Tabletop Gaming Feeds

"Computer-generated" mockup from the Sirius Miniatures website.
Enworld reports that a set of metal miniatures based on David Sutherland's cover for the Holmes Basic Set cover is coming soon from Sirius Miniatures, a company that I am not otherwise familiar with.  

Rogahn and Zelligar, perhaps?
The Sirius pre-order webpage can be found here, with the set titled "1977 D&D Holmes Boxed". Glad to see the correct year. Ignore the "Sold Out" button; I read on EnWorld that is what their page says until pre-orders open up. The retail price is $49.99 for the set of three miniatures, and the set will also be available in stores. The Sirius product description:
"Step back into the golden age of tabletop roleplaying with the Sirius Metal Miniatures: 1977 D&D Holmes Boxed Set—the first release in the Sirius Miniatures line. Inspired by the iconic artwork of David C. Sutherland III, this collector’s edition miniature set faithfully recreates one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most legendary battles in a durable Zinc alloy.

This boxed set includes three finely crafted miniatures:

●        Red Dragon (Huge, 75mm base) 

●        Wizard 

●        Fighter 

Designed for collectors, dungeon masters, and tabletop RPG players, this set comes in premium collector’s packaging, making it a striking display piece as well as a playable set of miniatures.

Whether you’re reliving the nostalgia of early D&D or adding a unique collectible to your miniature collection, the 1977 D&D Holmes Boxed Set is a must-have for fans of fantasy miniatures, D&D history, and tabletop gaming."

Last year saw Wizkids release plastic miniatures of the same figures. While the dragon was sold separately, and retailed for about $30, the wizard and warrior were only available as rare figures in blind boxes, and loose ones now run upwards of $50 each on Ebay, so I'm happy to see this set avoid the blind box nonsense. Perhaps it's time I finally learn to paint minis.

"RRRROOOOAAAARRRR!!!!"

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands in the week of November 1, 1984. 
The "Meanwhile..." column in this month's comics eulogizes Don Newton who had died August 19.

Superman: The Secret Years #1: Nice Frank Miller cover on this one, though the interiors by Swan/Schaffenberger mark this series as part of this era's "stuck in the Silver Age" version of Superman. It's a continuation of the "In-between Years" backups that ran in Superboy. Rozakis' story, though, has some surprises. Sure, Clark is mostly acting like Superboy Clark, and Lex has just escaped reform school for the last time using bedsprings on his feet, but in-between all of that Clark is still dealing with his grief over the loss of his adopted parents, and his roommate Ducky has developed a drinking problem, culminating in a drunk driving accident that leaves him seriously injured.
It's an odd mix! One foot in the more Teen Titans-style character drama, and one foot in the old Superboy schtick. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Jonni Thunder #1: The Thomases and Giordano develop an idea initially conceived by Thomas and Conway. The brand-new character utilizing the name of an old one is a long-used tactic in comics (it's the root of the Silver Age, after all), but it's really going to take off post-Crisis. This Jonni Thunder is a hard-boiled P.I. in Los Angeles. She returns from her father's funeral to find a dead man in her office and then an insectoid robot out to kill her. It all seems to relate in some way to statue of a woman, apparently looted from South America, that her father had received and had had turned into a lamp. What's so important about the statue isn't clear, but it does impart the power to Jonni to generate a being of energy out of herself, which comes in handy stopping a guy trying to kill her.

Atari Force #14: The Scanner One is out in the multiverse, trying to figure out if there's some place they can return too. Dart has been convinced by a dream that she has to give Blackjack another chance, though she is being cautious about it. Pakrat discovers Taz has been beat-up by a stowaway: Kaarg. He runs for his life and escapes to an airless planetoid in a shuttle, only to be rescued by his brother Rident who has been (I guess) hidden in the landing bay all this time? I suspect Conway forgot about him, and Baron is tying up that loose end. Anyway, Rident announces his intention to take them all in to face justice while Martin tries to convince him New Earth was destroyed.

In the backup by Manak and Klaus Janson, we get a solo Babe story from before he left Egg. He wonders away from Mama briefly and gets involved in a conflict with an alien and the alien's diminutive foes intent on eating him.

DC Comics Presents #78: This is an issue my brother and I had as kids. The obscure (in real world terms) villains from last issue unite to form the Forgotten Villains, though they don't really use that name in story. Superman beats the Faceless Hunter, but Immortal Man is killed saving Dolphin. It's ok, though, because he just returns for another life in a kid's body. Kraklow and the Enchantress have a third member of their sorcerous cabal on a distant world, and the Heroes must travel their to defeat them. Space Cabbie gives them a ride, but the magical villains make them crash on an unstable world, necessitating another helping hand from Chris KL-99 and friends. Now, both of these characters are technically from the future, but Wolfman and Swan don't let that stop them.
When the Heroes arrive at their destination, they find the planet is the third sorcerer--Yggardis. Things aren't going well for the good guys, until Atom-Master and Mister Poseidon realize the Enchantress' plans don't leave much run for them, and use Ultivac to attack her, providing room for the Forgotten Heroes to save Superman and the day.
In the coda, the Monitor says he can't find Kraklow or the Enchantress, but he can't waste time on that now. There's something happening on Earth-Three that needs his attention. He informs Lyla that he's dropping his connection to the villains; he's studied them enough in the guise of helping them. The blurb promises this will be continued in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Fury of Firestorm #32: Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier step into writing duties this issue, and Alan Kupperberg is on art. The ghost of "Shoe" Shine, the gangster that tried to kill Ed Raymond, ousts Stein from Firestorm so he can live again in Stein's body. When the Phantom Stranger shows up and explains to Ronnie what's going on, Ronnie again forms Firestorm, but that allows Shine to take over their hero-form. Phantom Stranger has to take more direct action to help the young hero out. I guess this was a seasonally appropriate story, but not much to recommend it otherwise.

Justice League of America #235: Conway and Patton continue from last issue with Vixen sought by the police, and Aquaman and the new members of his team at odds about what to do about it. After a couple of panels that make it look like Aquaman somehow used his aquatic telepathy to de-escalate Steel, the young hero storms off. He meets up with Gypsy outside, and they are attacked by Fastball of the cadre. The villain disappears as quickly as he came, and the team heads off to New York where they hope to stop Vixen at the M'Changan Embassy. They show up in time to save Vixen from her uncle and his men. The cops arrive, but Maksai refuses to press charges, and Aquaman won't let the cops take Vixen in for what happened in Detroit. That move, Zatanna tells Steel, was likely the wrong one and will have consequences. On the flight back to Detroit, their transport plane is teleported to a mountain in the Arctic, where the team encounters the Overmaster and his Cadre.

Wonder Woman #323: Feels like after putting off the mandated inclusion of the Monitor (mentioned in the editorial column this issue), Mishkin and Heck go all in because that mysterious observer is all over this issue. Dr. Psycho calls him to get a new ectoplasmic extractor, which the Monitor asks Cheetah to steal. Silver Swan calls him wanting to find Captain Wonder, and the Monitor directs her to Dr. Psycho's hideout. Etta Candy and Howard Huckaby are caught in the middle of this villain drama, as Cheetah happens to capture them, then they are at Psycho's hideout when Silver Swan shows up and thinks Captain Wonder is cheating on her with Cheetah. Then, Angle Man is calling the Monitor wanting to power up a new Angler. These Wonder Woman villains are a needy group!
Anyway, thanks to Howard's crazy idea, they are all convinced Etta is Wonder Woman which puts the two in even more danger. Etta uses Psycho's ectoplasmic device to power herself up into an ersatz Wonder Woman. She fights the good fight, but it's the arrival of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor that sees the villains defeated. Howard proclaims his love for Etta, Steve and Wonder Woman are back together--and Griggs is interested in exploring his and Diana's connection, with drama sure to ensue.

Vigilante 14: Von Eeden is on art this issue. While Adrian Chase waits to see if he is appointed a judge and what that will do to Vigilante's career, the businessmen Hammer and Hammett, actually brothers, have been engaged in an escalated game of one-upsmanship. Hammer, with the aid of a high-tech shadow suit, is about to commit murder to win. Vigilante tries to get in the man of his plans, but the new tech gives Hammer such an advantage that Vigilante is forced to kill him. Later, Hammett reveals that he had orchestrated the situation to lead to Hammer's death by his own hand, but Vigilante proved a convenient substitute. 

New Teen Titans #5: Wolfman and Perez come to the end of Trigon/Raven storyline, but as this issue opens, things look bleak for the Titans. They are all that's left of a transformed Earth and staring down a giant Trigon. They attack but are swatted like gnats and appear to be killed. Lilith is all the while making portentous but vague statements and trying to get Arella, grieving over her dead daughter, to help her with Raven's rings. As Trigon opens a portal to his home dimension, and the Titans mount a desperate delaying action, the power of Azar manifests through Raven's soul-self and grows large enough to envelope and destroy Trigon. Everything returns to the way it was, with only the Titans, Lilith, and Arella remembering what happened.  This was kind of Wolfman/Perez's "Dark Phoenix" story, so it will be interesting to see what comes after.

  Let's talk about House of the Rising Sun there's some of the great Arduin world building in this Arduin supplement. I've been working with Mathew Tapp's Barrows & Borderland rpg and I wanted to add a section of the Dragon's Graveyard too the wilderness. Now in the past I've looked into Arduin's House of The Rising Sun back in Jan 13th in 2024. Now this is based on Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

We defeated the werewolves with flame arrows, fire, and lots of violence! The player's PC's snuck deep into the wilderness & came across the werewolf leader's cabin. We set it on fire and then cut off his head as he came out of the cabin's door!  Scratch off one werewolf who is a part of the Polish minor royalty. We also took out some of the Orcs with fire arrows and throwing irons or Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The original version of this post appeared in 2016... 
Jack Shear brought to my attention an idea Kreg Mosier proposed of a Southern Gothic Ravenloft. Which is a great idea! It also got me to thinking about other settings where Ravenloft could be repurposed:

Planet of VampiresA commercial cargo-hauler spacecraft responds to a call from the Demeter from a nearby planetoid, and finds an planet shrouded in eerie mists. The Demeter's crew have undergone a frightening transformation into the undead. At the center of all this strangeness is a weirdly earth-like castle and its master. Inspirations: Planet of Vampires, Alien, and the Star Trek episode "Catspaw."
The Creepy Castle Teenagers returning from Spring Break have their car break down in an eerie fog somewhere in Appalachia. Going the the forbidding European-style castle for help seems like a good idea... Inspirations: any number of horror films including Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Scooby Doo, and for more of a tripped out euro-feel, things like Nuda per Satana and Requiem pour un Vampire.

 So let's continue where we left off on the blog from flowing Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier rpg & The Primal Order on the blog from here.  Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier rpg I've been looking to incorporate some ofthe old school cosmic beings within the rpg. And that means looking deeper intoThe Primal Order: Knights: Strategies inNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

My space fantasy RPG ZSF is on the front burner again. It is an adventure game set on the Supercalla space highway. I begin playtesting it in a month or so. This is probably the first game I ever designed around a character sheet, which I created before making any game rules. I'd say this isn't a bad way to do it, though I would caution doing it exactly how I am.

I drew tons of these character sheets between 2023 and now and I haven't changed the elements. I'm locked in. These are the elements I used to design the game. I refused to change them. Why?

Because I gave it a shitload of thought and these are the elements I need for this game. The skill list (abilities, attributes) includes the six things that all spacers will do in this game, over and over. Explore, Drive, Fight, Operate, Shoot, and Talk. Everything else can be a Trait.

Anyway, here's the first two sheets I ever did. You can see in the first one that I was not 100% locked in but by the second sheet... I found it.

The first ZSF sheet.
 This is the second one, on the next page.

To demonstrate how this sheet hasn't changed... here's the most recent one I did.

I think the elements are mostly self-explanatory, but here's a rundown of what they mean.
EDFOST: This dumb acronym stands for Explore, Drive, Fight, Operate, Shoot, and Talk. The Skills of the game. Most of the action rolls are based on one of these. One early feedback from my group was "Edfost sounds stupid"*. Fair enough. But it's how I have enshrined it into my brain.
So I built some lore into the setting. The names Ed Fost, Stef Do, and Fot Sed are the equivalent of John Doe or Jane Doe. Ed Fost himself was apparently a real guy. Some factory working schmuck who got used by the system and now his name and face are the standard for a generic person. I think that's kinda funny.
Never trust anyone who says their name is Ed Fost.
DEF: This is Defense. It reduces damage and comes from armor and shields and stuff.
LP: Life Points, which work exactly like Hit Points.
SP: Space Points, which are like XP that you spend to help change and grow.
Aces: These are luck points that let you absorb damage, improve rolls, and add little narrative flairs.
Name, Form, Background, Gear: These all seem self-explanatory. Form is what you are... like a green bubble headed guy or a robot.
Traits: These are things outside normal Skills. Not just skills and powers, but relationships and stuff. They add to dice rolls.
$: Money. To buy ship stuff, cooler gear, road snacks, etc.
The game is built around these pretty simple concepts. Dice rolls are probably mostly about shooting monsters, hotwiring spaceships, and fast-talking alien leaders.
My current thought is to publish the game in the form of a series of zines. But it is still very early and I might change my mind.

By Joseph Bloch
BRW Games
1e
Levels 1-12

But a few scant leagues from the walls of the bustling town of Greyheim lay the crumbling ruins known as the Castle of the Mad Archmage, Jophob Schlech, long shunned by the local townsfolk. Decades ago, a series of vast treasure hoards were discovered in the twisting mazes beneath the castle proper, along with hungry beasts and deadly traps aplenty. Legends were made in that time; the names of those early explorers will live on for centuries. Eventually, though, the dungeons lost their luster as the treasures became smaller and harder to win, the traps were dismantled, and the monsters slain; eventually only the desperate or jaded dared enter the dungeons beneath the castle. Recently, however, reports have surfaced of renewed stockpiles of wealth in the dank passages and chambers beneath the hillock upon which the stillruined castle rests. Regions once deemed devoid of monstrous habitation have been reported to teem with renewed activity. Traps both magical and mundane have once more brought explorers to their doom. Changes both subtle and gross have been noted in the very layout of the passages and chambers, rendering old maps and knowledge dangerously unreliable if not outright useless. Something is definitely afoot, and most honest folk in the nearby city find the prospect an unnerving one indeed. To the bold and daring, however, only one message needs to be heard. The castle and its dungeons are once more ripe for exploration, and new legends are ready to be made beneath The Castle of the Mad Archmage!

This 322 page adventure presents a megadungeon with about fourteen levels and at least a thousand rooms. A true example of the genre, it does a decent job mimicking what a classic era megadungeon may have looked like, combining large extensive level maps with a writing style and encounter mix that feels like it’s out 79-81. It’s also vaguely disconnected from itself, feeling more like a series of random rooms, in spite of having factions and zones and level themes. 

Bloch and BRW is interesting. I have, up to this point, not reviewed any of the various of Mad Archmage available. What I know Bloch from is some EXCELLENT marketing which seems to draw me in time and again to his products via the covers and the DriveThru pages. And then crushing disappointment as I see yet another what appears to be a low effort offering that makes little sense. The Castle of the Mad Archmage though is a little different. This version, I assume, is the one that hit kickstarter for something like $50k. The maps are exactly what one expect if you said large Gygaxian megadungeon level, perhaps without the “lines for walls” from the famous snippet. But, several hundred rooms per level and a complexity to them that is absolutely present. And encounters straight out of the classic era Gygax, without, though, the guiding vision of a level that results in these feeling disconnected from themselves and perhaps a little staid and/or generic. It’s a colossal effort, just not one that I would ever feel the desire to run because of the … aimlessness?

The adventure has a lot of elements straight out of early play. You will recall, in the G series, a brief sentence in the intro noting that if the party looks around they can find a cave, etc to home base out of, a camp to rest and rover in as they raid the dungeon. We can see in this one a small appeal to that as well. There are several small farmsteads in the area that the party could base out of. (This is in addition to several other areas in the surrounding lands, a fairy forest, etc, to add some play options as the party mucks about in the region through the extended and repeated forays in to the dungeon that a megadungeon would imply.) I note, as well, that these have something going on also, or at least something colorful to add. After all, if you’re going to base out of Farmer Browns farm then having a little bit to spice up play there, during your repeated visits, is a great addition. One farm houses two brothers and their families … who hate each other and will get angry if the party interact with the other half of the family. Ongoing fun! And then another has an old patriarch … and a son who just wishes the old man would die already so he can take over. “Paulus’s eldest son is Doran, who resents his father’s seemingly stubborn refusal to depart this world.” That’s a pretty simple sentence that is overloaded with opportunities for play. This is exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for in a homebase description: just a line, almost a throwaway, that can be used to riff off of. You get the idea immediately and can leverage the situation to spice some things up while the party rests. 

There are also a decent number of bandits and “caretakers” present in the dungeon and the environs. They will charge you to go in and down the stairs to the next levels. Or, others will hiit you on the way out, looking for easy marks loaded down with treasure, wounded and unable to dump fireballs at them. These are, again, classic examples from older play that have been included and bring in that more dynamic element of play. We so often see the journey to the dungeon, or back home, just hand waved, but these appeals to the older play add an extra elements to help bring alive what could be routine in a megadungeon: getting in and going out again.

Other classic elements are present as well. Notably, we see a large number of levels, fourteen. And a decent number of them sport those large and complex maps that we get glimpses of in Barrier Peaks or Mordenkainen. A hundred, a hundred and fifty rooms to a level Loops, complex mapping, small zones and interconnections. We get a side view of the entire dungeon and a diagram showing the various connections to the surface. (Although, I note that WHERE on the surface is not noted, a serious lapse.) This is all quite excellent and something seldom seen in dungeons. There is room to breathe here. The denizens can have zones or control, and there can be buffer zones between them. This is exactly what you want in large expansive dungeon levels. 

And it comes replete with The Greyhawk Construction Company. Err, the Greyheim Construction Company, I mean. Orcs and ogres in safety vests building the dungeon in a kind of pocket dimension. Orange cones. Blueprints. This was another classic element of play, a meta way for the DM to say “hey, that part of the dungeon? I haven’t finished mapping and stating it yet. Maybe ring again later?” Not quite a funhouse element, you’re not really interacting with them, ala “trap reset kobolds”, but more of a eta reference and acknowledgement to how the game, and its dungeons, developed. Although, I think two pages are devoted to it here … In any event, there are a lot of classical elements here that were oft present in earlier games and, in particular, megadungeon games. 

The various encounters could have been written and/or pulled from some of the earliest published adventures. They range from the minimal to the slightly more than minimal. There’s a mix of combat and what we might call Specials. The Fountain of Snakes stands out as one of thoseSpecial type encounters: “FOUNTAIN OF SNAKES. A fountain with a shallow basin dominates the middle of this room. A small, barred window looks into area #128, where two orc guards are always posted. The fountain itself is shaped like four intertwining snakes. Every round that someone is in this room, a snake will issue forth from this enchanted fountain, with  snakes coming out of a different mouth of the statue:” That’s a decent little special, and as a bonus it includes that small barred window. This sort of “see something from somewhere else” is something that Thracia did to great effect. Specials are one of the favorite things, when handled right. You need not too many of them and they need to written in a rather neutral way, a thing in the dungeon that the party could be impacted by or could leverage to their own ends if managed correctly. 

44. LAUGHING SKULL. If this room is entered, a human skull rises from the floor laughing hysterically for 1 minute. It then floats gently to the floor. The room is otherwise empty. The skull will lose its enchantment if removed from this room.

45. EMPTY ROOM. Table and 4 chairs.

46. SPIDER! A huge spider (AC(D) 6; AC(A) 14; MV 180’/min.; HD 2+2; 11 h.p. each; #AT 1; DAM 1-6; SA poison, leap 30’) dwells here, in the corpse of an unlucky elf from whence it will leap to attack. The elf’s corpse has 85 g.p.

That little run of rooms stood out to me. We see there as special, in the skull, an empty room, and then a creature encounter. This little selection stood out to me because I think it exemplifies the kind of things you’ll find in this megadungeon. The “special” there is nothing much, just something bizarre in the dungeon. And if we’re going to criticize the Dwimmermount chess players then this gets criticized as well. There are a fair number of these sorts of “empty specials” in the Mad Archmage. It’s just something weird pulled out and put in the dungeon. I suppose there’s the possibility of the party using it, but it’s just there and doesn’t seem t contribute much. There’s an entry in the ruins aboveground of a ghostly echo of horse hooves in the stable. To no end, but, you can exorcise it to get rid of it, the text tells us. But it’s nothing. It doesn’t really set a mood. It doesn’t have an impact on the party, It just feels too … disconnected from the rest of the adventure. Just as most of the specials do here. 

The empty room here is fine. Especially in a larger work you need some space. A buffer zone for monsters. A place for the party to spin their wheels or rest in. Every room stuffed full just doesn’t make sense in some of the larger dungeons. 

And the creature encounter here stands out. The spider is IN the corpse. I think perhaps I would have liked a bloated elf body or some such, something to add color to the description, but placing the creature in the body, and a spider at that, elevates this from a boring old “there’s a spider on the ceiling encounter.” Again, I think this little run of rooms is a good example of what you can find here, both good and bad. A little bland in the descriptions, overall terse, a little random and aimless, and perhaps the selected format could have been done a little differently given the way the spiders stat block, fully inline, detracts from the overall comprehension of the room when scanning it. 

And then there are the more straightforward funhouse rooms. “DUCK! There is a large (4’ tall at the head) bright yellow statue of a duck in the middle of this room. 1 minute after the room is entered, buzz saw blades will slice through the place at a height of 4’ 2”.” Or, perhaps the honeytrap room where a bunch of honey falls on someone. This is all classic funhouse dungeon. Something weird, meta, out of time, showing up in the dungeon. An explicit acknowledgement that we are all playing a game and the designer and DM can and will include anything. Tonally out of place in a more classic adventuring environment, but, we’re talking megadungeon here. You gonna need some things in there to mix things up. You’ve been in this dungeon for 196 gaming sessions and little fun in that environment is probably ok. And it makes more sense to me than, say, the isolated laughing skull or the horse hoof exorcism. 

I have compared this si the older adventures but there is something missing. It just doesn’t feel connected to itself the way older adventures do. G1 felt like a unified whole. The dinner party. The sleeping guards, the lothario, the orc servants both loyal and in revolt.  There was this overall theme that ran through it. Even in something MUCH larger, like S3, it all felt connected to itself. You could follow along. Things in one place meant something somewhere else. And it just doesn’t FEEL that way here. Yes, there are some factions on each level, and they have a zone of control, and there’s some space and some conflict. And levels have some overall theming. The barracks levels. The storage level. The arena level. But there’s not LIFE to much, if any, of it. I don’t mean creatures, there are plenty. Or weird shit going on. There’s that also. It just doesn’t feel like there’s a hiding hand here. Not quite random, but also not working together to paint a broader picture of the dungeon. I don’t really know how to describe this.  It has something to do, perhaps, with a combination of the tone and the vibe? Let us assume we were turning an Ikea in to a dungeon. Each of the little vignettes is their own room. (Rooms within rooms within rooms!) So, the theme here is Ikea rooms, and each of the rooms makes a direct appeal to that. But one is empty. And another is a fairy tea party. And another that ghastly abomination known as Tuscan Kitchen. Space aliens are in a room with kindergarten chairs and some suburban mom is picking out a plant in another, unaware of anything. They are all rooms, what are you complaining about? Is there some overriding theme that runs throughout? Ultimately, the theme is that the mad archmage, a stand in for the DM, is on the bottom level and jokes with you, gives you gifts, and then sends you to the other side off world. Why, the party asks, is this all here? ? “Well, how else would I have met you folks?! [the party]” I know that the adventure path and plot thing have scared us all, but this opposite effect is a little too meta for me. There is no theme. There is no interconnection. There is nothing going on that binds the adventure, or the levels together. There is barely very much to tie the levels to themselves, as standalones.  Ultimately this is just a big funhouse dungeon. The Duck encounter, with a tad more theming than, say, a bunch of isolated rooms floating in a void, each with a wildly different genre going on. Stonehell, with its level interconnections, level summaries, and interconnections was, for all of its minimalism, a hundred times better when it came to giving the things life and in making it feel like each component was a part of a whole. And, for all the funhouse nature of the rooms, there just doesn’t seem to be any joy present in the adventure. It feels quite a bit more like drudgery than joy or wonder. If we took the spirit of Grimtooth, without the sly winks, then perhaps that? I’m not suggesting there are deathtraps or rube goldbergs or anything like that. But a certain isolation combined with a routine … blandness and smallmindedness?

I can, also, mention the padding present. This is Bloch special. There is the long section at the start that tells you how to read a block and that AC means Armor Class, among other how to roleplay introductory text. I wonder what the set is of people who purchased this and don’t know what an RPG is? And then of course the entries are padded out. “Home to the Rory family, a pair of brothers and their families, with a total of eight people living here. Adam  (human F0; 7 h.p.; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL NG) and his wife Melissa (human F0; 4 h.p.; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL NG) and their twin teenage boys, Paulus and Renulf (human F0; 6 h.p. each; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL NG) live in one of the farmhouses on the land. John (human F0; 6 h.p.; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL CG) and his wife Regina (human F0; 4 h.p.; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL CG) live in the other house with their widowed daughter Trudy (human F0; 3 h.p.; AC(D) 10; AC(A) 10; AL LG) and her infant son Rex.” Not only do the inline stat blocks make the entry hard to read, they are all just zero level AC10 humans with nothing special going on. This calls to mind the trap of layout/publishing guidelines. They exist to add clarity, not to be followed rigidly in to the abyss. If the guidelines say to bold monster names, and you do so and it looks like that is MORE confusing, then don’t do that. Most of the padding comes up front, in the region and the text before the dungeon starts, so at least the keys are relatively free of that, 

“BLACKSMITH’S SHOP. This sagging cottage, built against the sturdy stone of the inner keep, was once the blacksmith’s shop. The long-disused forge is evident, but where the anvil and tools would be expected are only rusty stains (a rust monster had found the place years ago and gorged itself). The thatched roof is mostly intact.

ARMORY. This smallish room was used to store arrows for the use of archers who might use the balistraria in the adjacent hallway. The spiral staircase behind the secret door leads to area #108 on Level 1 Core: The Storage Rooms, while the secret passage leading through the wall ends in a one-way secret door that can only be opened from the inside. Its existence was one of the castle’s most closely guarded secrets. Today it holds empty barrels which contain a few broken arrows or forgotten arrowheads.”

Those two entries are excellent examples of how to not write entries. The Blacksmiths “was once’ and we get the rust monster backstory, that isn’t going to ever come up in play. The armory smacks of that Dungeon room, the worst one ever written. After a paragraph or two describing it ended with something like “but today the room is empty.” Focus your writing on the now, focus it on the party interacting with the room. Sure, you can throw in a random line of backstory or something to punch up the writing. Who doesn’t like those snide little DM aside comments that designers sometimes throw in? But, mostly, focus the writing on the interactivity you are enabling in the room for the party to explore, not a booklet from a small county historical society museum on the various uses of the living room in John Holmes palm beach home between 1962 and 1983. 

There are other rando bits. A decent number of weird saves, 8HD level monsters on level 2, which is kindof nice, A disturbing number of rooms fall in to the format “XNUMBER MONSTERTYPE are here.” Meh. it is what it is, I guess.

It is hard to regard this as more than a curiosity. The dedication to the early encounter style is interesting, but not so much that the lack of a feeling of interconnectedness, (or purpose?) … the aimlessness of the levels, even though there are factions and themes. It feels like a hollow effort to explore

This is $25 at DriveThru. There is no preview. SUCKER!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/462133/ma1-castle-of-the-mad-archmage-the-core-levels?1892600

 

It was pointed out to me earlier today that "grimdark" is currently "hot", and here we find a self-described "grimdark setting" as the Deal of the Day at DTRPG.

Ravensrook: A Grimdark Urban Fantasy Setting is today's Deal of the Day. Usable with 5e and the OSR, Ravensrook is on sale for $5 in PDF until tomorrow morning (usual price $10).

The Lands of the Free Lords is a patchwork of petty kingdoms, bandit lords, and misfit war camps sandwiched between evil empires, do-gooder nations, and religious zealots. While regional warlords rose and fell over the ages, there was one constant within this chaotic land - the famed city of Ravensrook. The Black-Winged City of Bandits and Brigands. The only proper city within the Lands of the Free Lords.

This supplement is fully compatible with 5th edition as well as the OSR.

Includes:

• A history of Ravensrook and its region, the Lands of the Free Lords.
• A full overview of the city’s government; Guilded-law, the Members of the Council of Lords, and the new Governor.
• A full breakdown of the four tiers of the city, along with the prominent businesses and Guilds to be found in each one.
• A full city map showing the locations of all the important businesses, Guild Halls, and governmental buildings.
• Information on 14 different factions within the city that are vying for power and control.
• Entries on the top 16 Guilds of the city.
• 23 entries for the most important NPCs to be found within the city along with role-playing notes.
• A listing of all the Gods worshiped within Ravensrook along with monsters specific to the city and their statblocks.

The Tavern uses affiliate links

Humble Bundle: humblebundleinc.sjv.io/da4WJ2

The Tavern’s Amazon Storefront: amzn.to/41Jm0oG

DriveThruRPG: drivethrurpg.com/en/?affiliate_id=1446

Join The Tavern’s Discord Server: discord.gg/q8PnrQrMt4

Sometimes you need to look deeply into the origin points of the hobby for me as a dungeon master it's good to step deeply into the Aruidin Bloody Arduin rpg system.  And so I asked Brave's A.I. how compatible is the Arduin rpg system developed by Dave Hargrave with other rpg systems & here's what it said;  "Arduin Bloody Arduin (ABA) is designed to be compatible with most Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The player's PC's were raiding the Justifier's HG below the streets of London. But they are not alone at all!  We raided the Justifier's Hall for equipment and weaponry to upgrade the party of adventurers. This session picks right up from the last session. The Justifier's Hall was mostly in ruins but the underground space was mostly intact. Something didn't feel right to the group.&nbspNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

White Dwarf  35, November 1982...

No wonder the Satanic Panic happened.

I was introduced to D&D in 1983 at age 10 and wasn't introduced to White Dwarf until much later when it became more or less a Warhammer 40K thing. Not sure how I missed it for so long; it had to be on the shelves here... or was it?

So, I missed this awesomeness completely. And I wonder what I'd have thought if I saw this then. I honestly don't know...

The Necromancer...by Lew Pulsipher (wow... the author's name even sounds Satanic).

A cleric based, 15 level class with a D8 Hit Die, saving throws, attacks, and the level progression of the cleric, with spell-like abilities ranked by "grade" as opposed to "level" and the explicit need to sacrifice living creatures every few weeks (especially human virgins and pregnant women) or lose all powers granted by their Dark God.

• For every level a Necromancer gains, they lose 1 point of charisma. This represents their extreme loner, anti-life nature. Love this. What would zero indicate, undeath appearance?
• They can control undead using the cleric's turn undead matrix.
• They are immune to the nasty effects of undead of a lesser level than themselves, paralysis, level-drain and such.
• Their wounds don't heal naturally, requiring ritual sacrifice to gain 1/2 the victim's hit points. However, if they build a temple of death (at 10th level) they can regenerate there.
• Gains infravision at 2nd level.
• Past 1st level, they return as an undead of similar hit dice if killed.
• May place a curse on their killer as he dies.

Most of their spell-like abilities revolve around summoning or creating undead, speaking with and imitating the dead (feign death, non-corporeality) and can be used only once per day each (more abilities were added in White Dwarf 36). Some actually require ritualistic, black-mass killings, transforming the victims to a state of undeath.
X/times per day has never been a favorite mechanic of mine and I think I'd trade their need to sacrifice to heal wounds for a need to sacrifice to fuel abilities. They would have a black magic pool of sorts and each "grade" would have an associated cost, also, the greater the sacrifice, human virgin vs goat or cat, the greater the points gained. Thus, they may find themselves needing to sacrifice something during an adventure as opposed to off-screen sacrifices. This would certainly lead to memorable moments and clashes as clerics and paladins discover what they're up to.
I love this class. It's steeped in Black Magic (the term is actually used). It would never be published these days... by anyone. Modern Necromancer's are so fucking lame, in fact, the whole modern game is lame. It just shows how D&D has been utterly degraded over the years -- from dark MEDIEVAL slaughter, to WoTC's glitter-fest.
Sad.
And, is it just me, or was White Dwarf much edgier than Dragon?

Mary and I continued our mission last night, trying out a few new rules along the way. I really like how combat feels in this version of the game, and things flow really well. I feel a little pang of regret, because I wish that I'd crafted this system a decade ago... the rules for Army Ants: Legacy (2013) are double-edged; the core system is vaguely similar to this, but is very clunky and counter-intuitive by comparison. I've tightened and streamlined so much in the intervening years. That book is pretty to look at. I love the organization of it, the design, and all of the 'fluff'. There is very little of that I would change, but the actual mechanics of the rules themselves are worlds apart from what I'm working on now. 

I'm still planning on releasing the game in 48-page books (core rules and then sourcebooks). You can see the progress of the current rules right here.
I'll discuss one thing in a little detail... I was working yesterday on vehicle rules and travel. One of the biggest challenges I've always had with the Army Ants is the conversion of scale and movement. When you look at actual proportions of how fast insects move (and especially how fast they can fly), and then scale these things to comparable 'human scale', the numbers get way crazy. Here's a for instance... a human can walk about 3 miles per hour. In conversion scale-wise to the game, this would mean an ant can walk about 12 meters per hour (a meter is roughly a quarter mile in an apples to apples comparison). However, in the real world, a black ant can travel 8 cm per second! This is 288 meters per hour... scaled to the game, this is the rough equivalent of 72 miles per hour, or 24x as fast as a human. 

Ultimately, I decided that insect scale movement, rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 3 being 'average', suggests that a typical ant (move 3) can sprint up to 3 cm in one action (1-2 seconds), or can patrol up to 3 cm in one round (6 seconds). This equates to patrolling 30 cm per minute, or 18 meters per hour. This 'feels' appropriate for insects and is pretty clean.   

It gets even crazier for air travel; in reality, a dragonfly can travel 35 miles per hour. This would be over 50 km (we'll round down to 50 km for convenience). This is 50,000 meters. Again, using a meter as 1/4 mile conversion to the game world, this means that a dragonfly (in game terms) can fly the equivalent of 12,500 miles per hour, or 16x the speed of sound. Ultimately, I created a hybrid of truth and fiction as I did for 'walking', setting a vehicle's speed rating of 1 as the baseline for 'slow vehicle', and scaling up to about 10 for most vehicles. Vehicle speed represents meters per round (6 seconds), which 'feels' like a reasonable speed to travel, even though it is not how fast things actually travel. A rating of 1 is still very, very fast in a direct scale conversion (being the equivalent of 150 mph). This becomes a speed that I can live with (and is much faster than ants walk). An ant can sprint 3 cm with one action, or can patrol 3 meters in ten minutes (so 18 meters per hour). I decided that for flying insects, I would keep things at insect scale rather than moving them to vehicle scale; in effect, a jeep or tank is still going to be faster than most flying insects. An insect with fly Move 6 (6 meters ) is slower than a jeep, with its Speed 1 (traveling 1 meter per round of 6 seconds, or 10 meters per minute). Land vehicles are going to have Speed ratings of 1-3, while flying vehicles are going to have Speed ratings of 4+ (capped out at about 10 for a fast jet).

Conversion: Vehicle Speed ratings in km per hour

.5 = .3 km/h (300 meters per hour); equivalent of 75 mph

1 = .6 km/h (600 meters per hour); equivalent of 150 mph

2 = 1.2 km/h; equivalent of 300 mph

3 = 1.8 km/h; equivalent of 450 mph

4 = 2.4 km/h; equivalent of 600 mph

5 = 3 km/h; equivalent of 750 mph (MACH I)

6 = 3.6 km/h; equivalent of 900 mph

7 = 4.2 km/h; equivalent of 1,050 mph

8 = 4.8 km/h; equivalent of 1,200 mph

9 = 5.4 km/h; equivalent of 1,350 mph

10 = 6 km/h; equivalent of 1,500 mph (MACH II)

12 = 7.2 km/h; equivalent of 1,800 mph

15 = 9 km/h; equivalent of 2,250 mph (MACH III)

20 = 12 km/h; equivalent of 3,000 mph (MACH IV)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on October 25, 1984.

America vs. the Justice Society #1: This feels like the title Thomas was born to write: It combines the Golden Age characters he loves with extensive continuity patches and retcons. There are even notes about where things are drawn from. He's joined by his wife in plotting, and by multiple artists (Kayanan, Buckler, and Ordway) and inkers (Alcala and Collins). In the story, the discovery (and subsequent publication by Clark Kent's Daily Star) of a diary written in Batman's own hand naming the Justice Society as conspirators with Adolf Hitler causes Congress to summon the team for a hearing, and Robin and the Huntress find themselves working as legal counsel on opposing sides. While of course they aren't going to turn out to be guilty, it isn't immediately apparent where the story might be going, so that's kind of interesting.
ma
Arion Lord of Atlantis #26: The demon god Kr'Rth is marauding through the city, and Arion is in the thrall of his high priestess who plans to make the mage her consort. Arion is just faking though. As soon as he can, he slips out to borrow magic from his deceased dad to send Kr'Rth back into darkness. Even though he probably saved Mara's life, she is in no way greatful, still holding a grudge for what happened in his absence.
Kupperberg and Duursema give us a Chian solo story. After being nearly hit by an arrow while riding through a forest, she meets a girl named Lyla who has run away from her responsibility to fulfill her people's obligation by being placed in a temple. Lyla's story reminds Chian bitterly of her own childhood. Soon, Lyla's father and other hunters catch up, and both Chian and the girl are taken prisoner.

All-Star Squadron #41: Firebrand, Green Lantern and Hawkman save an unconscious Starman from falling to his death, giving Thomas/Kupperberg and Jones/Collins the excuse they need to tell his origin, courtesy of Tarantula's book on super-heroes. After giving Batman and Robin a bit of help at a robbery and acquiring the nonfunctional gravity rod designed by Professor Davis from his cousin Sandra, Ted Knight powers Davis's rod with "unknown cosmic rays", makes a costume, and offers his services to the FBI as Starman.

Detective Comics #546: Moench and Colan/Smith are still plugging along. Anton Knight is still recovering with the blind woman. Jason is settling in to living with Natalia, though he doesn't buy for a minute she just wants to be his mom. After Batman's last issue, Hill retaliates by framing him for a crime, suspending Gordon, and sending Gotham PD after Batman. Gordon tells Batman to look out for Gordon, who needs looking out for, because another assassin takes a shot at him. Fed up, Bullock heads over to Hill's mansion to confront his former boss. After Bullock delivers his threat, Hill pulls out a gun and shoots him, claiming self-defense.

Spanner's Galaxy #2: Cuti and Mandrake have Spanner castling (teleporting) onto a ship that's just been overrun by pirates. He helps the crew retake the ship, then agrees to help a young woman he calls "Icy Rivers" get to her fiancé at port. Apparently, they are both specially engineered perfect specimens of their race on their way to a new planet called Paradise. Spanner helps the couple and meets a diminutive alien with a knack for engineering. After various trials, including saving the girl from a premature autopsy and escaping the hunters pursuing him, Spanner castles off-world, one step ahead of the law.

Sun Devils #7: Conway and Jurgens/Mitchell continue this space opera saga with the revelation that the scientist the team recently liberated from the Sauroids has know-how to build a super-weapon that could end the war. The weapon, by disrupting a sun, would kill millions, and that sits uneasily with some of the team, including Anomie. Rik feels like obtaining this weapon for Earth and her allies is the only way. The team flies off to harvest the necessary neutronium from a nebula, but command intercepts a message and realizes there's a traitor among them. The Sun Devils run into an ambush, and Rik and Anomie must escape their destroyed ship by donning spacesuits. They run right into Drakon, the elite sauroid warrior leading the assault.

Tales of the Legion #319: Levitz and Shoemaker/Kesel follow up on last issue with group of Legionnaires dealing with a frenzied Mon-El dealing with the memories of Phantom Zone confinement. Meanwhile, Shadow Lass is forced to fight for her life against Lady Memory. She wins that battle, then the cavalry arrives to defeat the Persuader and Lady Memory's rebel army. The solution to Mon-El's mental state proved to be snapping him out of it by recalling his greatest trauma, so Superboy brought out the Phantom Zone Projector for that purpose.

World's Finest Comics #311: Nice cover by Cullins and Janson. Cavalieri and Woch have the Monitor (this guy again!) testing Superman's and Batman's abilities, by giving a teenage computer hacker (previously attempting to hack into Phil Foxman's computer and read as yet unpublished New Teen Tyros stories) access to the Fortress of Solitude, where he unleashes monsters from Superman's zoo and giant combat robots carrying kryptonite. Working together Batman and Superman manage to contain the emergency as Superman deals with the monsters and robots and Batman finds the source of the problem and presumably gives the kid a stern talking to. The Monitor, not satisfied with the results, contacts a group of villains called The Network (who got teased in the DC Sampler) for a go against the heroes.


Action Comics #563: This issue is a bit of a departure from the norm, having 3 humorous short stories. The first brings back Ambush Bug and unites the team of Fleming and Giffen that will be responsible for his limited series. It's really the first appearance of the character as he'll appear there: fourth wall breaking, referencing of comic book events (in this case, Secret Wars and Spider-Man's symbiote suit) and very silly. He plays a short of Daffy Duck character, though that would make Superman his Porky Pig straight man. Thankfully, the story doesn't overstay its welcome by going on too long.
The second story features Mr. Mxyzptlk and is by Bridwell and Saviuk/Jensen. Mxy demands Morgan Edge make him a media star, and foils plans to send him home by making it impossible for people to write or say any name backwards. Superman eventually figures out a way to send the imp home and it's a bit of a cheat, referencing for no real reason Bizarro Kltpzyxm, but it works. 
The last story by Boldman and Bender/Marcos harkens back to those classic Silver Age Jimmy Olsen yarns. Needing to rescue a young girl, Jimmy drinks his Elasti-Lad formula but becomes a blob instead of merely stretchy. Unable to communicate, most people think he's a monster, but Superman comes to his rescue (eventually).

 During tonight's game aboard the alien city space craft  I was reminded why it's a bad idea to mess with 'Nuns with bad habits' in this case Sister Sin ( an assassin whose been with our party since first edition Wretch New Flesh' ). The bad sister landed a head shot on one of the aliens with one of their weapons. This comes after the party hid one of the aliens who had been 'stone to Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Yep, Joe Bloch (the Greyhawk Grognard), JoetheLawyer, and I kicked off a new twice-a-month livestream this past Sunday night - Sunday Night Special will be the first and third Sundays of the month @ 9 PM ET.

We had a VERY active live audience, and we want to reward our viewers by asking for their input on the topic for the next episode, on Nov 2nd. So, we put up a survey:

Vote and control our destiny...

" In our eleventh issue, Mad Scribe dives deep into the heart of tabletop culture and beyond! We sit down with legendary D&D artist Erol Otus, chat with Griff Morgan about Blackmoor, revisit the cult sci-fi film Hardware, and explore the rise of robots in gaming. Discover how karma systems can shake up your RPG mechanics, and don't miss the chilling new adventure Whispers in Room Seven Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

As I was working on the Land of Azurth comic story (with art by Mike Kazaleh), I got to the page which gives a bit of an introduction to Subazurth. It reminded me of this post from 2014 where the region was introduced...    The vast system of caverns and passages that riddle the underground of the Land of Azurth are a realm unto themselves, known as Subazurth. Parts of Subazurth are wild and dangerous and in the hands or claws of monsters of various sorts, but other areas are quite civilized and organized into petty kingdoms and even cities. The greatest of these is Troglopolis.

 Troglopolis is a large city, perhaps not so grand as the Sapphire City of Azurth but hardly unimpressive. Most of its inhabitants are pale, large-eyed humans called Underfolk. They busy themselves with the same sorts of tasks that occupy those on the surface: they cultivate mushrooms and lichens, fish underground lakes, mine metals, raise bats and train them to carry messages, drain goblinic slime pools for public safety, and engage in commerce--some of this with the surface world.

The practice of religion is found amongst them, as well, of course. They know of Azulina and her handmaidens, but they also venerate relics they find in their caves. These anomalous items do not seem to have come from Azurth above--in fact, they sometimes seem of more advanced manufacture. The Troglopolitans view these as gifts from the gods.
A page from the Azurth comic, highlighting some dangers of Subazurth
Humans aren't the only inhabitants of Troglopolis and the civilized regions. There are little folk like in the world above, though there are some varieties not found in Azurth proper. The troglings (or troggles) are furred and tailed humanoids who typically live rather shiftless lives amid ancient ruins of a pre-human civilization.
There are also the diminutive but industrious deep gnomes (sometimes called red gnomes, for the color of their caps). They enlarge passageways to standard sizes, shore up caves, decorate areas with blocky, angular sculptures, and even cultivate the grow of crystalline rock candy outcroppings that so many creatures use for sustenance. It is quite likely that a great under-city like Troglopolis would not be possible but for their efforts. Deep Gnomes are collectivist, owning everything in common and valuing the public good above all. Other species are sometime derisive of them, even destroying the gnomes’ work when it suites them, but the deep gnomes seem oblivious to such affronts, wholly content in their labor.

 We ventured deeper into the winding labynth of twisting tunnels and underground passages below the castle. This session picks right up from our last game October 4th & the steamy air clung to our weapons, armor, and our clothes. Something seemed off though. Then the darkness came alive with voices, and red glowing eyes! That's when we saw them climbing down the sheer faces of the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

OSR-compatible tabletop role-playing game and iconic 3D miniatures!

I am a huge fan of Dirk Stanley/Simean Circle Games. Their Far Away Land RPG is one of my all-time favorite RPGs - light, atmospheric, and tons of content for it.

Torch Fail RPG and Miniatures is Dirk's latest Kickstarter, and while it may be his latest Kickstarter, his art style remains consistent, and I love it. I may need to finally set up my 3D printer.

In any case, I backed for the rules and STL files. 

What is this Project All About?

This project has two parts: the Torch Fail RPG and the Miniatures. All rewards will be delivered as digital rewards: the Torch Fail books in PDF format and the Miniatures in STL format. Backers have a choice to get the game, the minis, or the game and the minis. The Torch Fail RPG is OSR-compatible. The minis in this project feature your stock fantasy heritages (dwarves, elves, etc.) along with commonly found OSR monsters (like rust monsters, spiders, zombies, etc.).

Why do we need another OSR game?

Torch Fail creates a space between barebones/rules-lite and complex rule systems. The systems in Torch Fail are condensed to keep play fast and lite and allow space for narrative gaming while also sticking to an OSR framework. Torch Fail also takes steps to make elements of more traditional play a bit unique while still remaining compatible with existing OSR systems. The 64-page black and white book comes in digital format (PDF) and features...