When I first launched this idea for “Quick Kick” projects on Kickstarter with Falls Keep, I wasn’t sure if it was an idea that would stick. My intent was just to push out short adventures that were just a few pages and gave game masters some tools to have in their GMing box. I kept getting these fun ideas for short adventures that weren’t really enough for print, but more than just a Drivethru creation.

Quick Kick Projects

This is the second of Fail Squad Games’ series of “Quick Kick” projects which are super short, Kickstarter projects that cost just a few bucks to back and deliver short Sidequests in PDF form only.  The goal is for each adventure to be about one session long, 8-12 pages in length, and easy to pick up and run for the unprepared GM. Each adventure will be full color, and internally hyperlinked with an interactive PDF.

I have yet to wrangle one of these to under pages, but we’ll get there. No one complains when they get more than promised.

New Artwork

I commissioned my the skilled Raven Winter Metcalf to produce the art for this adventure. It was our goal to change the look and feel of the entire project from our usual ‘serious’ feel. This adventure is inspired by a musical piece “Curse of Milhaven” and we wanted the illustrations to reflect the theme, but carry a Burtonesque feel. In the end we landed on a project with a wonderful look and I couldn’t be happier with the departure.

The Future

The future of “Quick Kick” projects looks bright and we have many more lined up with new authors getting into the queue. For those asking, yes, eventually we may look at printing on paper, but for now, these are PDF only and add to the simplicity of the project when it comes to delivery.

Lorview

The town of Lorview has seen numerous struggles from Fail Squad Adventures and Whisper in the Crags adds a sweet full-page upgraded map of the area. from the Kickstarter page: 

When the winds blow in from the east at just the right angle, the Whispering Crags north of Lorview howl and moan, giving rise to dark superstition and legends. Little Lottie Fisher has a secret friend who knows more than most about the crags.  That strange little girl, drawing her pictures and talking to the dark.

  “Lottie has a wanderlust,” her mother Rasel Fisher often says. “Even as a babe on the road, she wandered off for two days into the forest alone. She’s a blessing and a handful.”

What dark secret await the heroes in the city of Lorview this time? 

Want to get in the loop to be notified first when a Quick Kick launches? Join the Fail Squad Games Guild NOW!

If you’re reading this and it’s January 3rd 2019 or earlier – Back Whisper in the Crags NOW! 
Follow me on Kickstarter to get pinged about new projects as well.

Fail Squad Games is just getting traction and with each release we improve. Thank you for your support, backing, and sharing a love of this hobby that has enriched the world.

~Lloyd Metcalf
Fail Squad Games CEO

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I love electronic gadgets, tablets, and laptops, and they are handy for gaming. Searchable PDFs of modules, supplements, rule books, the E-version of RPG books are everywhere and usually quite a bit cheaper than the print version. It seems like a no-brainer to bring them to the table. Does this mean print books are becoming obsolete?

I sometimes feel like I should lead the charge in the switch to digital media for gaming. I have a degree in communications / new media, I write in Word, Layout, illustrate, and design in the adobe suite. All of our products from Fail Squad Games are in digital format. However, when I sit down at the table to game and see devices come out I start to lose the magic. Even tablets that I KNOW are there with character sheets and game rule books on them show up and I feel… kind of funny. In fact, I like having my laptop handy for maps. I can’t deny the usefulness of these tools. After about 10 minutes, I start to realize that this makes me feel awkward too.

There is some essence about the game of Dungeons & Dragons (and the variants of it) that resides in books, paper, and pencils.

What is it?

I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly. Newer players to the hobby don’t seem as inclined to feel it, but it’s different. I feel that when a player is looking up a rule or spell in a book, they still hear what’s going on and what’s being said. When it’s being looked up on a device, I personally feel like the table is being shut out. Even if someone tells me it’s not true, I feel like it is.

Is it just nostalgia that keeps me stuck to the idea of the feel of books? The sound of turning pages and dragging a finger across the words to find that spell – A piece of the game lives in that for me. Am I just a stodgy old fart resisting change?

My trouble with PDF

I personally struggle to read PDFs. I don’t like that sitting at my computer staring at a screen. They fit uncomfortably on a tablet, requiring me to scroll side to side. Even when reading on a tablet with a PDF that fits, I tend to put my feet up, squirm around, accidentally touch the screen or the power button, or get distracted by a comment on Facebook or Twitter. A piece of the game, even when I’m on my own time, is captured between the printed pages. Adventure and inspiration builds up in the air between pages. When I flip them open, I can SMELL it!! Sometimes it’s elven forests, sometimes it’s an otyugh – depends where I’m reading.

Even when I am writing adventures, I sit at my desk with MSWord open. My outline, rough maps, and mechanics books (Rules cyclopedia, AD&D, Labyrinth Lord) are in print. I know I can download and search them in pdf, and I lose the excitement of designing an adventure if I do.

While slowly learning Roll20 and preparing to run adventures there, I think I will continue to keep my books in my hand. Will it satisfy the itch that can only be scratched at a table?

The smell of chips, the fizz of soda, the side jokes, breaks where you talk about what’s happened. A piece of this hobby is certainly physical and I think that printed books will not go out as fast as phone books and Ma-Bell booths.

The post Are print products like the phone book now? appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Is a Dungeons and Dragons renaissance REALLY a mystery? Perhaps it’s not a mystery to the millions of fans who have been playing it since the late seventies. Here is my personal, only lightly researched, arm-chair take on D&D’s comeback. Feel free to disagree below.

Got you hooked!

The game was very popular in the 80’s and hooked many of us (Gamers) in our youth. The “satanic panic” drew some of us in deeper as a form of defiance. If you live under a rock, the Satanic Panic in Dungeons and Dragons culture happened in the 80’s when religious zealots who didn’t understand the game, thought it was a gateway to Satanic culture or dark magic.

The following is not meant to cite and edition war, but it’s how I saw things unfold from my chair.

Second edition

AD&D 2E kept us playing, families were emerging for gamers and business slowed. TSR was struggling to get by and they were the kings of the business at the time. It was still a fun game and 2E to 1E conversion could happen on the fly. Dice were still rolling, even if sales in Lake Geneva were not.

Third edition

WOTC bought TSR, which means it was about to be owned by Hasbro. They quickly came up with a way to make some cheddar for the floundering brand and released a hasty third edition. Gamers started dropping off of sales records, but we were still trading and playing 2E. Pop culture was resisting the nerd embrace during the 90’s still. They wanted edgy, swearing, dirty cartoons with impossibly muscled, machine gun-toting, machismo, scruffy, characters (includes women).

Gen con was till happening though, and the game was still getting played.

Around this time the  OGL appeared. Things changed for independent writers and producers. There was traction for the general idea of RPGs as a whole to grow outside the borders of Hasbro and WOTC.

Recent times

In more recent times, the Lord of the Rings franchise emerged, new Star Wars movies, Magic the Gathering, Game of Thrones, and multitude of other pop culture shows that highlight either Dungeons and Dragons ‘feel’ or glorify nerd culture. Not missing a beat, Hasbro picked up the pieces of some mostly flopped systems and generated a gaming system pulled directly from message boards and house-rules of the game. They wasted no time in labeling it “Dungeons and Dragons”. It was the rebirth of the nerd culture and the label promising a new game while inspiring nostalgia that took hold.

It’s not a mystery, it’s not “Uncanny”. Gamers have always been here, gaming. Pop culture and Hollywood went from giving nerds wedgies to calling them sexy (FINALLY). The world is finally catching up with the idea that these things (D&D, Star Trek, Star Wars) are fun, well done, and entertaining. Dungeons and Dragons has long been the social thread that tied us all together around nerd culture. We could go to a Star Trek gathering and be sure everyone knew what a level 8 Minotaur Barbarian was.

My answer to the New Yorker, who is now trying to hop on our band wagon (and they are welcome to come roll dice), is that it’s not “uncanny” or a “mystery”. Hollywood decided we were now ‘cool’ and shined a light on some great things you all thought were beneath you, childish, and for nerds. Now you want to be cool too and talk about Dungeons and Dragons. You are like the popular girl in those 80’s movies like ‘Goonies’. Too aloof of us until it was cool. Well, like true outcasts of the movies, even though you burned us hard back there, come and play some D&D now.

———-addendum———-

New Yorker editors. it’s “D&D”, “D & D”,  or Dungeons & Dragons. Not D. & D.
Thanks…

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Ranger Archetype: Scout

The scout archetype takes favored terrain to a whole new level. All ranger’s gain the favored terrain ability, However, the Scout becomes a true master of their chosen terrain learning to use it for deadly advantage. Other rangers might focus on fighting or working with animals, the Scout focuses on mobility and stealth.

• Master of their Environment – At 3rd level your favored terrain abilities improve as follows.
  – When traveling alone you may move stealthily at a fast rate
  – Stealth and Perception checks are with advantage even when traveling at a fast rate.
  – You gain a new favored terrain at 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level
• Set Ambush – At 7th level, you gain the ability to establish an ambush. When you establish and ambush, you gain one round of free actions before anyone else rolls initiative. Once you use your ambush combat returns to normal. To establish an ambush you must be alone and hidden. Establishing an ambush requires a minimum of two rounds of preparation.
• Running Fight – At 9th Level when you are fighting in one of your favored terrains you may double move as a single action. You may only do this once per an encounter.
• Improved Ambush – At 13th level your ability to ambush enemies improve. When you establish an ambush you gain two rounds of free actions before anyone else rolls initiative. To establish and Improved Ambush you must be alone and hidden. This action requires one round to establish the conditions for the ambush.
• Teamwork – At 17th level your group can establish an ambush with you. The entire group uses your stealth roll to hide. While you still are allowed two free rounds of actions, everyone else is only allowed one.

As mentioned above, feel free to give this a bit of a play test. I think it’s balanced but I might be wrong and would like to know if I am. Until next time Happy Gaming.

Ric :)

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Fosc Anansi

Shadow of the Spider Goddess

is then next adventure module from Fail Squad Games that is going to print with the help of backers like you through Kickstarter!

This will be the first Hardback from Fail Squad Games available to the public!

Silent crawlers with a venomous bite. Web spinners, creating sticky, beautiful homes that double as deadly traps. Nature’s most artistic killers.

What fools would grow these tiny killing machines into the size of ponies or even larger?

Gnomes! Opportunistic dark gnomes, looking for profit, who stumbled upon an inter-dimensional substance—experimental, yet undoubtedly powerful.

Then something came creeping down the strand that connected the spiders to the inter-dimensional world, a shadow—the Shadow of the Spider Goddess!

Back it NOW!

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“Save or Die” used to suck

In all the previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons “Save or Die” was this thing that many DMs avoided. That is, unless they were just tired of the characters at the table. It just felt overly brutal to make a player roll one dice and go from 100% to absolutely done!

That’s what it was back in the day, literally save or die. Along came resurrection and that softened the blow, but you had to rely on the rest of your party to carry your corpse back to a temple, spend all your money, come back with less con (It was just an ordeal). A phase spider could really interrupt the entire night’s game.

Along came 5E

I’m not living in the 5E world and I still prefer older versions of Dungeons & Dragons. I recently came across a really nice feature of 5E for DMs. Save or Die!

My latest bit of writing involved a giant Black Widow Spider (2ft. across) hiding in an privy pit. Her venom needed to be deadly, and I could just pop in “Save VS CON DC16 or DIE”. Now I am able to take the thing I didn’t like about 5E (Death saving throws) and make them work to my advantage.

Now we can say save or die, but what we mean is save or  “Go to zero HP and start your death saving throws.” I understand this is the kind DM version. Save or die can still mean save or die!  This kinder version does continue to make deadly things quite deadly, but doesn’t let the life of your character rest on one roll that might only have a 30% chance of success.

I would like to put my brain to this to find a good way to do a similar house rule in 1E or 2E for Save or Die creatures. What have you done in your games to avoid the cold “Save or Die” phrase?

The post Save or Die – Something I like about 5E appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Like Curse of the White Mine, I felt an obligation to find stretch goals and other things, but also like the Curse of the White Mine, I wanted to Keep it simple so delivery wouldn’t get complicated.

A lot of work went into turning The Bogey of Swindle into a full size module and 5E from an OSRIC digest one-sitting mod. The adventure is completely fresh and barely recognizable. A number of new characters have been added, the boss re-imagined, and no stone left unturned, then many new ones added in for good measure.

When I brought Curse of the White Mine to conventions, a lot of people were telling me they missed the old fashion AD&D module feel. They weren’t keen on the full color page splashes and the fancy things I thought were “neat”. The gamers who did like the full color layout, could have gone either way really.
As an old-school guy who really enjoys the nostalgia, I get it, I really do. I wanted to bring that old school feel to this adventure, but produce a 5E quest for the Old School DMs who were playing 5E. All but a couple of illustrations were done by me in old fashion pen and ink on paper. Maps included.

This module is complete and ready to go to print. I hope you consider supporting the Old School feel in the Emperor’s new clothes (5E) and let the world know that OSR can also be alive in 5E.

~Lloyd M

Click here to BACK NOW (Ends July 16th)

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Against my budget’s better judgement I freed up $65 bucks or so and ordered the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Master Guide. I decided to wait on the Monster Manual until I got through reading these first two.

I thought the logical progression would be to read the PLayer handbook (PHB) then the Dungeon Master Guide (DMG) in order. Throughout Dungeons and Dragon’s history this has been the progression to learn the game, it’s mechanics and intent.

I dove straight into the PHB eager to learn the new rules with an open mind. As I blasted through the first couple of chapters I quickly started becoming a fan. The system was streamlined, it grabbed on to some of the most common house rules and applied them (I.E. Maximum HP at first level and others). I was getting more eager than a beaver on woodcutter’s day!

I got to the section on classes and everything started to fall apart. As you go through the details of classes many game mechanics get referenced that have not been explained. Skills, skill checks and other mysterious abilities not completely covered are talked about as if they are ‘old hat’.

I quickly unraveled and was no longer able to follow the text by the time I got the the cleric class. The spell caster class has a number of abilities and game mechanic essentials that is discussed, but has not been explained prior to the entry.

It got confusing, and I put the book down for a few hours to re-group. I know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but this is a problem with editing and organization of the product. If it lost me, a BECMI/1E/2E convert eager to get on board and familiar with other systems, what is happening to younger readers new to the hobby?

I believe WOTC’s (Wizards of the Coast) mistake in these books is that everyone has gone through the starter set completely. Not a wise assumption. Prior to the classes section the writing is presented as if you might be new to the game.

I thought perhaps my mistake was not going through the DMG first. perhaps game mechanics are made more clear there, perhaps that should have been my first reading. No, in the beginning of the DMG is instructs you to not read through until you are familiar with the game mechanics.

At this point, I am not sure where to go to find the game mechanics. They were grazed early in the PHB, but nor explained thoroughly. I kept hoping to see charts that summed up the functions, but they aren’t there. Perhaps charts aren’t required, but the sections of the mechanics, do need a brief summary of what it does, or a reference to the page where it is discussed in detail.

In frustration I have set the books down, and will go back to read through their free PDF starter rules. Which, I don’t think should be required when you buy the books to learn the system.

I will expand more on my thoughts on the system as I read through and figure things out. Right now – I am sure that I will be a big fan of this system. I do REALLY like the mechanics that I have read so far. Stat +/- are the same for all stats, the DC thing for DM’s will be much easier, character sheets seem simple and more.

I AM looking sternly at the editing and layout team though for discussing mechanics in the text without explaining those mechanics first or referencing their explanation in the text.

I am now off to peruse the basic instructions more, which I suspect may be just the first couple of chapters in the PHB and not clarify all the mechanics.

I believe OSR and 1E gamers could enjoy the system though, as mentioned it does things we have been home-ruling for ages. Cleric spells are not really ‘memorized’ and more.

**** EDIT**** addition

It would seem the way to use the book is what may be missing. The PHB seems to read better if you use the *Contents* section while reading to bounce around and clarify things.

While this DOES help get through it all, I have to say, I am still a fane of Frank Mentzer’s beginning text in the red box that begins, “Start here.”

The post 5E First impressions 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

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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.

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