Warrior, Rogue and Mage

I recently downloaded a pdf RPG from DriveThruRPG called Warrior, Rogue and Mage, and it looks to be a great game. It is a rules light, classless system with game mechanics that use dice roll checks based upon attributes, skills, and talents. There are three attributes, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, which allow for a flexibility in character design and development not found in many games. Characters are fluid and free, not confined to classes.

Best of all, the rules and first supplement are FREE! You've got nothing to lose by checking it out. However, free doesn't mean cheap in this case, the pdf is wonderfully illustrated with top notch artwork. A second, background free, printer friendly version is also included.

To become familiar with the game mechanics, I plan on running either a random solo adventure using the solo dungeon matrixes from The Strategic Review (D&D), or possibly a run through Arena of Khazan (T&T). I've already created a character and am eager to get started. Once I've learned the game, I'll dig into the included setting notes to design a GM adventure and find a small group to play it.

You can download the Rule Book, as well as the first supplement for free here:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=3313

Monsters! Monsters!

I ordered a reprint of an old school pen and paper rpg called Monsters! Monsters! published by Flying Buffalo. It is the 'flip side' of Tunnels & Trolls, fantasy rpg from the monster's perspective. Cool, get to kick some adventurer butt!



I also ordered The Toughest Dungeon In The World, an old Judges Guild solo adventure usable with either Tunnels & Trolls or Monsters! Monsters! I found it on ebay, as it is now out of print.





Both were written by Ken St. Andre, the Trollgod himself.

I've been wanting this game, so I'm pretty excited. I also noticed the latest issue of TrollsZine (#3) has a gm adventure for use with Monsters! Monsters! Sweet deal!


I'll post some comments after I check it out.


In the meantime, to order Monsters! Monsters!, visit: http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/mm.htm

For a free copy of TrollsZine #3, as well as free Tunnels & Trolls rules, visit: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=2238

My latest cinquain poem

My next cinquain, titled Unwritten, will be published in the Sept 5, 2010 issue of Every Day Poets. To subscribe to EDP, visit: http://www.everydaypoets.com/

New Cinquain at Every Day Poets

My latest cinquain, entitled Empty Vessels, was published 7/31/10 at Every Day Poets. Check it out here: http://www.everydaypoets.com/empty-vessels-by-paul-ingrassia/

French Poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

Today I received a copy of Arthur Rimbaud Complete Works, translated by Paul Schmidt, I had ordered from ebay. Very exciting, his prose poetry is among the best ever written, and his is the classic, tragic story of the decadent, explosive poet. Strangely enough, most of his literary output was created before the tender age of 18, and he abandoned creative writing altogether before he was 21.

I have read some of his work before, and I particularly enjoyed 'A Season In Hell', arguably his best collection of prose poetics, and widely believed to be his creative swan song, his final writings. A brief excerpt from 'A Season In Hell', from the piece entitled 'Second Delirium: The Alchemy Of The Word':

"I became a fabulous opera. I saw that everyone in the world was doomed to happiness. Action isn't life; it's merely a way of ruining a kind of strength, a means of destroying nerves. Morality is water on the brain.

It seemed to me that everyone should have had several other lives as well. This gentleman doesn't know what he's doing; he's an angel. That family is a litter of puppy dogs. With some men, I often talked out loud with a moment from one of their other lives - that's how I happened to love a pig.

Not a single one of the brlliant arguments of madness - the madness that gets locked up - did I forget; I could go through them all again, I've got the system down by heart.

It affected my health. Terror loomed ahead. I would fall again and again into a heavy sleep, which lasted several days at a time, and when I woke up, my sorrowful dreams continued. I was ripe for fatal harvest, and my weakness led me down dangerous roads to the edge of the world, to the Cimmerian shore, the haven of whirlwinds and darkness."

Anticipating the arrival of the book, I had Netflix deliver a copy of 'Total Eclipse', starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Arthur Rimbaud. The movie (which I haven't seen yet) apparently details Rimbaud's relationship with poet Paul Verlaine. I am looking forward to watching the movie and then diving into the book, hopefully enhancing the experience of each.

Trow

Hidden away, deep in his mound, away from the eyes of man, he watches, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, sometimes numb. Other times, he creeps out from his mound, a stunted and twisted thing, into the shadows...

Sometimes he dances in the gusts along the cliff's edge - other times his knife dances along a pale throat. Sometimes, he just rides his bulwand steed, prancing upon the breeze. Fingers flying across a fiddle may capture his soul, sometimes from afar - and other times he grabs the fiddler and holds him close; locked-up, for a year-and-a-day. Kept.

Sometimes his eyes burn into you from the darkness, and your soul shudders.

Someday you may open your eyes, and he will be there, and his knife may dance with you.


~ Paul Ingrassia


http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/trows/

New Cinquain Published

My latest cinquain poem, There and Back Again, has been published at Sketchbook. You can read it here: http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook5-3MayJun2010/Sketchbook_5-3_MayJune_2010_I_Paul_Ingrassia.htm.

My next cinquain, Empty Vessels, will be appearing in the July 31 issue of Every Day Poets. An excerpt from the EDP July Table of Contents announcement:

"We start the month going Loco with A J Smith and we have poems from lots of favourite EDP poets this month including Richard O’Donnell, Angel Zapata, Paul Ingrassia, Jennifer Stakes, Rumjhum Biswas, Fehmida Zakeer, Guy Belleranti – I could go on! Hey, it’s a going to be a great month at EDP!"

EDP publishes one poem daily, delivered to your email inbox. To make sure you do not miss out on a single poem by talented poets from around the world, subscribe at: http://www.everydaypoets.com/. If you plug my last name (Ingrassia) in the search box, you will find all my works that have been published at EDP, as well as some other posts in which I am mentioned or referenced. Additionally, one of my cinquain has been selected for inclusion in the first Best of EDP anthology, which should be released soon.