Villains and Vigilantes Turn Chart

Last night I finally resumed running my Villains and Vigilantes campaign and I had a chance to finally try out a turn chart one of my players created. Overall I found if really helpful. It is set up so that it can randomly determine initiative for all characters or it can randomly determine NPC initiative while allowing PCs to roll dice. There are a couple features I would like to see, such as recording detect danger/hidden with built in % roller for those stats.
    
 At first it took some getting used to, but by nights end I saw how it did speed combat along. The players and especially the GM when rolling for initiative have to do the following to determine initiative :

1d10 + Agility + Power/Speed Bonus = first action phase
Then the character can act again 15 phases later in the same turn.

ex. Zero Hero with an Agility 22 rolls a 9 so his action phases would be 31, 16, 1

While the math itself is not that bad, try doing this quickly as a GM handling a dozen NPCs.

Enter the Villains and Vigilantes Action Tracker. You can try it out at the following site.

In the bottom window just add character name, player name, Agility (not Dex as shown) and any bonus derived from powers. Click add character and they are added to the list in the top window.
I would like to see the list place characters alphabetically automatically and further separate PCs from NPCs.

In between the two windows is the following...

You will notice there are buttons for Import and Export. Once you complete a list of characters to be involved in an encounter hit Export and you will get the following result :

Now just copy and paste this into a general text editor and save it. Later just open the text file and copy and paste it into the Tracker using the Import option. You could even just type up a list of characters using this format in the text editor and import that. This would allow a GM to create lists for each separate encounter he has planned and just open them when needed. I know I will be using this option a lot in the future.

When you hit either of the Roll Initiative buttons you will generate action phases for all of the characters like this :

Further more hitting the Create Turn Chart gives the following result :

As each character finishes their action just click on done next to that action and the chart auto updates.

I like this GM aid so far, I think there is some room for improvement as I mentioned above and I will mention here as they are made. Please check it out and tell me what you think of it.

Mattel Electronic D&D Board Game

I have recently posted my copy of Mattel's Dungeons and Dragons Board Game for sale on Ebay, for those that are interested you can check it out here.

Please spread the word as I would like it to find a good home.

Games and old dreams.

Our Saturday group finally got back to playing a week ago. Due to the blizzard last month we had too much ice and snow for anyone to park cars other than my wife and I. We were all starting to go through gaming withdrawal and I was chomping at the bit to run something.

The session last week and this past evening we were not able to continue my Villains and Vigilantes campaign due to missing players. So I decided to run some Pathfinder Beginner Box and had a small group of adventurers explore the lair of Black Tooth. Overall it was a hit and the players are looking forward to playing Pathfinder some more. I have to say I had a lot of fun with it and I think I will run it on those nights when I don't have enough players for my regular game.

Having a long break from our regular game has giving me more time to work on another project, something that has been forming in the back of my mind for sometime now. This project is a video game I have been wanting to make for the last two years. These last few weeks have allowed me to work out a lot of details on the story, style of play and the game engine I will be using. I will not go into much detail here now about it other than to say I am really excited to finally get some real work done. In fact I have scheduled vacation time from my day job for later this month so that I can focus on doing a story treatment and creating some concept art for it.

For the game engine I have chosen to use Unity 3D. You can check it out at here.

I have decided to use Unity because of its flexibility, ease of use and large community of users that I can network with. It also has a low cost when compared to other game engines such as Unreal and CryENGINE. Additionally Unity allows for development on many platforms such as PC, Mac, iOS Devices, Android, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, WiiU and the upcoming Ouya. The game can be created in Unity and then deployed to any of these devices which really opens it up to a large number of potential users.

As the project develops I will post developer diaries which will chart my progress and hopefully build interest in the game. I am also planning on having a Kickstarter Campaign to help fund the project, but I will not be launching that till later in the year. The "when" will be dependent on how quickly this all comes together. I have found someone to help with concept art and will also look to work with others as needed. The Kickstarter campaign will primarily be used to pay those artists that help me on the project.

It has been a dream of mine to make video games ever since I used to write programs on my brother's old Atari 800. I remember creating a very simple game based on the Basic Set D&D and  text adventures similar to the old choose your own adventure books that were popular when I was a kid.
That old Atari is gone now and so are the cassette tapes that those games were stored on, but the dream remains.

D&D Next Play Test Session #2

The second play test session will be Held at The Brothers Grim Games & Collectibles 1244 Middle Country Road Selden, NY on Saturday, January 5th from 12pm to 5pm. Those interested in attending please post below.

Character creation is between 12 and 1 though there are some pre-gen characters available.

D&D Next Play Test Session #1

So today I ran my first play test for the next version of D&D. And in a nutshell I had fun. There were a few nit-picky problems my players and I had but they were minor. By minor I mean most if not all of the complaints could have been rectified by a better character sheet. For example both myself and one of the players had trouble finding were to record hit points. Also there were no spots for some fairly important character information and while there are plenty of areas to record notes, we were left scratching our heads as to why this was the case.

Overall we all enjoyed the character creation process, it lends itself to helping players develop a background for there characters. As I sat with my two players they came up with some good back stories and plot hooks that I could use in developing a campaign. It took us 3 hours for my two players to each create two characters and before they sat down they had never seen any of the 5th edition materials. As we get more comfortable with the rules and are not looking through a half dozen different booklets I can see the time this takes being cut in half.

In this version of the rules there are not as many options available as there were in 3rd edition, but I was left with the impression that there was more customization than was available in the original release of fourth edition.

Once we had our characters created the players took a quick foray into the provided adventure. In the half hour we played we got through the equivalent of 3 encounters. In all the new edition rules play quicker than four edition did. In 4th ed encounters had a nasty habit of taking anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half depending on the situation. It will be interesting to see if this speed remains at higher levels of play.

So far I have a good impression of the new rules, though I will reserve final opinions for later in the play test process as things can change greatly over the coming months. I will also continue to give my impression of the new edition as play testing continues, though I will not get into any specific mechanics. This is mainly because I am not completely sure at the moment what I am allowed to reveal here.

If anyone is interested in reading the rules they can get them by signing up for the play test themselves at  https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dndnext.aspx

D&D Next Play Test Session #1

The first D&D Next Play Test I will be running will be this Saturday, November 17th @12pm. It will be hosted at The Brothers Grim Games & Collectibles 1244 Middle Country Road Selden, NY. The play test will run till 5pm. I am looking to have a minimum of 4 people and as many as 6, though I can be talked into allowing a couple more. Anyone interested in attending please leave a comment below.

I am the Lizard King and I can do anything...

The following is one of the villains in my current Villains and Vigilantes campaign.

The Lizard King
Name : Sobek      also Jim

Side : Neutral / Doctor Gamma       Sex : Male     Age : 5     Weight : 750 lbs.
Experience : 6000     Level : 3     Training : Agility

Powers :
Animal Powers - Reptile a.)Armor biological - thick hide 90 ADR  b.)Reptile Control - up to 142 hit points worth.
Heightened Defense -4 to be hit
Heightened Agility B +21
Natural Weaponry (x2) Terrible Bite +5 to hit +10 damage (added to HTH)
Body Power - Natural Swimmer and Hold Breathe Long Time (x3 to both)

Str : 14     End : 14     Agi : 28    Int : 11     Cha : 11     Reaction from Good : -      Evil : -
Basic Hits : 15     Hit Mod. (1.2)(1.4)(1)(2.8)= 4.704     Hit Points : 71     Healing Rate : 1.5
Carrying Capacity : 1554 lbs.    Base HTH Damage : 1d10    
Power : 67     Movement : 56"ground   168"swim
Accuracy : +5     Damage Modifier : +3     Detect Hidden : 8%     Detect Danger : 12%

Background :

     The Lizard King began life as an alligator and was one of the earlier successful experiments of Doctor Gamma. The Doctor named  his creation Sobek after the crocodile headed Egyptian god.
Not caring for this name he later chose the name Jim for himself after the late Jim Morrison. He had taking a liking to classic rock and the Doors in particular and can often be found in his quarters listening to old vinyl albums.
     He loves Doctor Gamma as a father and will willingly do anything for him. Lizard King is not evil and does not wish to bring harm to others if he can help it, but will protect himself and the Doctor.
If this includes hurting would be heroes so be it. He believes whole heartedly in the mission that Doctor Gamma is on and honestly feels the world will be a better place after the Doctor succeeds in his ambitions.

Tactics : As his first action in any combat situation Lizard King will use evasion. This will make him extremely difficult to hit. He will then use hit and run tactics never staying in one place. He will use his environment to his best advantage, will seek to lure prey away from groups and when possible dive into water were he will have a significant advantage.