Andreas Turriff

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Diversify. In some cases, being a one-trick pony is all right (a melee fighter hits things, it’s what he does), but even a character like that should have some backup capabilities in case they are needed. For naturally more diverse archetypes, going down a single rabbit hole is usually

Gaming News

* Another entry in the Arcane Academy type of setting popularized by Harry Potter: Scarthey is a campaign setting for D&D5 and Pathfinder centering around the adventures of student and staff at the eponymous school. * N.E.W. – The SciFi RPG is getting a cousin: O.L.D. – The

Game of the Month - Deadlands

So, Deadlands. Interesting system – uses playing cards for stat generation and some game systems (magic comes to mind). Skills, merits and flaws are a pretty standard point-buy system, with fancy (read Texas slang) names for the skills and merits and flaws; skill and attribute tests seem to be target-number tests

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

When a fight breaks out, know your targets. Focus on taking down force multipliers, the enemies that can control the battlefield, extend the lifetime of their allies, make things go better for them and worse for you. At the same time, protect the healers, battlefield controllers, enablers and disablers on

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Never go into danger without some sort of plan. Even one that misses information in its conception is better than having no plan at all and making it up as one goes.

RPG News

News are slow, but it is convention season – I imagine a lot of publishers are holding back with their big news for GenCon. That said, a few things did catch my eye in the last two weeks. * Green Ronin is publishing in the Modern AGE system – they got a deal

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Adventurers are not always out there risking their lives, righting wrong, protecting the innocent. But even downtime can be used effectively – a network of allies back home means a safe place to return to. Making nice with the merchants means better prices. Equipment can be repaired and improved, skills honed…

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

People focus so much on the magical equipment they forget good craftsmanship. Rope, grappling hooks, alternative ammunition all are useful items, as are things such as alchemist’s fire, a magnifying glass and a mirror. Also, think outside the box for uses of mundane equipment.

Gaming News

This one will be short – I have not really heard of anything new and exciting going on. With one exception, apparently, another attempt is made at a Star Trek RPG, and it is currently in playtesting [http://www.modiphius.com/star-trek.html].

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

As a followup to not underestimating diplomacy, never pass up a chance to learn more of what is going on. The knowledge might not be directly applicable, but understanding the events might suggest a non-obvious means of resolving a situation.

Gaming News

* Rumor has it WotC is having someone work on a movie script. Dragonlance, or so one hears? * The World of Darkness is confusing… there seem to be three distinct timelines out there (20th anniversary edition, Chronicles of Darkness and Mind’s Eye Theater), and apparently, the new White Wolf still

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Bring booze. Lots of booze. For one, when in doubt, you are NOT drunk enough for this. For another, high-proof spirits are extremely useful as disinfectant, firestarter, solvent, cleaning agent…

Server Hardware - Finally Some Good News

I got the new mainboard in last week, and another missing part (CPU cooler, for a new mounting backplate) yesterday. Put the thing together earlier today, and lo and behold, the system boots up. Looks to be in about the state I expected it to be in, which is to

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Being careful goes a long way – but traps are unlikely to be in high-traffic areas. That door to the mess hall probably is not trapped, and neither are the ways from the barracks there. On the other hand, the places the owners of the dungeon want to protect? Those will

RPG News

* WotC seems to be teasing about Planescape (Update 2017-03-29: specifically, the re-release of the Planescape: Torment computer RPG…) * There is an officially licensed character builder system in development for D&D5 – no link as yet, but apparently, the license went to Curse gaming, of all places. * Chaosium appears to

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Adapted from an off-world strategist and philosopher of warfare:  Leaving an enemy without the option to retreat, surrender or negotiate virtually ensures there will be a fight to the last. These tend to be costly.

Technology

Server News - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good – nothing to report. Main server is still inoperable, I still think it is fixable. The bad – Any attempt at repair will be delayed by at least a week, due to manufacturer stupidity. The ugly – Got the new mainboard in yesterday. Was planning on spending part of my week

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Following up from the last time, if a confrontation is inevitable, make sure you are setting the terms. Letting an enemy play to its strength exposes you to severe danger. Put more simply, never chase a kobold into its warren if it can be helped…

Update on server

Defective server came in earlier this week. I had a chance to do some troubleshooting on it today, and am confident I have a broken mainboard on my hands (BMC does not initialize, no KVM connection, system is stuck in pre-initialization reboot loop). Thanks to the gracious donations of Axe9ar

RPG News

Just a quick summary of RPG news that caught my eye in the past month. * Starfinder core rules and initial supplements announced. Paizo is bring Pathfinder to space. * Ulisses Spiele is translating Das Schwarze Auge to English. The core rulebook and a primer for Aventuria, the default setting of the

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Never underestimate the power of diplomacy: it is often better to make friends than it is to simply assume hostility.

Server News: Server Recovery

Colocation term for the dead server expired today. I requested to be shipped the unit, but have not received an answer nor an ETA as yet. Search for a root cause is on hold until I have the box in hand.

Tabletop Adventures: BattleTech

A few weeks ago, Sylverthorne and I had the chance to play the current edition of BattleTech. For those of you not familiar, BattleTech is a wargame played on a hex grid; it is a reasonably ‘hard’ science-fiction game simulating combat between BattleMechs and their various support units. We played

Wudinar's Adventuring Tips

Watch your surroundings. A clear dungeon floor can herald as much danger as one that is overgrown and cluttered.

The Beginning of Everything

Welcome to Rondak’s personal Oracle. You’ll find news, information and fun tidbits courtesy of the staff and regulars of Rondak’s Portal, one of the oldest play-by-post gaming sites on the internet. Eventually, there will be gaming news, Rondak’s Choice awards, guest blogs, tips and tricks, system