The World's Greatest Screen: The Half Screen

Back in RPGaDay 2024: Day 26, I mentioned I was looking forward to the release of The World's Greatest Screen: The Half Screen. I am happy to report that its Kickstarter project has launched and is doing well, with delivery estimated for mid- to late May 2025. If you are looking for a fully customizable, portable, durable GM screen with a low enough profile to enable you to fully interact with your players and the playing space, this is the GM screen for you. Learn more about it here. The deadline to back it is 17 April 2025.

Zombie Dice and All-Purpose Spellcasting

[The following rule utilizes the Zombie dice from Zombie Dice, a game published by Steve Jackson Games. Zombie dice, which will hereafter be referred to as dZ, have the following faces: brain, footprints, and shotgun blast (abbreviated here as simply blast). The distribution of faces varies by color. A green dZ has 3 brains, 2 footprints, and 1 blast. A yellow dZ has 2 brains, 2 footprints, and 2 blasts. A red dZ has 1 brain, 2 footprints, and 3 blasts.*]

Twelve years ago (!), I posted an article entitled "Zombie Dice and Spell Interruption." Today, I would like to offer another method of using Zombie dice with spellcasting.

Each time a spellcaster casts a spell, the caster must roll 1dZ. If the casting is not interrupted, the caster rolls a green dZ. If the casting is interrupted, the caster rolls a yellow dZ. If the casting is interrupted through injury to the caster, the caster rolls a red dZ. The result of the roll is compared to the table below:

dZ	Effect
brain	The spell is cast and retained.
footprints	The spell is cast and forgotten.
blast	The spell is disrupted and forgotten.

All of this presumes that the baseline magic system is Vancian, i.e. the caster may memorize a certain number of spells of each allowable spell level; once cast, a spell is forgotten and cannot be cast again until it is re-memorized. Contrarywise, with this rule, there is always a chance that a spell may be cast and retained in the memory, cast and forgotten normally, or disrupted and forgotten.

One could also give the caster the option to cast in standard Vancian fashion (spells cast are always forgotten, but never disrupted unless interrupted) or risk the Zombie dice method on a case by case basis.

* Standard six-sided dice may be substituted as follows:
"Green" d6: 1-3 = brain, 4-5 = footprints, 6 = blast.
"Yellow" d6: 1-2 = brain, 3-4 = footprints, 5-6 = blast.
"Red" d6: 1 = brain, 2-3 = footprints, 4-6 = blast.

Delayed Phantasticality

My blogs have been quieter than I like, and although I addressed the situation (here and here) in Lawful Great, my gaming blog directory, I thought it would not be unreasonable to mention it here in my oldest surviving—and most visited—blog.

From "Blogging Month in Review: January 2025":

As I predicted, my capacity to blog is greatly diminished by concerns that outweigh my devotion to this beloved hobby. I shall strive to recapture the joy and sense of refuge it has always provided me in the past, and that might involve a more classic approach (doing more in-person gaming, going to conventions, and perhaps even moving toward a more traditional method of fan publication and distribution—the zine) in combination with a newer (or less classic) approach such as making YouTube videos. What this will mean to my fleet of blogs depends on the course of events that are beyond my control. Those who push generative a.i. are at war with everyone who writes, performs, or creates art. As long as our work is not protected and we are not compensated, I am reluctant to share it with anyone I do not personally know and trust. We are heading into a dismal age that may outlast us all. I hope we can change course.

Peace and Enlightenment.

Be seeing you?

Back to the Table

The last gaming session I participated in was probably last year as a player in the playtest of a Mutant Crawl Classics RPG adventure via Zoom. Until a week ago, my last in-person gaming session was two years ago when I ran "Temple Siege!" for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. It is a short adventure by Julian Bernick included in the DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack. As it states in the beginning, "This adventure is for 5 to 6 1st-level PCs (Some playtesters found that the adventure provided plenty of challenge for 4 to 5 2nd-level PCs as well.)" Well, we had three 2nd level player characters, and we were only halfway through the adventure when the session ended. Two years later (on 31 August 2024, to be precise), we finally met again to complete the adventure. Joe played Billie the Once Risen, formerly Billie the Squire (2nd level warrior), Sarah (my wife) played Francis the Creep (2nd level thief), and Leslie played George the Pupil (2nd level cleric). I re-described the circumstances of the adventure, what they had done, and where they had been, and they gradually recaptured the mood and party dynamics as if we had last played a mere week ago. The band was back! I would love to meet every week, but the schedules of adults are notoriously difficult to coordinate, and I'll consider us lucky if we can meet once or twice a month. It has been left to my discretion to pick the next adventure, so at least I'll have plenty of time to make a good choice and thoroughly prepare. I will be planning a mini-unmodule to lead into the adventure as I think we need more development of the player characters' local community and home bases. Their previous adventures, incidentally, have been Sailors on the Starless Sea, Doom of the Savage King, Frozen in Time, and, as I mentioned, "Temple Siege!"

Meanwhile, I will be running Mutant Crawl Classics RPG weekly for Mary (my mother) and Linnville, starting with the 0 level funnel, "Assault on the Sky-High Tower." I will be giving them eight 0 levels each (generated by the Mutant Crawl Classics 0-Level Party Generator by Purple Sorcerer Games). I have been developing a rich background for their tribe and location, which I hope will lend a feeling of community and shared history to the player characters. I think this is especially important to a far future postapocalyptic setting, which can sometimes be more difficult to visualize and relate to than more popular genres. I know it was one of the factors that dissuaded me from running Gamma World when I was a lad, despite a great desire to do so. Thankfully, I've learned how to surmount that inhibition.

I would very much like to run the new edition of Knave for some friends. I'm not sure who, where, or when, but I would like to try it as soon as possible.

I really need to get back on the phantom steed of running Ghostbusters. I can't remember when our last session was, but I really miss the wacky looseness of it. And I must run Teenagers from Outer Space! Either (or both) of these might be a good project for Halloween.

What games are you running, playing, or planning?

Blogs... in... Space!!!

I would like to thank everyone who left a comment on the previous article, "In Space, Can Anyone Hear You Blog?" Blogger provides no method of conveying approval short of comments, so I appreciate each and every one of them. For a brief time, Blogger incorporated the "+1" function familiar to Google+ users. It was similar to the "Like" and "Heart" of other social media platforms. It may not have offered the personal touch of a comment, but at least one knew that someone, somewhere, had read the article and enjoyed it enough to share that fact. Meanwhile, tracking the "views" on Blogger is pointless due to its inaccuracy. (Would you believe this blog occasionally has more readers in Singapore than in the United States? Neither do I.) Being added to blogrolls is helpful, but with more readers resorting to feeds, it isn't as helpful as it used to be. Unless I start a Patreon (and I know my blogs are not popular enough for that), the only way I can gauge whether anyone is reading anything I write is when I see the occasional comment. Towards that end, if it makes it easier, you are welcome to comment anonymously and just leave a "!" or an emoticon or a meme on any article in any of my blogs. I don't know if other bloggers would consider it annoying, but any kind of positive comment motivates me to keep blogging. Please consider it. Maybe, someday, it could become a universal method of encouraging bloggers everywhere.

That's all for today. Tomorrow, I shall blog again.

Be seeing you...

In Space, Can Anyone Hear You Blog?

Are you a person? Do you read this blog? If you are and you do, please leave a comment below. I am just trying to get an idea of how many actual readers this blog has. Applied Phantasticality gets a few thousand hits a month, but I have a difficult time believing most of them are not from bots. So, if you actually read this blog on occasion and you are not a bot, please leave a comment below. Feel free to do it anonymously if you prefer. And state your country, too, if you wish. It would be interesting to know where my readers are. All I really need are the numbers, so if you just want to indicate that you read this blog, simply type an exclamation point in the comments. I'll start.

N.B. All comments are moderated to prevent spam, but please do not let that dissuade you.

P.S. If you are a reader, thank you. If you leave a comment, thank you. Sometimes it's hard to find motivation in the silence of blogspace, and knowing one has actual readers means a great deal.

RPGaDay 2024: Day 31

31. Game you miss

The role-playing game I miss GMing and playing the most is Stormbringer 1st edition.

And that is the end of this year's #RPGaDay.

Be seeing you...

[For more information on #RPGaDay (or #RPGaDay2024 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDay 2024: Day 30

30. Person[s] you'd like to game with

I've answered versions of this question before, but this time, I would like to game at the Canadians' table:

• Brent Butt
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee
• Rakhee Morzaria
• Andrew Phung
• Nancy Robertson
• Sugith Varughese

[For more information on #RPGaDay (or #RPGaDay2024 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDay 2024: Day 29

29. Awesome app

The answer to this prompt is The Crawler's Companion (for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and Mutant Crawl Classics RPG) from Purple Sorcerer Games. I highly recommend both the app and the HTML version.

[For more information on #RPGaDay (or #RPGaDay2024 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDay 2024: Day 28

28. Great gamer gadget

Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary defines "gadget" thusly:

gadget

an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty

Based on that definition, "great gamer gadget" is clearly a dice tower. Do I use one? No. Do I think they are amusing? Yes. Would I use one if I had one? Yes, if a) it was sufficiently amusing and b) my players can't keep their dice on the table otherwise. Personally, I prefer dice trays and dice cups, but dice towers are fine, too.

I think it would be fun if there were competitions to create the most interesting dice towers—elaborate Rube Goldbergian contraptions just to roll dice. And then OK Go could incorporate the entries into a music video. It seems like the universe would want this to happen.

[For more information on #RPGaDay (or #RPGaDay2024 specifically), read this.]