Casey G's G+ Feed

My email is caseygarske@gmail.com. happy to help! http://gmail.com

Holy shit, it's time for an Unholy Land sequel playtest!

http://www.tonymooreillustration.com/shoporiginalart/sketch-of-the-day-bebop-rocksteady

Why isn't the Danube Valley civilization mentioned in Chariots of the Gods ? Look at this thing. From over 7500 years ago. http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/danube-valley-civilisation-script-oldest-writing-world-001343 Via Winchell Chung

I love Prestosuchus so much. Back in the Triassic, when dinosaurs were in their awkward teenage years, crocodiles ran around with their legs beneath their bodies and giant t-rex heads. Originally shared by American Museum of Natural History Watch out for this ferocious ‪#‎FossilFriday‬!  Although Prestosuchus chiniquensis was a large animal with big claws and a huge head with sharp-toothed jaws, it was not a dinosaur. Instead, it is closely related to crocodylomorphs. This specimen is a reconstructed composite of several Prestosuchus specimens collected in Brazil and dating from the Late Triassic, about 210 million years ago.  Find this skeleton cast in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins:  http://bit.ly/1EUaeoq

And lo, the jale and ulfire dress sowed confusion and madness in the minds of humanity to prepare the way for the Great Olds Ones' coming...

Stupid Ability Score Thoughts I really like narrowing the classic six stats down to three. Into the Odd does Str, Dex, and Will. Owl Hoot Trail does Grit, Draw, and Wits. My own 2-Page Space does Body, Coordination, and Mind. Numenera has three stats too. Riders of the Purple Lotus doesn’t need all six stats either. I’ve been thinking about: Sand – combination of physical and mental toughness. A little guy fighting through pain is the same as a big guy shrugging something off because he’s tough. Reflexes – I’d like a more flavorful word than Dexterity or Reflexes, but whatever. Savvy – Intelligence and personality.

Tony Moore has been posting Ninja Turtles characters on FB all week. Obviously this is my favorite. http://www.tonymooreillustration.com/shoporiginalart/sketch-of-the-day-casey-jones

Awful...I can't imagine. Or worse, I can. I bought it. What's in the bundle that's cool? Shadowrun 5e Battletech RPG Low Life for Savage Worlds (always wanted to check that out) Cosmic Patrol Valiant Universe RPG There are a bunch of floor plans too. Originally shared by Ben Gerber Tabletop community - something truly terrible happened to one of our own. A charity bundle has been set up at DriveThruRPG. Please take a look, lots of good stuff there, for a very reasonable price to offer a small amount of help.  http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/145070/The-Game-Masters-Memorial-Fund-Charity-Drive-BUNDLE

Caught up on the Flash. It is so amusing to me that Clancy Brown plays General Eiling.  Spoilers… . . . . . . When Grodd dragged him off, I thought, “Well, Clancy, that’s just revenge for you shooting Grodd out the airlock on Justice League Unlimited.”

First time playing with Roll20's dynamic lighting. Neato.

Gameable.  C'mon, that's an alien base. If this was the beginning of a movie, as the probe got closer, it would suddenly go offline. Then a plucky scientist would unscramble the last transmission, showing the vague shape of an alien ship. Where's X-Com when you need them? Originally shared by NASA Dwarf planet Ceres continues to puzzle scientists as our Dawn spacecraft gets closer to being captured into orbit around the object.  The latest images from Dawn, taken nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers) from Ceres, reveal that a bright spot that stands out in previous images lies close to yet another bright area. Details: http://go.nasa.gov/1DbyQqc

Ian Williams​ hey man, that thing about Alex Marcis took me by surprise. I've never been to the Escapist website and had no idea what his day job was. I just knew I really liked ACKS and he delivered on Dwimmermount when that looked dead. I also don't visit twitter, so I guess I'm out of the loop. Anywhere to look for more context? This is pretty sucky. When Zak S posted about not working with Escapist anymore he didn't name anyone besides that one guy.

How to rock*

Your next Warlock or Wizard character.

The ‘Bhodry-more’ is an active, mischievous fish of the whale species, which has been known to attack and even founder boats. About eight years ago, a very large one passed the town of Cromarty through the middle of the bay, and was seen by many of the townsfolks leaping out of the water in the manner of a salmon, fully to the height of a boat’s mast. It appeared about thirty feet in length. This animal may almost be regarded as the mermaid of modern times : for the fishermen deem it to have fully as much of the demon as of the fish. There have been instances of its pursuing a boat under sail for many miles, and even of its leaping over it from side to side. It appears, however, that its habits and appetites are unlike those of the shark ; and that the annoyance which it gives the fisherman is out of no desire of making him its prey, but from its predilection for amusement. It seldom rneddles with a boat when at anchor, but pursues one under sail, as a kitten would a rolling ball of ya

The correct caption is "Raist-Lenin." Originally shared by Kirill Grouchnikov #DarthLenin

Is writing a good dungeon crawl is harder than writing a good hex crawl? Or do I just have some weird mental block in place?

Coop: "You need the red and the blue to attract females." Me: "Thanks for the tip."

See you later, Bogart. You were a good dog. I'm sorry you never got a back yard.

The Spongebob movie also has Bikini Bottom become a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Check out Mr. Krabs.

The new Spongebob movie won't win any Oscars, but it's got a space dolphin that shoots lasers from its blow hole and has a rap battle with talking seagulls.

<--logs into the Reaper Bones pledge manager just because they've sent a million emails about locking in your pledge and now I'm paranoid. I apparently ordered a bunch of gnolls and bugbears and mouse people on top of the aliens I knew I ordered. Why the hell did I do that?

-4 F right now. Hurry up, Spring. http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/spring

She named her pilot "Redeye."

Nightmare Planet http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42987/42987-h/42987-h.htm

Engage nostalgia.

"How many ways are there to learn the alphabet?...a lot, apparently." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnfAxUjRQAo

Help me test out the dungeon for Unholy Land 2!  Make and play high level characters! Kick ass for Jesus! I'll post the requirements in the comments! I bumped the regular campaign event to March 13th. events/cq3e1sqkfi6r1i3v4lr6qilnrb4?authkey=CL_6yprUvOexJg

Poor thing is extinct because it went crosseyed looking at the weird horn on the end of it's nose. Originally shared by American Museum of Natural History Look out! This #FossilFriday might poke your eye out.   Synthetoceras tricoronatus lived about 10 million years ago during the Miocene, and is a protoceratid, an extinct family of animals whose most distinctive characteristic was their horns on both forehead and snout. What were protoceratid horns used for? Possibly for fighting or sexual display during the mating season, or for recognizing members of their own species. These remain guesses, since protoceratids became extinct at least 5 million years ago.  Find this fossil and other protoceratids in the Museum’s Hall of Advanced Mammals: http://bit.ly/19Kk02V

"They cast Jason Momoa as me? Outrageous! I loved him in Game of Thrones! Who's playing Bats?...Affleck? Hahahahahaha! No, really, who?"

Risks paid off again. Instead of spending money on treating stress for a bunch of characters that had just over 50% stress, I decided to just send them in to kill the Swine Prince. Medium length quests can actually be good for relieving stress with a little luck. My party had a bunch of ways of dealing with stress, so they pushed as hard as they could and managed to scout the location of the Swine Prince. That let them rest just one room away. They chilled out for a night, then busted in and wrecked the big pig. He had everyone down to pretty low health, but no one had to make any Death's Door saves. Everyone came out with less stress than they went in with. Nice run for my wife's character, Jenocide, Noah Stevens, Alison Ziesel, and Stephen Holowczyk. Alison, I named a plague doctor after you. She's kind of like a scientist, I guess. But she picked up a gambling problem, coupled with the fact she was already a bad gambler I had to send her to the sanitarium to lose the ad

Abby and her mom are off to see the 2 Cellos concert.

Originally shared by ClickHole http://www.clickhole.com/clickventure/mysterious-shadows-skullshadow-island-1880#2

_He was a young man of fine attainments, a profound scholar, and a musician of rare ability. His figure was remarkable for its grace, and his face — that is to say, his natural face — was that of an Antinous. But upon the back of his head was another face, that of a beautiful girl, 'lovely as a dream, hideous as a devil'. The female face was a mere mask, 'occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the skull, yet exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a malignant sort, however'. It would be seen to smile and sneer while Mordake was weeping. The eyes would follow the movements of the spectator, and the lips 'would gibber without ceasing'._ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mordake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mordake

Year of the Goat

Ukraine stuff in the news making me think about my  cold-war childhood. Modern miniature wargaming typically doesn’t do anything for me, but Cold War Gone Hot hits my Red Dawn, Wargames, and Team Yankee buttons. http://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Gone-Hot-World/dp/1849085366

#parenthood   #maybesomegoldfish   #ihopeyoudontgotojail   http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/whole-world

Just about time for Stars Without Number ! Big shootout going on!

Divers recover ancient treasure, get nothing. The find was “so valuable that its priceless,” spokeswoman Yoli Schwartz told AFP, adding the haul was now the property of the state, and that there was no finder’s fee. I hope their DM at least ruled they got XP for the gold recovered and were able to level up. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/18/divers-find-priceless-trove-of-gold-coins-off-israels-mediterranean-coast

Harry Potter post Reading Prisoner of Azkaban with Abby last night. Came to this quote: While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other)... Too real, JK, too real. We still laughed though.

I’m posting a link to this again. It’s a bit fiddly, but the output is totally worth it. Last night I made a map that turned out professional looking enough to use in a published product. Tips: 1. Use Firefox 2. Screen does not scroll, so if you have a tall dungeon, turn it sideways  3. Start in the upper left corner of your dungeon, the map expands down and to the right as you go 4. Take the svg file it gives you and convert that to a png 5. Use Photoshop/Gimp/whatever to erase what you don’t need 6. Crop/edit and you’re done This link below will take you to a demon skull map I just made. Link to blank map: https://campaignwiki.org/gridmapper.svg http://goo.gl/zVuAxk

events/co4p31p9a0l90hpk1oauobcgf84?authkey=CM7hj8qesOum-QE

Ball bearings (bag of 1000) – 1gp, 2lbs This is maybe the most amusing entry in the 5e equipment list. Anyone have a player ask how many bags of bearings they can buy? When does a city run out of ball bearings? What is the non-adventurer demand like? Does the presence of adventurers cause a ball bearing shortage for the industry that uses them? What are the effects of that? I had to go look up if ball bearing actually existed before industrial times. Apparently they did. If Davinci drew them, it’s ok for D&D in my book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearing_(mechanical)#History

And in an amazing recovery, Stephen Holowczyk leads three rank newbs, Noah Stevens, Humza K, and Chris Bloxham into the Weald with almost no supplies to take revenge on the Wizened Hag. Sister Holowczyk had no mercy and only dealt damage, not healing anyone during the fight. Miraculously, everyone made their Death's Door saves multiple times, Sir Noah at least four. Humzak the bounty hunter dealt a huge crit that turned the tide and the next round the Hag went down.

Jenga-phant by Abby.

The Hellmouth exists in both the earthly realm and Hell at the same time. Its mouth is a gateway between the two planes.

I can only think of Temple of Doom . Lex Larson for the #nope   #teamnope  files. http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2015/02/16/trift_bridge_in_the_swiss_alps.html

This is a great little tool.  Alex Schroeder, just make it bigger! https://campaignwiki.org/gridmapper.svg

Watched Frank last night. I heard Jon Ronson talk about the movie and his experiences in Frank Sidebottom’s band on WTF before it was released. This hits a lot of Ronson’s usual themes: depression, mental illness, and eccentricity. Noted handsome-man Michael Fassbender is great playing Frank. Maggie Glyllenhal is hilarious as a musician who doesn’t actually want anyone to like her music. Recommended watching for music snobs and those that like stories about weirdoes.

Here are the fruits of my 1e random dungeon generator. Totally usable. Which is good, because I suck at drawing my own dungeons. Treasure is done through the generator, next is dressing it up and determining monsters in the rooms that indicated them.

Hell yeah, Shadowhawk. Calib Kerensky​ Originally shared by Winchell Chung http://rocketumbl.tumblr.com/post/111051567710

Good morning.

Kids made a fort so we could snuggle and watch TV.

New Transformers vs. GI Joe came out. Just as insane as always. This teaser about Hawk's axe is...brilliant. Just brilliant. Blackarachnia was after my time, so I just see Decepti-Lolth. And who can resist Duke, Scarlet, and Snake Eyes mowing down Cobras?

Holy shitballs, the fucking Wizened Hag. Calib Kerensky Mike McCarthy James LaManna and Derek Pennycuff you were all boiled and eaten.

I traded in my Nexus 4 before it totally died. Hello, sexy Nexus 6.

Out of the blue, memories of playing Thexder pop into my head. No Atari or Nintendo at my house.

"Ok, make your Open Doors check." "18. Bam! I knock it down." "On the other side of the door is Hell. Roll for initiative."

Possible Titles. Choose!

What are the odds I can write, playtest, and publish a sequel to Unholy Land by Easter?

Sign up for madness and death I’m renaming my Darkest Dungeon characters after fiends friends. If you’d like your name added to the roster, sign up below. There’s no visual customization, so I can’t show a cool XCOMish character, but if anyone develops interesting mental quirks or diseases and needs to spend some time in the sanitarium to sort them out OR dies a horrible death, I will report it. I named my hellion after my wife. I told her her character was spending some time drinking in the tavern to regain her sanity. She thought that sounded accurate.

Gameable. http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2015/02/10/st_simon_s_monastery_the_cave_church_in_cairo.html

Two pretty dang successful expeditions, including my first one with camping, was a pretty good way to end the night. Especially since my plague doctor dodged two attacks by one of those bandit dudes with the shotgun that shoots everyone while she had zero hit points.

Area 1. This hill holds an ancient tomb. Atop the hill is a living statue in the shape of a lion. Area 2. These two gynoshinx guard the first entrance. If the party cannot answer their riddles they attack. Area 3. Only those of good alignments can pass the two caraytid columns. All others are attacked. Area 4. A secret door check is required to find the loose floor stones. Beneath is a tomb of an ancient queen. The unworthy will awaken her lich. The worthy will find treasure worth 3d6x1000 gp. Originally shared by Betsy McCall http://io9.com/take-a-virtual-trip-through-the-amphipolis-tomb-in-its-1684700630

Chili cook-off at work today. Off to judge.

More Darkest Dungeon thoughts -Although everyone talks about the brutal, old-school D&D feel of the game, the D&D rules it most plays like is 4e. In fact, 4e could learn a bit from this game. Four varied at-will but conditional powers would be pretty easy to keep track of instead of tons and tons of powers. -Bounty Hunter + Occultist is pretty tough. Occultist marks the monster, Bounty Hunter does double damage. Sweet. -I can’t figure out which Vestal healing power is better, the party heal one, or the 3-5 points for one target. -I noticed my body language changing while I was playing. I was visibly tensing up when my attacks missed. Every crit you make is a victory, every miss is a tragedy. -Speaking of the bounty hunter, I sent out some newbs while my veteran party spent time in prayer, meditation, wenching, and gambling to recover from having to retreat from a quest. The bounty-hunter and occultist became abusive in their first mission. I ran into a bunch of those skeletons

Tony Moore draws Groo as played by Steven Seagal. http://www.tonymooreillustration.com/shoporiginalart/sketch-of-the-day-groo

Hey, we did this exact fight in Shadowrun a few weeks ago. Originally shared by Winchell Chung http://www.businessinsider.com/battle-between-ah-64-apache-and-a-dragon-2015-1

Sister Blosbeville is no longer allowed to visit the brothel. She picked up some weird tastes after retreating from some slime-skeleton monsters.

Restaurant Doodle Maybe to them doves mean war.

Swim meet success! Three new C times (that's good) make for five total events she's eligible for at the state meet in a few weeks.

Swim meet again. I got the last taco-in-a-bag at the concession stand. That was a close one.

Ok, the Jester is worth taking just for this animation.

Tablet now Darkest Dungeon themed.