Today I welcome several new readers from Germany and Russia with love! I hope you all find the posts something to look forward too. Several new questions for readers come to mind.

1. When are your new posts from guests going to be online?
There is a great list of excuses I have been working on but mostly since I am doing this on my own I have to schedual the interviews and get my question list together, but We should have something wonderful up starting later today.
Nina Berman, will join us and talk about her NEW FILM. Yep hurray for hollywood is something to say.
We will also have some costume information and we will talk to the guys over at Anime BONZAI!

I hope to have all this stuff up on friday as I get this together. Several nice people have offered to help, so we look forward to that.

Next week we will pick books from the stack and tell you old and new books that are good to read. If you know someone that has a book that wants a review well it takes about six weeks for me to read a book and a day to write up the review.
Until then I will see you on the flip side.
Michael 

So I am watching game of thrones, it's like a weird feeling. I met RRMARTIN in last years World Con. In Reno NV. I never read one of his books. HBO makes a great show. This show isn't about magic or dragons really, it has a touch, but it's more about people. Lots of sex, and that is a lot about people too. I am up to season 2 ep 2 just starting. It teaches a lot of lessons that people need to know.

DB Wies also writes in this show. I am watching it and thinking to myself what are the books like. I look at the stack of books and think, wow that is a BIG time comitment. So isn't everything worth doing? Life is to live and for now there is some thirteen more hours to go through.

OH the FORTH OF JULY!
Yep it's HOT DOGS and HAMBURGERS>
FIREWORKS in just a few minutes. I guess someone made a trip to WYOMING> I can see it...:)
Away it's getting dark around here soon. I hope everyone has a FUN TIME>
Till tomorrow.
Just Checked...this little blog has made some $2.43 o the blog WOO HOO.
See you tomorrow. Remember to click an ad for us, if you can.
Michael

I got together with several people to ad content to this blog. Hey I am lazy enough to know that I need help. Searching for new sites sounds and pics for geek-dom is really hard. So who do I got? I got some cool science fiction people to talk about the books they have. I got some really really hot looking girls to talk about the movies they are making. I got people to talk about the costumes they are making.

I know July fourth is on now. I usually would play RPG's with friends. I just am not going to be close enough to get there from here. So I will write and wait for the fireworks to work and hope for the best.

I sat down with my Pathfinder books today. I looked at the system. I noticed something. One round is six seconds of action. All actions are assumed to take place simultaneously, but in reality they take place in order of inititive. SO....roll high! get your d20 and 1 in 20 chance you will roll a 20. Now the chances that 2 people roll a 20 is 2x20 or forty to one. I am going to get my math expert to verify this...but going first in a gun fight means he who shoots first shoots LAST. If you are surprised you are flat footed and no dexiterty you have will help you. If you have a touch attack and attack someone that you surprise they don't get to count the armor OR SHIELD they wear. The attack roll you have to make is 10. so you think you got a fity fifty chance...Well the rules say that if you roll a one you miss NO MATTER WHAT. 20 means you hit no matter what. so the only way most people miss is 1 in 20 or a five percent chance to miss no matter what. (Unless its me and you have to 'discipline' the dice with a hammer to show them that I mean business.)


Ok you think it's a coin toss on surprise but take in account that it's your strength+roll+base attack roll +size mod=result. In this case the bigger you are the harder it is for you to hit something. So a halfling gets to start with a +1 for size. Ok but most of the time it's a medium on medium fight. In hand to hand. Your chances of of getting surpise this way are tough but doable. Now take a longer distace view. Ranged attack. With Range you can set up ambushes. It's tough to stop someone attacking from surprise this way. They see you they know your comming, and they are ready for you. It's BASE +Dex+ size modifier+ range penalty.  Also I would say if they are set up and waiting I give the edge to the bushwackers and disadvantage to the bush wack-ee. Say it's 10%  so you give +2 to initiative to attackers and -2 to defenders. Doesn't seem like much but that's an ABS or absolute vodka value of 4 swing. Twenty percentage points. Now do the inititive. If you under 30 feet with a bow, well let's hope they aren't using poison...I bet they are if they are ready for you. Maybe it's just drugs. Remember if you get surprise on someone they don't get to use dex. If all you have to do is get a ranged touch they don't get shield armor natural armor...it's as good as it gets. So spell casters take note always get the drop on people. I suggest that you always take the improved initiative feat to get that +4. Sleeping enemies rarely wake up. This is because a sword to the throat to a helpless enemy and a kind word is better then a kind word.

Shoot first shoot often and never let them get up. You can't question dead people(well you can but it's harder) but you get to live to talk about it. 

So you want to go adventuring, IT TAKES A VILLAGE.
Now you might think that things are easy on the western villages. As the adverage person there is a king that you never see and a lord which you do. You pay taxes to the local knight and he protects you from all the bad things that can happen to you, right? Well in the village is a the tavern. The church, the mill and other things that farmers need to make a life. If you want to have alcohol you don't always need to go to town but it's where you meet to talk.. There is no TV or internet most people cant read, so if you want to know what is happening there is a town crier.  If a cow goes missing there is a bailiff who is the local law. Justice in Medivel times is very quick. There really is no appeal process for most people. If you are going to have a wedding you need to see the tailor. Most people can not afford more then substance living.  A horse or mule was a god send. The land people worked was often a local lords. People were basically the property of the lord that owned the land.  People lived in tight knit communities and so therefore didn't talk to stranger much.  This means that people you know even though you may or may not like they you tend to trust more then people you just meet. People are highly superstitious and dont think of coincidence so if a bad thing happens and a stranger comes to town people can blame the stranger as a instigator or a witch!

In a world with magic there is always a reason for things happening. Having a local healer is valueable. If you have a cleric or a druid bless your crops and it works that is a direct result of a gods power. If there is a raid on a village then the gods must be angry with the village. A young man goes missing in the forest maybe the Fey people got him. Fortune or miss fortune is everywhere and there is a reason for it.

There are a few people in the village that are in every town. The village idot and the village drunk. Larger towns have beggars, and the town gossip. Adventures need these people sometimes so don't forget them. Prostitution is also everywhere. All sorts of drugs are available. Where drugs and prostitution exist so do pimps. Houses of illrepute and many other black market activities. Crime is where your a countries enemies live and do things for money. Smugglers often are the key contact for those that would do harm to a kingdom, slavers are not far behind. Are slaves leagle in your village if they are the costs of labor go down. Things matter.

Quick questions you need to answer for your village.
How many people are in the village.
Who runs the place.
How many shops does it have>
WHo owns those shops.
How big is the village in a miles?
Who is responcilbe to protect the village and or police it?
How is punishment met out to offenders>
How much money does the village how totally
How many magic items does a village have
Does this village have a temple> Who do the villagers worship? Is the temple alien to the villagers?
Does the village have wall? If so is there a curphew time?
What is the purpose of the village>doe it do trade is there a mill or some other reason it exists?
Is there something the village needs? How badly?

Well there is the monday adventure update. On WENS DAY we will be doing costumes...YES GENTLEMEN TO YOUR SEWING MACHINES....

Ok On the top is a knock out I got from facebook. And the lower picture is Nina Bergman who we are going to interview shortly.  Nina is a recording artist and in films. If you have any questions please post them up.

Maps, and handouts.

Ok Sunday. I got caught up in the real world such as it is. Ok I got caught up on earth when I should have been working on the blog and what we call the right things to do. I have to learn to post up the videos today if I can. If anyone know a bit about this then please share the info. I started to look at map generators. One that has positive reviews is CC3 or Campaign Cartographer. It works. 


You need to have a map to make a campaign. The very least you should start in a town that your adventurers can call a home. What motivates anyone more then the people they love. You are where you come from in many ways and in RPG it is important to have a place that is home to everyone in the group. It also makes a neat trigger for something to do when the characters are thinking about what to do next. Handing out a map for everyone to see might not be what the Players characters have but it helps for what the players need. Just like figures help the players see where they are and what they are doing in battle, having a map helps the players decided to go to places and do thing. Sitting around a table is a lot easier when everyone in the party has goals and dreams. Maps provide the place the characters can go to and do. Now you can spend $20 on a set of adventures but make sure they are on a map that you have somewhere, that way players can go back to places they didn't do so well at OR they can do many things that you may never have thought of. When ever you sit down to play you have to remember that your plan is expected to last about 10 seconds until the players do something else and take your careful plan and throw it out the window. Your job is the world, not to control or bead the players. As players spend time in dungeons that gives you time to fill in the map even more. Knowing that your Paladin wants that holy sword makes it so you can build someplace that has it.  Wizards always want new spells, Clerics want to convert the masses. A ranger wants to hunt his special enemy. If you don't have a map for them to look at they don't know where to go what to do what to argue about. If players know what they are going to do they know that they need each other to make it the better the game sessions can be. 


You can start with about 20 miles radius on a hex or grid map. Every square is about 1 square mile.  How far a person walking every three or four days should be about where a town can be. If you have a large sheet of butcher paper make a huge map. This is the outline.  I like to draw rivers and roads randomly and put other features like mountains and other features on it. Mountains make great places to put towns on each sides of roads. Look for key points for movement. There are few ways of moving large troops by flying so see rivers as highways and determine which way the rivers run. Remember you don't have to be perfect or even good drawing just that you have details in the map. You can fix it later on a computer or have a freind help you with it.


Well that's for Sunday make up class, I got to go but HAVE FUN!