Grim's Roll All the Dice Lineage Generator

Inspired by my earlier post (and Hackmaster) about generating character's family/clans, Grim whipped up this dandy roll all the dice sheet. Check it out, pretty darn cool. (I have to admit I was inspired by Harn and Oriental Adventures too).

You can download it here, or on the side bar.

Quick & Dirty Family Generation

I have been working on a clan/family generation system for those referees and players that wish to add some depth to a Ruins & Ronin game (though really this would work just as well for any S&W game).

Here is the beginning of my work (I have not worked out any "ancestry" or "birthright" type charts yet). This will give you a character that has a family and his/her relation to the clan's leader.

Table 1: Social Class
2d6 Roll / Character’s Social Class
2-3 / Outcast
4-6 / Lower Class
7-9 / Middle Class
10-12 / Upper Class

Modifiers to social class: Shugenja -2, Sohei and Half-Ogres -1, and Bujin +1

Table 2: Clan Head Generation
1d6 Roll / Clan Head Relation
1-3 / Cousin
4-5 / Uncle
6 / Father

Table 3: Character's Relation to Clan
2d6 Roll / Relation
2-3 / Outcast (may be hunted or attacked on sight)
4-5 / Unpopular (not well liked and will get no favors)
6-8 / Average (no hard feelings but not special either)
9-10 / Popular (loved by most in the clan - treated well)
11-12 / Favorite (the clan will bend over backwards for you)

Character Birth Rank
To generate a character’s birth rank amongst his siblings, roll 1d6. The number rolled is the character’s birth rank, next roll another 1d6 and add the character’s rank to find the total number of siblings.
For Example, Mike is rolling for his Bujin character, Yoshi. He rolls 1d6 and gets 2, he is the 2nd son. Next he rolls 1d6 again (and gets 3) and adds his rank of 2, for a total of 5. He has 4 siblings (5 total children for his parents).


Character Siblings
To determine the sex of your siblings, roll 1d6 for each sibling, 1-3 indicates male, 4-6 indicates female.

Interesting ideas...

Jeff Rients has some interesting project ideas brewing here and is asking for opinions for which project to work on. One of the ideas is a sandbox setting for R&R, so stop by and let him know what you think. To be honest, both sound like great ideas to me and I would probably buy both if given the choice.

Map of last night's game.

Here is my player map based on the map drawn by Patrick in gametable (with my notes scribbled in as well).

Skype B/X Game

Last night I took part in the B/X game run over Skype (and using GameTable) hosted by Patrick of the Ode to Black Dougal blog. This was my first time playing using skype (and gametable), and I have to say it was very impressive (much better than I thought it would be).

There were only three characters and we couldn't find anyone foolish enough to hire for our quest - so we had to make due with a Cleric, Halfling, and Magic-User (me). We explored a small dwarf-hold hidden behind a waterfall and fought a small band of Kobolds. The cleric was nearly done in by a swarm of centipedes and a giant spider. Good times.

I really enjoyed this session, and hopefully we can continue in a week or two with another session. In the future, I think I may try to start an open sandbox type game using S&W rules.

You can check out our in-between game chats at the game blog here.

Random Dungeon for Ruins & Ronin.

I have been working on an adventure of Ruins & Ronin for my local group and decided to whip-up a map using Age of Fables random dungeon generator (for Tunnels & Trolls), found here. I like taking the abstract maps it provides and putting them on paper like below.




I like having an "abstract" map like these - I really don't use the scale of 1=10ft per square (that is just a rough guideline). I also don't assume each room is the shape it is drawn - when I go to fill in the dungeon, I will elaborate on each room's shape & size. I hope to fill these 4 levels in the next few days.

The natives are getting restless (Headhunter class)

Continuing with my south pacific theme for my R&R setting, I have created a Headhunter class. Admittedly it was based heavily off of Salvatore Macri's (Skathros on the S&W Forums) Ranger for S&W. You can download the class here (or from the download section).

This class, as I envision it for my game will be the loin-cloth wearing, war club carrying native guide. Capable of tracking anything in his jungle environment, and deadly with his bow or blow gun (with poison, of course). The class is pretty open to referee's discretion with regards to armor and weapon capabilities, as this class could just as easily be used for fur clad barbarians in the northern snows - or leather clad horsemen of the steppes.

The advancement of this class is a little higher than the base fighting man class, mostly due to the increased hit dice and the tracking skill.

Katsushiro's Castle - Level 1

I have compiled my Ruins & Ronin mega-dungeon level 1 into a single pdf (it even has a temporary cover). My plan is to eventually build it out to 10 levels and release it as a print book (with a real cover). Until that time, please enjoy level 1. You can download it here, or on the sidebar.

Topo Map of Azai Island

Well sort of. Here is my most up to date map of Azai Island.

South Pacific Mega Dungeon

I am preparing to run some Ruins & Ronin for my local gaming group, and have decided to set the local map in the south pacific (well, my fantasy world equivalent). In my world the Eternal Empire of the Sun has reached beyond its own shores to the distant islands to the south. Where they have subjugated the islanders and made them part of their empire.

This will allow some not-so Japanese type characters in my game (and alllow some plain S&W White Box character types). The actual dungeon will lie within the hills of the small islands that lie off the southern shore of Azai island. I have not placed the starting village or the one (and only) castle town on the map yet.

The dungeon will lie on the large island just south of the Azai island, and during low tide, it can actually be reached by walking through the shallow waters, however high tide makes this impossible (except maybe for Half-Ogres), otherwise characters will need the small boats that the locals use for fishing.

Also hidden amongst these islands are pirates and other fell creatures. The interior of Azai island is covered in deep jungle and is also unsafe for most. Azai island is the southern most of the local island group (yet to be named) and considered the extreme tip of the Eternal Empire of the Sun (EEotS).

New R&R Character Option

I have added a new character option for those looking for a little variety. I have added the Ninja class, based almost entirely on the Thief class published by Salvatore Macri (Skathros on the S&W Forums). You can find the pdf here, or on the download section of my blog.

On other fronts, my local game group (which has not meet in months) has agreed to play some Ruins & Ronin starting in August - so I will be posting more of my campaign material here soon.

10% off of Ruins & Ronin Softcover / July Sales contest at Lulu.

If you have not ordered Ruins & Ronin in print yet, now is the time, if you use the following code JULYCONTEST10 you will receive 10% off of your print purchases. This is part of the July sales contest.

I am sure I have no chance of winning, but at least I can offer the discount to anyone that wishes to buy the print edition of R&R.

Updated Regional Map

Ok, after working with GIMP, I was able to get a better hex grid and a map more to my liking. I give you the new regional map of the island of MYOKI, my sandbox for R&R.

Myoki - the southern isle

I have started work on my newest project, which is a sandbox setting for Ruins & Ronin. The setting will be based on the island of Myoki, the southern tip of the fallen Sodoru Empire (torn apart by civil war - and now in a dark age of feuding warlords).



I have my initial map of the island (that was drawn by hand and cobbled together with Microsoft Photodraw - a poor man's photo shop), and in the next couple of days I will start on some regional maps that break down the main map on a 5 mile per hex scale. I will most certainly use the names and places I detailed earlier for my smaller sandbox idea.

On the R&R front, sales have really started to pick up. It is good to see people are excited about this project - I hope people find it useful. Thanks to fellow bloggers for posting about the release - as I am sure that has increased my sales.

A new character class for Ruins & Ronin

To celebrate my freedom from working on Ruins & Ronin, I decided to re-create an Oriental Adventures character race for R&R. Yeah, sometimes, I don't make sense. So without further adieu, I give you the Hengeyokai character option for R&R. If you haven't already, be sure to head over to my Lulu store front and pickup a copy of Ruins & Ronin, the cover looks fantastic on the softcover book (I got mine yesterday). Looks great alongside Swords & Wizardry books.

You can find the Hengeyokai here, or over in the download section on the sidebar.

Happy 4th of July - release of R&R

I am pleased to announce the release of the Ruins & Ronin project. It is now available in print & pdf from Lulu. You can find the print release here, and the pdf release here. I want to thank everyone who contributed in any way to this project!

Ruins & Ronin Character Sheet

I have created a character sheet for the impending release of Ruins & Ronin. The sheet can be downloaded from this link, or under the download section on the right side bar. This sheet will be included as part of the book (and pdf download) too.