The Weapons of Classified

Here's a pic of the weapons I've included in Classified. This has taken 3 days of effort - unsurprisingly, it's not easy to find out information on some of these (price in particular) and as I'm trying to price as if a non-governmental organization was purchasing, things are even more complicated. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the results and now I have to move onward to vehicles.

Sunday Un-Seriousness (wth? edition)

The Best of Bond...James Bond

Just bought The Best of Bond...James Bond cd and am greatly enjoying it. 23 songs from Bond movies up to the new Casino Royal. I'm finding it very inspirational. Goldfinger is best, IMO, but Thunderball, A View to a Kill, and Goldeneye are up there near the top.

Also, if you're at Netflix streaming user, it looks like many of the Bond movies are returning to streaming come the beginning of next month.

Tome of Tomes

One of the magical books in the series...

The Black Book
Author: Unknown
Race: Human (presumably)
Dimensions: 16x4x1
Weight: 3 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Very rare
Fields of Study: Supernatural & unusual
Special Knowledge Categories: Dweomercraft
Value: 4,000 gp

The Black Book is desired by many with foulness in their hearts. Those of at least an Intelligence of 14 who spend two months reading and studying the tome learn to animate dead as if they were a 20th-level cleric with the animate dead spell. The animation of these dead requires a ritual performable only during the depths of a moonless night. Each animation deals 1 point of cumulative hit point damage curable only through an atonement spell. Those killed by The Black Book rise as wights.

Formula Folio

Affect Normal Fires
For the ink required to scribe an arcane affect normal fires scroll

1 oz. of giant squid sepia
1 dram of powdered obsidian
1 oz. of ashes from a cooking fire

In a metal container, mix all ingredients. Bring to a quick boil and decant into a glass vial. Let fire cool and turn cold, place glass vial in center of fire and let sit for 3 days. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

10 Pistols for Classified

After several hours of consideration, I've decided on the following 10 pistols to include in the Classified core book (always leaving in the possibility of a weapon/gadget book/series).

Beretta .25

Beretta M9

Browning Hi-Power

FN Five-seven

Glock 19

Heckler & Koch P30

SIG Sauer P229

Smith & Wesson Model 500

Walther PPK

Walther PPS

I think this group nicely covers much of what would be desired in a modern Classified game with players who aren't that concerned with having multiple specific options regarding weaponry. The PPK is out-of-date with many of the other weapons on the list, but I believe I *have* to include it - it's too iconic not to include, IMO.

Now, on to rifles, shotguns, and submachine guns...

Classified page 51 done!

Just a quick update, I've finished chapters 1-9 of Classified and am about to start on the equipment. I expect to slow down here as I'm going to be updating the equipment list to include new guns, cars, boats, and planes (as well as including some of those in the original game). I suspect this section will take a while as there's more decision-making going on.

After that I've got the GM help sections including NPC information like sample NPCs and other such. Then a character sheet needs to be made and a few locations frameworked. Finally, I'll need to put the Mission: The Bucharest Libretto together.

All that's going to take a while and I fear my speedy progress so far won't be repeated in the next phase of work.

Time in "The Zone"

I spend much of my time being creative in some form or fashion, either work related or otherwise. I've noticed that I tend to do my best work when I work intensively for about 30 minutes and then take a 5 to 10 minute break. It feels sort of like flushing the stress tubes, as when I concentrate I tend to tighten my neck and shoulders and upper body. These little breaks help me relax a bit before heading back to work.

Finding my natural working rhythm has been a nice side-effect of being self-employed. Were I to return to "real" employment, I know I'd find the two-hour-then-break of my past jobs difficult to adapt to. I think I'd end up phoning-it-in more than I should because of the disparities between my natural rhythm and the work-place rhythm.

Tome of Tomes

For your Monday edification...

Bushes & Shrubs of the Low Mountains
Author: Saia Zoides
Race: Human
Dimensions: 16x16x2
Weight: 10 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Common
Fields of Study: Flora
Special Knowledge Categories: Bushes & shrubs
Value: 50 gp

The companion work to Bushes & Shrubs of the High Mountains, Low Mountains focuses upon the changing plant diversity found in the transition zone of the low mountains. Like its companion, it is a work of little depth, and instead explores the wide and varied breadth of foliage. It is also rightly considered a standard in its area.

Sunday Un-Seriousness

I just realized I've missed something like five months of Sunday Un-Seriousness. That can't stand. I must post a weekly nonsense to keep sane.

Trap Streets

Since I imagine most readers are interested in cartography, I thought I should share one of the cool things I learned about map making a few years ago: trap streets.

Although they may sound like streets right out of one of our rpgs of choice, they're really fake streets put on modern maps by mapping companies in attempts to protect the copyrights of their maps.

When you're at the wiki page, you should check out the See Also links... all cool stuff.

I'd Rather Not Be Working

Today is one of those gloomy lazy days when one wants to stay in bed and eat carb-o-riffic foods. But alas, I am self-employed, so although I'd rather not be working, I do like to eat, so...

I should finish the Chase section of Classified today if things go as planned. I'll be up to page 45 on the game then.

Formula Folio

Another from the Fomula Folio...

Speak With Animals
For the ink required to scribe a druidical speak with animals scroll

1 oz. of giant squid sepia
1 oz. of giant octopus ink
1 oz. of holly berry juice
1 oz. of blood from a bull’s tongue

In a bronze bowl, mix all ingredients and store within an animal bladder. Bury the bladder in the ground in a wooden contain and let sit for 1 year. Makes enough ink for 4 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

37 Pages of Classified Done

Just put the finishing touches on page 37 of Classified and the Combat section is now done! Next up is Chases. Seven of the Twelve chapters are finished and I'd estimate I'm about 40% done in terms of word count. I'm starting to think about cover design for Classified and I have two ideas I need to play around with to see how they look.

Thanks to a mention by reader Spawn of Endra, I've been listening a lot to SomaFM. The three channels I've been listening to most are Secret Agent, Underground 80's, and Illinois Street Lounge. There are other channels I'm sure I'll take a listen to in time, but that's where I've been hanging out most recently. Enjoying hearing music I've never heard before (of haven't heard in a very long time).

Reprinting 1e AD&D Unearthed Arcana

Amazon has a listing for 1st Edition Premium Unearthed Arcana (D&D Accessory) [Hardcover] and I think that means that the re-prints of the first 3 1e AD&D volumes was a success. I'm also assuming that some of the profits from this reprint will be going to the Gygax Memorial Fund. Hopefully, they'll end up reprinting all of what Gygax penned (off the top of my head -MM II, the modules, Greyhawk folio/boxed set) and we'll have new copies of the all.

Nice news to wake up to this morning, methinks! February 19, 2013 will be here shortly...