117.

So why do they exist? Does anyone know? If you do, please comment, I'd like to hear a good explanation.

GCS

GCS is a program I quite like. It's for building GURPS characters and works much like an electronic character sheet.

So far, it's saved me a huge amount of time building characters for my campaign setting wiki and I've built several racial templates and a few other odds and ends for it. It cut my character creation time down to about a quarter what it was.

Oh yeah, and it's even open source. It's written in Java, so it can run on Linux, Windows or a Mac.

Enjoy!

Fireball as a utility spell?

I once had a player that for some reason thought that Fireball (AD&D 2nd edition) was a utility spell.

Don't get me wrong, this guy loved blowing up the bad guys with it, but he also used it for everything else. If he had a chance to cast Fireball, he would.

At one point, the PCs were lost in a snowy wilderness, freezing to death. He cast a fireball overhead and warmed everyone for a bit. This lasted all of a few seconds and they were feeling cold again, so he cast it on the trees around them, starting a forest fire and giving everyone a new problem to deal with. At least they weren't freezing to death anymore.

He also used it to collapse tunnels and do other things like that, most of them fairly nuts. He once used it to dry a wet floor (Wet with acid, I believe). Yes, you read that correctly. Like I said, nuts.

I liked having that guy in the group. He was just so crazy and the other players were constantly yelling, "No!!!!" at him. It was way too funny.

At one point he intentionally cast a Lightning Bolt in close quarters with himself and a huge monster, so it would bounce back and forth enough times to kill the monster. Since he was being creative, I gave him a fair chance to get out of the way after the first few bounces. He got very banged up in the process. The monster got worse.

Let's just say he had an interesting approach to using his spells. Crazy, but interesting.

Consistency!

I had a long running group of players at one point. We played RPGs every week for several years.

Anyway, they had this running gag they'd use whenever they came to a fork in a dungeon or a road, etc.

They'd immediately stop, look at each other and someone would call out, "Consistency!"

Then two others would call out contradictory directions, usually left and right at the same time. Apparently, the first time this happened was totally an accident. After that, they just thought it was funny and kept doing it.

For some reason, this just kept getting funnier the longer they did it. In a few cases, we'd laugh for a minute or so and then I'd finally ask again, "So which way are you going?" Every once in a while they'd immediately do it again.

Ah, good old times. I miss gaming with them, but we're all busy in different ways these days.

The old "diametrically opposed schedules" thing. Ah, we should put our schedules in an arena and make em' fight to the death or something.