Like many crumbling bastions, the Ghost Tower will no longer be generating EXP fodder for online adventurers. I'm letting the moat water turn stagnant till I revise things completely, after which the popular projects here will be tucked into neat galleries. Surviving the overhaul will be the most read topics, named below in statistical order:

1 - Map Stuff: I'm keen on the Hexographer program, so my colored land masses (and castle layouts) will live on. Apparently, blog readers love posts about making stylish maps.

2 - Resource Downloads: Uploading collections isn't my thing, but I will certainly link to typefaces/music useful to gamers.

3 - Silly Heroes: My illustrated cartoons will be catalogued; funny stuff always increases your traffic. I may even bring back the Justice League spoof I did a while back.

4 - Basic Classes: One day I may complete a "house rule" PDF for D&D, call it "Lee's Labyrinth Literature" or such.

5 - Genre Critiques: Stanching the flow of crap from various sources will continue.

2010 projects will continue to involve publications I'm committed to, like FIGHT ON magazine. Even if this site goes defunct, any gaming merchandise I make will be distributed for review, so other blogs may note stirrings from the ghost tower...

/PORTCULLIS DROPS! GO BACK TO VILLAGE.

My regularly scheduled game day has been RPG-free for many weeks now. The GM for Warhammer has an equal love for boardgames, so there is conflict over what we "un-box" each session. At his last appearance, he wanted us to play an award-winning game by Avalon Hill, entitled Robo Rally. We wanted to play it too, at least until the demented, strategy-hobbling nature of the play sequence was revealed. I could tell things would not go well just looking at the game map, which is fraught with obstacles and instant death traps. The player is tasked with racing his robot to three goals, a resolution that will only result from random luck or being very familiar with the game. Every turn, the robots move and shoot, but only accurately if the right action cards are drawn and your machine isn't damaged. So, players spend a few hours failing to keep the situation from plummeting into chaos, and start to see the logic in robot suicide. If this game was about fragging yourself or others, I think I'd give it another chance.

Not that I was doubting where I'd end up after a buffet of D&D clone sampling, but I've pounded down my iron spike in the Labyrinth Lord camp. My old-skool allegiance is shown in the right-hand column, with a big advertisement, stolen (ironically) from the pages of KNOCKSPELL. Really, I just liked the ingenious art by Mr. Mullen; porcine orcs and gaunt trolls can't be beat (please don't send the 10HD Lawyers). Excusing my slight bias towards alliterative titles, I didn't pick Swords & Wizardry because of some stated rules therein, like attribute bonuses that only stretch to +1. Some other products, like Castles & Crusades, could not compete with the free core rules the aforementioned offer. There has to be fine silver and lots of dessert on the buffet table if a publisher wants me to buy re-edited D&D in only a "dead tree" format.

Recently, a video game download site (Direct 2 Drive) offered Neverwinter Nights 2 for the bargain price of 5 bucks. My friends and I had been enthusiastic about an update to the first generation classic, since independent developers might release free content in the form of multiplayer modules. Sadly, the price was always too high, and the reviews too negative. After attempting to play the main storyline of NWN2, I can say with conviction that I'm glad we waited for the bargain price. In a regular D&D game, you don't have to worry about bad camera angles and monsters that can shoot arrows through solid walls. Best of all, you can say, "take a hike" to every annoying henchman that you meet along the way. I think I could sell a module where your PCs get to shoot ballistae at the entire roster of egregious Neverwinter henchies. Looking back, my favorite D&D video games are the arcade ones made by CAPCOM, where your traditional team blasts (side-scrolls?) through Mystara with extreme prejudice and CLOUDKILL.

At either Chatty DM's or Chgowiz's sites, you can find the links to the PDF releases of One Page Dungeon entries. Just within the 15 foot radius of the winner's circle, you'll find the design I completed, called "Ruffthroats Rathskeller". Personally, I found the top prize winners to be less interesting than hoped for, with most of the attention-getters receiving a niche trophy. For example, the entrepreneurial kobolds selling traps out of a Lich lair in "Traps-R-Us" seemed much more fun than "Secrets of the Old City", where the "secret" is the familiar routine of brigands in the sewer and kidnapped surface dwellers. I would've voted the "Necromancer" dungeon for top spot; the graphics were excellent and it delivers on a "Dormitory of Undead Bosses" theme with nearly 40 locations. I was also surprised to see how many contestants utilized a minimum of monsters, and often the most common of them like Kobolds. Of course, the task then is to make the "basic bestiary" exciting again, through enemy antics (like running a bar) or mutation (like jungle Pteroblins).

For an upcoming game convention, I wanted to present this format of adventure. The R&D will continue after I download the full compilation of One Page Dungeons and cull through them for exciting tidbits.

In other news, I've completed my first creature for use with Mutant Future, a class of killer robot that will debut in FIGHT ON 6!