~continued
After reading a bit more into the free PDF from WOTC, where they reference the Player’s Handbook (PHB) pages in the text more frequently, it occurred to me that what I was missing the point that the PHB and Dungeons Master’s guide (DMG) aren’t really intended to be read from front to back so much as danced around when a new term comes into play. This technique of flipping to the Table of Contents to find the explanation of the terms really expedited the learning curve and saved me from getting lost in not understanding the terms or the mechanics behind them at first mention.

So, now I was getting through mechanics and moving along, really getting warmed up to see it in action. I found a short video online with a fella who walks you through the basic character creation process. It really helps to watch this video after you have done some of the reading in the PHB to hear the terms and see a little bit of the mechanics. This has now made about 75% of the game suddenly come into focus. I am confident that I could sit in at a table right now and game with ease, and perhaps even run a game as a GM.

Many of connections are made when you see someone create a character. I.E. Ah, that section after this one, oh THAT’s how I use that skills column etc.

Today some more delving will happen into the PHB and I will be moving on to the DMG before long. My Monster Manual is in the mail from Amazon as I type this, and things will be in full speed to getting to a 5E mod, and possibly even a Kickstarter with Minis!

Things I have come to enjoy:

• Character backgrounds
• Positive number AC (I thought I was going to hate it)
• The whole DC (Difficulty Challenge) thing. The system almost runs on this, and it works.
• Resting – I expected to hate this. Putting too much healing power into the hands of all players – I have come to accept that it actually make CLerics fun again. You don’t just walk around handing out hundreds of ‘Cure Light Wounds’ spells anymore. You become more useful actually.
• Number streamlining. One chart for Experience points! One chart / method for stats +/-. Saving throws, Attacks, Ability checks – all work about the same way

I still have reservations about death, and the prolonged process of rolls that happens when ending the life of a character. I haven’t delved too deeply into the section yet, so perhaps I am not fully understanding it. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may house rule it out, and keep to the short negative number rule.

Also – Still don’t like halflings with little tiny feet.

Stay tuned for my journey to learn 5E part 3.

~Lloyd M

The post Personal Journey to 5E (Part 2) appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Need Holiday Cards for Gamers?

It’s that time of year! you go to the greeting card isle and there is every Hallmark cliche’ and nothing for the gamer you love!

At FailSquadGames and Lloyd Metcalf Inc. that problem is SOLVED! Not only can you grab Santa vs the White Dragon Postcards, but “The Giant Holiday” greeting cards.

On Sale Now!

Santa vs the white dragon post cards are 10 for $10.00 that’s $1 each when you buy the 10 pack bundle! The Giant Holiday cards are 5 for $10, just $2 each!

Click here to shop cards NOW!

Not good enough for your elite tabletop RPG gamer? 

Have no fear!! Send them more than a greeting card, send them a
First Edition / OSRIC RPG ADVENTURE in greeting card form!

MicroQuest Cards

Normally $3.00 each, now you can get ALL 6 adventures for $15!

These cards feature hours of adventure squeezed into all 4 panels, front and back of each card. New monsters, new magical items, new adventures!

Don’t muck up greeting cards with sentiment and poems no one reads!! Send ADVENTURE!!

SHOP NOW for the RPG Gamers in your life! 

The post Holiday Greeting Card Special appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

It’s time to wake up! We’ve stopped gaming the what if world! What happened?
Being a grown up, that’s what happened!

There is a reason we reach for nostalgia and old school RPGs. Red Box, Chainmail, Moldvay, AD&D. It’s because when we were kids WE WERE DOING IT RIGHT and it had NOTHING to do with editions. Often edition wars spring up and people blame editions as the reason that games don’t hold the same wonder they did as when they were young. I am calling BS on this.

When we were kids we would be completely absorbed into the heart our characters. We could feel the cold steel of the sword in our hands, the ire for the orcs in the vale! We were our heroes in the game! We often cobbled together pieces of the box sets,  ad&d, later 2E, GURPS, and whatever other tid bit we could beg our parents to buy and we mashed it in there, none of the rule sets mattered. We couldn’t wait for school to let out so we could gather up at one of our friends houses and bring our heroes to greater glory and power. Even the DM didn’t know what would happen next!

Everyone over 20 can stand around and tell a story about the best, most legendary character they ever played and how EPIC it was! There is at least one, if not many in each gamers vivid memory.

Why?

Why were those characters in our youth so epic? So memorable? So vivid? What made the sights, sounds, smells, and glory of victory so much clearer in our youth? Even young people playing the newer versions of the game today, like 5E or Pathfinder, have eyes that are glazed over at the table. They aren’t seeing graph paper, pencils and dice, they are seeing orcs, heroes, and dungeon walls. It really is a certain ‘look’ that cannot be described. Yes, they are seeing what’s in front of them, but they aren’t ‘seeing’ this world, they are in that magical place. It’s the place where heroes are made.

The closer we get to our 30’s the more that magical place fades, in your 40’s it fades even more. We recant the tales of those old characters of our youth still, and continue to game hoping to recapture that feeling and that vivid release from this world as we peer into another. Even if you are still gaming frequently, those old characters pop back into the game as NPCs. Heck, even as I am writing my newest adventure for publishing, I am writing in an old character into the story line.

When worlds collide

In one game in my youth the party was deep in a dungeon and some wizards were manipulating powerful magic. The party peered carefully into a portal. Through that portal they saw four teenage boys sitting at a table in a rec center. They had a number of papers, dice, pencils around them. Our heroes had found a portal to where we were gaming. When they made the decision to step through the portal into the room with the young boys, there was a long and uncomfortable pause. The two worlds had just collided and we weren’t completely sure that our heroes wouldn’t materialize in the room next to the table. I later discovered that this had happened to a number of other gaming groups at least once.

Adulting too much

One day in my forties, I realized something was really wrong when I had a character to fifth level at the gaming table with my friends and we didn’t even know the names of the characters we were playing. Leveling up was gaining more power, but we had some sort of disconnect. Nothing was vivid, the vacant glaze never really came over our eyes that meant we were leaving this world out of focus and peering into the game world. This was by no means the fault of our Game Master, it must be our own fault. It really was the fault of being adults.

When we were young, the quest set up and story lines were much weaker and less involved. Our grasp of the mechanics was flimsy and often made up on the spot. Descriptions were awkward and often limited by our experience and vocabulary. Dungeons usually made little sense in layout or how the creatures might live or interact with one another. So why was it “better”? Sometimes we can point to insane ability scores, or super magical artifacts, but those didn’t completely make up the character. When we discussed the character outside of gaming, we knew how they would react to various situations, things they might say or do in any scenario. Sometimes we could talk at lunch during school and come away feeling as if a game had just happened.

Player1: “I want to know what Fafnir found out at the blacksmith.”
DM: “Well, the smith decides that those daggers were made of some sturdy metal charged with magic. He offers you 40GP each.”
Player2: “No way smith!! You don’t see these every day!”

In my forties looking around at my friends gaming, I realized that we weren’t really sure how our characters would react to situations. We reacted as expected within the confines of the game mechanics – “Attack” “Flee” “Talk to the barmaid”.

I was instantly reminded of the old cartoon where D&D characters were playing papers and paychecks. Damned if we hadn’t played so much Papers and Paychecks as adults, that we had lost touch with our inner “What if” that most kids have. We had also lost touch with our practiced ability to slip in and out of the worlds of our imagination.

If you are unaware of the “What if” factor, listen in on a couple of young children role playing with dolls, cars, or toys. Eventually the two will start a conversation that goes like this:

Child 1 “What if Barbie was up here on the bed”
Child 2 “Ok but what if she was also driving the firetruck.”
Child 1 “Yeah, and what if the Lego guy needed her help!”

The barrier or gap for children to hit this “What if” world is very narrow. It’s a muscle they use all the time, every day. It can be tested out any time. Ask any seven year old a what if question, such as, “Hey, what if Spiderman had race cars for feet?”

There will likely be little or no pause before an answer will come along relevant to this little pocket reality you just created. If you ask an adult the same question, it will take time as they cross the now wide divide to the “What if” world.

Some adults answer in a strained sort of way that is painfully obvious that they are trying to be creative but they aren’t there. Others will outright refuse to take the trip and look at you like you are an idiot for suggesting such a thing. Even those close to “What if” land have to stop “Adulting” for a second to hop the divide to think of what would happen if Spiderman had cars for feet.

There is nothing wrong with this, it just is what it is. As adults in modern society we need to get to work on time, pay bills, get the kids off to school. We have to play Papers and Paychecks every day. It can ruin your tabletop RPG experience, and keep you yearning for those old school days. It doesn’t HAVE to be this way though.

Next time you sit down to game, try crossing the divide into “What if” land before you start to game. Some ways to help shrink that divide could be to

• Spend a few minutes asking what if’s related to the game “What if Ragnor fell in love with a goblin?”
• Place tent cards in front of each player with character name and profession.
• Use character names when talking to one another in game. It activates roleplay immediately.
• Discuss the world and general situation the party is in before everyone sits down to game.
• Make a private Facebook (or other) group and post snippets of what the characters are thinking. Make this that lunch time paperless play you used to do as a kid.
• Add occasional opportunities for character description and customization. (Many of those old characters had unique weapons, armor, mounts)
• Open up opportunity for players to type out descriptions of unique items in the social media group. Let everyone get intimate with what makes their character unique.

Any activity that the group can do to close that gap to the “What if” world will stand to increase the quality of the game at hand.

We ourselves have ruined that old school gaming feel, simply by growing up. Allow yourself the opportunity to recapture those epic old days by warming up your “What if” muscles and letting this world slip away as you embrace the one in your game.

Take a moment to think about feeling your character’s hand grip their weapon.
What is that grip like?
What makes up the handle?
How does that weapon feel today as you sit down to the table?
What is worrying your hero?
Why are they here?
What is the weather and how do they feel?
What do they smell as the game begins?
What are the sounds of where they are as you open up your dice?

Let your mind drift across to the “What if” before you start.

May this game be epic!

~Lloyd Metcalf

Visit the Fail Squad Games Online store by clicking HERE
If you found this article useful, interesting, or irritating please share, comment and re-post

We do get paid for ad clicks – so have fun with giving us ad dollars from corporate giants by clicking ads on this site

The post What Happened to RPGs? appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

(Available in just a few days!)

That’s right, we are only a few days away from this being available for purchase! The first OFFICIAL FailSquad adventure module.

Written by Christopher Clark (Eldritch Ent and Innercity Games)
Edited by Brenda Clark,James M. Ward (Eldritch Ent.), Lloyd Metcalf
Illustration, layout and production – Lloyd Metcalf (Fail Squad Games)

From the back:

Several months ago, human settlers discovered a marsh-covered valley which they knew would provide fertile cropland if only the marsh could be drained.
The settlers dammed the river and may have damned themselves! The diverted river has awoken the cliffs themselves.
Strange rumblings in the earth and smoke from the cliff-tops are sure signs of trouble.
The residents of Fertile Valley need some heroes, can you save Fertile Valley before it’s too late?

It has been my pleasure, honor and joy to work with Chris on this project and I look forward to pulling the trigger shortly to allow orders to begin. There are a few scant illustrations laft to pop in, some minor tweaking, and a little testing to be sure everything is 100%.
I am hopeful that orders can start when July does.
:)

~Lloyd M

The post Those Dam Goblins! Ready to order soon! appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Those Dam Goblins!

A swamp in a green lush valley is home for some, but it’s opportunity for industrious humans. Damming up the source of the water and diverting flow through some old caves to dry out the land has left some of the best agricultural land anywhere! The town of Fertile Plain sprang up as soon as the first harvest rolled in from the fields.

The cliffs at the dam have begun smoking during the day, something isn’t right. The balance of life itself in Fertile Plain is suddenly in the hands of a few fearless heroes. A hundred lives hinge on what you do next. 

Chris has dubbed this “A short dungeon crawl” but it isn’t your classic room-monster-treasure by any means. This is an interconnected adventure with a LOT of potential for fun, future quests, and potential frequent failure.

Those Dam Goblins is now in the Illustration phase, and it will need some wiggling in layout as the artwork falls in place. As it stands we are looking at approximately 24 full size (8.5×11) pages of adventure.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be getting this project nailed down and produced.

THE FIRST EVER Fail Squad Games Module produced, bound and delivered from the studio.

The post Those Dam Goblins – In the works appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

The cover art is done for Ogres of the Fen and Cover Layout nearing completion. A good deal of writing remains, maps, and of course… a good tunnel crawl. :)

Check the cover out to whet your appetite, and you can read a bit about the intro here.

Coming soon from Fail Squad Games – Ogres of the Fen!

The post Sneak Peek at Ogres appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Ogres of the Fen

The tribe of Gaundelfen ogres have long lived among a stand of trees in a large fen near the village of Lorview. The land was too wet to farm or cultivate. The villagers have kept their distance and the ogres have kept their focus south of the fen skirmishing with goblin platoons.

Some miles to the south of the ogre fen, a large band of goblins have been mining silver in the hills and terrorizing the mountain range for as many as ten years. The ogres maintained a balance and an odd sense of protection between the unpredictable goblin horde and the human settlement. An almost symbiotic relationship had emerged from the situation. The residents of Lorview began to take solace in the fact that their southern border was protected when they heard the heavy ogre drumming on the new moon.

Recently the ogres have been knocking at the door of Lorview. One by one the farmsteads are being raided and taken over by ogres. Who will stop this plague and find out why the ogres have come to Lorview? What can possibly be happening in the fen when ogres come screaming out of the night terrified from their own marsh?

This adventure and ‘Those Dam Goblins’ from Chris Clark are neck and neck in a race to be the first from our in-studio production equipment.

Last Call Oliviah is still in the works and progressing quickly Keep your eyes on the site here for updates!

The post Ogres of the Fen appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Those Dam Goblins!

Classic game creator Chris Clark has agreed to team up with us to create an old school adventure module! Chris will be writing the meat and potatoes of this adventure and we will be handling the illustration, layout and production.

We are very humbled at the opportunity to work with such a well known and experienced gamer. What a great start for the Fail Squad Games family endeavor!

More details to come as things progress.

Check out the Eldritch Entertainment site to see what other projects they have brewing!

The post Those Dam Goblins! appeared first on Fail Squad Games.