Sunday, October 12, 2025

ChatGPT seems to have opinions about the sort of games I want to play


I've been continuing my experimentation in using AI to code games/game aids by playing around with a character generator for the various threads of gaming that bounce around in my head.  The main games and settings I'd like to establish by the end of the year (fingers crossed but yeah right) are the Monstrous Matters setting, my own little fantasy heartbreaker (and an associated setting...?), and People of Adventure (POA), my take on skirmish gaming using action figures, with rules rooted in the RPG mechanics of the first two.  And then, beyond that, I'd eventually like to have something concrete in place for Agents of SKA, Underground Elemental Beastfighting, and probably 100 more that I wrote about one time and promptly forgot about.  Anyway, as I (use ChatGPT to) build the generator, those first three plus Agents of SKA are the campaigns I've included to form the skeleton to which I can add other settings later.

So, of course, in the midst of making adjustments and returning code to me during our conversation, ChatGPT decided these should be the campaigns I make characters for:

Classic Dungeons
Underworld
Skyward Isles
Vault Raiders
Mutant Frontier
Agents of SKA
Generic Fantasy
Post-Apocalypse
Science Fiction

Wha--?

Now, to be fair, I'm running with three different systems for the characters — 5e, my Monstrous Heartbreaker, and a system neutral option — so I think the really generic choices on there can be chalked up in part to the AI "wanting" campaign names that it finds very appropriate to associate with "5e" and "System Neutral."  Still, though...I truly don't get why chatbots will occasionally change things up like this out of nowhere (it's made a similar call for my species and class choices, as well as the general layout of the generator)...almost as if they think they know better even on matters of opinion, intention, and creativity.

And...well, maybe that's true, as when called out on it, ChatGPT first apologized(!), then went on to say, "That’s the version I included in the code above — these are your intended campaigns, right?"

Oh, okay...trying to tell me something, ChatGPT...?

We did get this little misunderstanding worked out, but it didn't take all that long for it to contribute some campaign options once again, with the choices becoming:

Agents of SKA
Underworld
Epic of Elaria

At this point, I started to wonder if maybe this AI has its own fantasy heartbreaker that it's looking for a chance to bring into being.  I asked it to create a cover for an Epic of Elaria RPG book and got this...


...so I guess it's pretty much generic fantasy, but the elves have one really long ear that they use for...making precise measurements...?

I'll post more here if I find out more about what happens in this Epic, or in any of the other campaigns toward which I'm being guided...

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

A slice of 1970s RPG life (IN SPACE!)

While I have unfortunately never gotten to roll dice with him, I knew that my uncle played D&D during its very early days. He suppposedly even wrote for an RPG fanzine, and while I had never seen any solid evidence of this before, my mother recently sent me some of his handwritten notes that she found in old papers from my grandmother's house. Apparently, we get a little glimpse here of what his adventures were like while playing with his acquaintance George as DM. No idea if this George fellow is anyone I've heard of otherwise, but it seemed like it'd be neat to type up the notes and share them here. Hopefully Mom will find more soon...


July 19, 1975

I was recently able to take part in a very unique campaign of Dungeons & Dragons. Because the setting has some really interesting differences from most of the ones I’ve played in up till now (more John Carter than Conan), I thought it would be worthwhile to write up some session reports for the fanzine, so that others can see just how flexible D&D is. I’ll try to remember the story as precisely as I can, but please remember that these are all “after action” reports, so I may miss some details here and there.

When I arrived at my cousin Joel’s house for a summer visit, he asked if I wanted to take part in a D&D campaign his neighbor George had been working on, that had been described to him as “a fantasy war in space” (I think he even said George just calls it “The Star War”). I thought this sounded amazing and, having just picked up the Greyhawk supplement, figured this would be a great chance to try out some of its options before returning to my own D&D group next week. So, we gathered last night at the home of another neighbor (Ted) to have an introductory session where we learned about the setting and created our characters. The adventuring party would be Ted, Theo (we were lucky that with two Theodores in the group, they use different nicknames!), Joel, and me, with George as DM.

George said it would be okay if we wanted to play nonhuman characters (even ones that are usually monsters), and that it would be easy to work them into the campaign world as aliens from one of the billions of planets in the galaxy where the adventures take place. I asked if I could play a Bugbear (from Greyhawk, described as “great hairy goblin-giants”), and George worked out some stats for it really quickly. One of the interesting things he worked into it is that my character (called Chewy by the others) can’t speak Common due to the way my vocal cords are shaped, BUT I can understand it, and there are many characters of other species who are able to understand my language when I speak it. This actually seems like it could make for some interesting roleplaying moments, so I’m excited to see where it goes. At first it seemed like it would get annoying really quickly, but that definitely didn’t happen in our short first session of play.

I also wanted to keep the faux-medieval fantasy theme typical to D&D going a little bit, so I asked if it would be reasonable for my Bugbear to have a crossbow as a main weapon. George said yes, but that it should be set up to fire energy like the raygun-type weapons the others are using. He said he would work something out about how those of the Bugbear species like using crossbows for some reason.

With the options being wide open, I don’t really know why Ted, Theo, and Joel all just wanted to play humans, but they did. Ted is playing an older spellcaster named Ben that George kept referring to as “sort of a space wizard who is also good in combat,” and Joel is this classic “farmboy who wants to be a hero” type guy with an amazing last name: Starkiller. (I actually can’t even remember what his first name is; I just called him Starkiller all night, because that’s just badass.)

Starkiller has some skill in flying, but the main pilot of the group (as George said we should have at least one in the party who owns and can fly a starship) is played by Theo, a pirate named Hans. I figured it would be cool if Hans and I had a history together, so we worked out this fairly elaborate story where he saved my life one time and now I’m completely dedicated to his protection and service. So, it was decided that Chewy the Bugbear is also a bit of a pilot himself.

After giving us a brief overview of the campaign world he has created (which honestly sounds absolutely amazing, and which I could never do justice by trying to describe it here – the key point is that in the galaxy, there is an evil Empire that is in control, and a group of rebels have been joining together to try to fight back against it), George had us introduce our characters to each other and jumped to an actual in-universe scene to make it all more impactful. You guessed it: We met in a tavern! I wish I had a recording of the way George described this “cantina” as he called it, and all the incredible species of aliens drinking in it.

The story so far is pretty straightforward. Starkiller and Ben were given what I assume is the key MacGuffin of the first adventure, some plans for a planet-destroying starbase which are being carried by one of the robots they have with them (both of whom were outside the tavern for our first meeting). So, they hired me and Hans to take them to the planet where they are supposed to deliver them. It was actually a pretty fun scene in terms of interaction, as Theo had Hans go on and on about how great he is as a pilot and how good his ship is, and he actually haggled with them on a price for the job (even though we all knew we were going to take it).

That was pretty much the end of the main story for the evening, and we’ll pick up next session as we head to a new planet on Hans’s freighter to deliver the starbase plans. There was a final little bit of roleplaying where George introduced this alien bounty hunter who wanted to capture (or maybe kill?) Hans. My first impression was that this alien (who I’ll admit had kind of a ridiculous name, Greed-O) was going to play a role in the unfolding adventure, but I hope that wasn’t the case, since Hans pretty much immediately killed him! George and Ted also talked a little about how Ben’s past is going to play a part in upcoming sessions, and apparently George gave Ben and Starkiller some sort of magical weapons that will come up again. I am guessing it’s the “blade of light” that Ben wielded during the tavern roleplaying scene, but we’ll find out more as the story unfolds.

I’ll be back to the journal tomorrow night with updates!

-HAG
From here

Thursday, October 2, 2025

(UEB v2.0)

[NOTE: I didn't mean to put this here as its own post, but since it's already achieved more than most of my posts by getting a comment(!)πŸ˜…, I think I should leave it here. Good luck in your beastcatching!] Elemental Beasts

Looking for a beast companion? Choose your element...

Underground Elemental Beastfighting -- The Video Game

(Although that's a really generous term for this...)


I found myself with some time to devote to geek projects on Monday, and while I intended to knock out something worthwhile in progressing People of Adventure (aka POA...my take on 3.75" action figure skirmish gaming), of course I ended up getting distracted by PokΓ©mon.  In this case, it was because I had seen an article where a guy talked about using AI to code a simple video game (even though he had no coding experience), and so I wanted to take a quick look at what that process was like, and the next thing I knew, I'd been on my phone going back and forth with ChatGPT for a few hours trying to make it understand the direction I wanted it to take the game's programming (and to keep it from "deciding" on changes I didn't request at all).

I'm honestly not completely sure how I feel about the use of generative AI in creative pursuits (and my thinking gets even muddier when it comes to its use in the technical realization of human-generated ideas)...BUT I thought it'd be worth mentioning on here how crazy it is that a very averagely-technologically-savvy old dude like me can put together a functional "app" as quickly and easily as I did.  I know it really doesn't look like much, and it's just a simple HTML document, but man does this get my brain bouncing around among possible future projects to start and never finish.  Maybe I should work on this piece by piece and turn it into the fully realized version of Underground Elemental Beastfighting...?  Maybe I should use AI to finally get Ring Doctors into a completely playable form...?  Or maybe I should try to keep my focus on just one project at a time...but attempt to harness this newly tapped resource into improving it...?

Yeah...I dunno.

But...I'd be delighted if you wanted to take a moment to check out the direction I'm going with UEB.  You can click here if you'd like to see its humble opening scene.  You'll be asked to choose an element for your Beast...


...then given a randomly generated monster (with d20-ish stats) and the option to send them into the Beastfighting pits to find glory, misery, death, or some combination of the three.


There's not much more to the story at this point, but I can't really exaggerate how amazed I am that this thing works at all.  And now that I have a skeleton to build from, who knows...maybe it'll actually lead to me learning a thing or two about coding...?

Whoa whoa whoa...guess I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Anyway...if you have any ideas on this, please send 'em my way!

Monday, September 22, 2025

Aaron Burr, Sir

Hmm...maybe I should have deemed this a Musical Monday...?  Well...at a time when I'm hardly blogging at all, I guess the timing is just right for this one, even if it's just me posting about stuff that's been making me happy lately.  (It also puts me into an interesting -- to me, that is -- one-year cycle for posting about how much I like Broadway.  Maybe there's something about this Northeastern fall weather that makes me think we should all be singing all the time...perhaps to stave off the inevitable seasonal depression that the shortening daylight heralds...?)

Anyway...yeah, I've come to like Broadway musicals quite a bit, with much of that interest almost certainly attributable to the Hamilton phenomenon.  I've always enjoyed them and even daydreamed of incorporating elements into my own creative projects, but when I finally saw Hamilton (on Disney+ during Covid lockdowns), a whole new level of interest was unlocked.  There are a billion and one opinions of the show out there, so I won't bother with writing much in the way of specifics, but I will say that if you're reading this and you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to give it a solid shot sometime...maybe even if you don't like musicals at all.  It is likely the most complete and compelling work of art I've ever experienced, and I have a feeling I'll still be discovering new layers of storytelling within it after several more years of watching and listening to it.

Image from here

So, two things on Hamilton:  First, a couple of weeks ago, the very well-filmed presentation of the live show that has been on Disney+ since 2020 was released to movie theaters for the first time.  While I've read about some people having less-than-stellar experiences with raucous crowds singing and dancing along with the film enough to hamper others' enjoyment (writer and original Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, did post that fans should sing along), our experience was just awesome.  Pretty much everything hits a little different on a big screen with surround sound, and the shift in perspective and ability to catch little details had both Laura and me thinking that it was cut differently from the version we'd already seen many times.  (That doesn't seem to be the case.)  There's also a documentary-style intro that adds a bit to the experience, but the real draw for me was just getting to see the show in a (literally) different light, with the framing and camera angles often making it feel like we were sitting in the audience of a live theater.

Image from here

Anyway, we were pretty excited when we found out that was going to be happening, and it lived up to expectations.  Our reactions to it were nothing, however, when compared to our learning that Leslie Odom Jr. -- who originated the role of Aaron Burr in Hamilton's Broadway run (and won a Tony for his efforts) -- would be returning to his old part for 12 weeks this year.  Laura got in early for tickets (when we could still afford them), and we got to see him last week.  And I don't want to oversell how great it was, but...it was pretty much the best thing ever.  Obviously, everyone in Broadway shows is super-talented...but my gods can this man sing.  You could feel the anticipation in the room when his biggest numbers were about to start.  I think "The Room Where It Happens" is the one that really popped for me that night, but I'm probably most excited that I got to see him perform "Wait For It," which is such an incredibly moving song with him behind it...


So...that's pretty much what I've got today.  Just a nod to the genius of Hamilton and the transcendent talent of Leslie Odom Jr.  Because I'm always kind of thinking about how gaming weaves in and out of the things I enjoy, I'm certainly turning over some tabletop ideas in my head after all of this.  It got me thinking about rules for a duel with pistols (uh...spoiler alert, I guess, if you don't know much about Aaron Burr), and it really has me working through thoughts on how to bring the narrative artistry of Broadway into a tabletop RPG.  There has to be something there...I just have to figure out what tools are needed for a musical to emerge from a story about beating up goblins and taking their stuff...

Monday, September 1, 2025

Grozz keeps gettin' graphic...plus, a Soldier!

I hate to start out posts by just lamenting my lack of posts...

BUT...man, I'm really having a tough time working regular blogging back into my schedule, aren't I?

Luckily, Grozz has me covered!  If I can't post my own thoughts, I can at least update my buddy Art's graphic novel reviews every so often.  So...that's what I've done.  He led with Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness and has now added The Punisher: Born to the list.  Check out the Gettin' Graphic With Grozz page for the full (yet concise) reviews...!

Image link

And to celebrate the Punisher's appearance among the selections on that page, I though it'd be fun to stat out old Frank (or, more specifically, a rather young Frank) using the Soldier class I recently wrote about...

(More soldiers to come, I think...!)

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Frank Castle

(Francis G. Castle, born Castiglione)

Soldier, Level 2

Image from the Marvel Database.  Plus, check out Kelvin Green's excellent breakdown of this issue from his exploration of Marvel Comics' 1991 offerings.

Human, 25 years old
Affiliation: United States Marine Corps

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA
15 (+1)  13 (+1)   14 (+1)   14 (+1)    16 (+2)    13 (+1)

HP 12     Move 30 ft. (6 units)
Attack Bonuses: +3 melee, +3 ranged (+5 w/Two-handed Small Arms)
Additional notes: Effects of exhaustion treated as one level lower than usual

Proficiencies
Skills: Athletics, Perception, Religion, Survival
Languages: English, Italian, French, Russian, Dari, German, likely others
Saves: Strength, Dexterity
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons; expertise with Two-handed Small Arms
Armor: All armor, shields

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Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Rehashing a 5e-ish Soldier class...to get me rolling...

Man...I had a nice little blogging rhythm going for a brief span...which I guess was easy enough when I was just doing irregular work from home.  Now that I'm back to "the grind," I'm a bit disappointed in how easily I've let the million and one blog posts I want to write get repeatedly pushed off to another tomorrow.  (I do have kind of a cool job though...where I scan my fingerprint to get into the lab and have to unironically say, "I can't tell you that," when folks ask about some of the details of my work.  It's honestly nothing all that exciting, but it's fun to play important government contractor sometimes...maybe I'll work that into a post at some point...)

Image from Joepedia

So, I need to do something to give me a nudge back into action, to help me maintain my delusion that I'm getting closer and closer to finishing some of the projects I've started over the years, then left to barely keep a heartbeat through a trickle of attention here on Monstrous Matters.  I'm finding that, sometimes, I want to post about something specific, but then I think, "Wait, that'd be better if I ALSO posted this character with it..."  Which then leads to, "Oh, if I'm gonna post that character, I need to outline this class first..."  Which quickly devolves into "How can I write up this class without first finishing that other class I need to compare it to?"  And by that time, I'm well past thinking about whatever post idea prompted the whole chain of events, and the cycle gets to start all over again when I read a science article or see an action figure I want to pick up.

This is (hopefully) a post that's going to make it easier to write down the stuff I want to, when I want to, IF I actually have the will to.  Now that I've posted some thoughts on classes for my fantasy heartbreaker, I want to revisit the Soldier class that I scribbled down a couple years back (with action figures in mind) so that it'll fit the simplified, OSR-inspired, 5e-ish form of Monstrous Heartbreaker classes.  The basic fighting class for the game is The Warrior, which is essentially just a simple set of rules that boost a character's effectiveness in combat in different ways.  I think The Soldier should be similar but give a bit more of an impression of formal training in things besides dealing and taking damage.

As for balance...?  I definitely don't want to end up with comparisons that make one class better than another in every reasonably conceivable RPG scenario.  BUT...I'm also a believer that anything different about two similar components of a game is an opportunity for scenarios where either one can outshine the other.  So let's see where that puts me with...

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Image from Joepedia

The Soldier


Hit Points: [5 + CON] per level  (Hit Die: d10)

Proficiencies
Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
Skills: Athletics, Survival

All characters have had a life leading up to becoming a 1st-level adventurer, and many have hobbies and interests outside of their main profession.  Decide on some of these details for your character, and select one additional Skill (from the Skill list) and two Tools and/or Talents to represent the proficiencies gained from these activities.

Equipment
Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).


Tireless
Beginning at 1st level, you treat the effects of exhaustion as one level lower than usual.


Military Specialty
You have trained for one specific role above others. At 2nd level, choose one or two of the specialties from the following list of items in bold. You gain the underlined items (skills, talents, tools, weapons, and/or languages) as proficiencies. If you already have the proficiency from another source, you gain expertise.

Asterisks (**) indicate the "cost" of each specialty. You may choose one ** specialty, two * specialties, or one * specialty taken at the level of expertise (does not stack with expertise otherwise gained).

Airborne (Athletics, Parachutes) **
Artillery *
Chaplain's Assistant (Perception, Persuasion) **
Cook *
Communications (equipment) *
Diving *
Dog Handler (Animal Handling, Dog Training) **
Electronics *
Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor (Unarmed Combat, Perception) **
Heavy Weapons *
Intelligence (Perception, Deception) **
Interpreter (Choose four languages) **
[Biome] (Arctic, Desert, Jungle, etc.) Warfare (Nature, Survival) **
Medic (Medicine) *
Pilot (aircraft) (Flying, Aircraft Repair) **
PT Instructor (Athletics, Perception) **
Radar *
Rifle Instructor (Two-handed Small Arms, Perception) **
Sabotage (Insight, Demolitions) **
Small Arms Armorer *
Transportation (Driving, Ground Vehicle Repair) **


Action Surge
Starting at 3rd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level (seriously? good luck to you...), you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.


Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.


Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
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Image from Marvel.com

The idea with this class is definitely to have the skills of a "typical" member of an infantry as the core (so that many members of the Joe team fit the model, and to feed the mechanics of action figure campaign play), but I wouldn't mind having it flexible enough to also cover similar roles like those taken on by the drivers of the Wheeled Warriors' Lightning League, or MCU Sam Wilson's work in the Air Force. The list of options is definitely a work in progress...as I tried to get the ball rolling by looking through some early G.I. Joe file cards and adapting what I found there, but it's surely an effort that could use a deeper dive into that source material, and maybe even a little more reasoning around the balance of specialties (yeah, even after scoffing at the idea of balance up above).

But now that I'm "free" to stat up Soldiers to my heart's content, I suppose I'll see how that all works out...

Thanks for reading!