CypherCaster Magazine - Issue 001 (May 2015)

DriveThruRPG is offering the first issue of Cypher Caster Magazine for $4. This is a no brainer for anyone playing and/or interested in Numenera--a good quick read on all the things currently going on with the Monte Cook Games Cypher system--it often reads like an extended press release--but includes a lot of very creative ideas from the community.

The table of contents includes blurb reads:

The first issue of the CypherCaster Magazine includes:

• MCG Spring/Summer product preview
• Shotguns & Sorcery interview with Matt Forbeck & Robert Schwalb by Andrew Cady
• Exploring Cypher Space by James Walls
• “Shapes in the Salt”, Numenera short fiction by Jim Ryan
• “Hunting for Krofwarten”, a Numenera adventure by Chris Fitzgerald
• “Estate Files” covering a Norse Mythology recursion cluster for The Strange by Marc Plourde
• “Holstenwall — A Recursion of Gothic Fear” by Scott Robinson
• MCG Fan Relations News

The stunning cover art by Jeff Brown conveys the vast wonder of the Ninth World of Numenera (or perhaps a recursion in the Strange). A copy of the artwork without the masthead and trade dress will be included for use in your games.

Second issue coming, July 2015

The cover are really is amazing:

And the other art in this issue is fun, playful, and inventive--for example, here is a map:

All of the content is OK, but not all is  fantastic--I am mostly interested in Numenera and not that interested in the Strange or some of the other things that MCG has going on. The short fiction was an easy fun read. I hope that they stay focused on that kind of community creativity part of the Numenera community and not to much in the crunch.

I think that this is a great start to a magazine & expect that the next issue will be a lot better.

Using Fantasy Grounds--Installation, part 1

After listening to a Tome Show Round Table episode on Fantasy Grounds, I finally decided to install it and give it a go.

The down-loader, FGWebInstall.exe was easy to find & ran very smoothly--totally impressed with this & if the 'patch system' which sends updates to content works this well without Steam I will be very impressed.

I do plan to run this on my old mac PowerBook laptop, so this is just a demo install to make sure I know what I am doing.

And I don't...

I get the following after install

I am still confused around what key I need and how I am going to afford it, but the username field also gave me issues

Evidently asking for a logon that I do not think I have created & I cannot quickly find on the download site and/or a way to do it from the client.

Next I start looking for the 5E content that I want to use:

The license is for 4E content & I am still not sure what all of my options are at this time.

At which point I gave up & decided i needed to spend more time on the forums & the discussion rooms & maybe find a specialist that will walk me through some of this.

Review--Round Table 69 - Fantasy Grounds 2

This is a fantastic episode of Round Table discussing Virtual Table Tops--specifically Fantasy Grounds. The blurb has:

James Introcaso sits down with Doug Davidson of SmiteWorks, makers of Fantasy Grounds, and Greg Tito of Wizards of the Coast, makers of Dungeons and Dragons. They discuss the companies' partnership to bring Dungeons and Dragons products to Fantasy Grounds. Then we get a few teases from Greg about the upcoming Rage of Demons storyline! This podcast was recorded on May 7, 2014.

This is the podcast that actually got me to install Fantasy Grounds and start working through setup, license purchase, and the related tasks that go with preparing to run and play in Virtual Table Top Games.

The opening question--"what is your favorite magic item" is awesome & leads to some wonderful conversation around rings of invisibility, bags of holding, &  the Hand of Vecna 

Avenger's Poster Give Away Tea Time

Sean was coming over to pick up the Avengers-Age of Ultron poster that Jack & I picked up for Donnovan and Cody thought it would be a good idea for some Tea!

We went with Lion's Blend from FridayTea's Etsy shop

I am still using the tea pot that I got from Tevana--mostly because I love how well you can reheat and/or brew a second pot without making a giant mess or loosing to much flavor.

The tea looked solid & brewed up nicely

 Sean was running late and since we had to get Kate to dance Cody & I moved the poster out onto the patio

Cody added a lot of sugar



And some white chocolate chips

 It was a fun afternoon.

It looks like Friday has not posted a video in  a while, I really hope that she is not done with that video series--I really enjoy it!

Chris Perkins

“How you DM is as unique as 
how you paint or how you write. 
No two DMs are alike, and 
that’s as it should be.”

—	Chris Perkins, Dungeon Master to the Stars