Good News about Flashing Blades

Just heard from a friend two very fine pieces of news about Flashing Blades (a game I have desperately wanted to play after a half year in an En Garde play-by-post)  from the game's author Mark Pettigrew. 

As some may know that game has been in a legal limbo for a very long time. Though its original publisher, FGU, brought the game back into print, much like Villains & Vigilantes the creators had neither received royalties nor control back over their games. That changed last week with Jeff Dee and Jack Herman regaining their rights with this resounding victory. 

And now we learn from Pettigrew:

"FGU already agrees that I own the rights to Flashing Blades. I'm even receiving (very small) royalties checks again, after a 20-some year hiatus. I think I mentioned this before, but again, all of you are free to write, publish, etc. whatever you want for FB without worrying about copyright. I'm happy that people are still enjoying the game."

That's a real two-fer: a win for the designer and a refreshing "open source" direction for the game. Perhaps time to move this up on the "games I can run finally" Google-plus queue?

The Hill Cantons Wilderness Crawl

Spring Break has my fantasy creative writing class all canceled, so I am going to play hooky and run the beginnings of a new mini-campaign tomorrow.

Particulars
1. New characters to be rolled as per the HC Compendium and the draft version of Live Weird or Die.

2. Each session will have to end back in town or at a "save point" (a safe, habitable spot in the wilds that I will indicate as you discover them). New sessions can begin at any of the locales a PC ends at.

3. It's all about the blank hex map. In fact you will have a standing (paying) commission to survey and explore the land. Following up on your own personal El Dorados and the like of course is encouraged.

4. The action will take place just off the eastern border of the Overkingdom (to the north and east of the Hill Cantons proper), so expect some tie-in and recycling from the campaign.

Background Whoha

Countless centuries of gavelkind succession laws have cranked up the fractionalizing, autarkic, hair-splitting pettiness—so typical of life in places with a foot in the Weird--to a feverish pitch in the Translittoral Canton of Hoimatbuch. That chilly, windy easternmost bastion of the Overkingdom is further plagued by a strangely-virile nobility creating a maddening over-proliferation of hyphen-crazy micro-fiefdoms as each holding is divided equally among the male children of each line.

Matters have come to what seems a breaking point with the death of the Vastvoj the Viscous, the Wildgraf of Velky Hoimatbuch-Voka-Untmuntschaifen--at least in the mind of Jakov XXXIV the newly-anointed Sub-Wildgraf of Velky Hoimatbuch-Voka-Untmuntschaifen-Ujzed, a lordly domain comprised of a single blood-apricot orchard, giant-bat pasturage/fertilizer lot (shared with his brother-lord) and a decrepit hunting lodge located near the dread Pass of Sighs.

The rakish Jakov, known for his scandalous and calculatedly provocative views while at college in Marlankh, has a decidely more ambitious plan for avoiding the slow, slumbering idiocy of declining rural gentry life—expansion and exploration of the Weird beyond the Pass. He has put out a call for the usual rough and tumble sort of freebooters, border ruffians, sybarites, raving heretics and others to map and survey the wilderness to the east.

Jakov offers the following:

• 30 gold suns for each hexagonally-organized 21.6 square mile area unit of land--quaintly referred to as “five mile hexes” by laymen—accurately mapped.
• 100 suns for each settlement of sentient (preferably exploitable) life found. (Generous bonuses for maps of said sites to be paid according to detail.)
• A variable bounty for sites of “particular, unusual interest”.
• Use of his paid-up membership in the local hiring hall of Golden Guild of Condotierre, Linkboys, Roustabouts, and Stevedores located in the nearby town of Velky Hoimatbuch.
• Room and board when you are back in the Lodge.

Scale is 5 miles to a hex. Click to Enlarge.

Hireling offerings for the Guild (contract period for one session only):

Men-At-Arms (20 golds suns rate)

Kracki the Hooded One, 3 hp, Half-Plate (AC:5), pike, nunchucks. Laughs at all your jokes.

Brown Tomas, former indentured servant, arquebus (only works in Corelands), studded leather, morion helmet, scimitar. Stands in your personal space.

Arsus of Ultima, 5 hp, loincloth, bear hat, spear. Has no tongue, smells like ass.

Mohag the Wanderer, 3 hp. Studded leather, quarterstaff, elaborate great helm. Has never left town.

Underlings (10 gold suns rate)

Pavol, 2 hp, claims to be a duly-elected “Master Torchbearer”, will carry two light sources at once, but complains about his back the whole time. Padded armor, dagger.

Craccus, 3 hp dogsbody and professional sycophant. Dagger. Is lying to you now.

Malinka, 4 hp executive assistant. Whip and club. Will get you to the dungeon on time.

Chargen Particulars

1. We are using Laby Lord.

2. No standard demi-humans though all AEC advanced classes are open to humans and all my stupid variant classes are available (see the Appendixes here for that).

2. Roll 4d6 drop the lowest IN ORDER for stats. No swaps or cheating mccheatering.

3. Give yourself 2800 experience points as a signing bonus for indulging me. First hit die is maximum, roll others as normal.

4. 4d6 (drop the lowest) x10 starting gold (called a “sun”).

5. Five-fold alignment is in use. But who cares.  

The Mountebank, Take Three

One great advantage of four years of play in the same campaign is that you get the long-haul perspective on the effect of all your obsessive and ill-considered tinkering under the hood with house rules. Some become overtime Truly Terrible Ideas, others fall by the wayside, a few stand alone golden and untouched.

Most though just need some more applied tinkering. One of the oldest variants in the Hill Cantons Compendium (soon, knock on proverbial wood, to be updated and replaced by Live Weird or Die: The Roustabout's Guide to the Hill Cantons) is the Mountebank and as the Google Plus greys into solidly middle-levels it has become apparent that what worked for lower levels has become a decidely less interesting and capable class choice at middle levels.

(A big special thanks to Robert for the relentless Manzafrain the Mirthful and Jeremy for the much-missed Colonel for their playtesting—and to Evan for his own excellent, recent Vancian-inflected take on the class.)

What follows is a stick-bending of the class that may correct that falling off--or create new ones, that always being the pitfall. All input greatly appreciated.

Mountebank

Requirements: INT 13, DEX 13, CHR 13

Prime Requisite: CHR

Hit Dice: 1d4

Maximum Level: None

The mountebank is the consummate con artist of the medieval-fantasy world. By use of smooth talk, sleight of hand, and magical illusion the mountebank stays one step of the law—and earns a decent living in the mean time. Because of their specialized skill set they are often also employed as spies.

As a sub-class of the thief, they are allowed to wear leather armor and use any weapon. They are also allowed to pick pockets, move silently, hide in shadows, listen at doors, and back stab as per a thief of the equivalent level. They can further use disguises as per the assassin class. All saving and combat throws are made on the thief table.

They are also able to use a new skill, sleight-of-hand, at the level they can pick pocket--plus an additional 15 percent. Sleight of hand allows the mountebank to move, switch out, or otherwise manipulate without being noticed a hand-sized object.

At third and higher levels they begin to be able to use spells from the Illusionist class spell list (pick the version)--their spell assortment however tops out at level 11. New spells are gained by paying—or swindling—resident illusionists.

They are restricted to only using magic items open to thieves until ninth level at which time they can also begin to use items available to illusionists. An exception is for scrolls which they can employ at any level under the following conditions [Thanks to Evan Elkins for use of this paragraph]:

1. To use a scroll the Mountebank successfully they must make a successful saving throw versus magic with a penalty equal to the level of the spell.
2. If the saving throw is failed, the opposite of the intended effect of the spell occurs, usually in a way that is reflected back on the mountebank.
3. A mountebank may also attempt to cast a spell directly from a spellbook, but the spell disappears in the same manner as a scroll.

At ninth level, the mountebank attracts a crew of 2d6 grifters, con-men, and other ne'er do wells (1st level mountebanks) as followers.

Mountebanks cannot be lawful or “good” in alignment.

Beginning at first level, a mountebank can use their smooth fast-talking and arcane powers to create semi-magical effects. All abilities are dependent on the character being able to talk in a language understandable to the target.

Mountebank Special Abilities

Level	Effect	Duration
1	Flim Flam, raises Charisma to 18	1 turn, +1 per level
2	Hustle, lower or raise a price in a commercial transaction by 10-40%	Immediate.
3	Gain Illusionist spells (see below)	N/A
4	Hypnotism, same as Illusionist spell	1 round, +1 per level
5	Manufacture Flash Powder, causes blindness, one batch a day with appropriate materials (150gp)	Immediate

Mountebank Level Progression

Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d4)
0	1	1
1,565	2	2
3,125	3	3
6,251	4	4
12,501	5	5
25,001	6	6
50,001	7	7
100,001	8	8
200,001	9	9
300,001	10	+1 hp only*
400,001	11	+2 hp only *
500,001	12	+3 hp only *
600,001	13	+4 hp only *
700,001	14	+5 hp only *
800,001	15	+6 hp only *
900,001	16	+7 hp only *
1,000,001	17	+8 hp only *
1,100,001	18	+9 hp only *
1,200,001	19	+10 hp only *
1,300,001	20	+11 hp only *

Class	Mountebank Spell Progression
	Illusionist Spell Level
Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
6	3	2	0	0	0	0	0
7	3	2	1	0	0	0	0
8	3	3	2	0	0	0	0
9	4	3	2	1	0	0	0
10	4	3	3	2	0	0	0
11+	4	4	3	2	1	0	0

Pimp Your Stronghold Contest Extension and an Annual News Round-Up

Hearing now my third plea for an extension on this contest from last week, I am officially extending the contest deadline until this Friday. So if you are furiously pimping your own dream manse you can leisurely coast into the finish line.

Also of interest to perhaps a score of you (and then again mostly players in the campaign, I have compiled a 12-page compilation document (with spiffy Ivan Bilibin cover and hex map) of my semi-regular news round ups that time to time find their way from the Hill Cantons Google Plus page to here on the blog. You can download the PDF here if you are interested.  

The Pimp-Your-Own-Stronghold Contest

Many months ago—two years and some change, sweet lord where does the time ago—it popped into (one of many) discussions about domain play that one of the greatest pleasures of that arena back in the hoary day was the pimping out of ever-wilder paper designs of your dream stronghold.

Bombasticus wrote at the time: “For our gang, the tween years--10 to 12--were the developmental 'sweet spot' for this kind of domain creation. There was something hugely appealing about the construction rules at that age and we all spent many hours outfitting hidden valleys, cloud castles, secret undersea lairs.”

Rereading the comment resonated hard with me as it jivved with both my own past attempts at personalized utopias (sideviews, top-down graph papers, free-hand sketches, etc.) and more recently with teaching fantasy worldbuilding to kids of that very age group. 

So when the ever-tangential explosions of conversation that makes up Google Plus ran straight back into discussion of that old joy--strangely around discussion of this real life medieval fortress-city of suburban paranoia, the Citadel Project, and its oddly similar 'cool features' elements like a Firearm Museum with a matching Reflecting Pool (seen here)--my brain immediately went to “it's time for another stupid-ass Hill Cantons contest.”

So here are the particulars:

1. Contest participants will design their dream “fantasy stronghold”. The medium used can vary according to the whim of the participant but should include a visual medium (side-views, floor plans, etc) with some written content of the what the hell is going on.

2. Bonus points for filtering the designs through the twisted lens of one of your player-characters.

3. Bonus brownie (again not required) points for attaching some bonafide, vaguely plausible game justifications consistent with the rules of your choice (crap like budgets for construction, labor force, or whatever).

4. The contest deadline is February 27 (that's a week from today). All entries should be emailed to me at kutalik at the gmail dot the com.

What you can win (besides the sweet accolades of me and your fellow gamers):

First place: $10 gift certificate from Amazon.

Second and Third: a book of your choice from my obsessively-growing “book rescue” collection of pulp fantasy.

Winning entries may make their appearance in a corner of my campaign world even.

Warping the Brains of the Next Generation

This week I got a strange and unique opportunity dropped into my lap, an offer that basically ran along the lines of : “come teach a class about fantasy to young impressionable minds.”

In a nutshell I was asked to put my own idea together for a class for a local private, cooperatively-run K-8 school. Though my first impulse was “hells yeah we throw on some Sabbath, play D&D everyday and then I lecture about some books to read for 8 minutes” I rallied and tried to put together something that has a fig leaf of educational value.

I tried to frame the class around worldbuilding broadly speaking, titling it “Imaginary Worlds” with an emphasis on the kids (I'm orienting to the older half of the school) creating their own fantasy world setting as a springboard for the real meat of creative writing and delving into real world mythology (Nordic, Greek, and Native American), physical geography, history and fantasy literature (I'm thinking some readings from Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Dark is Rising and maybe a few others if we have time). In other words, a class I would have given my proverbial left nut for when I was a tween.

Shockingly, the school gave the thumbs up and class begins in early February. But now I am left with the rather awkward question of: how the hell do I pull off such a class? I'm not a total greenhorn having taught English to grade school children in Slovakia and writing classes to interns at my last journalism gig, but the task does seem rather tall when I sit down and try and think out a real curriculum.

Of course the point here is not to crow (though as a Texan I am not above extended public braggery) nor to hem and haw (again something I do from time to time), but to plug back into that hive mind for ideas.

Have any of you, as educators, parents, aunts/uncles yadda yadda, had any experience trying to teach kids how to think about fantasy (broadly or a specific aspect)? Any specific recommendations for books and other material or just suggestions/tips in general?