#gamebooks

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #373: Tweaking the Thirteenth Hour DnD Combat System 1 (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain) and Dragon Fall Reading Part 8

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #373: Tweaking the Thirteenth Hour DnD Combat System 1 (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain) and Dragon Fall Reading Part 8

https://archive.org/download/podcast-373/Podcast%20373.mp3

This past week, we did our first Patreon Thirteenth Hour DnD session using a homebrew role playing system made from hybrid Dungeons and Dragons / Quest RPG rules.  I thought we’d read some of the combat rules used in this game book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, just to review one way they do combat with one person and 2 six sided dice.  I thought it’d be interesting to see how these gamebooks employed combat game mechanics since their emphasis was primarily interactive story telling, just like our Thirteenth Hour DnD system.

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The combat rules used in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.  As with many of these rule sets I’ve seen, there is not much emphasis on the nature of the attack or where it is targeted – more of an assumption that the attack happens in a binary sense – it is either successful or it is not. 

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The example we went through in the episode.

In the second part of the pod, we are reading Chapter 6 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.  One more chapter to go!

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More from Dragon Fall next week!  Did you check out the podcast exclusive bonus episode preview with actress Catherine Mary Stewart (about Night of the Comet)? 

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #98: The Thirteenth Hour Sequel Updates

Episode #98: The Thirteenth Hour Sequel Updates – Fanciful Fantasy Vehicles and Zork Choose Your Own Adventure Style Reading

https://archive.org/download/Podcast98_20170625/Podcast%2098.mp3

In today’s show, I’m talking about some previews coming from a draft I’m working on for the sequel(s) to The Thirteenth Hour, some of which takes place in a technologically advanced world with strange aspects of future life, like fanciful ways to get around.

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A vapor rider is basically a magic powered boat with hydrofoils that allows it to skim across the surface of the water.

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A cloud rider is magic powered flying wing to skim above the clouds.

You can see both vapor riders and cloud riders in the title graphic above.

Over the next few months, we’ll occasionally be reading from these old Zork stories, which essentially function as Choose Your Own Adventure style game books.  Just like that series, there are decision points requiring you to go to different points in the book and black and white inked illustrations for many of the pages.  I think these books are long out of print, but click on the image of the book below to see if you can find a used copy of your own.

The synthesizer music in between the sequel updates and the Zork reading is courtesy of Brent Simon, an internet sensation from the mid 2000s (yes, his music clips from his old MySpace age still miraculously work).  You’ll hear more about him in a few weeks.  Jeff Finley, who made a documentary about his friend that made it big a number of years ago, will be coming on the show in a few weeks!

Speaking of music, episode 100 will have more details about an upcoming EP, the sequel to Long Ago Not So Far Away.  Podcast listeners get first dibs!  Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.  Check it out!

 

As always, thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #74: My Brother Visits – Reflections on 80s Movies Part 1 of 2 

Episode #74: Reflections on 80s Stuff: Dungeons and Dragons, Choose Your Adventure Books, and Movies

https://archive.org/download/Podcast74_201701/Podcast%2074.mp3

We talk sci-fi and fantasy movies from the 80s this episode … 

My brother, who you may remember as my first phone guest in Episode #30, recently visited for the holidays.  We did an in studio recording while trying to paint little plastic miniatures for the sequel to The Thirteenth Hour while discussing 80s movies and games we’d both enjoyed as kids.  We took the opportunity to rewatch a few, including Willow and The Last Starfighter, and I recently rewatched E.T., so those adult reflections on beloved children’s impressions formed a core of this episode.  Here are some of the films we touch on:

-E.T.

-Willow

-The Last Starfighter

-Labyrinth

-The Dark Crystal

-War Games

-Flight of the Navigator …

Since it’s quite long, I’ve broken the talk into two segments.  The last segment, which also talks a little on video games, will come out next week.

While we are having this conversation, We were trying to paint little miniatures from Hero Forge, a site that allows you to create more or less custom miniatures (I made Logan and Aurora for the sequel to The Thirteenth Hour).  We had no idea what we were doing, really, though I got a lot of good tips from Mhawkinsart and Knives_mcdougal on Instagram.  We did our best, but since it was basically our first time doing, some parts were pretty shite, and the faces came out pretty dysmorphic.  So I’ll post those later.  But Jeremy made this picture of our initial attempt:

Happy New Year, and thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #17: Books That Influenced The Thirteenth Hour

Episode #17: Books That Influenced the Writing of The Thirteenth Hour

https://archive.org/download/13thHrEps16On/13th%20hr%2017.mp3

This episode talks about literary influences to The Thirteenth Hour, partly based on a post which can be found here:

https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/influences-behind-the-thirteenth-hour-part-1-books/

I also refer to the TSR Endless Quest series of gamebooks, similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books of the time.

Image courtesy of Elfsteaks and Halfling Bacon

Here is a link on Goodreads to the historical gothic romance adventure books written by Madeline Brent, pseudonym for author and comic book written Peter O’Donnell.  He was creating great independent female characters before it was as trendy to do so as it is now.

“When You don’t know what to do, just do whatever comes next and go from there.”
― Madeleine Brent, Moonraker’s Bride

Although not mentioned in the podcast, another book that I remember enjoying in grade school that is somewhat similar to books like The Neverending Story (but written for a somewhat younger audience) is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

The Phantom Tollbooth

Episode 18 will talk more about comic books and illustrations.

Thanks for listening!  Feel free to leave comments below!

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