Trent Slabaugh's page

A few years ago I picked up this gem at a CON but have been doing less and less gaming these past 5 years.

My question would be does anyone know what something like this is worth? I know that on Ebay something is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

I don't remember what I paid for it originally

Your thoughts?

Okay so I have a Beta deck for Bone Admiral created.. hope you enjoy.

I may create a revised deck with better graphics if I get a chance to work on it :)

Bone Admiral Beta Deck

Trent
Infinet Media & Design

Ok so I made a slight revision to Bone Admiral - There are three face cards per suit and six numbered cards (instead of 7) A complete deck has 45 cards.

Reading through Tempest Rising started me thinking about the games that pirates would or could play aboard a ship. The first thing that came to mind was the dice game that they used in the movie Pirates of Carribean 2.

So for your pleasure here are several games that pirates might play.

Liar's Dice
Five six-sided dice are used per player, with dice cups used for concealment.
Each round, each player rolls their dice under their cups and looks at their new hand while keeping it concealed from the other players. The first player begins bidding, picking a face and a quantity. The quantity is the claim of how many of the chosen face have been rolled in total on the table.
Each player has two choices during his turn: make a higher bid, or challenge the previous bid. Raising the bid means either increasing the quantity, or the face value, or both, according to the specific bidding rules used.
If the current player challenges the current bid, all dice are revealed. If the bid is valid, the bidder wins. Otherwise, the challenger wins.

Bets are placed by the players and people watching on who will win.

Capn's Peg
This game is played with two pirates taking a position several feet away from each other with their feet shoulder length apart. Each player takes a turn throwing a knife at the other player's feet trying to get as close to hitting the opponent without actually hitting them. Each round bets are made by players and sailors watching.

The game ends when one of the players hits the other, thereby losing.

Bone Admiral
This game is a played with a unique deck of pirate cards.
There are five suits to the deck - Bones, Pistols, Swords, Coins & Keys
In each suit there are three face cards and seven numbered cards.
Admiral = 10
Captain = 10 (if played with the admiral or bosun) otherwise it is 9
Bosun = 10 (if played with the admiral and bosun) otherwise it is 8
The numbered cards are worth their number value (7-1)

Each player is dealt two cards face down and one card face up.
The first round of betting starts with the players and sailors betting who is going to win the hand.
Then another card is dealt in the center. This is a community card usable by all.
Then another round of betting occurs.
Then another community card is dealt in the center.
Whoever is the closest to 30 (using only 3 cards) without going over is the winner.

Anyone who plays the Bone Admiral automatically splits the winning pot even if they aren't the winner. (If the Bone Admiral is a community card all the player's split the pot and a new hand is dealt).

I'm working on creating a deck to play this

Trent
Infinet Media & Design

What about running Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God & City of Golden Death ?

Trent
Infinet Media & Design

I only wish they made it for Pathfinder, as I've been running a PFRPG Steampunk campaign for over a year now. I doubt my players would want to grab a new system. :(

I'd love to hear more of what you've done :))

Trent

Reading several books right now..

Dreadnought - Cherie Priest
Side Jobs - Jim Butcher
Under the Dome - Stephen King

Hopefully going to start Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

Oh and in my free time I'm reading the rivoting books on WPF development and .NET 4 Web Development.

Trent
Infinet-Media & Design

We are thinking about starting a social network about speculative fiction.
This would be a network where amateur and pro writers could receive constructive critique on their works.

How popular do you think this would be?

I'm trying to gauge membership so we can determine if this is something worthwhile to pursue.

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design

Since we've hosted some content for Paizo fans on our website we feel we should let you know that we are shutting down the DDC website.

We still receive quite a bit of traffic from referrals from Paizo's messageboards but because of time constraints of all individuals involved we can't devote the time and energy needed to maintain the podcast and the site.

We appreciate all the feedback we've received as well as our fans, and hey who knows what the future holds.

All content that was being hosted on DigitalDungeonCast will be unavailable in the coming weeks.

Trent Slabaugh
Co-Host / Design & Marketing
DigitalDungeonCast.com
Infinet Media & Design

Those stats are part of the new city stat block format—they're described in the GameMastery Guide. The stat block is also set up so that you can basically just ignore all of those elements and it won't impact the rest of the stat block at all.

Thanks James, sounds like I have another book to buy :))

Trent

While reading Heart of the Jungle I noticed something about the stat blocks that I didn't recognize. Hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction.

This is the section that I'm not familiar with:

Corruption +4; Crime +4; Economy +5; Law –6; Lore +3, Society +0
Qualities notorious, prosperous, strategic location,
Danger +15

What book describes this part of the stat block..

Trent

Lemme think about this a minute.. its designed by Owen and Hyrum ..

I'm in for $50

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design

So I was thinking of a race that is known for its seers and divination that is blind but can see through the use of magic.

What would this race's society be like?

For example how would their language, written and or oral develop?

What about cultural appearance?

What are your thoughts?

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast

Here's the general plot of an adventure I'm trying to write, however Im having a hard time resolving one aspect of the adventure.

The PCs are asked for their help by an NPC that has heard of their recent exploits. The NPCs town for generations has been plagued by a monster that if not placated attacks the town. The only thing that placates this beast is delivering young to its lair to devour.

Every month the townsfolk have a lottery that determines what children will be sacrificed to it during the year. The NPC's child has been chosen next.

There is a major twist concerning the monster, but my problem is this...

What would keep a population from just moving away?

Any thoughts?

James jacobs said in another thread that officially only Neutral Good, Lawful Good and Lawful Neutral gods can have Paladins.

I would house rule that some Chaotic good gods could but I think a paladin of a LE god defeats both the spirit and the letter of the rule.

IMHO .. every alignment can have "Holy Warriors" but not all alignments have Paladins. I believe there was a dragon article about Holy Warriors of other alignments.

I would twist the concept a bit making him an Anakin Skywalker type. Believes that in what he is doing is right, that only through absolute rule can true justice be served. Enforcing an unwielding unremorseful law. etc. Now this does make the character evil because there is no compassion for either good or evil doers, etc. You could argue this is a rather neutral point of view if the character believed in the whole "balance" thing, but my concept would be someone who isnt concerned with balance so much as Might makes right.

Just a few thoughts
Trent

So what would your take on this be?

If you are going kinda "old school" I always liked the Star Wars d6 system, also you might try Last Unicorn Games version of Star Trek. Seem to recall it was pretty fun.

Newer systems you might try are Savage Worlds by Pinnacle or True20 from Green Ronin.

I always liked the Alternity system too :) Never really looked at starship creation though.. I only ran Dark*Matter games with it.

Trent

I have been in the middle of moving some older gaming stuff around and came across a old "pick your own adventure" book from TSR back in 1982 called "Dungeon of Dread". I know the books were common in the 80's but I was wondering what are the chances Paizo would be willing to try one for pathfinder?

Your Thoughts

Its weird that you mention this... I was just thinking about these types of books and was thinking about working on one just for kicks.

Not sure what the market is for this kind of book though, not with PS3, Wii and Xbox ...

Trent

So I managed to steal away some time today and work on a new wallpaper.

Grand Caliph Wallpaper -1280
Grand Caliph Wallpaper -1024

You can find the rest of the wallpaper's I've designed HERE
Hope you enjoy!

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com

WOW!!! These wallpapers are amazing!!! :::LeSigh::: makes me wanna learn photoshop =)

Thanks!

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet-Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com

WotC can licence its products as it wants, but through this method, it would at least gain free advertising for its work. It's the same principle as OGL: everyone has to go back to get the core books anyhow, so what does WotC lose?

They lose copyright by blurring the line of what is "fair use" and "copyrighted material". A 3rd party developer challenges WOTC's copyright of FR material and a judge rules that it all is now fair use.

Example Scenario 1: A 3rd party developer mentions Elminster or Halaster having a tea party with Mystra,

So you want it to be okay that another author writes a derivitive piece on another author's work without paying some sort of licensing fee..

Try asking J.K Rowling, or Stephen King if they'd like that.

While I appreciate what you would like, imagine if someone made a product based upon something you created and suddenly you weren't getting paid royalties anymore because people bought the other book instead of yours.

Trent

The biggest issue with copyright in gaming systems it that it restricts development options with respect to monsters, races and sub-types that are easily capable of being transferred from game setting to game setting. WotC for example has 'copyright', or some form of ownership over' FR' monsters.

While we're at it why don't we do away with trademarks.. oh and make sure that artists aren't allowed to copyright their work.

What you are suggesting is that a creator not get compensated for his work. If you create something that others want to use, they are legally allowed to enter into a licensing agreement if they want to.

Its unfortunate that WotC has made quite a bit of limitations on what they will and won't license but it is well within their right.

Trent

I go with a lot of pdf .. I didn't read one single page of the print version of Curse of the Crimson Throne or Second Darkness.. that being said part of that reason was because I've been using my laptop to run games more, and they were free with my subscription.

I printed out a lot of the monsters for RotRL because it was just easier than trying to figure out what issue each creature was in, etc.

I will continue to buy hard copy because I am a bibliophile. I feel there is something intrinsically valuable about books. I don't need batteries to read a book. I don't have to worry about it becoming corrupted or unreadable because of outdated software.

Besides call me crazy but I've always wanted a large library in my house and it just doesn't look the same filled with writable media, etc.

So I'm a bit torn between collecting and using..

Trent

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow"

I'd be spinning in it. Out of laughter. I'll be having several fake graves, all advertised as filled with wondrous treasure, but really they'll be filled with traps and monsters. And when you get to the actual treasure vault, it's filled with cheap kitsch. Try to sell that "magic" sword (it has "magic" written on its cardboard blade).

KaeYoss brings up a really valid point. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't many of the Pharaohs have several chambers designed solely for the purpose of dissuading looters and robbers from defiling their actual remains.

You've entered the Lost Tomb of King Mukamuk IV in search of the Golden Scepter of Kickseverythingsarse. You've searched several rooms and so far all you have found is a bunch of cosmetic jewelry and shiny baubles. Together it is all probably worth about 100 gp.

The room seals and fills with a poison gas.

Several years later...

You've entered the Lost Tomb of King Mukamuk IV in search of the Golden Scepter of Kickseverythingsarse. You've searched several rooms and so far all you have found is a bunch of cosmetic jewelry and shiny baubles. Together it is all probably worth about 100 gp.

The room seals and fills with a poison gas.

Several years later...

You've entered the Lost Tomb of King Mukamuk IV in search of the Golden Scepter of Kickseverythingsarse. You've searched several rooms and so far all you have found is a bunch of cosmetic jewelry and shiny baubles. Together it is all probably worth about 100 gp.

The room seals and fills with a poison gas.

Several years later...

I have a no laptops at the table policy.

I have this policy as well for the same reason. Now while I can appreciate WoW.. you are here to play D&D or Pathfinder RPG ;) so don't tell me you are capable of "multitasking" cause I've only met one person who was ever able to do that.

Pretty much all Player rolls must be done on the table.
If you drop the dice on the floor no matter what you got you need to reroll.
If a dice is cocked you need to reroll.

I dont have a no alcohol policy but we don't drink significantly when we game anyway. Most of the time there isn't any drinking alcohol going on. Of course its BYOB.

I will provide a bag of chips but that's it. If you want it.. you need to bring it. Or often times we will all chip in for Pizza or go on a food run before the game starts.

As far as characters go, I don't require a certain alignment or character type but I do say that at the beginning of the campaign that the player has to significantly explain to me why the PC is an adventurer and why he/she is in the current group of adventurers.

If Paizo is going to limit what wallpaper artists can do creatively, however, then I think it's high time they step back up to the plate and show our desktops some love! :)

I'm not saying that Paizo fans don't have room creatively to come up with good wallpapers under the CUP, but the fact that they're having to take down some of their hard work makes me sad.

Keep in mind that what Paizo does well is create great settings and adventures .. Id rather they focus on that than flashy wallpaper.

They aren't saying that we can't create these things, just that we respect certain things. If I can't create a great image that complies with the Community Use Policy (CUP)then I shouldn't call myself a graphic designer.

I plan to continue to do great wallpaper(s) but everything will respect Paizo's CUP.

Deadlands...great game, Deadlands d20...meh

Don't get me started on Deadlands D20.. I feel it is one of the causes of Pinnacle's "fall".

Trent

Yeah, I had to take mine down, too. Wallpapers are pretty much impossible under the CUP, unless you do really boring stuff - and who wants that?

Guess I will be taking down the ones that are in violation..

Trent

So I'm not sure if I'm double posting this or not (board may have ate the previous post).

I have a number of wallpapers on my website that I created using images from the blog (I'm fairly certain that all of them are from the blog).
However some of these images have been altered using photoshop.

One wallpaper has a sepia tone background of the Golarion map.

Also some of the images have been cropped so that the image will work for both a 1280x800 as well as 1024x768. I believe that some of the images of the iconics have been resized and or cropped as well.

So would this violate the Community Use Policy?

I'd specifically like input from Vic but KaeYoss I'd like your input as well..

If it is in violation I will gladly remove them.

Here is a link to the wallpapers:
Pathfinder Wallpapers by Infinet Media & Design

Any Thoughts?
Trent

On the other hand, if Erik Mona really had a day that was even holier than Gary Gygax, that peoople would spell his name correctly. :-)

DOH! Sorry Erik for the misspell... Please don't smite me oh holy Publisher..

Trent

I'm sure most of you know that it is that it is one of the holiest holidays of the year (second only to Eric Mona Day!)

So go out and do something nice for your GM. Afterall he hasn't killed your character (much).

Also it is a sad reminder that on this day the Father of D&D passed away.
So bow your heads in a moment of silence to remember E. Gary Gygax.

Trent

I'd say I'm ok with maps I couldn't assign a number.
I use photoshop completely. I usually do a rough sketch but I don't scan it, I just use it as a base for what I want to come out on the digital canvas.

A Map I did for Seas of Achaea

A Map I did for Silver Kingdoms

I've got a few more that I've been working on and I'll post when I get them a little more done.

Trent Slabaugh
Infinet Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com

Personally I would say one of the more famous D&D Players is Vin Diesel. He's done several interviews where he talks about it keeping him out of trouble.

Orcus sounds like an awesome name for a planetary romance planet..

John Carter and the Ghoul Lords of Orcus.. it has a nice ring to it.

Trent

Has anyone had trouble listening to episode 5. I get "page cannot be displayed." Perhaps the site has problems this morning...?

Let me look int that..

Trent

I don't seem to be having any problems with the main page loading.. are you talking about the episodes page or are you trying to download the MP3.

Also what browser are you using?

Trent

Has anyone had trouble listening to episode 5. I get "page cannot be displayed." Perhaps the site has problems this morning...?

Let me look int that..

Trent

Very good interview - you guys get interesting people! ... I must agree with the audio quality though ...

I know what you mean Marc.. the volume issues are being addressed and our sound technician is remastering the interview and one of the host's tracks on the intro.

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that the interview was done in a convention room so its not the best for audio quality. The larger the room the more echo you have going on..

Very cool. You guys need to get a DDC logo on that RSS feed.. the orange RSS logo on my zune player (and software) isn't fun to look at. :)

Can do.. I'll talk to Dave about changing the RSS feed..

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

Trent

Episode 5 of DigitalDungeonCast is online :)
In the first episode of season 2 we talked with Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn about the Pathfinder RPG, Planet Stories and more.

CLICK HERE to Listen

Hope you enjoy

Trent Slabaugh
Co-Host / Design & Marketing
DigitalDungeonCast.com
Infinet Media & Design

Episode 4 (Part 2 of our 4th Edition episode) is finally up! We're excited because Episode 5 is almost in the can and we are hard at work on Episode 6.

Episode 5 features an interview with Eric Mona and Jason Bulmahn about Planet Stories and the Pathfinder RPG.

Trent Slabaugh
Co-Host / Marketing & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com
Infinet Media & Design

I suspect this room is filled with Taldans. HUNDREDS OF THEM.

I keep my friends closer and my enemies closer. My family hasn't survived this long by being effite fools. Sure we've had our share of pompous braggarts, but they were sacrificed on an assassin's blade to ensure that the rest of my family would prosper.

And those devil-worphipers will fall to their corrupt evil ways.
Taldor will prosper again.. Taldor prevails!

Now they just want to make money - fostering a community has taken a backseat to that agenda.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on this point.. this is why I spend so much time on Paizo's site rather than WotC. It isn't solely because of the content.. it's because of the community. Besides all my friends are here.

Like I said though, this is a good option for people who ONLY want the online magazines and no other tools IF WotC HAS to charge for it to survive...

::chuckles:: Well WotC doesn't have to charge for it to survive.. everyone knows that ;)

Coming from the publishing/printing industry has put me in an interesting perspective on WotC's decision to move the magazines online.

It will be interesting to see.. all in all I don't care for WotC's shift.

Do I think they deserve to get paid for their work.. yes, cause they had to pay someone else to create it. Lots of people like to think of WotC as this huge corporate entity but don't think about the employees, freelancer writers & artists that depend upon the "Entity" for money to take care of their families.

What really concerns me is when they create the online tools and then charge us to use them. With the traditional MMORPG you are paying for server bandwidth, content creation, new items, shiny graphics, etc. With the online game table you won't be paying for content creation but rather just bandwidth. So imho it should be a lot cheaper than your WoW subscription. So they have to add the Dungeon Mag and Dragon Mag content to the subscription cause otherwise gamers feel they are getting ripped off.

Personally I would rather they charge me $40 for the software (i.e. like Fantasy Grounds, Hero Lab, etc) and then I can use it free every month.

More fuel for the fire ;)
Trent

You know, there's a lot of magazines out there that have websites that cost the consumer $0. I can buy a Men's Health magazine and then go to their website and check out articles as well.

But not every article

So were they eating the cost, or were they fostering their community of customers into continued play - and purchase of future product?

Yes they were eating the cost.. and fosterering their community.

Keep in mind that most online articles are just text and banner ads. If they are pdfs it isn't much more than a printed version of what you saw in text on the website. With the pdfs that WotC is offering you have a lot more cost wrapped up in it. Ask James, Erik or Lisa how much it costs to create a magazine. The only thing that isn't included in the price of an online magazine is distribution and printing. Which is a HUGE cost.. but not the whole cost. Also keep in mind that bandwidth and server space isn't free either.

Would I love it if WotC offered this stuff for free.. hell yes I'd love that.

However I don't think a $7 per month is asking all that much for something that will be leaked on P2P networks for free the second it gets put online ;)

Personally right now I'd like to see the applications.. that means a whole lot more to me than whether I'm getting charged for content.

Trent

Wait...is this just for Dungeon/dragon? Or will this include all of the promised DDI features? If its just the mags, they still don't get it. if its the whole enchilada, that is a good value for the money, imo.

I don't think this is a huge cost for Dungeon & Dragon Magazine.. afterall when it was with Paizo it was costing aprox. this much per magazine. Course I did get a print version, but I didn't get a pdf copy which I prefer because I use my laptop for running games.

I would hope people would understand that having people write adventures, create the layout, design, artwork, and pdfs costs money. Now there was quite a bit that Wizards offered on their site for free in the past.. however they basically ate the cost of that.

Just my point of view
(Let the flaming begin)
Trent

How can you tell the difference between a poodle and a llama?

Llama's have a nasty spitting habit.. course if CourtFool spits, that could just make him a rare breed of Spitting Poodle.

The only way to truly find out is by dissection..

Back in 2000 I had the brilliant idea of creating an "independent" gaming magazine that didn't focus on any one company's products or game. The initial venture was a purely online version with submissions generated by the readers. When we spread the word the submissions poured in.

We received a huge volume of submissions which made us think that perhaps we should take the financial risk and go with a print magazine. I wish I would have been able to talk with the people at Paizo then, but they weren't even a company yet ;)

Needless to say the financial issues killed both the aspirations of the print and online versions.

Licensing, advertising, publishing, printing and staff costs are extremely high with very little margin built in.

DigitalDungeonCast.com is basically the result of this colossal failure.

I can't blame Paizo in the least bit for going down the path that they have..

Trent
Infinet Media & Design
DigitalDungeonCast.com

Well the RPG sector no longer has a good general RPG magazine. WOuld it be too crazy for paizo to go for a RPG magazine? Even if it was on PDF?

I think both Eric Mona and Lisa Stevens have commented that this won't happen in the foreseeable future.

Also there was a post a year ago from Vic Wertz:

We're taking this opportunity to move away from the magazine business because it's just plain terrible to be in. It's one thing to continue publishing an already successful magazine with awesome name recognition, great circulation, and advertisers lined up to buy pages, but it's quite another to launch a new magazine.

We tried it twice, just a few years ago, with two very different magazines: Undefeated and Amazing Stories. And what we learned from both was that we'd have needed to dig a seven-digit hole in our bank account before we'd start seeing a decent return on them.

Many have suggested we should just replace Dragon with a clone, but it just doesn't work that way. "Manny's Cigar and Magazine Depot" carries Dragon because he's sold Dragon for decades. He's never heard of this new "Flagon magazine" but he's pretty sure he's never sold a copy. Should he buy it? Well, how much does it sell? Zero copies? Manny can't afford the risk right now. Come back when it sells tens of thousands per month. (Chicken, meet egg.)

And the big guys? You have to buy your spot on those stands. And you have to ship them more copies than they can possibly sell, and what they don't sell, they destroy, and you don't get paid for. If you start to sell more copies, they order more, so they can have some to destroy. They adjust their buying levels to ensure thay they're destroying more than they're selling—because if they don't have too many, they can't sell more.

And when you do sell copies, that money goes into what the magazine distribution business calls a "reserve against returns," which is held by our circulation company. Stores have the better part of a year to report their unsold issues, for which they get their money back, so until that time is up, the circulation people keep most of the money. (Actually, they parcel it out based on historical percentages, so it trickles in throughout the year, but the point is, you don't really know how much you've made until the issue has been off the stands for a year. And you don't get to hold the cash in the meantime.)

And then there's advertisers. Sure, within our hobby, it might be easy to find folks who'll give us a chance, but those video game companies, for example—they want to see circulation numbers. We might get them to pony up if we tell them that we reach tens of thousands of readers, but a circulation of "zero right now, but we're hopeful for the future" isn't going to get their attention.

But in order to keep the cover price down, you need to have that advertising, and you need those big circulation numbers. It's just not a simple as "print Pathfinder on magazine stock, and make it $8." Can't be done.

If you want more about how bad the magazine business is, search our boards for posts from me that include the words magazine, business, and terrible. It's *so* much worse than anyone outside it would ever imagine.

We'll miss publishing Dragon and Dungeon, but we won't miss publishing magazines.

Started on this thread.

Vote Sebastian for President! He's someone we all know, and he couldn't do a worse job than any of the other candidates this year.

Sorry but I already have a candidate I'm supporting.

Vote for Walter in '08

Figure he can't be any worse than the other dummies running

Trent

This is great advice Veector.
I've been GMing for a long time and often times when describing the "scene" I use only sight and sound. So when I used smell the Players notice it and are in "kill it" mode.

Sometimes we take for granted everything that a real person would be taking in and ignore the other senses.

Trent

i hope you are a girl gamer, not a boy gamer. if you are a boy gamer then this would be really creppy.

When have gamers ever cared about conforming to social norms..

Sorry snarky today
Trent

Pole-turning was actually an important and respected craft that required skill and care.

Thus ensuring that we have that well respected career of pole dancing..

Sorry I'm rather snarky this morning.

Trent

I'm thinking a pink chiffon dress would look lovely ; )