IFC Samurai Saturday: March 28th

This week IFC is featuring "The Sword of Doom" a somewhat darker samurai movie. I have seen this one before and thought it was good. Not one of my favorites however. Here is a (very)_short synopsis:

In this epic Japanese samurai adventure, a bloodthirsty young fighter (Tatsuya Nakadai) kills a man in competition and is pursued by the slain warrior's brother.

Ronin & The Ruined Monastery

I have been working on a conversion of James Maliszewski's (Grognardia)excellent Fight On! #1 adventure, The Ruined Monastery. With his kind permission of course. I do not really have to change too much to make it suitable for the Ruins & Ronin setting, but I will change out some monsters and some of the history of the ruins to make it more in line with the local area of Katsushiro's Castle (megadungeon).



So far, I have converted the 1st level map in DungeonCrafter (v1.41 for those playing at home) so I don't have to rip out the map of my magazine to put it into my binder. I will eventually put my conversion up for download (though not right away - as I may use it as the first adventure in my play-by-post game - which is still recruiting if you are interested).

I have also been plugging away at the White Box version of R&R diligently, and have uploaded the latest corrected version (v1.1 now available on my downloads). This version has page numbers so if you are looking to correct me (and believe me, I need more eyes on this doc) now you can do so easily.

I will be out of town for much of next week (starting Tuesday evening) and will not have access to the internet, so it will be a light posting week for me.

The End

I have been playing too much Left 4 Dead lately, and being the big zombie fan that I am I have been tinkering with a S&W WB rules variant for some modern gunslinging zombie killing action. Obviously zombies would get real boring real quick for some - and they need more "monsters" to fight. So I have been toying with the idea of a road-warrior - meets-- 28 days later -meets- resident evil -meets- terminator - meets- war of the worlds kind of game.

The basic setup is "The End" has happened, be that zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, world famine, pandemic, alien invasion, or robot revolution (or all of the above), and the players are playing the survivors. The classes as I am thinking about them are Gunslinger (the fighter variant), Medic (the new cleric/healer), and the Tech (the clinker, builder/repair man). I don't want the game to be set in the future - but modern day. So no ray guns*, or hover tanks* (this is not Gamma World).

I have not gone much past that yet, except to build a quick gunslinger class which can be found here. Just something fun to do as a break from Ruins & Ronin.

*unless the aliens brought it with them

Quick ninja edit, to post my Medic class too. Can't stop when I am on a roll...

Ruins & Ronin White Box Edition

I have just compiled the most up to date list of monsters with my player's version of the Ruins & Ronin rules (WB edition) and made it available for download here. It is also available in the download section of my blog.

I still have open spots available for my play-by-post game if anyone is interested. Just send me an email or better yet - login to the Swords & Wizardry forums and respond in the recruitment post.

Ruins & Ronin Play-by-Post Recruitment

I am ready to play my white box edition of Ruins & Ronin, and will do so using the forums at Swords & Wizardry (thanks Matt!). If you would like to claim a spot, please download my player’s handbook if you haven’t already and create a character (roll 3d6 in order for character creation) – then send your character to me in an email using the format below.

For anyone wanting to play a Shugenja you get the following at first level: Read Magic, Detect Magic, and 2 spells of your choice.

I will be running my megadungeon Katsushrio’s Castle – however since it has been posted online and some have already read parts of it – you can bet that I am going to change it up dramatically (and may drop you into an unpublished sublevel above level 1). So don’t worry about the spoilers.

I will only accept up to 8 characters, so if you don’t make the first cut I will keep a list of players that wish to join and will add them as we lose players (as always happens in PbP games).

If you have any questions, post ‘em here or email me at : trampled.dwarf AT gmail.com

Character Form (works best as Courier font):

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Name :
Class:
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STR:00 / bonus:
INT:00 / bonus:
WIS:00 / bonus:
DEX:00 / bonus:
CON:00 / bonus:
CHA:00 / bonus:
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A.A.C. :
Hit Points :
Saving Throw :
Money :
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ARMOR & WEAPONS
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EQUIPMENT
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SPELLS
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A brief history and Katsushiro's Castle level 1D.

I have outlined a very brief history of the Mad Shugenja's castle, and uploaded level 1D of the castle here.


For over 200 years, the Mad Shugenja Katsushiro ruled over the western mountain valley and it's people. He conducted strange experiments on the local inhabitants and twisted them for his cruel purposes. They dug out his vast underground crypts and laboratories, and quarried the stone used to build his extensive castle. Many foul and dangerous beasts came to serve under this wicked master, further terrorizing the local populace.

As Katsushiro continued to grow his domain, he came into contact with the western reaches of the Mifune Shogunate. Initially these meetings were small border clashes, however as the Shugenja grew in power he began regular raids and incursions into the Shogunate's realms to gather slaves and fodder for his experiments. These actions caused the local Daimyo to request assistance from the Shogun who sent a large force to deal with the Mad Shugenja.

The armies clashed in the valley below the twin peaks of the Mad Shugenja's Castle. The fighting lasted for 3 days and was so fierce that the creeks that flowed from the mountains ran red with blood. (These mountains are now called Blood mountain and Slaughter mountain). In the end, the Shogun's forces prevailed with the aid of the hero Ito Matsumura and his holy sword “Burning Mist”. He led the last charge of the forces against the Mad Shugenja himself deep in the pits of the castle. He was killed as he struck the final blow against Katsushiro, and his body was lost in the route of the evil forces, never to be recovered.

The son of Matsumura, then 13 year old Juro was given permission to build a castle in the mountain valley in recognition of his father's feats. In time Juro became the leader of the Goma Castle town and the village that grew up around it. He is a man of peace and the peasants love him for it. He is now 86 years old and still runs the castle.

Lately there have been sightings of evil creatures in the mountain forests at night, and the only son of Juro Matsumura (Menzo aged 41) has gone missing. There are rumors that the bones of Katsushiro are restless and he is calling a new army to serve him.

Katsushiro's Castle Level 1C (the stalking shadows)

I have just uploaded level 1C of my Ruins & Ronin megadungeon to my download section. This area is dominated by a small tribe of Oni-kage (Shadow goblins), and is available for download here.