I have recently gotten started once again painting metal miniatures. My most recent project was D’khul, Illithid Bathalian Sorcerer:

Before late 2009, I hadn’t painted a metal miniature in over 20 years, and I wasn’t good at it then—so I’m really learning how to paint minis for the first time. I’m certainly no expert. D’khul was my first real attempt at decent highlighting. The results don’t strike me as very smooth, but I’m not displeased with the result:

After consulting the peanut gallery, I finally decided on a sort of ochre-tan color for the flayer’s long loincloth, thinking of it as the hide of some unfortunate Underdark-dwelling mammal.

My next project will be a flayer pirate:

We’re back, adventure fans, to present you with episode 51 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, in which you can follow heroes old and new through part 3 of our adventure entitled “City of the Pirate Kings.” Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Aeryn Rudel of Blackdirge Publishing and Goodman Games introduces this episode.
• The Staging Area: I briefly recap the events of “City of the Pirate Kings,” part 2. For a full campaign recap, listen to the Staging Area for episode 49.
• The Weather Report: Our heroes spend a night in the Scalabar jail, and find themselves unexpectedly cut loose with a minimum of judicial red tape when an unexpected murder comes to light. The PCs’ own investigation leads them out of the city to a meeting with His Excellency Kap’n Kruncha, the Pirate-King King, and eventually back to the Perfect Storm.
• The Prop Shop: I explain the small debt this adventure owes to the very first D&D novel ever written, briefly describe the battlemaps I prepared for this segment just in case the PCs tried to fight the kroola on the kroola’s home turf, and remind you where to listen to the PCs’ first run-in with an NPC who looms large in this adventure, Urlglar the Vicious.

I hope that you enjoy “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 3,” and that you’ll plan to sail with us again when we present “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 4″!

I have more to say about this …

Looks like we made it, adventure fans! The Icosahedrophilia podcast has hit the half-century mark! I As far as I know, Icosahedrophilia is now the longest-running podcast presenting actual play of a continuous 4e D&D campaign, and we’ve got plenty more gaming goodness to present to you in the months to come. This milestone episode presents “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 2.” Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Chris Tulach of the RPGA introduces this episode.
• The Staging Area: I briefly recap the events of “City of the Pirate Kings,” part 1. For a full campaign recap, listen to the Staging Area for episode 49.
• The Weather Report: The barroom brawl continues, with our heroes contributing to the mayhem at various levels, some just watching from the sidelines. A night in jail rounds out the episode. Note: This episode does have some allusions to “adult” activities taking place within the tavern, though these references remain only suggestive and do not get profane or pornographic.
• The Prop Shop: I briefly credit the pirate name generator at piratemerch.com for its role in helping me come up with names for the barflies involved in the fight, though several others exist. I describe my use of SkeletonKey Games’ e-Adventure Tiles Weekly #1 to create the Scalabar jail layout (see the map in the extended show notes), and I credit DM extraordinaire Chris Perkins with the name “Scalabar,” which I stole adapted from his adventure “The Scourge of Scalabar” in Dungeon #74. I also briefly promote episode 125 of the Tome Show, which will present the Tome’s annual “third party extravaganza” in which I and others join host Jeff Greiner to review non-WotC products useful for playing D&D.

I hope that you enjoy “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 2,” and that you’ll plan to sail with us again when we present “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 3″!

I have more to say about this …

The ChattyDM tweeted this idea mere moments ago (from my perspective as I type this, of course):

Wanna increase crowd enthusiasm at #dnd table? Give generous damage bonuses to attacks played with proper sound effects, Extra for gestures.

This suggestion reminds me a little of my second-favorite RPG (after D&D, of course, and just ahead of Star Wars Saga Edition, though I play Star Wars more frequently), Mutants & Masterminds. In M&M, GMs award “hero points” that players can use in various ways.

Chatty’s idea got me thinking about how one might implement the suggestion. I wouldn’t necessarily want to limit it to sound effects, and not sure I’d give extra for gestures. But perhaps I should consider giving bonus dice for excellence in role-playing. Maybe combining this with an achievement list (like this one or this one—I don’t claim to be original) would spice table life up a bit.

Instead of awarding extra XP (which we don’t use anyway; levels are treasure in the Stormhaven campaign) or a permanent boon of some sort, I’m thinking about awarding bonus powers. I would print double-sided power cards and hand them out as rewards for great role-playing and/or for reaching predefined achievements, or for doing something unexpectedly cool. Here are the two powers that would appear on the cards (first draft):

Another possibility would be a static bonus of +5 per tier; using d6s lowers the average a bit. What do you think of this implementation—especially if you play in the Stormhaven campaign?

During the week of January 24–30, I reviewed the following products for DriveThruRPG:

• Blackdirge’s Bargain Templates: Templar by Aeryn Rudel. If you want to quickly add a dash of paladin-like flavor to a 4e humanoid creature without actually making the creature a paladin NPC, I can think of no better way than to apply this templar template … (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★★
• The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Carter, published by Goodman Games. This is such a clever product: old school in style and sensibility, yet universally applicable; funny and entertaining, yet actually useful; lighthearted, yet richly detailed. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★★
• Kaiju Rising by Stratos of Baily Records. This track gradually moves from a airy beginning to slow drums with mysterious (and repetitive) electronic tones, and then erupts into the driving, percussive core of the track … (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★
• Scenes of Space Hex Battle Maps by Jon Brazer Enterprises. Despite the gorgeous artwork and low cost, this product disappointed me somewhat … (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★
• Story Maps: Battlemat Terrain, Scaling the Undead Dragon by Alida Saxon for Savage Mojo. Although the artwork in these twelve tiles (repeated twice in the product, one with a square grid and once with a hex grid) does a rather good job of depicting a dragon’s scales, I have a hard time envisioning a dragon’s back as the site for an extended battle. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★

This list doesn’t include the soundscapes I reviewed in the latest installment of Dungeons & DJs.

Sling him in the longboat ’til he’s sober, of course. Oh, wait. That’s somebody else.

Like many other D&D gaming groups, my group occasionally encounters scheduling issues. By “occasionally,” I mean “just about every stinkin’ week.” My players and I mostly occupy the “married, with children” and “gainfully employed” demographics, which limits us to one session per month anyway. Add the unique issues present in every job and/or family, and more often than not, we have one or more absent players.

Midway through January, I posted about our use of “stunt doubles,” or players who can’t commit to on ongoing campaign but want to play once in a while. These players are invited to show up when they can. If we have an absent regular, the “stunt double” can take over that character. If all regular players are present, the “stunt double” can run monsters during combat.

We’ve tried other solutions, too, with greater or lesser success.

One of the reasons I wanted to set the current campaign aboard a sailing ship was so that we could plausibly explain the absence of a character whose player was absent. Inspired by Star Trek, I figured that an absent player’s character could be tied up with various duties on board the ship, or might be seasick, or might have some other reason for staying behind. We used this technique to good effect with Alanso Heslock when David couldn’t attend one of our sessions. I even worked with David outside the gaming sessions to create a side story about what Alanso did while the others were galavanting about the island killing goblin(oid)s. Of course, you can accomplish the same thing if your PCs have a “home base” anywhere; the ship just allows the “home base” to move around a lot. This technique breaks down, however, when you have long overland journeys. My PCs have been off their boat now for something like six sessions now, and leaving a character “offstage” for a weeklong trek through the desert doesn’t work when s/he suddenly shows up in an unexpected place.

In a recently-uploaded story arc on the Icosahedrophilia podcast, Steve was not present to play Dra’kith, but the PCs were in the middle of exploring a large underground city. I could think of no plausible way to get Dra’kith back to the ship alone, so I ran him as an NPC for that session (in which he died—bwahahahahahaha!—not because I’m mean, but to make way for Steve’s new character, a warforged barbarian). Recently, Matt K., who plays Jacques (a human paladin) in the campaign, could not attend, so Jay (who has played D&D with Matt for many years) ran Jacques; on the same night, I ran Kitaru (Jeff’s dragonborn sorcerer) as an NPC (and got him killed—again, not because I’m mean, but because Jeff is moving to another state).

Having one player run two characters and/or having the DM run a PC as an NPC allied with the party works reasonably well for a night, but it can really slow things down if the pinch-hitting player or DM does not have a thorough knowledge of the character’s powers, feats, skills, and combat role. Therefore, I’m considering a slight change to this strategy. Before our next session, I may try to write up stat blocks for each PC in NPC or “companion character” (Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, pp. 27–33) style. I would do this in consultation with the players so that each PC’s stat block reflected his or her “signature style,” but gave a pinch-hitting player—or me—fewer choices to sort through during a fight. If I implement this idea, we would have three options for how each player character is portrayed:

• The PC is portrayed by his/her/its regular controlling player
• The PC is portrayed fully by a “stunt double” sitting in for an absent regular player
• The PC is portrayed by another present player, or by the DM, using an abbreviated companion character/NPC stat block

What do you think about these strategies? Would you find them useful at your table? How do you handle absent players?

Update: See also Sarah Darkmagic’s perspective and suggestions on this topic.

I’ve previously touted (here and here) the fantasy soundscapes produced by Sonic Legends and sold through DriveThruRPG or the group’s own storefront. My own interest lies primarily in those fantasy soundscapes, but Sonic Legends offers some excellent modern and sci-fi soundscapes as well.

• Alien City Ruins by John Ollsin. This unobtrusive track plays perfectly under any role-playing scene where characters need to explore an unfamiliar or alien environment, with a sense of suspense but not necessarily immediate danger. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★★
• Degenerate Seaside Town by Matthew Steckler. I mentioned this track once before in the context of my own fantasy games, but it’s fully appropriate for pulp or modern games, too. Start this track going to make your players feel like they’re dockside in Innsmouth. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★★
• Police Precint by Joe Matzzie. The sound effects and background dialogue (some of it by the K-9 unit) in this track can really bring your gaming table alive if you have scenes that take place inside any modern (1920s and forward) police station. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★
• Post Apocalyptic City by Mike Trapp. Electric guitars and a driving drum beat tie the feel of this track to the modern era, and perhaps beyond. As I listened to this track, the images that came to mind were actually more of a stylish detective drama than of post-apocalyptic urbanism. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★
• Wonders of Space by Christy Carew. With airy vocals and xylophone accents (both synthesized, unless I miss my guess), this track could easily infiltrate any New Age music library. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★★
• Zombie Apocalypse by Mike Trapp. An eerie ethereal beginning soon gives way to a driving beat overlaid with sound effects like sirens, helicopter rotors, police announcements, groans, growls, and screams as the zombies overwhelm an urban center. (Read more at DriveThruRPG.) ★★★★

Any of these soundscapes will certainly enhance your modern or sci-fi game.

The Icosahedrophilia podcast moves one step closer to the half-century mark with a big show, bursting with plot twists, new players, secrets revealed, and more! “City of the Pirate Kings,” recorded on May 30, 2009, restarted the Stormhaven campaign after a long hiatus for some dungeon delving. I explain more in this episode’s Staging Area. Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes. This episode features the following segments:

• Initiative: DM Neil of the NerdBound podcast introduces this episode.
• The Staging Area: In a longer-than-usual staging area, I explain why we played dungeon delves instead of the Stormhaven campaign from the end of February 2009 through the end of May 2009. Then I offer a quick but comprehensive overview of the campaign since its inception. I announce the imminent departure of one player, the arrival of a new player, and some changes in long-time players’ characters.
• The Weather Report: The inevitable bar fight breaks out during the PCs’ visit to the Perfect Storm, a tavern sitting on the waterfront of Scalabar, city of the pirate kings. Note: This episode does have some allusions to “adult” activities taking place within the tavern, though these references remain only suggestive and do not get profane or pornographic.
• The Prop Shop: I describe my use of the Paizo GameMastery Flip-Mat: Waterfront Tavern as the Perfect Storm, and acknowledge Poison Ivy Press’s IVe Races: The Kroola as the source for the crocodilian pirates in the tavern. I also briefly promote episode 125 of the Tome Show, which will present the Tome’s annual “third party extravaganza” in which I and others join host Jeff Greiner to review non-WotC products useful for playing D&D.

I hope that you enjoy “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 1,” and that you’ll plan to sail with us again when we present “City of the Pirate Kings, Part 2″!

I have more to say about this …

This news coming out of D&D Experience via the twitterstream:

• D&D Miniatures line continues in a different packaging format. Visible minis are gone. Six miniatures per blind package, sixty miniatures per set. August 2010 set “Lords of Madness” includes huge miniatures and introduces a new “very rare” frequency category. 2010 releases: Orcus, Lords of Madness, and a surprise.
• New “master sets” for Dungeon Tiles (The Dungeon in July, The City in October) will be kept in print to provide consistent access to a core set of tiles for new purchasers/players. Look for The Wilderness in December 2010. Expansions like March 2010’s Harrowing Halls will provide more variety but will still come one printing at a time, as currently.
• Monster Manual 3 (June) will contain more story elements (fluff).
• New line of “essentials” products such as the starter kit (September 2010) and Dungeon Master’s Kit (October 2010) are like “quick start” products for new players and DMs.
• Gamma World will also have a collectible card component.
• A second D&D board game ships in November, Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain, with mechanics similar to the Ravenloft board game.

You can get updates from people who are really there by checking the #ddxp hashtag on Twitter.