The Grizzly Rant

I've been quiet recently.  My presence on G+ and Ultimate Effort have been lacking of late, but not without reason.  I've been busy with one project: the Grizzly Encounter Tiles.   I am pleased to report that all the hard work has been worth it.  I'm about a week away from launching my Patreon page, and with it a free sampler and at least one Basic Tile pack (I won't reveal which quite yet!).  The folks at Big Bad Evil Guy have been a tremendous help turning an idea into a product and the rest of the gang at Ultimate Effort have helped me improve my art game even more since my last update.  Suffice to say, all tiles shown in that last post are severely outdated!  Quick updates in that regard have been moved to my Facebook , which I highly encourage you check out for updates, sneak photos, announcements and special offers outside of Patreon.  For example, the Patreon Launch event, where first-day supporters get a special bonus! I've been working so hard, as ha

Anyone who has been following me on G+, especially the ICRPG Community page, know I've been working on a particular project lately.  For those who are not in the know, I am in the process of creating stylistic map and encounter tiles for use with ICRPG, D&D, and really any type of game you may play.  Samples of my initial artwork can be found for free on the ICRPG Resources page, but I wanted to dive deeper into the nature of the project, what it is, when it's coming, why you want it and what it can do at your table. In short, this is the first edition in a series of 2D terrain boards for online and offline play.  This particular edition will be entirely wilderness and forestland themed.  Each tile is scaled to be a "standard" encounter space with terrain and features.  Distances (in ICRPG parlance) are approximately NEAR in width and FAR in length, giving GMs and Players alike clear understanding of movement in play.  I have future plans to do similar packs in

There are many things separating ICRPG from other tabletop RPGs.  Right now, I'd like to write briefly about 2 of them: Effort and Loot-based classes.  This is important background information for what I really  want to get off my chest, which is an argument for running a class/race combination a certain way at your table. Effort and Loot: Effort is a system which attributes health and combat-like mechanics to non-combat tasks.  In short, it's a method of time control for the GM to employ at his or her table, effectively forcing tasks to require multiple turns and/or group "effort."   Players have four different dice they may roll to complete Effort, depending on the situation.  For more information, see ICRPG Core 1.3.3, pg 24.  For our purposes, we just need to know about two: Basic Work and Ultimate effort. Basic Effort is rolled on a d4 for any task done with bare hands.  Ultimate Effort is rolled in special occasions on a d12.  The most common spec

Ultimate Effort Podcast's most contested topic in Episode 3 was that of Towns; how to run them in ICRPG, or if they should even exist.  Many were strong proponents of simply doing away with towns altogether.  And why not?  Towns are boring places which only serve to waste time and pocket change, two things that are quite different in this system.  I, however, propose something else: make town useful, nay, vital  adventures to the player characters' journey. By this, I mean to simply use the basic principles of ICRPG's Room Design with your towns the same as with any dungeon. The only caveat here (or perhaps not, depending on the type of game master or style of game you are running) is that towns should be avoided if they are not story, plot, or adventure relevant. Player characters can rest anywhere in the wilds given a campfire, abandoned ruin or random tavern on the roadside. The foundation of the game is adventuring to find loot and with no official commerce syste