The Prisoner - in RPG form?

Ok, so I've been away for quite some time here. Just crazy times around here, with lots going on.

Anyway, I'm getting geared up for "The Prisoner" - AMC's reimagined miniseries version of the insane yet incredible late-'60s British TV series, which begins this Sunday night. The original is one of my all time favorite TV shows. I'm a bit nervous about how this new take will turn out, but still I'm planning on watching it, and giving it the chance it deserves. Hope it rocks, actually.

On that note, I started thinking about The Prisoner as an RPG. Was there ever such a thing? If so, how did I miss it? Have folks run their own take on it, just house-ruling stuff, using their favorite system(s)?

I poked around briefly on teh interwebzz, and only saw one official product which was for the GURPS system.


Here is some discussion on the idea in general at RPGnet forums, which actually includes some talk of the GURPS supplement.

And here is the main review entry for it (the GURPS one) over at RPGnet.

I've never played GURPS. I do have one GURPS product - the Conan Solitaire Adventure, which I have yet to try. But other than that I never got into GURPS as a system. Anyone ever use this GURPS Prisoner product?

Or even better, anyone ever run any other RPG, involving ol' Number 6?


I mean, the map/world is pretty well-defined already.



I wonder what the stats on a rover might look like.



And man!, the NPCs are sa-weet! Plus they are pretty easily indexed...ha!

"Be seeing you!"

Mismarked Gamescience dice: 1d6 = 1d4+1?

So, I recently added to my (embarrassingly too large) pile of Gamescience dice. I just can't help myself, really. It's quite sad.

I snagged a few packs from a FLGS, as I noticed that they were new additions to the front counter glass showcase. I left the shop with a lighter wallet, but a heavier dice bag, as I just couldn't say no to any of these bad boys: all 7-dice poly sets in the colors Coal Black, Pumpkin Orange, Seashell White, and Peridot (gem).


When I got home, I promptly broke out the trusty Pilot ultra-fine black permanent marker and began inking them. BTW, for a real nice personal procedure on inking GS dice, check out Jeff Rients' post on the subject. Well except for the periodot (gem) set. That one was destined for the white paint pen treatment.

Anyway, I usually set out the whole set and just go down the row, inking a single digit on a single die, and then moving on to the next in line, to allow the ink to dry on the previous die. For some strange reason this time I started with the seashell white set, and more specifically the 00-90 d10. I inked the whole die (mostly I guess because I had some downtime on that die, as I was playing a bit with my kids during the inking exercise) and then grabbed the d6.

I spun it around, looking for my normal starting digit, the 1. Hhhmmn....where is that pesky loneliest number? Here? Nope Oh wait, here it is...nope. Hmmn...well, isn't it on the opposite side of the 6? Yeah, I think so. So where's the 6? Hhhmmn..... WTF?


Truth be told, it didn't take that long to figure it out. But I must say I was a bit perplexed, as I have never had any issue with any Gamescience dice like this in the past. Upon further investigation (hehe), I noted that this d6 was numbered 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5. Weird.

So it's not really a cheater dice (not that I would ever use such a vile thing!). I mean yeah, it will never role a measily 1 damage. Nor will it ever hinder the "3d6 in-order" hero creation process in the worst of ways. But...it also will never max out with max damage. Nor will it ever allow a natural 18 ability score (cuz we all normally get those all the time, right?).

Weird, I say. Weird.

Have any of you seen this kind of mismark? Especially on such a precision-heavy (wow, that sounds weirdly weighted) product as Gamescience dice?

I know I haven't. I called the shop to let the owner know, and he said there would be no problem exchanging them. I say them, because this was the case with the d6 in both the seashell white and the pumpin sets. The black set and the peridot set bot had normally marked d6s.

I also informed the shop owner that the only issue I feared he may have with the return/exchange was the fact that I had already inked the 00-90 d10 in the white set, before I even noticed the flawed d6. He reassured me that he had no problem with it and he would take care of it for me, no questions. Coolness.

I kinda wonder if he secretly has a role in mind for the defective d6s. Maybe he's tired of doing the math on a 1d4+1. These bad boys look to be the perfect solution for that 2-5 range...in a mutant-bell-curve sorta way. Hhhmmnn......

El Chupacabra found (again)? or just another hairless mutated coyote?

Looks like another el Chupacabra has been found...allegedly. Weird how a single entity like the Chupacabra can be found (dead) again, right?

"Here goatie-goatie...here, goatie-goatie..."

Anyway, here's the news link which provides the following pics and video of this poor pooch... errr... ferocious beast:






Well, it's certainly not the first time we've seen Mutant Future-esque canines like this. In fact these seem to crop up all the time, but this one just cracked me up a little more than usual. Here's another story of some lady who found one of these close-shaven, anti-dentite doggies, pretty much exactly 2 years ago. Do you see a trend?

That 2007 finding was blasted as a hoax (as it should be) in articles like this one. Ah well, good times regardless...ha!

Somehow, I always pictured the grisly "goat-sucker" a little more...oh I dunno....scary?

"Grrrr....Arrrrggh!"

AD&D DMG Appendix P: ¿Como se huh?

Never heard of it.

"let's see...Appendix L, M, N, O....."

Until this past weekend, that is.

I was poking around locally last week for some B/X D&D to either join or start if need be, but really had no takers. I then decided to add 1st edition AD&D as a possible option too. That's when I got a bite. The local D&D Meetup around these parts seems to pull in mostly 3.5 and 4e players. I have met up with them at a couple past meetups and played 4e at both of those with other members of the meetup crew.

The bite came from one of the organizers of that meetup. He invited me to join their existing 1st edition AD&D game that gets together somewhat irregularly, which actually is a bonus for me. I'm already committed to one weekly gaming night, and I can't add another strict commitment to my calendar. So an irregular hookup for some 1st ed AD&D sounded very cool to me.

I was informed that the party consisted of 2 rangers (one of them multiclassed as a cleric), a fighter, a thief, and an every-once-in-a-while cleric. They would appreciate another caster, but I could play anything I wanted. I went with magic-user. I don't think I ever played one in 1st edition AD&D, so that would be fun.
I was told to that I could roll up a 5th level character either prior to the session or when I got there. This is where I was directed to Appendix P of the DMG. "Appendix P? WTF is that?"

Well, I haven't played in a true tabletop PnP 1st edition AD&D game since somewhere in the mid '80s. I'd say probably during the 1983-85 timeframe. That campaign was highly homebrewed, mixing in some B/X, some AD&D, and some of whatever our DM wanted. It was a blast back then, but it could possibly cause me some issues jumping into an existing game like this new one.

Now, I do occasionally play in a 2nd edition AD&D game, online using a chatroom with a built-in voice program, with some friends of mine around the country. We all met playing DDO (the D&D MMO) and make use of it's chat/voice/dice functions to play every few months. That game, however is very homebrewed, as the world, races, classes, etc have been customized if not altogether created from scratch in many ways. It's been a ton of fun and I should write a post about it soon as well.

At any rate, the point is I was a little out of touch with 1st ed AD&D, by-the-book.

So, I pulled out the old DMG and looked for Appendix P, whatever that is. If you don't know (you all probably do, but still) it's a quick way of creating a level X character or party. In fact it is officially stated as APPENDIX P: CREATING A PARTY ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT. You still roll 4d6, drop the lowest for abilities, arrange as you like, pick a class/race, adjust based on that if able, and then the fun comes in. You get to roll for magic items!

Seeing how my new M-U was 5th level, it is presumed that he may have come across some sweet loot in his 5 levels of smoothness. So I rolled the bones and got tons of cool stuff, right? Wrong. I will say that I felt very blessed to have rolled very good on the Ring of Protection in the armor section, as having succeeded on the initial roll (75% chance) to see if I got one, I also rolled good enough to bump it to a +2. That was a measily %5 chance, IIRC. Yay, me!

But sadly, that's where the yay ends. I did not get bracers (20% shot). No scrolls (75%). No weapons (75% for a +1 dagger). Not even a single freakin' potion (50%). Ah well, +2 Ring of Protection it is.

Now I understand that this method of generating a level X character isn't some massivively amazing finding, but it was something that I missed in all the years of owning a 1st ed DMG, and I think I got mine back in '81. Imagine that. Ok, maybe '82, but that kinda ruins the vibe, right?

Anyway, on to the play session...


The group was very friendly, very helpful, and very open to me jumping into their group, even it might be with very sporadic frequency. My character found employment with them while hanging out in a local tavern. Crazy, right? Skipping right along, off we went on a journey together.

I won't go all into the story, but I will tell you that the first day of adventuring was pretty hilarious. Reason I say that is the only spell-casting the party ever saw me do during that first day (and that's questionable if they actually saw me do it or not) was one shield spell. Ya' see the problem was that I memorized sleep (x2), shield (x2), web (x2), and a fireball. Sounded pretty good to me. Sadly, things didn't quite gel with that spell array. For one, the DM had originally (and admittedly) created this romp with no caster in mind, so many of the baddies were either immune or highly resistant to these selections. We faced zombies (they don't sleep very well), hell hounds (hit dice to high, and the whole flaming thing), a door mimic (again with the high HD, etc), more zombies, a few crab-like creatures with tentacles? (drawing a blank here and at work without my books to help me out - I'll find them and edit the post), more hell hounds, and finally a pair of Bone devils, IIRC (waaaaay to high HD, not to mention magic resistance).

Actually the last few there were in day 2 of the adventuring. Seeing how I was pretty useless with my original selection, I memorized a slightly different batch for that day's work. I went with one sleep ('cause, well, it's still sleep for Pete's sake), one shield (still a bit of a wuss M-U, and the AC bump is nice), one web (again, maybe they'll let me use it at least once, even if it's to help in our escape from the place), but threw in magic missle (x2), one ray of enfeeblement, and one lightning bolt. I was gambling that the fire-based baddies would continue to pop up, and maybe lightning would harm them better, and magic missle would be good for just about anything.

See, I originally went with a more controlling approach to my magic-user, making him lawful neutral and RPing him a little on the "there must be order in this crazy world", "I'll put you where I want you and keep you there", stuff like that. Well, the party was kinda used to a little more of an offensive night out, and they must have had some bad experience with web before, as they really didn't want me to cast that...ha!

They were basically all frontline fighters (save the thief, who tried to do his thieving tasks and then get the heck back - smart man), so firing offensive spells into the mix was very risky. The melee folks dished out a real nice wallop when needed, and actually for most of the encounters they really didn't have much trouble. Fire damage from the hell hounds' breath weapon attack was probably the most trouble early on. The mimic was a little touchy as he grabbed the thief during his find/remove traps and open locks checks on the door. Still, not too bad of a fight for the rest of the thugs in our party. The zombies were a pushover for our cleric/ranger, even though they did come back from turning quite quickly.

Turned, and returned. Screw it, just waste 'em.

There was a clue to the last fight, that I guess my character was supposed to pick up on. Although in this case, it would seem that I the player would have to pick up on it, using some knowledge that I just don't have: a symbol for sulfur. Originally, the party thought it was a directional, as it did look a bit like an arrow pointing which way to go. However, I was later told by the DM that my character recognizes it as a symbol for sulfur. Ok, well we had been discussing salt, and how it might affect certain creatures (undead?), but still none of us had any on us. I recalled some bags and boxes that we had not checked yet in some rooms earlier in the crawl. In the end, we were told that that mark also symbolizes demon or devil. I'm not sure if I was supposed to have known that or surmised it, but if I had we might have known what was luring behind that final doorway. Ah well.

Regardless, I was still having a blast playing with them, even though they were worried that I was bored, as I hadn't really been able to contribute much. The thief actually RP'd some "I'm beginning to wonder if we really did hire a wizard." To which my guy replied "well I have this pointy hat, these robes, and this staff...isn't that the right getup?" (muttering "that costume shop back in town better not have steered me wrong...")


My big, bright shining moment came (or would have came) when we reached the big bad devils. I could be wrong on the type of devil, I just recall the size, the hooked weapon, the wall-of-ice (I'll get to that), etc...so I'm thinking they were Bone Devils. Anyway, they had just suggested (possibly part of their fear attack?) our main damage dealer into joining their team or at least siding with them to some degree, and feared our other frontliner (who also happened to be our healer - multiclassed cleric/ranger) into running away. So that left our thief, who doesn't dig the up-close-and-personal, another party member PC who was basically mapping for us as an intern (ha!), and me the wuss magic-user. Well, I got an idea. They were basically lined up for me, one in the doorway and the other back inside the room a bit, with a nice wall right behind him. So I let loose a lightning bolt hoping to hit one, then the next, then the back wall them back through those two again for max damage (60 hp to each of them), of course, right? RIGHT?!?!?


Everyone was geeked for this uber spell to save the day. I rolled those 5d6 down through the old dice boot/tower, and stared down at a whopping 13 damage....ugh. Ah well, 26 hp to each of them with that backlash double strike would still be ok. Certainly they would both fail their saves and had no magic resistance to speak of, right? RIGHT?!?!?!? Well they both saved, both times, and even with half damage, their 40% MR basically said...nope, sorry, try again sir. Sadly that was the only shot I had, with only one level 3 spell in the aresnal.

There went my shining moment. The only good thing to come out of the attempt was that the thief became a believer. He witnessed electricity arch from my fingertips and blast across the room. Ok, so it didn't seem to do anything to the big baddies, at least he felt confident in his hiring procedures, believing me to at least be the magic-user I claimed to be. I think.

At this point our main frontliner shook off the suggestion/fear so she started to engage them, along with the thief. Yes, I said the thief. See, he happened to notice that the fleeing cleric/ranger dropped his nice sunblade when he decided to run away. This looked like a nice choice for a weapon (shortsword, IIRC), so he decided to demo it on these devils. I readied a magic missle (well, 3 missles actually, being 5th level), and was about to let them fly, when the devils threw up a wall of ice on the doorway, blocking me out and our fighter and our thief in. The good guys put the fatal smack down on the baddies, with the thief stealing a 1 hp kill shot on the last one...ha! Awesome, but that's kinda what a thief does...steals. Our intern cartographer had tackled our cleric/ranger to hold him down until he shook the fear effect, and we all began picking away at the wall of ice. Man, sure could use a fireball right about now. Ugh.

In summary, I had a blast! It has been far too long since I've played 1st edition, especially in person, across the table from the rest of the crew. Even though my magic-user was fairly useless this time around, I still had a ton of fun, and I really appreciate the gaming group for allowing me to join them. It turns out that they actually try to meet up more frequently than I can commit to, but they often have issues with that anyway, as others in the group have other RL conflicts too. Hopefully I can join them at least once a month dust off the old books, as well as the old skills, all from back in .... errr ... close enough.

Dunwich Detectives, Call of Cthulhu Minions, and other loot: I am sooooo weak!

Oh dear. Oh deaaarrr! I told you I was weak. I knew it would happen. It happened.

When I recently asked for some input on Call of Cthulhu the RPG vs Arkham Horror the board game for a gaming purchase by yours truly, I fully called it. I said that I was very weak, and if I came across some good deals on any of this stuff that I would cave. Well I did, and I did.

I initially held off on the quick impulse buy for the one night alone at home that I was going to have, sans family, and decided to watch The Call of Cthulhu silent film by the HPLHS. That was very cool and was enough for me to make it through without buying anything for that activity. Good deal.

But, two days later on the return trip from the weekend getaway where I met up with my family after the night home alone, I stopped at an LGS on the way home. Well, I guess it's not really an LGS as it's not local to my home. But since it's local to where I was during my trip, we'll leave it at that.

Anyway, when I asked if they had any CoC stuff, they informed me that they had the rulebook but that was it. So I snagged that:

Call of Cthulhu (6th ed)

So that's it, eh? That's all they had? Nope. When I hit the shelves looking for anything else that might catch my eye I found these awesome little dudes:

Dunwich Detectives

...and this collection of brief encounters:

Minions

bad flash...bad!

...and these additional supplements:

The Keeper's Companion 2

Secrets of New York

Then I saw the clearance section, which housed these two gems:

Eldritch Horrors & Occult Investigators counter pack

Elric! Gamemaster Screen

I also couldn't make it past the dice section where I noticed the sole 12-pc Gamescience set, which although highly overpriced (IMO) was still worth grabbing as I have always wanted a full 12-pc set of these. I have several 7-pc sets of Gamescience dice, both opaque and gem styles, but I have yet to find locally one of the 12-pc sets. So I snagged it too.

Gamescience 12-pc dice set

Did I mention yet that I was weak?

Now, as of this purchase I have discovered a somewhat-local GS that carries a few of the 12-pc Gamescience sets, but I think I will be strong and roll with this one alone. I will very likely never have a reason to even use any of the additional "5 unique shapes"...but still sometimes you just have to own something, ya'know?

Now back to the fack that I was weak. Ya' see, normally I wouldn't just plop down hard earned cash for supplements and other goodies for a game (CoC) that I don't even know if I will like or not. But in this case I trust the many opinions of the folks that commented on my initial post, and their high ratings, along with the fact that this store had all of this stuff marked down...waaaaay down in some cases. I just bit the bullet and grabbed it all.

If they would have had a copy of Arkham Horror in the clearance section, I'd be posting a pic of that too...ha! Maybe next time, eh?

Anyway, I'm not posting this stuff to be all "naner, naner, naner...look what I got!" Well, maybe a little. But really it's because most of us (if not all of us) geek out on this stuff, and I figured I'd let you in on a few goodies that I'm geekin' on and maybe you'd dig them too.

Also, I'm curious on opinions as to if these supplements are decent for the game or not. If you have any XP with any of the, please chime in on that. It's ok if something I just bought sucks. I'd prefer that it didn't, but again such a good deal was made on the lot, that I'd accept that is it was true. Regardless I looooove the minis (even if CoC doesn't call for them as much as other games), and I was going to snag the main CoC rulebook (6th ed) from another local source in a couple days anyway. I also think the Minions encounter book will be nice for me to use in trying out some CoC locally, if I can muster up a group. It looks perfect for some one-shots to try out the game. The dice set is a keeper for sure, and the counters pack and Elric screen were so cheap they were an automatic grab. I guess the Secrets of NY and the Keeper's Companion supplements are the two that may have been overkill and possible not worth the dough. I just don't see much 1920s CoC stuff around here (more '90s and Now) and that's the era I would prefer to run, if and when I finally do. It just seems right.

Ah well, I'll leave you with some pics of some fun I had dorking around with these Detectives, posing them on what I thought was a somewhat relative backdrop:






Yes, I am a dork. Apparently a very, very weak-willed one.

"Must...not...give...in! Must...not...spend!"

"The Whisperer in Darkness": another upcoming Lovecraft flick by the HPLHS

Whoooahhh! Now this looks sa-wwweeeeeet!



Not much time to babble on about it here, but just a couple links to get you checking it out, if you haven't already:

• the HPLHS homepage

• their trailer page for "The Whisperer in Darkness"

• their updates page for the project's process

If this is all old news to ya'll then, I guess I suck. However, if it's new to anyone, then I suck a little bit less, right?

I only saw it as I hit up the HPLHS site after chatting it up with some of you folks (including: Atom Kid, Christopher B, ATOM and rainswept) in the comments section of my last post.

I hope I'm not totally swiping this from one of your blogs (anyone reading this, really), as I have certainly done that before without truly knowing I did (oops!). I can honestly say that this is the first I have seen of this new movie, and I am now severely geeked!

Anyway, check out that trailer. Check out the pics. Check out the whole deal. IMO, from the looks of what they have so far, this thing is gonna be freakin' sa-weet.

Can't wait!

"The Call of Cthulhu" (DVD): some silent-movie goodness ...err ...evilness

During my recent indecision in buying the board game Arkham Horror or the RPG Call of Cthulhu, I spent an evening home alone watching this flick, The Call of Cthulhu:


I've had this DVD for at least a year and a half, and very likely since it's release date. I recall buying it from a local Barnes & Noble, taking it home, opening it, and then placing it in a pile (not the pile, but a pile, of many piles) of DVDs to watch...soon.

Ahem. Well, obviously soon came much later than expected.

At any rate, seeing how I was in a bit of a Lovecraft mode last week, I recalled that I had this DVD somewhere in a box, somewhere in the basement. So I started digging. The activity was well worth it, as I unearthed many more gems in the forms of DVDs, magazines, rulebooks, paperbacks, etc. - not all from the horror genre, but still horror/sci-fi/fantasy/roleplaying in all cases. I'll save some of that for a later post.

I had the one night home alone before I headed out of town to meet up with my wife and kids at a retreat/vacation for the remainder of the weekend, so I figured if I couldn't yet play AH or CoC, I would at least immerse myself in some Lovecraftian coolness one way or another.

The film strays some from the original story, from what I recall, but all in all it did not disappoint. It was not a full fledged edge-of-the-seat nailbiter, but it was still fun, and still a bit creepy at times. This may have been assisted by the fact that I was home, alone. So, although this was nothing on the level of of The Omen ("Look at me, Damien! It's all for you."), The Shining, The Exorcist, or even Salem's Lot (I don't care what you say, that levitating dead kid scratching at the bedroom window still freaks me out!), it was fun to turn down the lights, and fire up this bad boy anyway.

A little humor is thrown in at the start with this copyright warning:
"Violators of HPLHS copyrights may have their eyes plucked out by byakhee as they sleep."

The text speech frames were very nice and worked perfectly following the silent mouthing of dialogue performed by the actors. The lighting and makeup really made this all come together.


A few weak spots, IMO, were the dream sequences, but I say that only due to the cheap-looking set designs. I understand it must be difficult to imagine and to try describe on film using props something that is non-Euclidean, so I wasn't too bothered by it. But honestly, I've seen better sets on some Twilight Zone episodes. Ah well. Still, very very cool stuff regardless.


I did like the swamp scenes, which although when seen in the extras portion of the DVD were shown to be fairly basic and simple in design too, came across much better and much more creepy (read: believable) during the final cut of the film.


I really dug many of the props used, including statues, newspaper clippings, notes, etc. I'd love to get my hands on some of that gear.



The stop-motion techniques used for ol' Squidward, himself were a little silly in this sort of a film. But I guess it did provide the throw-back that the film as a whole was going for, and again I understand that with certain budget concerns and various technical limitations that any other method of creating the great Cthulhu on-screen, would most likely have beeen very difficult to pull off. I'm a huge Ray Harryhausen fan, so I probably took it a little too tough on this film in those regards.




I'm not sure if I've seen a silent movie since The Phantom of the Opera, so this was a real treat for me. In a pinch, as a substitute for some solitaire Lovecraftian gaming, this film The Call of Cthulhu filled in very nicely. I truly enjoyed it. Check it out if you get the chance. Just hurry up before those darn stars align again!