You are currently browsing capuchincaptions's articles.
Good Sunday Afternoon. Here are some sweet treats to enjoy from the Forgotten Realms! Enjoy!
Zezir Zucchini Bread
Directions:
Sift together all dry ingredients in a very large bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl. Once incorporated fold wet items into the large bowl holding the dry ingredients. Gently fold in the zucchini 2 cups at a time. Bake in large bread pans (should produce 3-4 loaves). Bake at 325 for 40-60 minutes. Center should still look slightly wet.
Elaith Craulnober’s Easy Peach Turnovers
Directions:
Drain half the can of peaches and dice into small pieces. Place in a bowl where you will add the honey, cornstarch and cinnamon. Mix well till a sauce forms around the peaches. As you pre-heat the oven prepare the biscuit rounds by stretching them out with your hands till they are about 1/4 inch thick and form circles. Place 1 tsp. of the peach mixture onto the center of the dough. Fold the dough in half and place on the greased cookie sheet. Use a fork to crimp the edges. Once they are all on the cookie sheet sprinkle with the cinnamon & sugar mix. Bake at 350 for approximately 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. These can be served with a cream cheese dipping sauce or with a simple powder sugar glaze.
The other day my husband brought two sites to my attention. These sites are based around creating personalized card decks. For instance, Go Deck Yourself, is a terrific site that allows you to create customized decks you can print.
Go Deck Yourself also has pregenerated decks that fit with certain settings and adventures, such as Keep on the Shadowfell. The cards for the adventure contained quests that could be found in the module.
Another terrific site for creating power cards is DnD Italia. This one allows you to create the cards and has a spot on them where you can include all of your bonuses so that you don’t have to reference other resources while you are playing and keeps you from possibly missing something. This site also has a forum as well as a gallery of images.
So, now that you have these cards what do you do with them? Here are my suggestions…
Try incorporating randomized decks into your adventures. The GM would be in charge of the decks but even they wouldn’t know what was necessarily coming next.
For instance you could have decks labeled as following:
Major Quests: This would be the main reason your party was heading out to do something heroic. It would still be the GM’s responsibility to help lay out the path and create some of the story but it also allows for a sense of really not knowing what was coming next.
Minor Quests: This deck would give those small tasks such as helping to find a lost dog or child but while still in the middle of following through with the Major Quest. It could also be used to help flesh out the Major Quest and provide ‘clues’ along the way.
Random Encounters: Is exactly what it says. “Your party is camping by the fireside in a dark forest. You hear rustling in the leaves. One member of your party spots a large bear wandering nearby.” The players then have to choose whether or not to pursue the bear, try to hide, etc.
Treasure: Once an encounter is finished the players can begin to search the area then the GM can use these cards randomly determine what is found. And depending on the difficulty of the encounter it may be worth more than 1 Treasure card.
The great part about incorporating decks is that they can be used and adapted by multiple game systems. While looking into these sites I found it very easy to imagine their use from Savage Worlds to D&D to Star Wars to d20 Modern and even games like Serenity and Stargate.
The possibilities are endless. Next time you are looking for something new to add to your game, whatever it may be, try some cards… you never know what you may get 
Two nights ago I was the Dungeonatrix of my first D&D game ever. It was incredible. Overall, I feel it went very smoothly. There were some small hiccups but nothing that completely stalled the flow of the game. I had the table set and ready to go before any of my players arrived. I even made sure they each had a complete set of dice to play with 
We began with Encounter 1 which was supposed to be a skill challenge… though I chose to adapt it to being more of a traditional Role Playing information gathering session. Two of my three players had never played an RPG. Therefore, I didn’t feel that in addition to explaining the basic rules it would be conducive to also include a skill challenge fresh out of the gate.
They did well. By Encounter 2: Cavern Entrance, they were ready to fight. They skillfully battled two Orc Wardens and two Cultist Eyeblades. They even retrieved the Tongueworm and it was claimed by my husband who was playing 3 of the 5 pregenerated characters.
Encounter 3 was a bit of a lull but they were keen enough to ask questions about the Hall of Living Words and successfully uncovered its secrets. The trap in Encounter 4 was semi-successful though it did pose a bit of a hassle. One of the characters did turn on his group and that created some interesting effects. Though they did disarm the glyph using a small skill challenge.
Encounter 5: The Baleful Eye was very smooth too. My only complaint with these was the actual set-up in the module. There are several places in this encounter and the one following that refer to “any PC who speaks Deep Speech can understand…” yet none of the pregenerated character sheets included PCs who could. Therefore, I just changed some things around to make it so that at least one could. I think this encounter felt a bit epic. As the PCs rounded the corner they came face to face with 8 Cult Fantatics, a Dolgaunt Acolyte and an Orc Warden. Not to mention the Baleful Eye itself who they disarmed quite expertly!
We stopped once we finished Encounter 6: The Blood of Khyber. At this point they had battled 4 Dolgrim Warriors and decided to take a rest next to the pool before carrying on. And since we had been playing for approximately 4 hours it also seemed a good time to quit for the night.
Once I got into it the flow seemed to be there. Besides the few times stopping to reference or explain rules it went without much of a hitch!
My husband, who has been a GM since he was 16, gave me an overall grade of B+. To be honest I was very pleased with that. The two new players who were with us were excited to come back and finish the last four encounters in the game. They also said nice things about how it had gone when they were all at work the next day. My husband sent me the following e-mail to give me some feedback:
I’ve been getting an assessment from the guys about how the game went last night. Here’s what they thought.
Forster liked it, but said that once he realized how the game ran, he was disappointed at how simple his character was. He wants a more complicated character to play. In the next session, I may even give him another one of the characters I was playing. He’s very interested in playing again.
Croft really enjoyed it. So much so that he wants Stephanie to play. He told her “it’s pretty much like a board game”. He thinks she’d enjoy it if she gave it a try. He is also looking forward to the next game.
Thought you should know!
This makes me feel good and I am more than excited to finish our adventure this Thursday! Yay!
A truly incredible term. I wish I could say that I thought of it… but alas I did not. Dungeonatrix is courtesy of PVP online.
Their series this week has come at a truly perfect and clandestine time for me. This Friday I will be hosting my first game as the Dungeon Master. How do I feel about this???
In short, I am terrified!
I will be running the free module from Wizard’s, Khyber’s Harvest. I have read the booklet several times. I have scoured the pregenerated characters. I have my tiles and miniatures ready. Still, though, I am shaking in my Dungeonatrix boots.
Initially I was going to be running this adventure for my husband and one of the other regulars from our group. I was fully comfortable with this. But as these things go, before I knew it 3 more players have joined our table. One is a guy who has never played and 2 others who have extensive table time but have never met me.
Stepping out and into bigger shoes is interesting to say the least. Truth be told, I have been having my husband look at bits here and there that I haven’t been so sure about. He’s been a good help in letting me know what to do.
I will definitely post after I run this adventure. At night when I dream I am an incredible DM. The game is flawless and the players are intrigued.
On the other hand, what I pray for when I am awake is that I simply don’t suck. Oh and that there is enough beer to push us all through if I do 
How about all of you…. Do you remember running that first game? How long had you been a player before you were the DM? How was the experience? Good? Bad?? Indifferent??? I’d love to hear any sage wisdom all of you may have too.
Best wishes to me… and to my players!
Throughout the week I have been busily posting my ideas/characters for a Savage World game based on the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer.
Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. Tonight I am hoping to run a one shot game using those characters for my husband.
Therefore, you all can look forward to my review of the game within the next few days. I am truly loving the versatility of this system. There are so many different options to be had.
I hope you all have enjoyed the posts and if you did or want more pre-generated characters for Twilight… let me know… I would be more than happy to do it. It was a great opportunity to create some of the most well known characters such as Charlie Swan, Bella Swan (as a human), Bella Swan (as a vampire) and of course Edward Cullen.
Good Friday Morning!
Today’s character will be Bella as a vampire. I am laying it out in a simple format that can be found in the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook.
Name: Bella Cullen
Veteran ~ Human
Attributes: Agilitiy d8; Smarts d10; Spirit d6; Strength d12; Vigor d10
Skills: Taunt d8; Persuasion d10; Driving d6; Knoweldge d8; Intimidation d8; Fighting d8; Stealth d8
Pace 24; Parry 6; Charisma 4; Toughness 9
Hinderances: Distinctive Appearance (minor); Loyal (minor);
Edges: Arcane Background – Superpowers: Undead; Superior Strength; Speed
Hightened Senses: Eagle Eye; Tracking
Leaping: Vertical 12ft; Horizontal 24 ft
Toughness; Super Attribute (+1 Spirit); Negation (Psychic Powers); Strong Willed
Attractive; Very Attractive
Cash: $500.00
Now here is a little background about Bella Cullen if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies:
- Appears to be 19 years old and will stay that age
- Married to Edward Cullen
- Have a half human/half vampire child together
- Does not, nor does his family, drink the blood of humans. Only animals.
- Has the ability to cancel out psychic effects and act as a shield for others
- Extremely Rich
- Extremely strong willed
- More than willing to fight for her family
- Forms a peace between the warewolves and vampires in Forks, Washington
- Extremely attractive
A few notes about this character. A few of the Edges I chose came from the Necessary Evil campaign setting book. I did not use the Vampire Edge in Necessary Evil as it would have applied some facets to the character that do not fit with the series. It worked out much better to use the Undead Edge and expand from there. It would also be beneficial to take Bella to the next level and give her Edges such as Rich/Filthy Rich as this is also a major points in the series.
Good Thursday Morning!
Today’s character will be Edward. I am laying it out in a simple format that can be found in the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook.
Name: Edward Cullen
Veteran ~ Human
Attributes: Agilitiy d8; Smarts d10; Spirit d8; Strength d12; Vigor d8
Skills: Climbing d8; Driving d8; Fightin d8; Survival d8; Stealth d8; Tracking d10; Notice d6
Pace 24; Parry 6; Charisma 4; Toughness 9
Hinderances: Distinctive Appearance (minor); Loyal (minor); Code of Honor (major)
Edges: Arcane Background – Superpowers: Undead; Superior Strength; Speed
Hightened Senses: Eagle Eye; Tracking
Leaping: Vertical 12ft; Horizontal 24 ft
Toughness; Mind Reading; Super Attribute (+1 Spirit); Jack of All Trades
Attractive; Very Attractive
Cash: $500.00
Now here is a little background about Edward Cullen if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies:
- Appears to be 19 years old though his age is closer to 109
- Lives with the Cullen Family. Including Dr. Carlisle Cullen
- The Cullen famil is actually a Vampire clan
- Does not, nor does his family, drink the blood of humans. Only animals.
- Extremely Rich
- Loves to drive fast and expensive cars
- The boyfriend of Bella Swan
- Has the ability to read the minds of all those around him EXCEPT for Bella
- Extremely attractive
A few notes about this character. A few of the Edges I chose came from the Necessary Evil campaign setting book. I did not use the Vampire Edge in Necessary Evil as it would have applied some facets to the character that do not fit with the series. It worked out much better to use the Undead Edge and expand from there. It would also be beneficial to take Edward to the next level and give him Edges such as Rich/Filthy Rich as this is also a major points in the series.
Good Wednesday Morning!
Today’s character will be Bella. I am laying it out in a simple format that can be found in the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook.
Name: Bella Swan
Novice ~ Human
Attributes: Agilitiy d4; Smarts d8; Spirit d8; Strength d4; Vigor d6
Skills: Notice d10; Persuasion d8; Driving d6; Knowledge d6; Investigation d8
Pace 6; Parry 2; Charisma 0; Toughness 5
Hinderances: Quirk: Clumsy
Edges: Luck
Cash: $500.00
Now here is a little background about Bella Swan if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies:
- Daughter of Police Chief Charlie Swan
- Has lived with her mother since her parent’s divorce; until her Sophomore year of high school
- Works at the local outdoor/recreation store
- Until living in Forks has resided in Arizona
- Does not have a cell phone
- Is a caretaker; especially to her father whom she always cooks for
- Is found to be highly attractive by the boys at her school
- Becomes the girlfriend of Edward Cullen
- Drives an old red pick up truck
Good Tuesday Morning!
Today’s character will be Charlie. I am laying it out in a simple format that can be found in the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook.
Name: Charlie Swan
Novice ~ Human
Attributes: Agilitiy d6; Smarts d6; Spirit d4; Strength d8; Vigor d6
Skills: Driving d6; Fighting d6; Investigation d8; Shooting d8; Tracking d6; Streetwise d4
Pace 6; Parry 2; Charisma 0; Toughness 5
Hinderances: Cautions (minor); Doubting Thomas (minor)
Edges: Command; Connections (Indian Tribe Leaders)
Cash: $500.00
Now here is a little background about Charlie Swan if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies:
- Father of Bella Swan
- Chief of Police in Forks, Washington
- Best friend of Billy the Indian Chief of the local tribe
- Has always lived in Forks
- Always carries his firearm with him but hangs it on a hook at home
- Is protective of his daughter whom has lived away from him for most of his life
- Not very sure how to deal with teenagers
- Skeptical of Bella’s boyfriend, Edward Cullen
- Does not know how to cook
- Loves to watch sports games on TV
The Twilight phenomenon has swept across the world. It started with the books by Stephanie Meyer and was quickly followed by the whirlwind film.
Personally, I love the Twilight series. Initially I was hesitant to read the books but once I did I was absolutely hooked. And though my husband didn’t read them he was so kind and willing to take me to see the movie last November. Surprisingly, he really enjoyed it.
Not only did my husband enjoy it but even some of the other gamers we play with, all men, read the series and found it highly entertaining.
This got me thinking. Why not try to, from the knowledge I had in the books, do my best to create those characters as possible PC’s?
It was tougher than I expected and I tried making them using several different game systems such as d20 Modern and Vampire the Requiem. Although they are great systems, my characters just weren’t turning out the way that I wanted them to.
Then my newfound love of Savage World crept up. Once introduced to it I simply couldn’t say enough good about it. Character creation is clean and concise and like most other good systems it’s pretty open to a myriad of campaign possibilities.
Therefore, throughout the next week I will be releasing a character from the book that should be ready to be dropped into a campaign or one shot setting. There will be Human-Bella, Vampire-Bella, Charlie (Bella’s father) and Edward Cullen.
As for campaign ideas I leave that up to you. The rules for Savage Worlds are relatively easy and if you have seen the movie or read the books I don’t imagine it would be too difficult to come up with a plot idea.
Enjoy! And let me know if anyone decides to run a Savage Twilight game. I would love to hear what you think. I am looking forward to running one myself!
