Spes Magna Games

The Gaatji (gah’-ti-jee) dwell in the same watery environs as the Fombui, but unlike those strange, peaceful creatures, the Gaatj are fearsome worshippers of chaos. These monsters build crude villages out of rocks and coral, constructing their squat buildings so that they clump together, interconnected and maze-like. A Gaatj appears to be a bizarre sort of squid, but with two “feathered” tentacles and numerous lateral fins projecting from either side of its oblong body. Its bulbous eyes project from the skull on squat stalks. An adult Gaatj measures between 5-7 feet long from skull to tail with tentacles a foot or so shorter than overall body length.

A Gaatj attacks with its tentacles. After a tentacle hits, it automatically does 1d8 points of damage per round instead of the initial 1d4. Also, there is a 20% chance that the tentacle pinions one of the victim’s limbs (roll randomly for left/right arms and legs to see which is immobilized). Gaatji cast both Magic-User spells (3/1) and Cleric spells (2). They are also vulnerable to electricity-based attacks, suffering a -2 on their saving throws and taking +25% damage from such effects.

Swords & Wizardry

Hit Dice: 3+3
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Attacks: 2 tentacles (1d4) (see below)
Saving Throw: 14
Special: Constriction, spells, vulnerable to electricity
Move: 3/12 (swimming)
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Tags: monsters, Swords & Wizardry

Well, the Chance Family Vacation 2013 to Canyon Lake, Texas, has ended with no casualties. Huzzah! During the week, my son Christopher (a.k.a. Giant Boy) and I took a few hours to playtest Sine Nomine Publishing‘s Solo Heroes. Kevin Crawford has authored another winner. Here’s the short version: If you want to run old-school fantasy one-on-one, download these rules.

Here’s part 1 of the review, where we talk a bit about the PDF:

Here’s part 2 of the review, where we talk about how the rules worked during game play using the short adventure included in the PDF.

Tags: game play, Sine Nomine Publishing, Summer Vacation

Well, summer time is here, and I’m off until mid-August. I enjoy not working and still getting a paycheck (even though that’s not quite true since I do have curricula to write/update, professional development books to read, a few meetings to attend, et cetera, but you get the idea). The wife decided that my son Giant Boy and I needed to reorganize the library. Over at my Facebook page, there’re a few pictures of the progress. (Feel free to like me while you’re there.)

During the stacking, hauling, and sorting, I came across the map shown in the picture to the above right. (Click to embiggen if that’s what you’re into.) Years ago, somewhere around the 6th-7th grade (around 35 years ago), my friend Fred and I found this map in a desk at school along with a raggedy copy of the OD&D blue book. I have no idea where the blue book went, but I still have the map, which I refound during the library project.

Fred and I started gaming shortly thereafter. We lured a number of friends into gaming as well. If nothing else, it kept us from the running streets (well, not kept from entirely, but moreso than otherwise). Those gaming buddies — Little Greg, Big Greg, Other Mark, Ben, Dan, Fred’s father Big Fred, et cetera — are pretty much all gone now. Big Fred was killed by speeding city truck in the late 80s. Little Greg, Big Greg, and Ben seem to have just dropped off the face of the earth. Dan lives out of town and can’t travel, but I’m not sure why that keeps me from driving up to visit him. I think Other Mark lives in Austin, Texas. Fred died suddenly of an aneurysm several years ago.

It’s that last loss that weighs most heavily. Fred was my brother, and his mom (also deceased a short time after Fred) was my other mother. There’s not a day goes by I don’t wish he were still with us. Reorganizing the library was a bittersweet job. Nearly every gamebook, every character sheet, every folder has some connection to Fred.

The reorganization is mostly done. I ended up tossing a lot of paper: old notes about adventures, old characters sheets that I’ll never use again, photocopies of player handouts, et cetera. Along the way, I found some forgotten treasures, like the map in this blogpost.

It’s fitting, in a way. Most gaming involves getting the treasure. More gold, better armor, a sword with one more plus, and so forth. Those imaginary treasures aren’t quite metaphors, but, then again, maybe they are. There’re memories attached to those tabletop adventures and, as age increases, those memories gradually become most of what we have left of old friends and old times.

Tags: dungeon crawls

This morning, I watched 2011’s execrable Conan the Barbarian. In a perfectly just universe, those responsible for this film would never have been permitted to make the movie, or, at a minimum, they would have to refund the 113 headache-inducing minutes I spent suffering through the cinematic excrement. On the plus side, Conan’s fight against those ninja sand monsters was kind of spiffy. So, in that vein:

The kummuai inhabit desert regions, lurking at the edges of inhabited places. They haunt the outskirts of towns and the routes between oases. In its natural form, a kummua is invisible and incorporeal. They cannot affect material creatures or objects in this form, but they are also immune to almost all attacks. Cleric spells and undead turning can affect a kummua in its natural form, assuming the monster can be detected.

All kummuai hate living creatures and seek to destroy them. To do so, a kummua “possesses” a quantity of sand and earth taken directly from the ground. It shapes this material into vessel resembling an emaciated humanoid body endowed with remarkable speed and agility. On the round a kummua forms a vessel, it can make only one attack and move only at half speed. After that, the kummua moves at full speed and makes two claw attacks per round. On any round after it forms its vessel, a kummua may dissolve its vessel and instantly form a new vessel from suitable materials within 60 feet of the kummua’s original position. A kummua who chooses this tactic may make only one attack and move only at half speed, either before or after it dissolves and reforms elsewhere.

A kummua whose vessel is destroyed (reduced to 0 hit points) must make a saving throw to avoid having its natural form destroyed as well. If the saving throw is successful, that kummua cannot reform a new vessel until (4d4 minus HD) nights have passed.

Swords & Wizardry

Hit Dice: 1-3
Armor Class: 5 [14] (1 HD); 4 [15] (2 HD); 3 [16] (3 HD)
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4 plus additional damage equal to HD)
Saving Throw: 17 (1 HD); 16 (2 HD); 14 (3 HD)
Special: form vessel, immune to sleep and charm spells, invisible/incorporeal natural form
Move: 12 (15 flying in natural form)
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 3/60 (1 HD); 4/120 (2 HD); 5/240 (3 HD)

Tags: Conan, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

I established Spes Magna Games roundabout December 2009. Between then and now, I’ve written and published almost 20 gaming PDFs, mostly for The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. On average, I guesstimate I’ve made about $25 a month from the sale of my PDFs. That’s not a lot; I’m in no danger of retiring early, but that’s okay. I run Spes Magna Games because I love the hobby.

Those of you who follow this site know that I teach at a small, open-enrollment public charter school in Katy, Texas. I’ve been there three years. Aristoi Classical Academy strives mightily to offer tuition-free the sort of classical education normally available only in private schools charging several thousand dollars a year per student. As far as I know, we’re the only public school in Texas that offers a classical education.

A few years before I started teaching at Aristoi, the previous administration irresponsibly took out way too much debt in the form of bonds. The school’s debt situation the year before last was bad enough that the Texas Education Agency could’ve shut us down. This year we’re no longer in danger of being closed because of bad debt. Our current administration has worked heroically, and this year our debt has been reduced by about $1.4 million dollars (approximately half of the overall debt). We did this by cutting some salaries, freezing others, streamlining costs, eliminating overhead, consolidating jobs, et cetera. About a half a million dollars was saved through these efforts.

The state education commission has been so impressed by Aristoi’s financial and educational accomplishments that we have been approved to expand our enrollment from 325 to 440 students for the upcoming school. We’ve also been green-lighted to add a 9th grade class for the 2014-2015 school. To fully meet the needs of our incoming, larger student body, we need more space. Aristoi’s school board and administration have a plan to grow the school’s facilities.

Part of that plan includes raising $550,000 for construction and purchasing adjacent, undeveloped land.

At Aristoi, we don’t teach to a state test. We educate the whole child, mind, body, and spirit, and seek to fill the students’ hearts with great tales of heroes such as Jason and Argonauts, Don Quixote, George Washington, Stuart Little, Sherlock Holmes, and Frederick Douglass, to name just a few. I know classical education works better than traditional public education for many students because I’ve seen the difference it can make in the lives of children, including my own.

I’ve been a gamer longer than I’ve been a teacher, and I’ve also seen the hearts of gamers in action. We gamers know the value of education, the importance of friends, and about the wonders of imagination that can be inspired by great stories. So, here I am, asking for donations. But I’m not forgetting the lesson I learned from First Lieutenant Freehill while I was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I’m not asking anyone to do something I’m not willing to do.

Spes Magna Games has donated $50 to Aristoi’s indiegogo campaign. I’m asking you to donate one-tenth of that amount just one time. Help us at Aristoi inspire our students to aspire toward lives of heroic virtue.

Thanks for your time and attention.