Sunday 14 May 2017

The Gamemaster awards two extra skill points

The GM is kind; the GM awards two extra skill points.

There never seem to be enough skill points in the game for everything I want to do as a player.

Granted, I want to try some pretty strange things as a player. One of my characters wanted to make his own weapons. A second character wanted to build up the Profession: Gambler skill. Yet something like Perception gets used in almost every session, but not every session has gambling.

Now, as a GM, I have an opportunity to change all of that for my players when I run my campaign.

In the character guide I put together, A PC Guide to County Playground: The Grand Grind, the newest version provides a boon to my players:

I intend to place more emphasis on skills and contacts. Each player is given two bonus skill points at first level; these have to go into a Profession skill, a Craft skill, or the Survival skill. The intent here is twofold: First, the Profession or Craft should help "round out" who the character is and what the character is interested in, making for a more interesting character. Second, the GM will use those interests as plot hooks. For example, a character with ranks in Profession (Sailor) will know other sailors; the GM will use those other sailors as plot hooks.

To get two bonus skill points at first level in PC Gen, go to "Feats & Abilities" > Misc > GM Awards and choose "+1 Skill Rank" twice

A screen capture of setting this value in PCGen version 6.0 is shown below:

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Friday 12 May 2017

Battle Stove Spectacular

I am over the moon with excitement to announce that my newest novella Battle Stove Spectacular is available on both iBooks and Amazon for purchase.

Battle Stove Spectacular: Description

Battle Stove Spectacular is a short novel of adventure, comedy, fantasy and event planning.

Years of cultivation and negotiation are about to bear fruit. To seal a treaty between the fieldfolk of the Dominion of Cede and his people the elves, the Captain-King of the flying castle Battle Scar asks the greatest chef in the world of Poem to prepare a banquet. A Spectacular banquet. But the old king dies, and young king Corys has other plans for the elves....

Who will help Chef, and who will oppose him? The silver-tongued maƮtre d' who disappears when you need him most? The shy gnome who loves complicated toys? The dwarf with every reason to hate the elves? A demon named Sunshine?

How will Chef defuse the tension and complete the banquet? With skill, friends, and spectacular style!

Background to the creation of the novel

I first announced this title in my 2016-12-16 blog post "How To Build A County Playground: One Book At A Time." I started the work much earlier, in fact; in March of 2016, while I was trying to find a way to avoid completing course work for a BCIT course in iOS Application Development. (Still completed the course, got my 'A').

The bigger truth, though, is that this work has been mulling around in my head for a long time, along with nineteen or so other stories. Most of these form the background to a Pathfinder Role Playing Game campaign setting I run for my friends, called County Playground. My intent is to sew the best twenty of those stories into The Twenty Tales of County Playground.

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Thursday 11 May 2017

I Support the Down Syndrome Research Foundation

For 2017, Standard Eyre Digital Services will donate one hundred percent of all profits to the Down Syndrome Research Foundation.

The staff and volunteers at the DSRF do incredible work to ensure people with Down Syndrome live full and fulfilling lives.