RMA: Giant Horned Chameleon

Admittedly, a normal chameleon –as weird as he looks– isn't particularly scary. In fact, I think they're kinda cute in an alien-meets-dinosaur kinda way. The giant variety a la Moldvay, is a different kettle of lizard.

Lizard, Giant Horned Chameleon (from Moldvay)

No. App: 1d3 (1d6)

AL: N

Move: 120' (40')

AC: 2

HD: 5

Attacks: 2 (bite, horn)

Damage: 2d4/1d6

Save: F3

Morale: 7

So stat-wise, it's no great shakes. Their morale would indicate a skittish creature. The best things you can say about it are that its AC is decent and 5 HD is too much for a Sleep spell to take it out. While the book's listing doesn't specifically state it, in the real world chameleons are gifted climbers, so I would probably allow a certain amount of clinging to rough walls, etc. Where the GHC really shines is in the details, though.  Let's look at a few tidbits:

"The immense 7' giant horned chameleon can surprise its prey, despite its bulk, due to its uncanny ability to take on the color, appearance, and texture of its local surroundings. A victim will be surprised on a surprise check roll of 1-5 on 1d6."

Yup. That's right. You have a less than 17% chance of not being surprised. That means free attacks, and with up to 3 of them in a random encounter, that could be six attacks before you can do anything about it.

"The giant horned chameleon has three special attacks. The first is its sticky tongue, which can lash out to a distance of 5'. If this attack succeeds, the victim is immediately yanked back to the chameleon's mouth and bitten without the need for another attack roll, for 2d4 hit points of damage."

Five feet isn't exactly longbow range, but it doesn't need to be adjacent to you either. The automatic bite is a nice touch, and 2-8 points of damage is respectable enough. 

"The second special attack available to the chameleon is its large horns, which inflict 1d6 hit points of damage."

Not really all that special, but still a solid melee attack for close-fighting.

"Lastly, the chameleon may, on a successful attack, knock down an opponent by lashing out with its tail. The opponent may not attack the same round this occurs."

That's a fun wrinkle for a fight: the lizard(s) just making folks lose their turn over and over. There's no save against it, and a 5 HD critter is hitting often enough. What's particularly interesting about that is since they get two attacks per round, they can ruin a PC's turn by knocking him flat and still attack for damage (bite or impale). 

 I could see a party wandering into some large room that was a chameleon lair, housing 5-6 of these things and having a pretty interesting encounter.

RSA: Part Water

Let's just get the Heston screen cap out of the way, OK?

An amusing and powerful spell. And, like most RSAs, one I've rarely seen a PC use. It's odd that this is a MU/Elf spell in BX rather than a clerical spell given –like some other spells– its obvious mythological origins, but who am I to blow against the wind?

Its pretty high level (6th), so it's understandable why you don't see it cast all the time. Also, it's really only useful when dealing with a large body of water, which isn't too terribly frequent in most campaigns. 

Part Water (from Cook)
Level: 6 (MU)
Range: 120'
Duration: 6 turns

This spell creates a path through a body of water, enabling creatures to walk on the bottom. The path will be up to 120' long and 10' wide. The spell may be ended at any time by the caster before the duration is over.


The first thing I notice about the spell description is the dimensions/AoE. Why? No depth! It doesn't care whether you are making a path through a fish pond or an ocean, it goes ALL THE WAY DOWN! Obviously it's hard to do the Red Sea Stroll without it reaching the bed, but still!

The second thing about the dimensions is, well, the other dimensions. Only 120' x 10'? That's not getting you very far. One hour duration is nice if it's only for one combat, but you aren't getting a lot of overland travel done in that time. It would be handy for some river crossings and the like, though.

Now, one fun use of this spell that comes to mind is when it comes to a naval battle: Opening a gap in the water right in front of an enemy vessel? Good times! Of course, you'd want to angle it just right to maximize the effect, but I would say even a big ship would stand a real risk of capsizing or dipping its prow low enough to be swamped.

Like many of these higher level, unusual spells, I would be tempted to place a scroll in a campaign just to see what fun the PCs might come up with.

RMA: Cockatrice

Hello all!

It's been a little while, as I was finishing a draft for a new Mutant Future module. I am back now with a new Random Monster Assessment: the cockatrice.

I've written previously about the cockatrice (in passing), but have not done an entry on it in particular. Maybe others have seen it in play more than me, but I can only think of one time I ran an adventure with one, and the PCs never ended up exploring the area near its lair.

The cockatrice is sort of the "101" for petrifying monsters. It's small, not too hard to kill, and the nastiness that is flesh to stone only happens A) after a successful hit, and B) a failed saving throw. Unlike gaze or gas attacks (Medusa and Gorgon).

The beauty of the cockatrice is that the petrification thing makes it utterly terrifying to most players even though it's sort of wimpy.

Boo!

Let's have the stats, shall we?

Cockatrice (from Cook):

AC: 6
AL: N
 HD: 5**
 Move: 90' (30')
  Fly: 180' (60')
 Attacks: 1 (beak + special)
 Damage: 1d6 + petrify
No. Appearing: 1d4 (1d8)
Save: F5
Morale: 7

First off, it's "chicken" (get it??). A morale of seven means it will turn a tail feather pretty easily. Secondly, its AC is no great shakes. On the other hand, five hit dice is pretty sturdy for a scaly cockerel, so it will probably take more than one hit to drop, not to mention immunity to the ever-popular fight-ending Sleep spell.

The thing about the cockatrice is that the odds are it WILL get a melee attack in at some point. Even 1-2 pecks will give the PCs sweats. And if, by chance, it does manage to petrify a character, then the whole adventure can become a much more complicated situation. Unless you've got an 11th level MU in the party who has the appropriate spell, it will take some work to get your companion unstuck.

Since it only has a melee attack, peppering it with arrows is a good way to get it to flee. Just do not pursue it into cramped quarters, where it will get to close with you if cornered.

As an aside, the mythology of the creature can make for fun background fluff. The stories go that a cockatrice is hatched from a chicken egg incubated by a toad or snake. Definitely a bit of imagination fodder there. What if there was a nest of them in some poor farmer's henhouse? 1d8 in lair... (evil grin).

Missed opportunities and relief

We (Faster Monkey) were approached by another company to do some work on a large project they were trying to get completed. Without going into a lot of details, such a job would have probably meant a share of the crowdfunding that had been raised as well as being able to sell a version of the product ourselves. It was gratifying to be asked to do this. It was a kind of confirmation that the hard work we put into our own products was being noticed.

At the same time, it would have meant getting up to speed on a large amount of someone else's previously written material, trying to work within the creative confines of that, as well as the timetable the other company was trying to maintain. Definitely a bit outside my comfort zone, but then I am a lazy creature. Nevertheless, we were excited to try.

After some initial back & forth, it turned out that the other group was going to try and keep things more "in-house." I felt somewhat disappointed, but at the same time relieved. I have a couple of my own projects nearing completion, and Mr. Joel has a few large, long term things he's been working on for a while. Part of me would have resented putting our own work on the back burner to satisfy the requirements of this outside project.

Does this mean I would never take on such a job? Of course not. I would rather write my own things rather than trying to adapt to someone else's vision, though. The indie-RPG publishing world is a tiny pond full of some very creative fish, and if we didn't each have our own ideas about things, we wouldn't be doing this.

Wasting Time

First off, let me bore you with a little bit of shoptalk.

I just got back from Garycon last week. It was great fun and I had a blast, playing, running, and working the vendor hall. Of course, having been an exhibitor, it meant wearing my "publisher" hat a little more than I normally would, but one the plus side, it meant my ego had the satisfaction of people asking me to sign some products (Really! I swear!) and having Frank Mentzer call me over saying "Jeff! I need to talk some business with you!" So, yes, while a small-press RPG publisher is not making money hand over first, the nerd cred is gratifying in a hobby I love.

That said, I have two products I am writing simultaneously. One has seen playtesting and is in rewrite stage now. The other is in rough draft form, less one section we decided to add at the last minute (that's been giving me minor fits, but mostly a matter of slogging through it). There are maps to clean up and other steps that will have to happen from there, but the point is I have projects on my desk to keep me plenty occupied.

Now, in case you didn't know, I have a day job. It gives me enough flexibility that I can, for the most part, block off my time to get my work done and still push ahead on my writing projects around the edges. But the job is my livelihood, not Faster Monkey.

Like so many writers and other "creative" types, it is terribly easy to get sidetracked by life and the internet. (If you've never seen the Simpsons episode in which Neil Gaiman guest stars; Lisa's writing troubles? THAT! EXACTLY THAT!)* which brings me to the title of today's post: Wasting Time.

When you look at the hours in the day, it seems like there are enough to do what you want to do, whether it's writing, cleaning the house, exercise, fixing that broken lamp, etc. but somehow the time just slips away. You just pop over to Facebook for a minute, you watch that one YouTube video, or you decide to go grab a Starbucks. Next thing you know, the day is over. Of course, life is filled with plenty of distractions beyond your control: kids, jobs, flat tires, errands, etc. too, but enough of them are of your own making, that it can be infuriating sometimes.

It is one of the ongoing challenges in my life (and many other peoples', I suspect) to budget time wisely and effectively. Reams of self-help advice have been written on the subject. I don't pretend to advise anyone here, I'm just noting that the condition exists. (In fact, just writing this blog post about it instead of working on stuff is evidence of the condition itself!)

Now, onto how all this relates to gaming.

I mentioned trying to get things written for publication, and of course the same issues would apply even if the adventures were just for personal use (though perhaps to a lesser degree). Apart from players (and GMs) dealing with prepping and making time for gaming, I wonder at the characters and their time management skills.

Keeping track of time in the dungeon makes sense. After all, you've got wandering monsters, torches burning out, rations, etc. It also makes sense when talking about travel time. Are you riding or walking? Is it rough terrain or a smooth road? Or are you taking a ship? What are the prevailing winds? The list goes on.

What about PCs that are just easily distracted or lazy or overworked? Do player characters ever say "I meant to get my armor repaired while we were in town, but there was a great game of cards down in the pub and I lost track of time." or "I was going to transcribe that spell at the mage's guild, but I found a note tucked between the pages of a book full of dirty limericks about the faculty. It was HILARIOUS!"

Probably not.

In truth, I don't even know that it would really add to the overall enjoyment of the game, but it might provide some amusing roleplaying fodder.

* Looks like the video isn't there anymore. Sorry

Vloggins

Episode 36 is up:

New campaign and impending Garycon

Tonight is the second session of the new LL campaign. I'm trying not to steer things too much, but –following Beedo's advice– I want to give them a definite adventure hook to follow initially. I haven't had oodles of time to prep more than that, but hopefully it'll be enough to carry them along into the setting, where the broad strokes I laid out will guide things a bit.

All this is right in the middle of getting ready for Garycon. I shipped our merchandise last week and I fly out to Milwaukee Wednesday afternoon. This will be a very different experience for me, as I am both GM-ing and exhibiting at the con. Still, I did manage to make some room for actual gaming.