- Blood Bowl: First images!
19 December 2007 5:27 pm (0)
Focus Home Interactive has the pleasure to introduce the first images from Blood Bowl, the video game adaptation of Games Workshop’s famous board game.
A brutal team sport unfolding in a parallel fantasy world based on Warhammer and American football, Blood Bowl invites gamers to form a team of players from races including: Orcs, Elves, Humans, [...] - Giving Personality to Your Character
10 December 2007 9:51 pm (0)
Ok, you’ve rolled the dice, written down the attributes, picked a race, class and skills. Now you are ready to throw down for some serious dungeon crawling…or are you? Not every night of a gaming session is going to be a hack and slash fest. In fact, quite a bit of time is going to [...]
- Video Review: Assassin’s Creed
5 December 2007 4:20 pm (0)From our neighboring site, Sector360.net, enjoy the newest video review for Faffing About Creed…I mean Assassin’s Creed. Also enjoy the new layout of the Sector, which will be coming soon to the Basement here!
I got this game about a day or so after it’s release and was extremely excited to play it. [...]
- Video PreView: Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Monsters
19 November 2007 11:15 pm (0)So you’ve been wondering what is gonna be the big bad monster for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons (beyond the obvious DRAGONS). Well the answer is short and sweet, well technically it is round and large with a bunch of eyestalks…yup the Beholder! Here’s the video that showcases it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72LQ6W2W_TU
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- Video Review: Clive Barker’s Jericho
14 November 2007 6:26 pm (0)I have to say it always warms the heart to find out that other’s share your views. This week Yahtzee Croshaw reviews Clive Barker’s Jericho and does such in his stylish way that shows my own review to be that of a wanna be video game reviewer. Perhaps one day I will be [...]
- Rock Band Gets TIMMY!
11 November 2007 2:13 pm (0)Timmy & The Lords of the Underworld comes to rock band as a bonus track. (If you don’t know who Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld are, then your just too out of touch to be reading this in the first place…) Proof is in the pudding. The unfortunate part is that it [...]
- New Video Review at Sector360
7 November 2007 10:05 pm (0)It’s Wednesday which means it’s time for a new Yahtzee Croshaw video review. Be sure to check it out over at Sector 360. You can watch it HERE.
Mr. Johnson[?]
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- DM Ride-Along: The Final Touches of Kh’bai cont.
6 November 2007 10:16 pm (0)
In Tonight’s Exciting Episode—
I also wanted to take an episodic approach to the adventures. Generally, a gaming session is a Sunday afternoon stretching into evening, all-told about eight hours. Take into account that the players will always be late, break for food, and rant about the state of the world for anywhere [...]
- DM Ride-Along: The Final Touches of Kh’bai
4 November 2007 10:14 pm (0)It’s hard to believe that this entire series of articles came about based on the hurried thoughts of last minute game preparation. What has stretched out over weeks in terms of the reports on Basement 51 flew by quickly over the course of only a few days. Before getting to the opening music [...]
- House Rules: Experience More
28 October 2007 6:36 pm (0)One of the greatest obstacles my gaming groups and I face is time. The era of week-long gaming sessions during summer breaks or blowing off a symposium on Truth and Hegel to play Dungeons and Dragons all day are long gone. Responsibilities and burdens like children, wives, and jobs relegate gaming to a [...]
- DM Ride-Along: Choices of History for Kh’bai cont.
25 October 2007 8:47 pm (0)Continuing from Monday….
On the heels of the short history of Kh’bai, I want to take a moment to look at some of the choices I made and why. As I’ve said, I always value a world that has a bit of background to it and I feel that also contributes a great deal towards [...]
- Warhammer 40,000 the Role Playing Game Sampler
24 October 2007 9:49 pm (0)Ok, maybe the word sampler is not the right word, but it is a demo of the game. While we have not had the chance to test the system here at the basement, we all have a connection to Games Workshop, so we are very excited to test the system and then we’ll let everyone [...]
- DM Ride-Along: Choices of History for Kh’bai
22 October 2007 8:29 pm (0)On the heels of the short history of Kh’bai, I want to take a moment to look at some of the choices I made and why. As I’ve said, I always value a world that has a bit of background to it [...]
- DM Ride-Along: Background History of Kh’bai, Part 2
20 October 2007 5:31 pm (0)While Kings Namadangken I and II represented recent history, their successor King Namadangken III would be the king that the player characters would be beholden to. I wanted him not only to continue an age of prosperity for the empire but also [...]
- DM Ride-Along: Background History of Kh’bai, Part 1
17 October 2007 5:29 pm (0)With my early map and a rough idea of what I needed from the world, I needed to flesh out the history of the Empire that the characters would adventure in. Early on, I knew the PC’s would be adventuring in the service of the King and Emperor of the nation of Kh’bai so [...]
- DM Ride-Along: The Lands of Kh’bai on Paper
14 October 2007 7:30 pm (0)With two players, one week, and a desire to delve into the various oddball rules of Dungeons and Dragons and, in particular, The Book of Nine Swords, the Lands of Kh’bai were born. But my first step in devising a campaign world is a map. For me, it is the map of a [...]
- New Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon
11 October 2007 9:41 pm (0)
Have you been wondering where the next great cartoon may come from? A cartoon that helps to truly express your feelings as a Dungeons and Dragons gamer? Well, we have the solution for you. From the website Fear the Boot, Shamus Young and Shawn Gaston have collaborated to create a new comic [...]
- Dungeons & Dragons and the Death of Creativity
9 October 2007 8:09 pm (0)While it seems that I have been stepping up on the soapbox a lot of late, I realize that it all has to do with 4th Edition’s looming presence that has me in an introspective mood. One late, late night (or morning if you prefer) some of us here at the Basement were chatting [...]
- What’s your inner D&D character? A revolutionary questionnaire!
6 October 2007 7:11 pm (0)From DungeonMastering, he’s got a pretty cool survey going. Answer 25 questions. That’s all you need to do to know what your inner D&D character is. It’s that easy! Oh, and if you get something confusing like Lawful Good Barbarian Dwarf or something like that…it’s all your inner turmoil that is confusing, not the [...]
- Just because it’s Friday…
5 October 2007 5:28 pm (0)Since it’s friday, which for many of us means going out with friends, etc…ok, who am I kidding, for most gamers it means the big plans for the nite are gaming…’cause you don’t have to be up tomorrow for work/school/whatever. So in that spirit, I present you with the token sample of Random Pics…
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- DM Ride-Along: Kh’bai for the Characters
4 October 2007 4:11 pm (0)I was looking forward to writing adventures for only two players. It reminded me of my earliest role-playing game days when it was hard to scare up an entire group in such a small town. (Yes, we’re talking back in the dark ages when notes were kept in spiral-bound notepads, not laptops, and [...]
- DM Ride-Along: Opening Concepts for Kh’bai
1 October 2007 4:01 pm (0)As I do with all campaigns before they begin, I work from a handful of central themes. In designing what will be known as the Kh’bai Campaign, I had the added element of doing so on very short notice after our regularly scheduled game had to be cancelled. With one week as a [...]
- DM Ride-Along: The Introduction
28 September 2007 3:51 pm (0)Over the past few months I’ve published a number of articles here at Basement51 about campaign building and customizing worlds for Dungeons & Dragons. Recently we had a gap in our normal gaming routine. Rather than lament another week without gaming, I took the opportunity to experiment with a few very unique concepts [...]
- Quick Start Rules for Shadowrun
22 September 2007 12:17 am (0)If your new to Shadowrun, or have just never been able to fit it into your budget…buying a new game system is always a roll of the dice Well, Catalyst Labs has been gracious enough to create some great “Quick start rule sets” so that you can give it a try. You can [...]
- FASA Studios Closing; BattleTech and Shadowrun still kicking butt!
21 September 2007 10:17 pm (0)Found this over on the the Catalyst site today and thought that it was worth reposting here so our readers could be aware of it the truth…
According to Mitch Gitelman, computer game developer FASA Studios has closed their doors. This has sparked a lot of posts around the net saying that “FASA has closed,” or [...]
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While Kings Namadangken I and II represented recent history, their successor King Namadangken III would be the king that the player characters would be beholden to. I wanted him not only to continue an age of prosperity for the empire but also show that he too could follow in the wise warrior-king footsteps of those who came before him. Events of this leg of history would have a great deal more bearing on the characters’ lives and the world around them. In the following article I’ll show what I was up to in making the choices I made and intimate a bit about the history to come, the crucial history that the characters would be taking part in…
The Reign of King Namadangken III—
Yet not a decade into his rule and the Kh’bai Empire was threatened in the west. The strange folk of the Bhinphon Fezir walked among the Kh’bai telling of their own great empire, one they claimed put the Kh’bai to shame. They stirred unrest among the Mhibai and attempted to rekindle the ancient animosities between the Mhibai and the Kh’bai. Namadangken III took with him the wisdom of the venerable Tenik Syun, words from the loyal general’s deathbed, and vowed victory in the name of the Kh’bai people’s greatest general.
The presence of the hobgoblin legions was enough to stifle the murmurs of rebellion among the Mhibai and the sight of their imposing king walking among them showed them that the whisperers of the Bhinphon sought only to mislead them. Namadangken III cast out all of the traders and caravan masters from his lands, sending them home with word that he would address their leader and no other man. He then
massed his forces at the jungle border of the Bhinphon Fezir and waited. For six months, no word came forth from the Fezir, but the legions practiced their deadly craft against the orcs and other wild beasts that would descend from the
The hobgoblin scouts patrolling the border returned to Namadangken III with a man they found walking alone in the jungle. Upon his discovery he asked to be led to the king of the Kh’bai people. Warily, he was brought to the king but searches revealed he carried nothing. Dressed only in the simplest of clothes and bearing the rough hands and feet of a man who had walked the jungles for many years, Namadangken III was outraged that the
The king spoke to the wanderer, who came to be known simply as the Sotu, late into the evening after dismissing first his advisors and then even his guards, leaving only the single most loyal Mountain Strider to stand beside him for the behemoth would risk beheading for disobeying his king rather than leave Namadangken III alone with the stranger. It is said the Sotu taught the entirety of the Setting Sun style to the king in one night and further taught him a philosophy that did not worship the many Gods of the Kh’bai and Ashtara but drew its strength from the virtue and devotion of the individual to the cause of bettering himself while bettering the world.
King Namadangken III saw the wisdom and truth in the Sotu’s teachings. Realizing the power embodied within him, the king was prepared to grant his kingdom to the Sotu and his nation, the Bhinphon Fezir. The Sotu smiled and asked only that his teachings live on in the Kh’bai Empire for the Fez of Bhinphon had first perverted and then abolished these teachings from the lands to the West. The Sotu was of the Bhinphon but not of the Fezir that now dominated the once-good people. He warned Namadangken III of allowing the
In his wake, the first of the Bhinphon regiments burst from the jungle. Mere slaves and barely armed peasants, it was clear that they were intended to test the strengths of Namadangken III’s army and the went to the slaughter upon the hobgoblin legions’ blades. But Namadangken III already understood the mind of the Sotu and his teachings and adjusted his battle lines slowly, day by day, until more and more of the battles were fought in the foothills of the
Their forces and energies depleted by Namadangken, he sent a troop of Mountain Striders to seize their general. He sent the man back to the
Gathering his empire’s scholars to him, many of whom taught him as a child, King Namadangken III taught them the ways of the Sotu. These simple teachings were passed on, throughout the land, and many towns and villages erected new shrines to the Sotuist ways or renovated older, existing temples to the old gods to revere the Sotu and his lessons. While distant and isolated areas might know only a little of the Sotuist way and still revere the old gods predominantly, the old gods are still given praise and offerings in more civilized parts of the region. Many men enter Sotuist monasteries for a few years before setting out in life and it is considered an honorable and good practice and one that King Namadangken III encourages.
Despite the some of the very pacifistic methods throughout the teachings of the Sotu, however, the King also took care to teach the arts of the Setting Sun to his most trusted martial advisors so that these techniques could also be learned by the Kh’bai. And, in honor of the Kings before him, he was careful to maintain the Kh’bai armies and keep the hobgoblin legions ready for war, particularly those who would be rotated to the borders.
Now King Namadangken III practices the Sotuist lessons of Contentedness and Mindfulness. He enjoys his empire and works to ensure his people also can. But he looks to the borders with wariness and also keeps a watchful eye toward the strife of dissent from within. His eldest son finishes his education while practicing the Sotuist way, nameless in an undisclosed monastery. His other sons and daughters also learn the skills that will make them into advisors, generals, and prefects when their time comes as well.
Share ThisRelated Articles:
- DM Ride-Along: Background History of Kh’bai, Part 1
- DM Ride-Along: The Lands of Kh’bai on Paper
- DM Ride-Along: Kh’bai for the Characters
- DM Ride-Along: Opening Concepts for Kh’bai
- DM Ride-Along: The Introduction