I know for months we have been saying that the German and Viking codices were 'finished', they were in a manner of saying. After many months I spent time fine tuning them, specifically the German Codex because it was the unfinished book by former TSR Game Designer Robert Kuntz going back to 2002. In the wake of the publication of my own old project that became the 'Codex Celtarum', now every book that follows in the series must be as good or better since it is a hard success to top if the books were to be [...]

Starting up a Roll20 Virtual Table-Top game set in Ravenloft using the Pathfinder rules.  If you are interested let me know.  Also we have started up a forum game of Call of Cthulhu and have a few spots left if anyone wants to play that one. I am very interested in the VTT because I was able to setup all of the pieces for the start of the Ravenloft campaign and pull in a few 'what ifs' as well all in different scenes.  I was also able to add music elements as well as maps and tokens (meeples). I am [...]

I didn’t make it into the RPG Superstar Top 32. Always next year.

Congratulations to those that did!

Paizo will be announcing the Top 32 (the first cut) from their annual RPG Superstar contest today. I have an entry that I thought was pretty good, so I’m waiting with some nerves jangling. A new Wayfinder should come out soon with my second article in it, so I feel like I’m starting to dip my toes into the freelancing thing – getting chosen for RPG Superstar would help that quite a bit, I think. Here’s to hoping!

I picked up a new game a few months ago – Warmachine, by Privateer Press. Normally I’m not one for wargames, but a friend of mine was pretty excited about it, so I thought I’d try it, and I had a good time. I’ve been picking things up here and there for it for a while, and have now started to amass a reasonable little force, though it’s not really playing to the strengths of my faction very well.

I’m playing a faction called Khador, themed around the Russian military with a bit of Hammer horror thrown in. So far I’ve [...]

There's only been a couple new articles over at Canonfire! this May and both are by the sagacious Rasgon who is known for his scholarly Greyhawk work as well as his outerplanar knowledge at Planewalker. Rasgon's two most recent additions are both religious topics.

The first is serious study of A History of Religion in the Flanaess. Rasgon writes:

"Being a survey of the development of religious traditions and holy texts among the Flan, Oeridian, Suloise, and Baklunish peoples."

Second, is a whimsical narrative myth concerning Ralishaz and the Creator. Rasgon writes:

"This is a near-universal myth found in [...]

With a title like "Solo Heroes" you might think these rules are for solo play, much like the Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures, but you would be wrong. These are rules, stated as compatible with Labyrinth Lord but in truth usable with little effort with any of the OSR rules of your choice that enable "One on One" gaming using off the shelf adventures.

Almost sounds to good to be true. I haven't had a chance to playtest the rules yet, but I expect they work well, at least at lower and middle levels. I suspect after 5th or 6th level things break down a bit. That seem to be the big power jump for both spell casting PCs and the adversaries [...]

--------------------------Phone Call--------------------------
Miami is standing behind the counter at the bookstore while the others are off doing their own thing and Dallas is left taking out the books you've been processing. The phone rings. Picking it up you hear a young female voice with a faint New Orleans accent: "Hello? Are you free to talk? I'm only going to speak to you."

"Hello Athenaeum Antiquarian Bookstore, may I ask who is calling?" says Miami.

"I can't say. Not yet. Your reputations precedes you and I ... I don't want to get involved. Not really. I just ... I [...]

Hag, Swamp

Hit Dice: 4 (20 HP)
Armor Class: 5[14]
Attacks: 2 Claws (1d4), 1 Bite (1d6) or by weapon, 1 Bite (1d6)
Saving Throw: 12
Special: Poisonous Bite (a successful bite attack requires the victim to make a save or be paralyzed for 2d4 rounds)
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1d6
Challenge Level/XP: 6 / 400

Swamp Hags, like most of the variations of hag, feast on flesh as often as they can find it. In the case of swamp Hags, they prefer their flesh be still living. If a victim succumbs to the bite of the hag and is paralyzed a feeding frenzy will commence. Each hag in the encounter will turn their attention on the poor, immobile victim, rending him with their claws and teeth until he [...]

Character creation and leveling up can be confusing, even for experienced players. There's a lot of keep track of, including abilities to choose and statistics to be recalculated.

The Character Workbook line for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a series of game aids designed to walk you through the process and help you keep track of all those changes. It's not a character sheet -- you'll still need one of those -- but it will help you make sure you've filled out your character sheet completely and correctly. You'll never have to worry that your character has been short-changed. If you [...]

Zazzle is a bit high when you make it all fancy, so instead of using an image I just made two lines of text. Hope someone out there enjoys this.

EDIT:Memorial Weekend Sale: 15% OFF ALL Products! Use Code: 15OFFPRODUCT Ends Monday

I am pleased to announced that I will be doing layout for Time Heroes, an awesome new Fate RPG that seeks to recreate the feel of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Time Heroes is witty, creative, light-hearted, and most of all fun. Using the Fate system (a derivative of the Fudge RPG) Time Heroes allows players to tell stories that are as whacky and fantastic as the ones you may remember from your childhood.

Before I can do layout for this game, it needs to be successfully funded on Kickstarter. It’s doing great so [...]

Continue reading Time Heroes – Saturday Morning [...]

So I wanted to wrap up my remix classes. That usually isn’t the best attitude to have when you go into a creative project, but that’s how it was with my Paladin remix.

Here’s the Heroic Hospitaler class:
Download: Essentials Hospitaler (Paladin) v.1

One of my other players expressed an interest in playing a class that had a power similar to the Guardian character theme — except as an “class thing” rather than a “theme thing.” It involves taking a hit for a nearby ally. I was down.

With the need for a Paladin remix, and the need to experiment with “Guardian”-type powers, [...]

Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade (By Night Studios)

Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade. By Night Studios lizenzierte das World of Darkness Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) von White Wolf und bietet nun ihre modernisierte berarbeitung ber Kickstarter an.

Am 9. July 2013 sollte die Crowdfunding-Kollekte zumindest 60000 $ beinhalten, damit das Projekt ein Erfolg wird.

“Support the return of Mind’s Eye Theatre and help us create the ultimate Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade book!

 

IT’S A NEW NIGHT

Twenty years ago, White Wolf unveiled Mind's Eye Theatre. It ushered in an entirely new era of immersive and interactive entertainment, and added a vibrant [...]

Some old scientific illustrations as inspiration.















source 1
source 2
source 3

Thanks to Calvin's Canadian Cave Of Cool for this majestic Ralph-ism to round off today's Geek Day celebrations!

04/28/2013
In Flux
Episode Two
"Donan's Journal - Trapped between a child and a hard place"

My name is Donan Roik.
I am an Investigator.

And recent events have made me realize that the world hides more frightening things in the light than in the shadows.  Oh where to begin.    My trip to the North was definitely not a smooth one.  And as I mentioned in my earlier entry, some conspiracy concerning a Northerner named Liam and his wife-to-be Gilana have pulled me into its web.  Even worse, Liam's brother, one of the Demorthen clearly showed [...]

Ormid et Al (Covering Events from 19:45 19/5/51 to 22:00 30/5/51)
The entity in the chamber appears to be some kind of animate, forged from the lightning breath of the Blue Lord; a fearsome and unnatural foe. However, it does not appear hostile, and the group quickly realise that it must be somehow related to moving beyond the highly decorated pentagonal chamber it dances in (the walls are covered in brightly coloured bas reliefs of coiling dracani; the monster's bodies being painted in brilliant reds, greens, whites, blues and glossy blacks, their teeth and mane like tendrils painted gold). [...]

Kathryn and I sat down with Andrea, Anke, and Ralf to play Arkham Horror. It was the first time for Andrea, Anke, and Ralf. After about 30 minutes of explanation we started the game.
Standing on the streets of Arkham causes you to lose 1 health, because of Ithaqua's cold wind.Things started fairly well. I was well equipped to deal with monsters, as was Ralf and Kathryn. Andrea, as Sister Mary, was blessed and also passed most checks she faced. We kept the number of monsters down and closed the first four gates and sealed another. Kathryn dropped out and [...]

I hit 1,000,000 pages views earlier today!


Not too shabby really!

Planning some stuff to celebrate! Keep an eye open.

One of my regular players ( +Keith J Davies I'm looking at you) brought up the idea of using the "red shirts" as 0-level characters and treating each session as a bit of a funnel - surviving "red shirts" get to level up and actually become identifiable crew members (they reach level 1). I simply love the idea. "The Funnel" is one of the best ideas the DCC RPG has added to the OSR and I think it makes a nice fit with "red shirts".

Which means I need a simple mechanic to let players design 0-level characters in Stars Without Number.

What I am thinking is that they get their background package but don't get their training package until level 1.

1d4 HP, the class [...]

Introduction Alright this is a one page conversion from Labyrinth Lord Monsters into the wonderful Adventurer, Conqueror, King system.
 The conversion looks pretty straight forward and it looks very well done. There's not much in the way of complicated side bits or over the top number crunching nonsense.
You can get it right over on GorgonMilk's Blog HERE


How To use This item For Science Fantasy Games 
The pdf basically expands the range of monsters in Adventurer, Conqueror, King by adding more monsters from the extensive range of Labyrinth Lord creations.  There's another rub through in this. Because of the extensive range of Goblinoid games [...]

A little late thought for today: When improvising a game, using recurring motives makes the game feel more sophisticated and better planned. It helps to create foreshadowing to the continuation of the game, while also creates a way to bring the story back to normal when internal consistency is broken. Motive also has the connection to higher degrees of prepared storytelling, and using it while improvising helps to create the illusion that the game is not improvised.
It doesn't have to be complicated or fancy or anything, though. It can be as simple as a kobold army that brings the [...]

WizKids/NECA has kicked off the Dominion War with an organised play event to launch the forthcoming Star Trek: HeroClix game Star Trek: Attack Wing.

The Dominion War is a big deal in the Star Trek universe and perhaps one of the most dramatic times in the Alpha Quadrant. The Breen Confederacy and the Jem’Hadar have allied with the Cardassion Union to bring the Alpha Quadrant under the control of the Dominion. The Breen managed to get as far as Earth, attacking and destroying parts of San Francisco before being pushed back.

In WizKids and NECA’s organised play program there will be [...]

Over on icv2.com, they have put together a top ten list for Kickstarter projects of a tabletop gaming nature.  See more here!  In a related article, Matt Forbeck provides some analysis for the success of the top funders here!  Furthermore, check out the detailed comparison of "IndieGoGo.com versus Kickstarter.com" by James Mathe here!

Here's this month's free map (a rather extravagant crossroads/intersection):



Note that unnumbered versions of this map (suitable for virtual tabletops) can also be found in the following G+ albums:

50 pixel per grid square album
70 pixel per grid square album

Support the return of Mind’s Eye Theatre and help us create the ultimate Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade book!

It’s a New Night

Twenty years ago, White Wolf unveiled Mind's Eye Theatre. It ushered in an entirely new era of immersive and interactive entertainment, and added a vibrant new dimension to roleplaying games. Even though it has been years since a new MET book has been published, legions of dedicated Mind's Eye Theatre fans around the world are still playing. They have been waiting patiently for an updated version of their favorite Live Action Roleplaying game -- and with your help, [...]

Wandered Roads of Varisia
Session 21
February 23, 2013
Campaign Timeline



Searching for CluesOathday, 20th of Lamashan

Voon's WagonBright and early, the party rises and prepares for the day. Ehlyna and Ellie volunteer to take the wagon down to the shore to find Voon's people and deliver it while everyone else agrees to go scout out Foxglove's townhouse and hopefully find some more clues to the great evil behind Aldern Foxglove's string of ritual murders. They referred back to the note that had been found in his lair under his family's estate outside of Sandpoint:

Zazzle isn’t the cheapest place to make a product but I have always liked the ascii art Cthulhu. Anyway if any of you guys like it you can pick it up for$27.95.

Mind's Eye Theatre:  Vampire the Masquerade
Play Test Packet ReviewKickstarterPage

            Before I begin this review, I want to be clear that I am reviewing this play test packet with a strong anti-LARP (Live Action Role Play) bias.  I have never LARPed, and although I want to try LARPing eventually, I doubt I'll ever get as involved in LARPing as I am in tabletop RPGs or MMORPGs.  Like many tabletop players, I have made fun of LARPers.  I've often argued that in the hierarchies of geekdom, LARPers are well beneath the more manly and accepted pursuit of [...]

We have the winners of the One Page Dungeon Contest 2013. Download the PDF!

Author Dungeon Name Category Andrew and Heleen Durston Only Acrobats Need Apply Best Swashbuckling bygrinstow Arena of Blood Most Macabre Caelum Roberts Iron Cloud Best Sci-Fi Daniel O’Donnell Down Among the Dead Men Best Undead Gus L.The Brittlestone Parapets Best Wizard Duel Jens Thuresson The Giant's Dollhouse Best Fairy-Tale Jobe Bittman Into The Demon Idol Best Homage Josh Burnett The Burial Mound of Gilliard Wolfclan Best One Shot Kaylee Thumann Girly Girl Dungeon Most Original LSF A Stolen Spring Best Fantasy Mystery Matthew W. Schmeer Wizard in the Woods Best Non-Traditional Map Misha Favorov Court of the King of No Men Best Beastmen Ramsey Hong Something Happened At The Temple Near Glourm Best Map Rob S Citadel of the Severed Hand Best Myconids Roger SG Sorolla Devil's Acre Best Single Location S. J. Harris The Baleful Spring Best Tower Simon Forster Church of Consumption Best Religion

Tags: RPG 1PDC

Open Gaming Monthly continues to shape itself into a truly great tabletop roleplaying magazine. Hats off to Rick Hershey of Fat Goblin Games for really pouring his heart and soul into this one. it makes me mourn the loss of Kobold Quarterly a little bit less.

I’m still digging Nicole Lindroos’s cooking column. Truth be told, half of the reason I follow Nicole on Facebook is because she posts recipes and photos of the meals she cooks. I love that the recipes on OGM come with a CR (challenge rating). Coincidentally, I had just made a dish very similar to this [...]

On May 24, 2012, Wizards of the Coast launched a public test of a fledgling new edition of the classic fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.  In response to a continually shrinking market share and gamer attrition, Wizards of the Coast attempted to unify the best aspects of the previous five editions into a single modular system called D&D Next.  In celebration of the playtest's anniversary, Wizards of the Coast announced that it will release a limited edition commemorative book containing the most up to date version of of the D&D Next rules and four all-new adventures for player levels one through ten, written by Chris Perkins and the rest of the D&D design team.

Unfortunately for most of us, Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle will only be available to Gen Con 2013 attendees, which will be held in Indianapolis, IN, August 15 through 18.  It is priced at $29.99 and [...]

I started a Youtube Channel and did a review of Mark's terrain. The stuff looks amazing on the game table!  Please ignore the ladies in the background as they were getting plates ready from our steak dinner last night. Yes, we had steak and then I proceeded on letting them know Winter was Coming!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2iXXNlYx3U

Want to give your players something more than just the regular quick sketch of the rooms they are exploring? But don’t have the money or skill to assemble a dungeon brick by brick? Here’s a great tip from Paul, the maker of Matakishi.com: Use balsa wood as the basis for …

This encounter happens with the party about 300 feet from Richmond's lair, which is a ruined castle. There is something of a clear path through the forest to the ruins, but there are thick woods to either side. I've included co-ordinates so you can follow along on a hex map with 28 columns of 19. (Originally, I'd had the encounter begin farther from the lair, by about 1000 ft, since that's where Richmond could've easily [...]

The last time I ran a SciFi RPG it was SpaceMaster for my group when we were down to two regulars. All I remember is lots of charts and lots of blaster fights, usually with the PCs solidly behind cover and ambushing their opponents. Probably the only way to survive a combat using the SpaceMaster rules ;)

Stars Without Number is a much lighter system than SpaceMaster by far. That all being said, running a fantasy based OSR game is something I could almost do in my sleep. Not so sure I can say the same for a scifi based OSR game. I suspect I need to change tracks in my head, as I don't want this to just be "D&D in space".

Fantasy Flight Games. Es gibt mal wieder einige neue Krtchen fr das Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition. Diesmal ist Grey Order Magic fllig.
Fr 6,95 (+ Shipping) erhlt der Old Worlder Wannabe die neue Print on Demand Erweiterung mit 15 Action Cards, 2 Item Cards und 3 Rules Cards, die diese Illusionisten und Trickbetrger selbstredend aufwerten.

Macht FFG jetzt alle paar Monate ein weiteres Kartenpckchen, um das Luftschloss eines lebendigen Rollenspiels aufrechtzuerhalten. Irrealitt gehrt mit Sicherheit zu den Spezialgebieten von Tischabenteurern, aber dass diese Vermarktung funktioniert, verwundert dennoch ein wenig.

Achtung! Cthulhu – Three Kings (Modiphius Entertainment)

Modiphius Entertainment. Die ersten beiden ersten Abenteuer Achtung! Cthulhu – Three Kings und Achtung! Cthulhu – Heroes of the Sea von Sarah Newtons im 2. Weltkrieg angesiedelter Zero Point-Rollenspielkampagne mit Tentakeln gibt es jetzt auch fr das Rollenspiel Trail of Cthulhu (Pelgrane Press).

Smith Adair bernahm die Konvertierung.

“Wartime roleplaying...
...with tentacles!

 

Achtung! Cthulhu brings you a two-fisted wartime TRIAL OF CTHULHU roleplaying game setting packed full of fiendish Nazis, terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary war machines, and enough writhing tentacles to fill ten Reichstags!

 

Three Kings is the first in a series of standalone adventure supplements in the [...]

Wait! What? You’re not celebrating Towel Day! It’s that special day of the year that you can really let your geek flag fly. Because it’s [...]

This seemed a fitting post for today.

So, after discussing the idea with my Saturday Night group, the majority is leaning towards Stars Without Number. There was also interest in Razor Coast, but that would be a trick and a half to make it low level and episodic. I could do it I'm sure if I avoided the major plots, but then that avoids most of what makes the Razor Coast what it is.

I figure we'll run SWN, which is a great choice as it's a strong rules system and is free in PDF, which allows us to expand the field for the "drop ins" part of this campaign.

I'll be throwing Starships & Spacemen in behind the scenes, as seems to be made for episodic play (it's inspiration is the [...]

Somehow I forgot all about the old Dodecahedron’zine when I compiled my list of ongoing projects. And to be honest, I’d pretty much dropped the idea of going back to publishing my 12-page zine in favor of putting work into the blog and publishing the finished works in a commercial format.

But then I started working on these monster character classes (I’ll post the final versions of the centaur and goblin classes later this week)… and I realized that this is exactly the kind of material that the Dodecahedron was made for. But before I could start working on an issue with monster classes, I really needed to finish off Issue 5 – part two of Erdea Manor.

Since the material for Issue 5 was written in December, it was about damned time I put it together into the zine in addition to the blog and of course Dyson’s Delves (that’s right – if you want Erdea Manor in print, you have two choices now – you can print out the two issues of the zine, or you can pick up a copy of Dyson’s Delves which has it along with a few other adventures from the history of the blog and [...]

Over on icv2.com, they have put together a top ten list for Kickstarter projects of a tabletop gaming nature.  See more here!  In a related article, Matt Forbeck provides some analysis for the success of the top funders here!  Furthermore, check out the detailed comparison of "IndieGoGo.com versus Kickstarter.com" by James Mathe here!

Combined Spellcasting.     This article was made due to a request of a Mage Blade player. The question was : "How can a spell have multiple spell casters and what is the benefit?" Well actually the answer is quite simple! Each caster must design the spell, that requires multiple casters. It can be a spell where all casters have the same role, or it can be a spell that each caster takes a specific role (for example casting a different element).
    In the case that all the casters cast the same spell, the system goes like this : -Each spell caster must start casting at the same initiative and the spell is finished when all spell casters are finished. -The spell has + 1 spell level of the designed spell level. -The spell has spell power = total [...]

DM Notes:

• This episode is the full recording of our Tomb of Horrors Actual Play.
• To get an idea of what you are in for, check out our Tomb of Horrors Actual Play trailer.
• Rather than write extensive show notes, I will follow up with a companion episode next week.
• If you have specific questions about this episode and you want them answered on the companion show, please send an email to feedback@burnedfx.com with the subject “ToH AP”

Special Thanks:

Thanks to NPC Cast for creating a commercial for this episode. Check out their show at http://npccast.wordpress.com/

Credits:

This episode uses many sounds from freesound.org. Please see our credits page for the full list.

TV clips used under non-commercial fair use.

Contact: If you have any general questions or feedback, please send an email to feedback@burnedfx.com

Original article: S1 – About 30 Years

©2013 The Delvers' Podcast. All Rights Reserved.

The last scenario for the Come Hell and High Water series, "The Ends of the Earth," finished in a very open-ended way. Because of that, it's hard to provide a direct sequel to it. For that reason, I'll be presenting a few possible ways to continue the story, depending on the choices of the PC's. Detailed here is one option.

-Nate



RetributionThis scenario is Part 16A of theCome Hell and High Water campaign, an adventure series for the Skull & Bones historical setting, for [...]

"Maybe the best D&D music ever comes from Basil Poledouris's soundtrack for Conan the Barbarian. Every player of a fighter or barbarian wants to be Arnold. If you play this, they will be. Of course, if you play it, don't expect them to find diplomatic solutions to problems."

--Mike Selinker, "The Definitive D&D Soundtrack," Dragon 272, Sept. 2000.

Let's face it: the original 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie would probably have sucked without this awesome soundtrack. Yes, there's bloody combat as Conan carves his way across the world, but there's lots of introspection, wherein the music plays as [...]

Like many younglings of my generation, Star Wars spoke to me in ways other movies never did.

People often talk about being "blown away" the first time they saw the Imperial Star Destroyer rumble into shot during the opening sequence of Star Wars.

It didn't have that effect on me - for me it was totally normal; in my 10-year-old mind's eye that's what spaceships had always looked like. This was space stuff as it always should have been!

My dad took me to see Star Wars when it first came out and it was one of those rare films that really bridged the age gap.

From seeing Star Wars on the big screen, with my dad, in 1977 a fanboy was born.

I started a scrap book (cover pictured above) of Star Wars newspaper and magazine articles, along with the "Who's Who"s from [...]

"Way I hear it, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."
   Knight-Captain Zoe Washburne, Lanthian Kingsguard

Bandits, brigands, thieves and cutthroats - there are always men who look to make a living outside the law. While most operate individualy, robbing innocent travellers and those who stumble down the wrong back alley, groups of these miscreants can make for a surprisingly tough nut to crack.

While working on a "Kingsguard" list, and its variants, I thought about making [...]