Sample NPC: The Bride

Any foodie will tell you that even in the simplest meals, there is a way to do it right and there's a way to do it wrong. Even with something like the humble cheeseburger, you can get yourself the $0.99 fast food cheeseburger that looks like someone sat on it, or you can go downtown and get a cheeseburger for $12, made with black angus beef, imported gruyere cheese, and sauteed baby portobello mushroom slices, with a side of hand-cut fries.

Such is my opinion when it comes to Quentin Tarantino films. I know a lot of people think he's crap, and a lot of people think he's a genius. Personally, I think he has a great gift for taking a $0.99 concept, and turning it into something worth ordering for $12. And although Pulp Fiction is one of my top five movies, I'd have to say he reached the pinaccle of his gift with Kill Bill vol. I. Re-watching this for the upteenth time last night, I decided to do a quick write-up of The Bride as I would envision her using Tankards & Broadswords RPG stats.

So, without further ado...

The Bride

"O-Ren Ishii! You and I have unfinished business!"

Skills:

Athletics +4 (+5 Acrobatics)
Command +3 (+4 Dominate)
Defense +5 (+6 Parrying)
Melee +6 (+7 Swords, Unarmed)
Ranged +3 (+4 Thrown)
Reflexes +6 (+7 Fast-Acting, Quick-Draw)

Carousing +1
Detection +3 (+4 Danger Sense)
Persuasion +3 (+4 Fast-Talk)
Stealth +4 (+5 Concealment)
Survival +2
Thievery +2

Arcana +3 (+4 Crime World)
Crafting +1
Healing +2
History +1
Languages +3 (+4 Japanese)
Naturalism +1

Peril Checks:

Avoid +4
Endure +5
Resist +3

Status Values:

Renown +0
Infamy +4
Wealth +2

Health 24
Armor 0
Damage By Weapon

Appearance:

A tall, lanky blond woman, appearing to be somewhere in her early to mid-30's, with a sparse but athletic build and cold, killer's eyes. She dresses in clothes that give her optimal combat maneuverability, and carries little in the way of gear other than a sword or knife.

Behavior:

Six years ago, the Bride was nearly killed along with her fiance and the rest of her wedding party in El Paso, Texas. Four and a half years later, she awoke from a coma and, over the course of several months, went on a crusade of vengeance against her would-be killers, the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. When all was said and done, the rest of the Squad was dead, and the Bride had her daughter in her arms for the first time.

Ever since, the Bride has been an elusive figure in the underground world of assassins and killers-for-hire. Unofficially retired, she moves in the shadows, trying to live her new life with her daughter in peace. However, because of her infamy, she is often sought out and challenged by other professional killers looking to make a name for themselves by defeating the life of the Bride.

Combat:

An absolute master with the Japanese katana and virtually without peer in the use of most unarmed fighting techniques and other hand weapons, the Bride's specialty is killing up close and personal with the sword. Her blade of choice, a katana made for her by retired master swordsmith Hattori Hanzo, is a weapon without equal, his finest work and his penance paid to the Bride for the actions performed by his finest pupil, the man known as Bill. Hattori Hanzo's Katana has a +1 to Attack and a +1 to Damage because of its flawless balance, design, and edge (this means with her Hattori Hanzo katana, the Bride has a +8 Melee and does +2 damage one-handed, or +3 damage two-handed).

The Bride typically fights and faces her opponents one-on-one and defeats them in single combat, and because of her high level of skill and the Hanzo katana, she typically doesn't employ combat maneuvers. However, being a lone warrior she has faced situations where she has to do battle with multiple opponents at once, and in these situations she will employ the Web of Death maneuver to great effect.

Along with a "monster book", which would contain actual monster-type opponents as well as simplified NPC "minion" types, I am considering a "rogue's gallery" type book of fully-statted NPCs such as the above.

Thoughts?

The Future of the FLGS?

It's a sad fact of life that most Friendly Local Gaming Stores suffer from the same disadvantages and dangers that any "mom and pop" store suffers from, and in an Internet age where a lot of indie and small press game companies are going almost exclusively PDF, the age when you could walk into a game store, pick up a small press RPG product, and flip through it before deciding whether or not to spend your money is rapidly disappearing.

Or is it?

My good friend and savvy Internet sleuth Masakari found this link on boston.com for me today. While an awesome idea for all small bookstores out there, I can also see this as being very cool for one's FLGS. Being attached to various PDF vendors, a savvy FLGS manager could print a "display copy" of some of the more popular products for buyers to come by and get some hands-on experience with, and if someone wants to buy the product, five minutes later they've got a printed and bound paperback copy in their hands.



This is probably not the perfect solution for this problem, but it does tell me that there is a solution somewhere out there in the next five years or so. Once in-store POD becomes an affordable possibility for any FLGS that isn't struggling to keep it's nose above the waterline, I think we'll see the PDF movement - already going fairly strong compared to where it was a couple of years ago - ramp up by orders of magnitude.

Any thoughts?

Free And Cheap RPGs Galore

I am not a fan of really expensive RPGs. I got burned when I bought Mongoose Publishing's Conan RPG for $50 and discovered it was lousy with editing errors and its binding was utter crap, and I wasn't alone. Mongoose shortly thereafter released their "Atlantean Edition" which was a (somewhat) cleaned up and much better bound reprint of their core book. It also cost $50, but you got a discount if you hacked up your original core book and sent them the UPC.

Of course, a couple of years after that, they released - you guessed it - a "Second Edition" of the game. The core book for that ONLY cost $40. And if you take a look at Mongoose's website for the Conan RPG, you'll see that you could really, really quickly spend a month's rent in Boston on supplements for this game.

So, it's through this lens and the lens of many other (often mis- or over-priced) RPG products that I read this column over at Stargazer's World on free or cheap RPGs. I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't read it heads over there and gives it a once-over right now. Especially check out his list of links at the end of the column.

At the risk of grandstanding a tiny bit, I'll also repeat here the comment I posted there with my additional list of Free/Cheap RPGs:

* Mazes and Minotaurs: This is a really impressive free game, and there’s both a “Basic” and an “Advanced” version, as well as compendiums and a Gazetteer. Lots of good Greek/Roman fantasy ideas as well as some more expanded / generic fantasy around the edges.

* ZeFRS: Based on Zeb Cook’s roleplaying game engine used for TSR’s Conan RPG. Not an amazing game, mostly because it's somewhat bare-bones, but like many free games, definitely worth getting and reading if for nothing more than idea mining.

* Barbarians of Lemuria: Either the free “Basic” version or the expanded & revised version which costs you a few bucks. This game for me defines “beer & pizza gaming”. Some really amazing stuff in both versions, and I especially like the career-based non-combat skills mechanic. It does exactly what it needs to do – no more, and no less.

* The Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG): A good (great?) alternative to Labyrinth Lord. Has a few “new” ideas creeping into it, but nothing that prevents it from being a rock-solid “retro-clone” RPG.

* Swords & Wizardry: Although not personally a fan of the game, a lot of bloggers out there stand by it, and there’s more and more support for this game out there every day. Oh, and it’s free.

* Broadsword RPG: Jeff “Evil DM” Mejia’s 1PG System “80’s fantasy movie RPG” is well worth the few bucks the PDF cost me, and his “World of Broadsword” campaign setting is likewise worth the price if you want to have a handy default setting to turn to on those nights when you and your buds sit down to do some hackin’ & slashin’ but don’t know just what to play.

* Castles & Crusades: Although you gotta pay $20 for the PHB and $20 for the Monsters & Treasures book, the rules are simple and straightforward enough that a $40 investment for the GM and a $20 investment by a player or two (so there are “pass around” copies of the PHB) is well worth the price. Yes, you could go with OSRIC, but the C&C system is clean, simple, straightforward, and the books are quite nice – mine have stood up rather well to the abuse I’ve put them through.

Apocalyptic Hell Beasts and Secret Airport Bases

Every so often, I like to dive head-first into bizarre, woo-woo conspiracies. Maybe it's the Gen-X'er in me, or maybe it's just part of being a gamer, but I always love a good conspiracy theory, and sometimes it's the whackier, the better - especially if there's juuuuust enough juicy rumor and "things that make you go 'hmmm'..." to give it that air of "just so crazy, it could almost be true".

One such conspiracy theory is the Denver International Airport. I've never flown through there - my one trip through Denver was driving into the city in the middle of the night and driving out again at the crack of dawn - but apparently there's quite the buzz about the airport, no pun intended. My good friend Masakari pointed out this article on a piece of DIA's public artwork that has some of DIA's visitors rather disturbed. A giant blue statue of a mustang with glowing eyes, that killed the man who created it before the construction was even finished? That seems to radiate an almost palpable air of disturbance to anyone who looks at it? Awesome, pure awesome.

And of course, while reading that article, it tickled something in the back of my mind, and further internet snooping brought me to this web site discussing the air of conspiracy surrounding the construction of the Airport. The guy who posted it is, obviously, a conspiracy junkie. However, he doesn't radiate that air of total nut-jobbyness that some of the woo-woo conspiracy whackos give off (that he pretty much entirely dismisses the whole "Black Sun" theory is at least one mark in his favor). Here's another website (it's Geocities, so...) that has a lot more of an "out there" attitude towards the whole thing (not that the first website is in any way "conservative"), and carries on with a whole lot more insanity as well beyond the DIA conspiracy. Freemasons, secret bases, plans for "detainment camps", strange feelings of dizziness and nausea, power fields, alien airport workers, Nazi-themed architecture...does it get any jucier than this? I think not.

Oh, and forget those early-90's looking websites - these days, we have YouTube to pimp our conspiracies for us. Just FYI, this video is seriously weird, and might not be appropriate for all viewers / good to watch at work or in front of your kids...



Now, I'm sure a bunch of you are thinking "Badelaire, you psycho. You can't possibly believe all this woo-woo nonsense...can you?". The answer is thankfully no, I can't. Or at least, I don't give it any credibility - but I do find it really, really entertaining. I post this stuff not to promote it, but to show that, as good as many of them are, you don't really need a conspiracy RPG like Delta Green or Conspiracy X to run a good modern day conspiracy / occult / weird campaign. This stuff is out there all over the internet, and it's really easy to find, far easier than it was back in the day when DG was originally written. Remember, back in the early 90's, most of the topics the X-Files touched on were new to a lot of people. These days, refer to "Greys", and almost anyone who's heard of an alien abduction theory knows what you're talking about.

In many ways, conspiracy has moved from something ominous to a part of popular culture. The challenge for a conspiracy / occult campaign GM in this day and age is to be able to weave together a good campaign backstory that isn't going to have your players quoting Mulder and Scully lines every session.

Tying back into the Techno-thriller RPG column from a few weeks ago, I ask you, gentle readers, how much "conspiracy theory" gaming is going on these days? Is that genre, like the technothriller, fallen somewhat by the "Big Industry" wayside, to be picked up by the small indie press labels and the homebrew RPGers?

Just don't forget your tinfoil hat when you type your comments, and be sure to route your IP packets through a Tor server when you send them, so that They can't find you...

Monster Examples: Apes, Toads, Orbs, and Golems

I've gotten a lot of great examples from posters regarding my RFM (Request For Monsters). I figure in response, I'll post a few rough draft examples of what I've worked up so far. These are working drafts, and probably will get some kind of re-edit, but should give readers an idea of what a typical monster entry will look like.

As for stat explanations: Monsters have just six out of the eighteen standard Tankards and Broadswors skills - Three combat, three non-combat. Attack and Defense are the usual, with Attack broken down between Melee (M) and Ranged (R) depending on what the creature is capable of, and Reflexes has to do with who goes first in a combat round. Athletics covers things like climbing, chasing, breaking down barriers, and also factors in if the creature uses a Charge Attack. Detection is how aware and capable its senses are, and Stealth is how sneaky it is. Avoid, Endure, and Resist are "Peril Checks" (read: Saves). Health is how many hits the creature has (by comparison, the "average joe" has 6, most NPC bad guys have 12, and PCs have 24), Armor soaks damage, and Damage is the modifier added to the 1d damage roll in addition to how much the attack roll succeeds by. Note that all skill and Peril modifiers are between +0 and +6, but can go higher (or lower) under the right circumstances.

And with that, here's the monsters...


Ape, Blood

Attack: +4M/+2R
Defense: +3
Reflexes: +2

Athletics: +6
Detection: +2
Stealth: +2

Avoid: +2
Endure: +6
Resist: +0

Health: 24
Armor: 2
Damage: +2M/+1R

Appearance:

Blood Apes appear to be similar in size and proportion to a gorilla, standing about five feet tall, with broad shoulders and immensely strong arms and hands. The thick, shaggy fur of a Blood ape is a deep crimson, giving them their name as it appears as if the beast's fur has been coated in dried blood.

Behavior:

There is a cruel and bloodthirsty intelligence that drives Blood Apes to aggressively patrol their territory and kill any creatures they find, especially humans or other sentient species. Some theorize that Blood Apes are actually quite intelligent, and their actions are only seen as especially "violent" because they are considered animals, not sentient creatures defending their home territory.

Others believe Blood Apes are actually influenced, if not controlled, by some malign intelligence or force that lurks in the deepest and darkest of jungles, where the Blood Apes sometimes drag off humans and perhaps sacrifice them to some ancient primordial jungle beast-god. Ruins, idols, and other artefacts found in proximity to where Blood Apes have been found seem to lend credibility to these rumors, although no one has entered their territory and lived to prove these theories one way or another.

Combat:

Any creature that gets discovered within the Blood Ape's territory will be immediately attacked as long as the Blood Apes have enough numbers to take on the intruders (Blood Apes typically won't attack unless there's at least parity of numbers in their favor). Not subtle creatures, Blood Apes attack with a roar and a leap (use the Charge Attack combat maneuver if desired), smashing their targets to the ground and beating them to a pulp with their enormous fists or, occasionally, a crude stone or wooden club. Some Blood Apes have been seen throwing skull-sized rocks with surprising accuracy, often as a tactic to knock their targets out of tree branches or other locations the Blood Apes cannot get to due to their bulk.

On rare occasions (1d/6+), Blood Apes will attack to subdue, rather than kill, an opponent. This victim, once knocked senseless, will be dragged back to the Blood Ape's lair deep in the jungle, where they will be killed in what would seem to be some form of ritualized manner - either torn to pieces by a number of Apes, or beaten to death, or simply crushed in the creature's enormously strong grip.


Batrachian (aka "Toad-Man")

Attack: +5M/+3R
Defense: +3
Reflexes: +0

Athletics: +3 (+5 in Water)
Detection: +2 (+4 in Water)
Stealth: +2 (+4 in Water)

Avoid: +2 (+4 in Water)
Endure: +4
Resist: +0

Health: 12
Armor: 2/8
Damage: +2M/+1R (Poison)

Appearance:

Batrachians appear as large humanoid amphibians, standing roughly seven feet tall when fully upright, with long, powerful limbs covered in a thick, warty green hide. Their eyes are wide-set and bulging, their mouths immense and filled with narrow, needle-sharp teeth. Their hands and feet are both webbed, but each finger or toe is tipped with a sharp claw.

Batrachians are very strong, and what they lack in grace on land, they more than make up for in their natural habitat. Their simple and robust amphibian physiology allows them to suffer great physical abuse, but their savage, degenerate state means their minds are simple and easy to manipulate, either through subterfuge or through sorcery.

Behavior:

Batrachians (also known as "Toad-Men") are the degenerate remnants of a long-vanished humanoid-amphibian race that fell from civilization long ages ago. While the reasons for their fall are unclear, it is rumored that most of their cities existed close to bodies of water, and because of some ages-past cataclysm, their cities were flooded and most of their ancient knowledge was lost.

The Batrachians have since lurked in the depths of their swamps, still inhabiting the crumbling, half-submerged remains of their ancestor's glory. From time to time, the Batrachians will slip raiding perties down rivers and streams to catch and carry off hapless humans, who are taken deep into the swamps, never to be seen again (rumor has it they are sacrificed to the Batrachain's ancestral spirits).

Combat:

While they are somewhat awkward and clumsy on dry land, within the watery realm of their swamps or any inhabitable body of water, the Batrachians are extraordinarily deadly opponents, employing ambushes and surprise attacks to great effect. It is almost impossible to penetrate into their territory to any degree without being noticed, and soon after an ambush party will be positioned with great cunning to strike the intruders with a volley of poisoned spears, slashing swords, and leaping bodies.

Batrachians typically fight with strange artefact weapons made from an unusual bronze-like alloy. They weild heavy two-handed swords and hurl spears as their only missile weapons (their anatomy is unsuited for archery). Their size and strength (about half again that of a strong man) makes them brutal foes in battle, and they care little for defense (their Defense of +3 is more due to their ferocity than any sense of self-preservation). Batrachians also harvest deadly poisons from all manner of swamp plants and cretures, typically smearing the poison on their spear points. Anyone wounded by a Batrachain spear must make a BP 10 Endure check or suffer 1d points of Poison damage (plus the Negative Balance of the roll).

Batrachians have a tough, leathery hide that serves as a natural Light armor, but if encountered in their own half-sunken cities, elite Batrachian guards may be found wearing Heavy armor made from the same bronze-like alloy as their weapons (note that their natural armor combines its rating with the Heavy armor in this case).


Guardian Orb

Attack: +4R
Defense: +4
Reflexes: +4

Athletics: +0
Detection: +4
Stealth: +0

Avoid: +4
Endure: +4
Resist: +4

Health: 12
Armor: 6
Damage: +2R (See Below)

Appearance:

Guardian Orbs are silvery-gray metallic spheres approximately 2 feet in diameter. They have a small dark indentation at the base of the sphere and a thin dark band around its equator, and a number of small studs and bumps cover its surface along with a thin tracery of wire-like patterning. The Orb hovers approximately three feet off the ground, and moves silently up or down, and side to side in any direction necessary. The Orb emits a constant low humming sound, but otherwise makes no noise.

Behavior:

Believed to be a remnant from a long-dead advanced civilization, Guardian Orbs can be found floating around ancient ruins and remote locations. Occasionally one will be discovered wandering aimlessly, but more often than not they remain in one place or move in a constant pattern, as if patrolling a set route or defined area.

There is no known way to communicate with a Guardian Orb. Anyone who approaches an Orb is immediately attacked without question. It is rumored that there might exist an artifact from their creator civilization that may allow one to control or be protected against the Orbs, but this has never been solidly proven. All that's known is that anyone who comes near an Orb is attacked as long as they remain in an area considered protected by the Orb. However, although the Orbs will ignore anyone or anything outside of their "patrol zone", if they are attacked, the Orbs will defend themselves, pursuing targets if necessary until the threat has either been eliminated or driven away.

Combat:

Guardian Orbs have three modes of attack. The first, and longest ranged, is a bolt of destructive energy that is fired at targets up to 20 meters away. The Orb fires 1d bolts a combat round - one attack roll is made against all targets (the bolts are treated as normal Heavy missile weapon attacks), and the bolts are distributed evenly amongst targets, starting with the closest target and working downrange.

The second ranged attack form is a cone-shaped blast of electrical energy, reaching out 10 meters and affecting an area up to 5 meters wide at its furthest point. Anyone within the cone's area of effect must make an Avoid check with a BP equal to the Orb's ranged attack roll. Failure means taking 2d + the Negative Balance in Electrical damage.

The third ranged attack form is a wave of neural disruptive energy that pulses out from the Orb to a distance of 5 meters. Anyone within this range must make an Endure check equal to the Orb's ranged attack roll. Failure means suffering an action penalty equal to the Negative Balance for 1d combat rounds.


Soul Golem

Attack: +3M
Defense: +0
Reflexes: +0

Athletics: +3
Detection: +3
Stealth: +0

Avoid: +0
Endure: +6
Resist: +6

Health: 24 (See Below)
Armor: 0 (See Below)
Damage: +0

Appearance:

Soul Golems appear as eerily-glowing versions of the creatures they once were. They are opaque, although the radiance they give off seems to come from within their flesh, not from the surface of their skin. Soul Golems do not appear to carry weapons, and while they may have clothes or armor, this material serves no protective function as it is made of the same pseudo-flesh the rest of the golem is formed from.

Behavior:

Created through blasphemous alien science, Soul Golems are automatons comprised of a kind of pseudo-flesh that is infued with energy derived from the harvested souls of living creatures. When the pseudo-flesh is moulded into the shape of the golem, it takes on the appearance of whatever creature the soul energy came from, at the time of death.

Soul Golems are usually created and fielded en masse as armies of implacably advancing automatons. They have no will of their own aside from the need to kill, and while still dangerous if uncontrolled they are much more dangerous if controlled as a single cohesive unit. Soul Golems are especially useful if created using the souls of those who were formerly friends and allies of those they are sent against, as often their opponents may hesitate to strike against a creature that bears the appearance, no matter how unnatural, of a former friend or comerade.

Combat:

Soul Golems are dangerous for three main reasons. First, while they are not especially skillful, they are utterly without fear, and can do battle without growing tired or worn down. Second, while they can be hacked and chopped and stabbed and clubbed, a Soul Golem continues to fight in some fashion until it is chopped apart to the point where it is physically incapable of doing harm. Third, and most horribly, once they have been hacked to pieces, given enough time (2d Rounds) even the most badly dismembered Soul Golem will put itself back together into some semblence of form and ocntinue with the attack, even if the parts and pieces combined together belong to different Golems. Individual pieces will seek out other pieces and form back together again unless something prevents them from attaching to other pieces.

The only way to permanently destroy a Soul Golem is to either disrupt the soul energy that keeps them functioning, or to physically destroy the golem using fire, acid, or some other force that will break down the Golem's pseudo-flesh. Note that non-magical fire, acid, or other energy-type attacks will only inflict half their normal damage - the best defense against a Soul Golem is usually magical disruption or dissolution of some kind.

There we have 'em. Comments, questions, thoughts? Extra Tankard Points for anyone who can spot where the Batrachians and Soul Golems come from - hint: they're both out of the same source material.

High Adventure Monster Listings

I'm currently working up a monster catalogue / bestiary for my Tankards and Broadswords RPG. I'm very consciously leaning away from stereotypical "fantasy monsters" or typical D&D monsters, so no orcs, no trolls, no dragons, and no gelatinous cubes. I'm instead leaning towards, dare I force myself against my better judgement to say the words - "Sword & Sorcery" monsters (I am currently preferring the term "High Adventure" because I can't honestly stomach how some people are in my opinion using terms like "Swords & Sorcery" or "Pulp Fantasy" in ways they were never meant to be used).

So what I'm looking for in you, dear readers, is a listing of must-have "High Adventure" monsters to go into the Tankards and Broadswords RPG bestiary. Sham over at Shame's Grog 'n Blog had a column a few days ago about the Four Iconic D&D Monsters, and that column was in a way the catalyst for this post, so in a way you could think of this list of "High Adventure" / "Swords & Sorcery" monsters in parallel to Sham's post.

Also, feel free to pull your suggestions from the horror or sci-fi books / movies / comic books / TV series' of your choice as well as more traditional fantasy stories (my "Xenoids" are essentially Ridley Scott's "Aliens", and the "Raptosaur" is more or less a velociraptor with the serial numbers filed off). If you can think of a creature you want me to include that's specific to a certain movie or book or TV series, if you can give me the name of said source so I can find pictures and/or descriptions of the creatures in question, that'd be doubly awesome.

Ultimately, what I'm really aiming for here is to not do what so many RPGs have done and essentially re-write the Monster Manual using Tankards and Broadswords RPG statlines. Yeah, there's going to be a few overlaps (zombies and giant snakes are pretty much a given...), but the T&B RPG system is simple enough and the combat rules are relatively abstract enough that, given a few dozen examples of various creatures, a competent GM could probably compare the statline of some other RPG's monsters and convert them on their own time to fill in any blanks for their own campaign setting.

So, let's see those must-have monster lists!

Help Pick My Title Font

I'm in the process of doing some preliminary layout and design work for my Tankards & Broadswords RPG. Part of this, and something I want to do with regards to this blog as well, is to pick a signature "Tankards & Broadswords" font. One font artist I've gone to for a while now, and whose fonts I really like, is a fellow named Dieter Steffmann.

Here is a long list of the fonts Dieter Steffmann has designed.

However, you have to click on a font there to see what it looks like. I've got another website to show you where you can look at Dieter's fonts and see what they look like compared to one another:

Dafont.com's page for Dieter Steffmann.

So I'm asking you, my readers, to visit the dafont.com page, and using their "custom preview" feature, type in "TANKARDS & BROADSWORDS" (all caps) and give the fonts there a look-over (you can set it so you can view small displays at up to 50 fonts at a time, so you can view them all pretty quickly).

I already have a few favorites that're in the top running, but I'd like you all to give it a go and see what you guys like. Keep in mind that I want the font to be A) fairly clean (so no "high gothic" fonts that look more like illumination than lettering), B) something that says "this is about gaming, but not DEEP, SERIOUS gaming", and C) something that has a "historical/fantastical" feel to it, but doesn't appear tied to one specific time period.

I'll be using this font not only as tht title graphic font for the blog, but for my RPG title page and as the header font for all the sections within the rulebook. I want a font that carries through the character of the game and of this blog - light-hearted, fun, and adventureous, but not "comedic" or "goofy". T&B isn't a comedy RPG, but it is meant to be a not-so-serious adventure game, and as such I don't want an angsty or over-intellectual font face to be its signature.

Have at it folks, and give me your votes in the comments section! I might not choose the most popular, or even one that gets mentioned, but I will definitely take people's feedback and reasoning into consideration. I might even do a few cover page mock-ups with the finalists at a later date and see which looks best when "put on the page", so to speak.