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This week's Artist I Like is Larry Todd, one of the lesser-celebrated cartoonists of the 60s and 70s underground comix movement. He was a New York guy who was pals with Vaughn Bodé and the two collaborated on science fiction and comic covers that are absolutely amazing.

I confess I haven't read many Todd comics. He's best know for Dr. Atomic, which seems to be in the post smokin' wheelhouse of the comix movement. All those guys liked to do was draw drug using hippies and naked ladies.

I don't know how to explain my attraction to this style. But Bodé and Todd both simply charm the socks right off of me. There's a cartoon vibe to them both, mixed with a fantastical aesthetic and it's just perfect.

Larry Todd died less than a year ago in Sept 2024. And that makes me very sad. The idea that I could *possibly* have found a way to contact him and I didn't... well, honestly, that's just how I roll. I never reach out to "famous" artists I admire because I assume they don't want to talk to a schmuck like me. Anyway, RIP Larry Todd.

Todd + Bodé

This image inspired my whole ZSF idea, honestly.



This is my fave.

 

 So I've been reviewing my notes on Edgar Rice Burrough's The Mastermind of Mars & you can read about my experiences using this ERB classic with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons resources on the blog here. The Mastermind of Mars does several interesting things one of which is describing in some detail the country of Thool & deep details on the city-state of Phundahl. Which Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Right off the bat, this is from David Baity, one of the nicest creators in gaming. Oh, and he's a huge cst-person, just saying ;)

Weird Frontiers, a weird west RPG powered by the DCC RPG engine, is literally in two volumes if you buy it as POD. So yes, a Weird Frontiers Reference Guide would be very useful ;)

You asked, and we listened! The latest addition to the Weird Frontiers product line is a much-needed resource that compiles all the things you regularly have to go flipping through the book for! Keep the game going smoothly with this must-have resource!

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by Vasili Kaliman
Necrotic Gnome
OSE
Levels 2-4

IN THE CAVERNOUS DEPTHS of a mountain lies a lake of pure milk, inhabited by a tribe of peaceful merfolk. Their king and queen, aided by dwarf servants, use the milk to manufacture the most exquisite chocolate truffles in existence. The truffles are said to be so delicious as to soften even the most hardened of hearts. People from all over the world visit the lake to buy these irresistible creations. Recently, truffle production has mysteriously ceased, the dwarves have disappeared, and in nearby cities, scores of disreputable merchants have begun hawking

This sixteen page adventure features seventeen rooms in a merfolk chocolate factory where candy and chocolate golems are made by dwarves. That has been taken over by Willy Wonka. And her skeleton servants and apprentices. A simple stabby adventure, easy to run, with an odious premise. 

I guess I start with the Castle Greyhawk warning. I hate Castle Greyhawk. It is, perhaps, the first real betrayal in my life. Anything resembling Castle Greyhawk is going to not be met favorably by me. Independent of that, I don’t think comedy works in D&D. Or, perhaps, if you write for comedy its going to come off badly, while certain situations can get a pass. The comedy inherent in the way, say Gamma World 1/2e was run vs the way Gamma World 4e was presented. Front and Center doesn’t work. 

Merfolk live in a mountain that produces milk. They use the milk to make delicious chocolate truffles. With the aid of their dwarf friends, which have “Orange skin, green hair, and white eyebrows.” Not the only time there will be an appeal to Wonka in this adventure. Augustus Gloop shows up and takes the place over, there are chocolate golems and her apprentices and her skeletons who sing and dance and, most of all, now the chocolate is bad. (And by bad I’m sure the designer means that while they are cost optimized for a certain quality level and yet the pricing does not reflect this. Otherwise is to suggest that only the rich and powerful get access to chocolate, except, perhaps, when the merfolk dole out a bit to the general populace on the charity day they use to assuage their consciousness to tell themselves they are good people? A McDonald’s Cheeseburger is good at $.59 and bad at $6.) So, it’s a Willy Wonka adventure with merfolk, oompa-loompa dwarves, singing and dancing skeletons, and that kind of shit. I find this tone enormously offputting, but, I know (and have suffered through) many a local game in which the DM/friends loved it. Easier to play off a bad game as ‘just for fun!’, is my theory. 

Map is fine. The monsters are on it. The formatting is clear. It’s not the standard OSE ultra-terse keyword style, so, haters of that format will need to find something else to hate. “Library: A humid and stuffy cave with a 20? ceiling hung with long, jagged stalactites. Bookcases line much of the western wall. A hefty tome sits on a polished wooden lectern near the doorway.” A room name to start to frame whats to come, a decent but short description (which I wish were more evocative, but, it’s fine) and then some bolded keywords that are followed up in sections below. Good format. Appropriate bolding to highlight things. It doesn’t look at all like a rigorous railroad format, but that what needs to be done in the moment is done to bring clarity … in a generally consistent way. Which is perhaps the highest praise one can give with regard to formatting and layout and organization. ‘I follow some standards but I break them when it doesn’t make sense. Monsters all get descriptions right up front, instead of backstory and ecology and shit. This is how it should be. If I’m running the fuckign adventure I need to know what the things looks like RIGHT NOW. “Human magic-users clad in purple robes embroidered with a symbol of the Chocolatier’s trading house. Carry lanterns for light.” We’re not winning awards here, but, also, you don’t need to win an award with your evocative writing it just needs to be good enough. 

The adventure is mostly fighting. The first five rooms are “public” and you can nose your way through them. Then we switch to “you’re not supposed to be here!” with some occasional freeing of prisoners or talking to the merfolk king or freeing the merfolk queen. A couple of traps, maybe you eat some magic chocolate, but, mostly, you are fighting things. “Lit by chocolate candles in iron candelabras, flickering with a warm glow. 5 skeletons are engaged in a musical performance, merrily singing and playing instruments around an 8? solid chocolate mermaid statue.” So, stab some skeletons, stab some dwarves, stab some apprentices, stab some golems, stab Wonka. It’s a lair adventure except it has seventeen rooms. 

I’m not enthused about this one. Yeah, the tone is a turn off for me, so, maybe thats coloring my opinion too much. But the thing is a little too straight forward for me. The writing just not decent enough, the situations (if anything could be called a situation …) not interesting enough. No real order of battle for the apprentices. Yeah, formatting is great, but, in 2025, I’m gonna need just a little bit more. So, it gets a 6.99999999999999. It’s fine, and if you’re ok with the tone and just want stabbing then it doesn’t offend. Bleh. It’s bland. Bland with, perhaps, a veneer of trying to hard. 

.This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is twelve pages. It shows you the intro and about eight dungeon rooms. More than enough to make a judgement call on the adventure, so, great preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/530085/quick-delve-1-milk?1892600

This session picks up from DM Paul's Highwayman campaign from July of 2024. The PC's were called in to test a strange alien gateway device that had been found on Europa.  So tonight I was fooling around with my players using the Hostile/Zaibaitsu rpg rules and dropped a group of Blackguard mercenaries into an alien city called The Silent City. This was a one shot adventure in the middleNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So, I finally did a little research, as I had thought that Against the Darkmaster was a clone/reimagining of RoleMaster, but I was wrong. It's inspired by Middle-earth Role Playing, which was a simpler version of RoleMaster; however, Against the Darkmaster seeks to make MERP even cleaner and simpler. I may need to give the core rules a closer look, but I digress.

Today's Deal of the Day is Secrets of the Golden Throne. It's a rules supplement / mini setting / campaign for Against the Darkmaster. Coming in at 355 pages. Normally priced at $19, until tomorrow morning, Secrets of the Golden Throne is priced at $3.80 - an 80% discount!

Secrets of the Golden Throne is the major supplement for Against the Darkmaster, containing new rules and options for both the players and the GM, but it’s also a mini-setting, and an epic campaign that will pitch your heroes against the machinations of an entity older than the world itself.

Inside Secrets of the Golden Throne you’ll find:

• Five new Kins: Ethereal Pixies, unseen Gnomes, enigmatic Changelings, beguiling Asrai and voracious Ogres.
• New Cultures and Backgrounds to expand your character options.
• New magic options and 30 new Spells.
• New combat and rules options to help you run underwater and aerial adventures.
• A Bestiary containing a host of new monstrous adversaries.
• The island of Awallon, an original setting inspired by fairy tales and Arthurian legends which can be used on its own, or easily dropped into an existing campaign setting.
• Guidelines to help you create both Awallonian and Outlander PCs.
• An epic campaign that will see the heroes travel across all of Awallon, in order to face an unprecedented threat and decide the fate of the entire world.

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The topic for today, day 8 of RPG a Day 2025, is Explore, which is very appropriate with my new obsession, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

“Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

While I have enjoyed both Star Wars and Star Trek, I’ve always been more of a Star Wars fan. For clarity’s sake, my favorite sci-fi series is Babylon 5, but among the two big franchises, Star Wars has always been more of my cup of tea. But I enjoy Trek, I grew up watching reruns of TOS, and was a huge fan of TNG. DS9 is a great series. I sadly believed it was an either/or situation between B5 and DS9, and stopped seeing the latter. I finished it later, and it was my favorite Trek until recently.

Voyager and Enterprise were not readily available in Puerto Rico, so I didn’t watch either when they were on. I’ve seen the occasional episode, but not the whole series. I enjoyed the Kelvin Timeline movies, but since Paramount+ is not available in Puerto Rico, I have not seen recent Trek series such as Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, or Strange New Worlds.  

A few years ago I became a fan of The Orville, which was very much a love letter to Trek, so when I recently got a chance to see all of the currently available episodes of Strange New Worlds, I jumped at the opportunity, and have fallen in love with the series, the characters, and how it reimagines Trek.

Which led me to my question today. If I were to play a Star Trek game, which system should I use? Let’s explore.

I played and enjoyed the FASA’s Star Trek game, but never played the Last Unicorn Trek System. Logic says the logical choice should be Modiphius‘ Star Trek Adventure game. Michael, the Stargazer himself, has previously written about the game, and I own the original book, published in PDF.

The books certainly look nice, but I have never been much interested in the 2d20 system. Maybe I should give it a chance, but Iam hesitant to invest in the system without trying the game first. For that reason, I grabbed the Star Trek Adventure Game Second Edition Free Start Guide (which you can get in PDF by clicking the previous link) during Free RPG Day.

But besides the obvious choice, what other options would I have to play a Star Trek Game?

Five-Year Mission is a White Star/White Box compatible game that allows you to use OSR rules to play a Star Trek Game. I own the PDF, which could serve as a source of rules and inspiration for adapting another game that I think would be a good fit for a Star Trek game, specifically, Stars Without Number. There is a SWN 1e fan-made conversion, but I can see myself making a quick conversion. I could adapt The Orville to the system as well!

There is a Prime Directive d20 Modern game. It is not strictly canon Trek, but it could be an easy adaptation. I am not a stickler for canon these days, and it could also serve as a reference for a Star without Number adaptation.

Michael previously wrote about Where No Man has Gone Before, a rules-light system to play Star Trek,  which became Far Trek. The game appears to be an interesting free system with many supplements. It might be worth checking out.

Since I am currently playing Savage Worlds and I am a massive fan of the system, the most straightforward adaptation would be using that system. With the Science Fiction Companion, running a Star Trek game would be a breeze.

What do you think of the options listed above? What system would you use for a Star Trek RPG session? What did I miss? Let’s explore the possibilities together.

I would love to read your comments here in the blog, or tag me wherever you make them. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to tag your entry with the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

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" In Soldiers of Fortune, player characters are elite ex-soldiers turned mercenaries. They take on dangerous jobs that demand guts and creativity, from storming cartel compounds to slipping through enemy lines to sabotage a weapons cache. The game draws from the spirit of 1980s action shows, especially The A-Team, where a band of fugitives dodges the law while aiding the desperate. Just as Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup is what happens), but it covers our ongoing games.

Slaying the Hydra
01/07/2025 THISIUM

News from the doomed city of Thisium! Four adventurers headed for the Temple of the Unknown God, with a detailed battle plan to slay an eight-headed hydra they had fled from previously. To clear up any danger, they first had to remove another obstacle: four alabaster gargoyles in the NE corner of the temple. The battle was successful, the gargoyles falling under the company’s magic weapons, although not before Sagittarius the crossbowman perished by their claws. The monsters’ room was decorated by bas-reliefs of polygons, one of which looked both 3- and 20-sided depending on the angle it was view for. This was the place of a secret door, with a slightly protruding stone, but it could not be pushed in, nor smashed with weapons, so they found now way to open it. It was time for the hydra, dwelling in the pool in the central chamber. One part of the party positioned themselves by the gargoyle room, while thieves drew forward to lure the beast from its lair. This went successfully as the hungry reptile came forward in pursuit. It followed through the passages, right into a trapped intersection. Four portcullises slammed down around it and the ceiling started to lower slowly. The adventurers sprang out, peppering it with missiles. Angered, the hydra charged a portcullis, and with a superhuman feat of strength, bent the bars! It was now coming for the party, and caught up with them. In the ensuing melee, they fought heroically; Toxotes the crossbowman and Grumio the porter were torn apart, but all eight heads were destroyed and the beast was slain.

They could now investigate the central hall. Its ceiling stretched up to infinity, and above blinked the uncaring stars of space. This was a place of cold and emptiness. By an empty altar rose a massive hoard of treasures, but only as a shadowy simulacrum. Figuring out a sacrifice at the altar might work, the hydra heads were brought, and their blood spilled on the stone. Improbably, something did happen: a Presence, barely there, yet bringing darkness with it. A hollow voice spoke, demanding to know who had awakened the Unknown God, and what did they seek here in his temple – for he has slumbered here since before Men, and the new gods, and shall still be there once their time will have passed. Seized by fear, the adventurers told the Presence that they would disturb it no longer, and decided to withdraw while they could. From corners of the hall, they could see faint shades watching them, and felt the scrutiny of the god, older than men. They left behind the temple, whose secrets they could not solve, and rode back to Villa Cardone. At this time, the city had 29 days left... 

Art courtesy of EscapeFromZardoz
Ugolino

03/07/2025 KASSADIA

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! The Lion Pack delved once more into the Undercity of Viaskar, seeking the patrician tombs of the lower levels. They descended into the depths via two deep staircases, finding an old, abandoned storeroom. From even further down came sounds of human conversation, and lights were seen. Two scouts ventured down, but were surrounded by rough-looking men demanding to leave their turf. They returned to the storeroom, but from the spiral stairs, they heard the voices of another company. It was a group of men in yellow robes, and three iron-masked clerics of Titus Malformatus, Viaskar’s patron deity! The newcomers were eager to have found these „escapees” beneath the city, but were soundly trounced, only a few of them able to flee. Now the men from below came up in a more friendly way. They were proscribed outcasts led by Tarkoth the Panther, a young barbarian, and the priestess Claudia, who maintained the fire of Vedius as an aegis to protect them – for now. It was agreed that the adventurers would help them escape the city, but for now, they continued exploring. Above the hideout, they found a room of antique, magical statues, but could not solve its mystery. Further up, a frescoed room was the dwelling of Ugolino, a ragged hermit. Ugolino tried to adopt Jovial Faustulus as his son, but his insanity was soon revealed – he wished to do so to kill and devour him as he had done to the others. He was thus slain – “I acted for the weal of the Empire”, Faustulus noted.

The way onwards led to the deserted underground arena. As they were contemplating returning to the hideout, the company was beset by a pack of ghouls, who killed and dragged off Septima the light footwoman. After reorganising their ranks, the adventurers followed in pursuit through stairs and the lepers’ caverns. Finally, they emerged much higher, in a massive domed chamber from the imperial age, with mosaics of ancient patricians and a massive brazier of stone. The ghouls were put down and Septima’s body saved from a grisly fate. From here, a short flight of stairs led to a smaller chamber decorated with astrological motifs, with multiple stone doors for exits. In a side-chamber were five lookouts – they worked for the Imprisoners, one of Viaskar’s feared gangs, but once they learned the intruders weren’t affiliated with their hated rivals, the Drowners, they proved fairly agreeable, showing a spiral stairway leading to an exit from the Undercity. There was time for some more exploration. Returning to the great domed chamber, the company investigated a large rubble pile near a place where the walls have collapsed, revealing a cavern passage. While the others checked if the pile held anything of interest,  Publius Varro went forward to scout and was surrounded by eight ruffians who tried to rob him. In the resulting melee, the men proved to be wererats, and Publius caught the curse of lycanthropy! Things looked dire, until Trupo Gizmegas saved the day with an illusion, making the unstable cavern „collapse” on the wererats, killing the lot of them. Shaken by the experience, they returned to the chamber of astrological bas-reliefs, and emerged through a hidden exit into the daylight near the Upper Market and the Golden Hand tavern.

The Enchantment of Thuzar Yi
06/07/2025 FOMALHAUT

News from ULTRAREALITY! The Viridian Star sailed through the sargasso to find the mysterious island whose map they found in the belongings of the Sorcerer Opangi Ord – inhabited by men in their likeness! They put down on the anchor on the shores of a wooded island dominated by a large plateau. The woods here weren’t the foetid jungles of ULTRAREALITY, but similar to the gentler forests of Fomalhaut. They disembarked on a sandy beach, and climbed a butte to take a survey of the territory. To avoid being seen, Murat the Etunian alone climbed the summit. On the windswept plateau, he saw movement, a white-cloaked figure looking down into the forests. He reported to the others, and they climbed up together, but the vision was gone without a trace. Looking across the landscape, they saw a lake cradled by cliffs; and right below them, a small tent hidden in the forest. This looked like a good place to investigate, so they descended. On the shore, they encountered five warriors catching crabs, and found them to be the castaways of an expedition from the city-state of Thellas, who became shipwrecked here. They spoke of their saviour, the beautiful Thuzar Yi, who gave them food and drink, and let them dwell in an abandoned village. Choosing to accompany the men, they walked through the forests. A white cloak fluttered among the trees, and they were face-to-face with a beautiful young girl –Thuzar Yi herself! The island’s mistress spoke to them in friendship, graciously offering them to resupply in her domain, as long as they didn’t exhaust what the island had to give – the castaways were already stretching things to the limits. In exchange, she only asked for a small token, and declining gold and jewellery, accepted Ion’s blue cap. With a side-step, Thuzar Yi disappeared, leaving behind their awestruck guides. They continued on along a trail to the plateau, eventually arriving in a village of archaic stone huts, now inhabited by the lost men of Thellas.

They were led to a longhouse, where they were received by Lyostratos Andromakhos, once the tyrant of Thellas, but  now only the master of this village. As the grey-bearded fighting-man explained, trouble was afoot on the island: renegades had broken away from their camp, followed by Lyostratos’ own son, Meurios. These men acted out of jealousy, seeking to seize the fair Thuzar Yi by force, a terrible act against her hospitality! Lilith, as Ishtar’s champion, declared that she would see to it, and Lyostratos suggested to capture or kill the renegades. But Lilith saw that they seemed obsessed, or perhaps ensorcelled, by Thuzar Yi’s beauty; so much so that they paid no heed even to her 18 CHA! Saying farewell to the villagers, they returned to the lower woods, heading for the small camp, but finding the single tent abandoned. Leaving a note, they returned to the ship to rest. The following day, they took a skiff to circumnavigate the island. On its southern side, they discovered two beached war galleys, stripped of valuables; and further on, another butte inhabited by enormous pteranodons. From the shore, they also saw a mound rising from the forest – a place to investigate. It was an artificial brick structure, but crumbling and overgrown. A group of villagers were placing five helmets on a makeshift memorial, each to commemorate a fallen comrade – this was a barrow, and a memorial for the dead. They returned to the skiff, fighting off a hungry pteranodon. Sailing further north along lush forests, they saw no further signs of habitation, only a cliff where 4 more pteranodons seemed to circle around something – this, they avoided. Making landfall at the bottom of a gorge leading up to the plateau, they contemplated their next step. Ion froze and stumbled. He spun around in whirlwind-like fashion, and disappeared from view – all gone! They were one man less on this mysterious island, and from this point, time was ticking away, hour by hour. The hunt was on!

Soldiers of the Empire
07/07/2025 THISIUM 

News from the doomed city of Thisium! A group of adventurers rode out from Villa Cardone on an invitation from Valentino La Cava, the commander of the seaside garrison of Locassum. Not far from the villa, they found an old stone throne decorated with carvings of skeletons, and lifting some flagstones out of place, discovered a buried hoard of 30,000 sp. With this bounty, they quickly returned to the villa to place it in safety, then continued on. Along the way, they met a gang of bandits lurking in the bushes, but the men, seeing a superior force, just greeted them awkwardly and let them pass. Further on, the road led through a gorge, its walls carved with enormous, weird faces. The next group of bandits were here, calling down from the cliffs to demand the price of passage. 1000 sp was left here from the hoard, and they were allowed to ride on. They passed under the arch of a ruined aqueduct, and finally arrived in Locassum, a tiny legionaries’ garrison on the borderlands. Valentino received the liberators of Villa Cardone well, and while his forces were small, offered what help he could: rare suits of plate mail, the garrison’s warship, and his men if needed be. He spoke of the growing orcish threat along the coast, and Falumfano, an eccentric musical exile reputedly living in the archipelago, and working on an enormous water organ. The next day, they headed back to Villa Cardone. A spot by the aqueduct has been freshly dug up, and a rectangular object removed – but they did not pursue its trail into the hills. Bypassing the greedy bandits by mentioning Valentino’s friendship, they continued, just as deftly evading a group of riders carrying the banner of a six-legged, fire-breathing poodle. Eriberto Barrella quickly concealed himself and hid among the others: this was the standard of his former captor, Lady Giacinthe Albiate, whose tower the company had looted. The furious Giacinthe was headed for Locassum, while they quickly went the other way.

Picking up their companions, they parted from Ottilio Cardone, still mourning her dead love, who died so young – „If only Adonis Gratianus were still alive, things would be so much easier!” They rode to the Wailwind, and hitched Locassum’s galley to Thisium, where the Sacrificial Calf had just been offered to the gods. Burt their destination was not in the city: the next dawn, they set sail for the Isle of Mortuaries, which they had visited previously. There was a third group of family tombs they had missed then, and this is where they were headed. These four were smaller and less imposing mausoleums. In the crypt of the ALBERGATO family, they fought two carrion crawlers, and found some precious flowers growing from the roots of great cypress trees. The crypt of ACARDOLO was open and looted. Down in the tomb chamber, a grandiose fresco showed a vast cavern, with a black stone bridge spanning a bottomless abyss of fire – a mystery now unsolved. The third mausoleum, of the GAVRILOTTI, was broken into as well, but the bodies were still there, frozen in reddish wax filling their sarcophagi. The wax was quickly melted with Dorvo’s sword of fire, yielding minor jewellery. The final tomb was of the DE ACCORA: it held the statues of a noble family showing them planting trees in Thisium, a mysterious poem, and a precious golden mask in the main sarcophagus.

As they emerged from the crypts, they were accosted by a group of soldiers – legionaries by their equipment. Aufidia Corvina, flanked by her bodyguards wearing legionaries’ plate mail from Locassum, bluffed her way through the jam, and the soldiers escorted them to the villa of the island’s master, Bragan Braxus, a soldier calling himself The Imperator. Among his legionaries, the Imperator exalted imperial glory, outlining his plans to conquer Thisium, the Coastlands, and eventually the Empire in whole! For this, he needed a symbol of power to solidify his reign: the crown of Pandolfo Barbani, Thisium’s last podesta! This was a familiar relic: the company had won it in service of Yldegonda Gremullo, and promptly sold it off in port to shady merchants, where it was gone. Nevertheless, they quickly promised to seek it for the glory and resurrection of the Empire, earning the Imperator’s goodwill. Thus they returned to their ship, and sailed back to Thisium. At this time, the city had 26 days left...

Shadowing the Wolves

09/07/2025 KASSADIA

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! The Lion Pack decided to do some shopping on the market by the Pyramid of Pantaxus Superbus. While looking around the merchants, they spotted an old acquaintance – Colmazio, who had sold them fake tear salts, now peddling his wares to a group of Northmen. They surrounded the swindler, but a crossbow bolt aimed at him missed, and he disappeared behind a door. Another stray shot hit one of the Northmen, who attacked the „assassins” at once until half of them were trapped with a hypnotic pattern. They chased down Colmazio, and dragged him into the back streets before the open altercation would bring the law down on them. “You have not harmed us, but the good reputation of Mur!”, growled Jovial Faustulus. The petty cheat crumbled, parting with his meagre coins, and offering the location of a hidden entrance in exchange for his freedom. After making sure the place he described existed on the Plaza of Faceless Statues, he was ultimately let go with a stern warning. The entrance opened to a downwards stairway, trapped with a pendulum trap, dutifully triggered. The way lead to a secret shrine of Rualgar, God of Secrets, one of the three Imperial cults. A hiden niche hid a cryptic message and a crystal-tipped arrow filled with gas which broke while handling it. Worse, Trupo Gizmegas stood on the altar, and was struck by Rualgar’s punishment, losing all his belongings, including spellbooks! In a less good mood, they departed, heading for Viaskar’s western walls, where they hoped to help the outcasts in the Underworld flee the city. In a crumbling tenement, Publius Varro met two youths, members of the Drowners, and strongarmed them into showing him around the rooftops to survey the surroundings. They didn’t dare knife him, but the party was soon attacked from the rooftops by archers brought by the lads. The ambushers were killed or fled across the rooftops, and they returned back to the de Marco palace for the night.

Their rest was interrupted by the barking and howling of dogs in the alleyway. Peering outside, they saw a ragged man with a dog pack, and chased them off with a crossbow bolt and magic. However, this was a good time to get a lead on the werewolves hunting for Cornelia de Marco, and they set out in pursuit after the mysterious figure, leaving Leonio, Lazio and Asinus as bodyguards for the noble maiden. They followed the tramp and his dogs across dark streets through the sleeping city, into the port area, listening to him talk to his hounds, and learning his name, Zanothio the Enchanter. The trail led to a crumbling waterfront palace, where Zanothio started fumbling with his keys. They attacked him and the dog pack. Zanothio turned and growled as he transformed into a hulking wolf-man! Trupo Gizmegas used his spectral force to „summon” an ape demon, distracting some dogs, but failing to fool Zanothio, who retaliated with his magic wand, shooting several magic missiles at the party. A desperate melee ensued, where the dogs were eventually dispatched. Just as Zanothio was about to tear Publius Varro apart, he was caught by a last-ditch colour spray, and executed while unconscious. Throwing the bodies into the dark water, they plundered the madman’s palace, finding it an abandoned wreck. The bedchamber contained several bunches of wolfsbane, some coinage, a crystal ball with a miniature figure trapped within, and an old, ugly toga. They packed them up and returned to the de Marco palace as they came, but too late. The servants who opened the door were weeping. Mistress Cornelia had been kidnapped while they were out, and Roma was laid out dead on the dining table, having given his life to defend her safety. Leonio recounted what transpired: a purple-robed werewolf entered from the rooftop terrace, and put the guards to sleep while carrying off poor Cornelia. There were now two nights before new moon – and the hunt was on!

The Blood-Drinking Horror of Thuzar Yi

20/07/2025 FOMALHAUT

News from ULTRAREALITY! As Ion the Fighting-Man disappeared from before his companions, a grim foreboding filled the adventurers’ hearts, and they knew deep inside time was now of the essence. Bocephus produced his new crystal ball, and peered inside to find the warrior. He saw a dark, splendid palace room; Thuzar Yi, the mistress of the island was sitting in a throne on one side of a table, and the smitten Ion on the other, both drinking from the same cup. Noting the lack of windows, they surmised the palace might be underground - after all, they saw no such structure on the surface. They set out to find a way to their companion. The search took them to the wooded island plateau, but they could find no entrance, although they saw many odd things: a small amphitheatre probably frequented by the island’s castaways; a circle of small stones around a large stone bowl filled with purple liquid, with shambling fungal zombies around it; and a cliff where a struggle had taken place, where they found the bones of a warrior, broken weapons, and a broken conch-shell horn on the rocks below. It was getting closer to night. Bocephus did another look into the crystal ball: he saw Thuzar Yi’s bedchamber, the beautiful girl dancing seductively before Ion next to a poster bed. At sunset, they arrived in a small garden of fountains and songbirds in the NE of the island, when Nycterphila the Thief recalled something – a reference to Thuzar Yi dwelling in a spring cave, and a stream cascading down from a plateau to their east. Could this be her lair, and so close to them? It was night, so Nycterphila and Murat the Etunian bravely set out in the dark night to do some recon. They evaded a mountain lion ambush in the last possible moment, and climbed down the cliffs to the source of the stream, a small cave mouth. A woman’s song came from inside, and they saw Thuzar Yi singing in a simple, but pleasant cavern of vine-covered walls, although no sign of Ion.

As thieves, they snuck forward and struck. „Thuzar Yi” folded apart into a mass of tentacles and gibbering mouths; Nycterphila was presently torn apart and devoured by the blood-drinking horror, while the horrified Murat fled, relating the terrible events to the others. They had walked right into Thuzar Yi’s trap – but now, to find Ion! The next morning, they headed for the island’s tall northern peaks. Here, in a barren stone waste, they found another cavern, with the statues of youths and a misty pool, which looked suspect, and was avoided. Even higher they went, finding a small, semi-completed rock garden on the tallest peak, and two playful kittens, who devoured the meat thrown to them with suspiciously ravenous appetite. Still no way in. A new crystal ball scan showed Ion sleeping contentedly in the bed, while Thuzar Yi was not to be seen. There was an enormous cave on the isle’s western side, a promising target. They made their way through the wilds, looking through a massive opening into a lit garden of fruit trees, a small spring, and walls covered with abundant moss. Remembering an item in her possession, Lilith tossed her wand of true direction in the air, which pointed right inside the cavern. After an embarrassing detour due to misreading the portent and superfluous rock-climbing, and having to use the wand again, they returned to investigate the cavern with more attention, finally finding a secret door under a thick layer of moss. A dark cavern passage led deep into the island. After a while, they emerged in a cavern filled with a pleasant garden of red flowers, lit by artificial lights. The way led on, through more long cave passages, and another large (now unlit) cavern filled with a dark lake, fed by the mouth of a great stone face, the magnetic ores in the walls drawing in their weapons. On they went, through another garden cave, and even further. And as they went, the hours passed.

Following the Swimming Crate
22/07/2025 THISIUM 

News from the doomed city of Thisium! Resting at the Pickled Carp, the company awoke to the clamour of fighting in the harbour, and rushing outside, saw that the Swimming Crate, an ugly trading vessel, was exchanging missile fire with the city guards while rapidly pulling out of port. Under disguise, the notorious pirate Burlagon the Halfway-Orc had audaciously infiltrated the city once again, striking its warehouses and patricians! The company quickly boarded the Comely Lass to pursue from a safe distance. Out on the edge of the archipelago, they were spotted, and the Swimming Crate disappeared behind an islet, probably to lure them close. They approached from the other side, hiding the small Comely Lass under a phantasmal force spell to mask it as a protruding rock. The pirates gave up and headed deeper into the archipelago, the small ship pursuing at distance, still appearing as a rock. In the afternoon, they were spotted again – the pirates turning back to investigate the strange vision – but they made their getaway. Thus they sailed to the Wailwind to rest up, and returned to Thisium the following day. Things in the city had taken an even darker turn. Attacks by black dogs had grown more frequent in the last days, who had mauled and even devoured citizens, and nobody knew where they came from. News came that an army of orcs had descended from the northern mountains, and besieged the fortified manor of Egmont Mouseburg – unsuccessfully, but at a great loss of life and property, and a blow to the city’s food supply. Meanwhile, the Measurers, the city’s august wine tasters, held a session in Flandevole’s cellars. Someone had unknowingly mixed poison into the noble vintages, and most of the Measurers were now dead.

Hestia Tamburello

Giacomo, who had been smitten in the Forest of Verrilli by a vision of Hestia Tamburello, the daughter of Thisium’s richest nobleman, Mornalt Tamburello, decided to pay her loved one a visit. He paid a hefty fee to Puccio Malatesta, a minor nobleman and known rake, to introduce him, and after receiving tips and advice on wooing pretty girls, they walked to Villa Tamburello, a rambling, eccentric palace of cupolas, galleries and colonnades. Let in by the guards after Giacomo declared that he was bringing Hestia an important omen from the forests, they met the beautiful girl on a high gallery overlooking the city. Throwing caution to the wind, Giacomo declared his undying love to Hestia, and his intent to wed her. Her response was filled with sorrow and sadness: alas, she was doomed along with the city, and would soon be dead along with everyone else. Her father, Mornalt Tamburello, was lost in grief after the city mob murdered his sister, Lucia Tamburello, who was accused of witchery by vile rumours. Lucia’s only love, the poet Chiaffredo, has just been found dead a few days before, after starving himself to death in his house. All was lost. Giacomo reassured Hestia that they would help, and, gifting her his glove, asked her to let them into the small outbuilding in the palace gardens to visit Lucia’s crypt. They came to the conclusion this dark tale might be directly related to the dooms in some fashion. Thus they parted, Hestia throwing her arms around Giacomo. On the way back out, they met another lady, older, but with a hint of familiarity. This was Iacynthe Tamburello, Mornalt’s wife and Hestia’s mother. She was inquisitive while the company was evasive, and they departed – Puccio Malatesta all the more hastily because his tryst with the lady of the house had gone sour once, and he feared for his hide. However, the way lay open to the passages below the garden.

Beneath Villa Tamburello
Descending from the vintner’s cottage, they encountered guards demanding their purpose. Saying they were sent by Hestia, they were even given directions to the crypts. Lower down, they found a room inhabited by four scantily dressed women in a love den. Once again, name-dropping Hestia worked, and they got a key for the lower passages. Going through a large domed chamber with a steaming pool, lit from the gardens above through an oculus, they opened an old iron door, and descended further. A passage led east, while peering through a door to the south, they saw an artificially lit garden filled by all manner of expensive birds. Proceeding east, they found themselves in a long hall of columns – a familiar place. A large group of brigands came forth, along with their leader, the cocky Pierluigi Piscitello. Alas, Heraclitus was recognised as one of the adventurers who had met and fought the robber captain before, and a vicious melee ensued, where Stephanus Fry and Madruga, heavy footmen, were both killed. The brigands were all slain, netting them their food (noble fare, quite fresh), a key, and a treasure map. Wounded, they decided to do some prep work. They descended one level below to the large underground garden, using Heraclitus’ knockspell to open a wizard locked secret door for later use. This done, they retraced their steps to the aviary. Entering, the birds scattered, except for a talking peacock, and a motionless owlbear in a glass display case with a golden jewel around its neck. The peacock was hostile towards the intruders, until Racha Ducka showed him his enchanted ducks’ feet. The peacock spilled the beans on Mornalt Tamburello, who had brought „pretty hens” down here, and promised a secret in exchange for bringing him a new she-peacock. They returned to the surface, disturbing a decadent orgy in the steam pool chamber, but defusing the alarms quickly. Thus they left Villa Tamburello. At this time, the city had 23 days left...

Finding the Trail
24/07/2025 KASSADIA

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! With Cornelia abducted by werewolves, it the de Marco palace fell under a dark spell. The next morning, silver weapons were delivered, but where the cultists of Lykophron took the girl was a mystery. The only clues they had was the palace of the werewolf they had fought the night before, and a sealed tomb in the Undercity belonging to Vidibius Memor, the lycanthrope god’s champion. Out of other options, the Lion Pack ventured out, followed by the page boy Leonio, who could not bear to wait until her mistress was sacrificed. First, they visited the hidden shrine of Rualgar where Trupo Gizmegas sacrificed two unknown magic items to the god of secrets, and regained his lost spellbooks. Finding nothing to help them in Zanothio the Enchanted’s ruined palace, except an old sailor’s confirmation that he had been visited by a purple-robed old man – the same one who had been seen abducting Cornalia – they headed for the Undercity to seek the tomb of Vidibius Memor. The gate had no keyhole or other known way of opening it, and two ominous-looking griffin statues to the two sides with traces of dried blood on their beaks and talons served as a warning. Finally, a reduce spell was used to gain entrance. Looking at the sarcophagus and five more griffins, the place seemed like a trap, but an inscription praising the fallen champion for building the drinking hall next to the temple of Lykophron seemed like a clue worth following. The hall, known for its mineral springs, was located just a bit north of the de Marco palace, and it was a building left over from the old empire. This is where they sought next – a place of charlatans peddling miracle cures, and washing-women using the healing waters for their laundry. But behind the main hall, in a pump room, they met an old gnome repairman, who complained of the incessant foot traffic going through the place, especially recently: and the purple-robed old man who had kidnapped Cornelia!

After the Siege of Mouseburg Manor
28/07/2025 THISIUM

News from the doomed city of Thisium! As their companions were delving into an Underworld, a different company of adventurers chose to check out a ruined tower on the southern edge of the city. While walking the streets, a lightning bolt struck through the roof of a nearby house, causing fire and commotion. Boldly, Captain Spezzaferro rushed upstairs, finding the charred body of a young man in a poor garret, amidst scattered documents. The man destroyed by the gods was Palladio, a young astronomer, and his studies focused on trying to figure out the exact date the four dooms would destroy Thisium. References returned again and again to the name Raniero Galasso, one the company was familiar with – they discovered his villa on the Coastlands a while back. Continuing to the ruined tower after deciding the villa would be next, they investigated the ruins. This was once the domicile of Harpang the Wizard, but it had long been a ruin. A sundial amidst the rubble fluctuated oddly, the shadow jumping rapidly from numeral to numeral on a 26-unit scale. While examining the oddity, Maglor the Elf noticed something out of the corner of his eye; a group of tiny humans, the size of mice, trying to filch their valuables. A spell put them to sleep before they could return to the rubble pile, and the minikins were gathered while their companions watched in terror from the gaps. The little things were eventually freed, and in gratitude, dragged a gift from beneath the stones – a splendid, gold-headed warhammer +2! With this find, the company mounted their horses, riding out of Thisium into the Coastlands.

Bypassing a group of bandits roasting a stolen sheep, who were too cowardly to attack them, they first visited Mouseburg Manor, where Sir Egmont Mouseburg had just withstood an orcish siege. The orcs were driven off, but Sir Egmont’s forces were decimated, and the lands around the estate, supplying Thisium’s food market, had been burned. More worryingly, the orc attack was better coordinated than previous raids. The pig-faces used a pincer attack, some arriving from the coast by boat, and had superior weaponry – the captured specimens came from two sources, one stamped with the symbol of a hand grasping a sheaf of wheat, and one of unknown non-human make. Contemplating the scouring of Mouseshire and the help they might recruit in the task, they parted with the old knight, and headed for the Villa of Raniero Galasso. The abandoned estate stood in the middle of a hedge maze decorated with abstract geometric statues, but Illyrio the Magic-User navigated the twisting maze expertly. They arrived at the entrance, an inscription asking visitors to pay respects before the master of the house. Spezzaferro bowed while entering, avoiding a neck-level blade trap in the doorframe. From the dusty atrium, they went west, finding a small locked prison cell. A captive inside introduced himself as „the real Raniero”, imprisoned by a gang of hobbits. He turned out to be a ghoul trying to get close to someone, and was put down.

Death Hobbit Doom

However, the noise also drew the attention of the hobbits themselves – little killers in servants’ liveries, raining slingstones on the party. The attackers were eventually killed, and one survivor, Otho Pikefoot, captured. The squirming little chap was asked to identify a part of the manor known from a treasure map, and pointed out the western part of the manor. They made their way into an abandoned sculptors’ studio filled with partially completed statues and the statue of the sculptor himself, surprising and killing a gang of orcs while Otho tried to flee. To the east, they found a door with the image of the grim reaper they could not open, but they knew a secret door was also nearby. While searching, one of the half-finished statues attacked in hysterical laughter, a doppelganger! Secundinus Faustulus the Fighting-Man was strangled, and the wily Otho slipped away. The treasure room was nearby. They pressed on into the servants’ quarters, where Ser Narvi detected the treasure under the floorboards with his magic sword. Just as they set out to pry open the wood, screaming hobbits ambushed them from the other rooms, wounding Illyrio grievously and knocking out Maglor. However, the attackers were massacred. The space under the floorboards contained a few blackened corpses, and several large burlap sacks. A wealth of 14,000 gp and 30,000 sp was buried here, so the company filled their sacks to capacity as they could. It was time to get out before Otho Pikefoot would return with more of his kin. A group of squat, ugly humanoids came from the east, but they were repelled with flaming oil suppressing fire for enough time to slip out. They returned to their mounts, leaving Villa Raniero and heading back to Thisium. At this time, the city had 23 days left...

Entering the Temple of Lykophron

01/08/2025 KASSADIA

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! On the trail of the lycanthropes, the Lion Pack descended into the passages beneath the drinking hall. The way led through ancient passages left over from the age of the Empire. Some way down, they found a secret door to a vantage point above a large hall where rough men were eating and drinking around a campfire, but surmised they might not be the followers of Lykophron. They went the other way, under a cascading waterfall from the drinking hall’s warm mineral springs, and eventually, up again into a large, empty hall built from enormous stone blocks. From up the spiral staircase, they heard conversation and saw torchlight, and Publius went to investigate, bumping into two werewolves wearing monks’ habits, who chased him back down. One was pinned and killed, but the other ran back up. This was the place they were looking for. The stairs led upwards, above street level – to dark, dusty, windowless corridors of great antiquity, decorated with friezes depicting running dogs and bunches of wolvesbane. In a side-room, they encountered a group of wererats engaged in prayer. In the melee, most were slain, but a few could once again make a run for it deeper into the unlit complex. In the other direction, a recon party ran into three werewolves in a corridor lined with bronze doors, wearing the antique helmets, cloaks, and axes of imperial lictors. In this fight, Lazio the crossbowman was torn apart by one of the werewolves, and others were bitten. The passages echoed with distant cries of penitence and perverse joy as the followers of Lykophron confessed their terrible crimes against men in the hidden sanctum of their god.

Sanctum of the Lycanthropes

The company withdrew a little to heal and get themselves in order, but were soon interrupted. Flanked by three werewolf temple acolytes wearing dark robes, a regal werewolf wearing imperial finery and a purple cape announced himself as Aulus Naevius Litumaris, a patrician of the Imperial Capital, come to avenge the slayers of his kin. Behind him, in purple robes and human form, was an old man, the Cornelia de Marco’s kidnapper, Zalomort the Werewolf-Mage! This fight was relentlessly brutal, and consumed a lot of the company’s resources. Publius Varro, sneaking behind (and seeing more wererats in the passages debating whether to close in or let the werewolves handle things) ran into the retreating, wounded Zalomort, and finished him off with a backstab. Finally, the lycanthropes were put down, Asinus the heavy footman delivering the killer blow, and naming himself Wolf-Slayer. The Lion Pack once again stopped a little to heal, and were once again interrupted, as two more werewolf monks came to fight. Asinus the Wolf-Slayer stepped forth to fight them, and was killed, dying as Asinus the Wolf-Slain. Nine more wererats came in a new wave, but seeing the carnage, turned and fled back into the temple to raise the alarm. Pressing on, the company went forward, seeking the cell where Cornelia might be kept. They emerged in a vast, empty and dark hall with a fathomless pit in the middle, surrounded by crumbling stone balustrades. More to the east were six more wererats, whom they fought. More could be heard through a door, but Publius Varro quickly jammed the lock to slow them down, and they could not batter it open. The rats brought a crowbar, but a shocking grasp cast at the door dissuaded them from their plans. Wererats were killed and one, knocked out with colour spray, captured for interrogation. It turned out the cell was right in the entrance corridor guarded by the lictors.

Voices were rising deep in the temple, the angry chorus of a congregation which has now learned of the blasphemers in their sanctum and the death of their high priest and Imperial guest. Rushing back, wounded and exhausted, they found four more wererats, and unleashed a monster summoning spell from a scroll to keep them busy while they sprang the locks. Cornelia de Marco was in one of the rooms, hiding under an old wooden bed, while the other was occupied by scared commoners, handsome young men and women kidnapped for Lykophron’s rites. A wolf-woman, a matron, raised a hue and cry, spotting the intruders. They fled the temple down the spiral stairs, and through the passages, the howling of the mob echoing behind them. They came to the waterfall room, hastening across. Quintus the heavy footman, Trupo’s faithful companion in many ventures, slipped and fell, disappearing down an angled water chute into the darkness of the Underworld, his fate unknown. They thought of lowering a rope, but the lycanthrope-cultists were drawing close. Entrusting Quintus to the will of the gods, they ran, leaving behind the Undercity. Back in the fortified palace of the de Marcos, a discussion was held. Cornelia de Marco and the page boy Leonio decided to leave the city for a good while, travelling to Leonio’s modest manor in the provinces, now united by love rather than fealty. The Lion Pack would still have to decide where to go from here. They had won magic and treasure from their defeated enemies, but Cornelia was too poor to reward them with anything but a written letter of recommendation to the city’s high nobility, and the Temple of Gladuor. And they now had enemies hiding in Viaskar’s shadows. „The wolves are among us”, Cornelia said darkly. Two of the survivors –Jovial Faustulus and Arden Oakbark – had been bitten in the temple of Lykophron, and yet another, Publius Varro, bore the lycanthropic curse in his blood from an early encounter.

 

Are the pages in order?

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Hack & Slash 

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When I finished writing yesterday’s post, I peeked at the prompt for day 7. Upon reading Journey, I thought, comically, What about writing a post about using the music of the band Journey in tabletop role-playing games?

The thought that was initially an internal joke kept nagging at me, and I kept mulling it over, thinking if this was indeed a viable topic for RPG a Day 2025. Let me tell you that while I am an 80s kid and a fan of Journey’s hits, I am not a hardcore fan who knows the discography by heart. However, I am married to a true fan; she and her family are all far bigger fans than I am!

After thinking about it all day, I sat down to jot down my ideas, research a little bit into the possibility, and fell down a strange rabbit hole.

This fact may be old news to you, but I had no idea Journey had a studio album from 1980 named Dream, After Dream, which was the soundtrack to a Japanese-French co-produced romantic fantasy movie titled Yume, Yume No Ato (Dream, After Dream in English). I had never listened to the record, but I spent hours listening to it, reading what I could online, and becoming fascinated by it.

I found this video about the movie:

You can read the Lost Media article mentioned in the above video following this link.

You can also see a Japanese-dubbed bootleg copy on YouTube:

However, what interested me, and the reason I originally learned about all this, was the Dream, After Dream record by Journey. This record is different from the popular Journey songs I’m familiar with, but it is a beautiful, often haunting prog-rock album, with stirring pieces and vocals. I can see this as an excellent soundtrack to an old school game.

You can listen to Dream, After Dream on this playlist on YouTube:

So, it turns out you CAN use Journey’s music as ambient music in your tabletop role-playing game sessions. Who knew!

Apologies to Journey fans who may already know about this album and the movie. I hope this is news to some of you, as it was to me.

Do you use music in your games? Do you use soundtracks? Do you prefer instrumental music or songs with lyrics? What music do you use?

I would love to read your replies here in the blog, or tag me wherever you make them. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to tag your entry with the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

 

Am I just posting the entire thing?

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Hack & Slash 

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I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of August 9, 1984. 

Batman #376: A misleading cover here by Hannigan/Giordano. Maybe it's meant to be symbolic? Natalia Knight (Nocturna) seems to be winning the custody battle for Jason, thanks to Bruce's lack of chill in the courtroom, and perhaps the influence of Mayor Hill on the proceedings. It doesn't help that Jason told the court he wants to live with Natalia, because he thinks she's up to something and wants to go undercover to stop her. As Batman, Bruce is drawn to Nocturna, particularly given her intoxicant perfume, but are interrupted briefly by Anton the Slayer of Night who's even more jealous now that Nocturna has rejected him for committing murder and despoiling the night. Dangeorus interruptions aside, the two finally get their kiss.

Arak, Son of Thunder #38: Valda and Malagigi arrive in Baghdad at the court of Harun Al-Rashid as emissaries of Charlemagne, but don't find it as an enlightened a place as they had thought. While touring the dungeons (as one does) with Vizier Barmak they find Arak under torture. They free him and he explains how he and his companions were captued by Barmak in the desert. Sharizad is in the harem, Alsind is toiling as an alchemist, and Satyricus is in the menagerie. Alsind causes an explosion and escapes, and discovers Satyricus amid strange animals.

Flash #339: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin plod along with the Trial of the Flash storyline, as Cecile interviews Barry's parents about the events at the wedding, then gets down to jury selection. Meanwhile, the Rogues contrive to make normally gentle Dufus, now armored up as Big Sir, enraged at the Flash. Big Sir attacks with ferocity, knocking out the Flash and flying off with him. The Monitor watches all of this only mild interest. 

G.I. Combat #271: In the Haunted Tank story, Craig is seriously injured on his birthday no less, but the crew are detoured from an attempt to get him to a doctor by the need to help Rock and Easy Company. Ultimately, a captured German physician renders aid and a German soldier with the same blood type agrees to give a blood transfusion.
 In the next story, Kashdan and Tlaloc gives the history of a particular bugle that plays its unlikely "Last Charge" atop a windmill in World War II. Then, Kashdan and Matucenio have a quick-thinking medic leave a map to Japanese tunnels on the back of another soldier in iodine before they are killed. Drake and Felugi have a paratrooper in France find a momento of his father than died in World War I. Finally, the Mercenaries head into the desert of Iran to take on a fanatical terrorist cult.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #3: Potter and Colan/Janson leave Jemm and friends in the sewer so we can get a flashback to Jemm's origin. We learn of the conflict between the polar White Saturnians and the desert-dwelling Red Saturnians and their fight over the only fertile region on the planet. Jemm is a prince of that verdant kingdom, educated in the ways of peace, and believed to be a ruler destined to bring complete peace to his world. Things don't go well though, and he has to flee, but after both races are almost completely wiped out. The robots of the White Martians continue to pursue him. Meanwhile, the government, considering the origins of the spacecraft, consults with an expert on extraterrestrials: Superman.
It's interesting that in 1984 the series goes all-in on a Saturn both with a rocky surface and life-bearing. I understand they hadn't yet retconned the Martian Manhunter's Mars, but that still requires less suspension of disbelief at that point than Saturn. Plus, Potter just replicates the ethnic conflict of DC's Mars to a new planet.

Omega Men #20: Moench and Smith/Magyar finally get Lobo to the asteroid to rescue the Omega Men before the force from Euphorix can destroy it. Tigorr and Primus are gone through a teleporter, though, and in the hands of a Psion who plans to vivisect them. They escape and trap the Psion is his own duplicator device. Lobo and the others figure out where they must be and pick them up to. I haven't mentioned it before, but there have been references to Lobo being the last Velorpian and the duplication process was derived from Velorpian reproduction. We get the story the destruction of his people at the hands of the Psions in this issue. His Czarnian background is a post-Crisis invention.

Star Trek #8: Barr and Sutton/Villagran continue their Saavik story, bridging her appearances in STII and STIII. In the grip of the pon farr blood fever, she threatens the Enterprise her attempt to take her shuttle to her betrothed, Xon. Xon is actually undercover, posing as a Romulan on a research facility near the Galactic Barrier. A Romulan scientist is trying to recreate the empowering of Mitchell and Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." They partially succeed, but then Saavik shows up with Enterprise close behind. They rescue Xon from interrogation and manage to destroy the Romulan base, then trick a Romulan warbird (which looks like the one in the original series episode "Balance of Terror" and not again).

Superman #401: Bates and SWan/Oksner revert to a more Superman: The Movie version of Luthor after the more vengeful version of recent appearances. They do keep the Lexorian warsuit, though. In fact, Luthor manages to trap Superman within the suit, adding features that make it difficult for the Man of Steel to use his powers to escape or to get help. Ultimately, though, he outsmarts Luthor by using heat vision to leave a Kryptonian message for Jimmy, and he contacts Supergirl, who uses a ruse to get Luthor to release her cousin. Later, however, Luthor muses to himself that the warsuit analyzed Superman's physical being and transmitted the information to him, which he intends to use against the Man of Steel in their next encounter.

Tales of the Teen Titans #48: A group of super-powered synthetic humanoids created in Dayton Laboratories, the RECOMbatants escape to the streets of Las Vegas, and the Titans are called in to help apprehend them. In the midst of their clash, the Titans realize the Recombatants just want to live normal lives and decide to help them. Ultimately, the synthetic beings realize their situation is hopeless and destroy themselves in a way that prevents the lab from making more like them. Meanwhile, back in New York, Gar Logan begins planning Donna Troy and Terry Long's wedding celebration at Dayton Estates, and Terry gets some off-color wedding presents from his students. After the Titans get back from Vegas, Joe Wilson again attempts unsuccessfully to reach out to Raven.
Wolfman and Rude/Gordon must have coordinated this issue with Evanier and Meugniot on Eclipse Comics' DNAgents. This issue with his stand-ins for that title's team comes about 3 weeks after the DNAgents faced a group of Titan stand-ins, Project Youngblood in DNAgents #14.
There's also a Flash Force 2000 bonus this issue by Fleming and Cowan/Trapani. It's based on a Matchbox toyline I didn't remember that DC did mini-comics for. It's about a post-apocalyptic yarn where both sides use vehicles with artificial intelligence.

By Sean Audet
Self Published
Knave 2e
Level 1

Drawn to the light of the St. Peter’s Rock Lighthouse, a vast and ancient eldritch abomination has awoken. One night, lightkeepers Alistair MacNeil and Dylan O’Connell witnessed the creature rising from the water. It only took a glimpse to drive the two men mad. With the last of their sanity, they destroyed the lantern and made a pact to keep the lighthouse dark, no matter the cost. Four months have passed since then. A perpetual storm now lingers above the isle of St. Peter’s Rock, and dozens of ships have been lost to its cliffs. Several people have gone to investigate and relight the lantern, but none have returned.

This sixteen page adventure describes a lighthouse with seven rooms. It has TOP NOTCH atmosphere, providing a foreboding and eerie environment. There is a level two and level three baddie to face, the former keepers, and then the world ends. So, you know, maybe some pacing issues in what is quite the atmospheric adventure.

There is a general rule of thumb that the room count as a ratio to the page count is a general indicator of what’s to come. Lopsided in either directions usually a warning sign. Thus, opening this adventure I girded my loins. But, a rule of thumb is not a law and this adventure defies that meme. It uses layout and an art style, as well as its design, to create a brooding atmosphere that pretty perfectly matches the vibe I think it was going for. Horror adventures generally cross genre boundaries well, and it would be quite easy to move this one to a different RPG/time period. Also, I’m totally reviewing this because the title reminds me of a Peaches mashup with the Doors.

The initial pages, as a spread, detail the map with notable features on it. Almost the very first words, on that summary map, describing the outside of the lighthouse are “Fierce storm growing more violent by the minute, ship in the distance, door to the Keeper’s Cottage, locked door to the Storehouse, hidden locked door to the Cellar, lantern lens broken into 3 pieces, crane and pulley, miscellaneous hardware and tools, shipwrecked fishing vessel.” I am enchanted by those first two clauses. A fierce storm growing more violent by the minute, a lighthouse without a light, and a ship in the distance. There is an impending consequence, the ship, that immediately adds to the tension and environment of the growing storm. I sometimes talk about framing what is to come, and, generally, I’m talking about this from the DMs perspective, to help orient the DM. This turns that a bit and instead provides this immediate air of tension to the gameplay. When we talk about Lareth issues it’s usually in the sense of giving this more visceral vibe to the villain early on. But, also, it tends to to a more remote of passive sort of thing, signs of their violence and so on. (Else we run in to the fleeing villain issue.) I’m not sure I’ve seen something so immediately tension setting before. You KNOW whats going to happen, you can see it. It’s a slow motion disaster. The ticking time bomb ever present without it being a hamhanded literal countdown. Further we get “Night is fast approaching. • The storm has taken a turn for the worse. • A distant ship grows closer by the minute. • The silhouette of a man is visible in the Lantern Room.” Again, this sense of foreboding. The night, the storm, the ship … pressure. And then the silhouette in the window. A call to action and perhaps a threat. 

The adventure is great at this, setting the mood. The Lighthouse was an explicit influence and this does a great job of capturing some of that atmosphere. It’s coming at things from a more neutral approach, a real world grounding that adds to the immersion. “Dylan O’Connell appears from the shadows,  wielding a rusted knife or a broken oar, muttering incomprehensibly” That’s one of our crazed lighthouse keepers, with a rusty knife. “An open, two-story room. It smells of spoiled meat, tobacco, and coal. Sparsely furnished” Smells of spoiled meat, stale tobacco. Coal. That is exactly the vibe I want from some abandoned lighthouse horror/suspense. 

This is a simple adventure. Search a few rooms, get this sense of unfolding drama, and what has happened in the past, not through a diary or exposition but from the condition of the rooms, what you find, what you see, what you experience. Ultimately, you’re facing a level to and level three fighter, in the crazed former keepers, so the combat here is few and far between and almost certainly happening in the climax of the adventure. But, the journey is the real adventure, through the unfolding tension, driving by a wanderer-like table that instead increases the event timeline or adds some strange atmosphere “The wind begins to tear shingles and pieces of the roof from the lighthouse. Debris crashes through the upper levels. “ or “A flash of lightning illuminates the sea. For a brief moment, one of the PCs sees a massive shape beneath the waves. It disappears, but an overwhelming sense of dread lingers.” 

There are a few things to do other then experience things. There’s a dude to find and rescue, and perhaps add complications to your efforts as you also have to deal with his decrepitude. And, of course, the need to explore to find some lamp oil, etc, to get the beacon working again before that ship arrives.

The layout is clean. The summary map is quite good, you could almost run it from it alone. Or, at least, it gives that emission, of something that can actually help you at the table. The increasing tension/wandering table is easy to follow, clear, and provides decent interactivity in terms of avoid those falling shingles and so on. Minor things, but nice tension spikes. The rooms, proper, rely on a line break style of organization with occasional bolding. They do tend to the more “column sized” size of the spectrum, and I suspect bullets instead of line breaks, along with a few more formatting insights could have assisted here, but it is also using a ? ? layout, with some notes in that ? that help keep things on track. There’s a decent amount of stuff in each room that I suspect it just crosses the line in to needing a bit more thought. 

I’m not the biggest fan of the hooks. They are the rather basic sort or being hired, etc, but do include a “raising the Stakes” line in each that mentions things like “Raise the stakes: the PCs have a personal investment in the latest shipment” or “Raise the stakes: the PCs have a personal connection to the survivor.” I can see a certain appeal there in a well crafted one. Solving a problem, like the shipping issue, for one of the parties schemes seems like fair game, while I always raise an eyebrow at including the parties personal connections; this is why PCs don’t create those, as fodder for a DM to leverage … ever the hobo. 

The ending here leaves me a little nonplussed. Your goal is to light the beacon to warn away the ship. The keepers and hunt for oil adds complications. But, in doing so, we find that the keepers were right to douse it … lighting it summons an abomination from under the waves, the reason WHY they doused the light. I’m not gonna die on this hill, it’s not the end of the world. But you know the American spirit. Finally, PC’s tend to be resourceful. I suspect the storm mitigates the “light a different “approach, and if the party can find a way past that issue then more power to them. There are, also, some alternatives presented as opportunities, a flare, a seized up foghorn, that could be used to find a better way to manage the outcome. A few words of advice in this area could have been appreciated. Remember kids, when setting out to do something, always bring all the apres you need with you to do the minimum job, just in case the former keepers have hidden/used everything.

An excellent adventure. Small and high quality, providing alternative options to the party if they are smart enough to take advantage. The designer has two other publications, both for Mouseritter. I’m not generally interested in that, but I may take the plunge to see if they match the quality and can perhaps be “translated’ on the fly for more general audiences.

This is Pay What You Want at itch.io, with a suggested price of $2. There’s no explicit preview, but there are a few screenshots that give you an art style and layout vibe if you squint. (Although I think they are a bit misleading in the wrong way; you get an “art first’ vibe from them that I don’t actually think is present.) And, I guess, as PWYW, the entire thing could be considered a preview.

https://cloud-press-publishing.itch.io/turn-it-off

 We pick up from July fourth with this session of Baptism of Fire which picks right up from  the last one. And now the bastard son of the baron of our little corner of Poland has come out to play after he sought the favor of the Elve's cult of Chaos last game. To say that Tovic Kurr was a wee bit sore at us was an understatement. We were ready with our forces and hirelings. But we Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Welcome back to day 6 of RPG a Day 2025. Today’s topic is Motive.

While I had a couple of ideas about what to write about, I just could not decide, so I used the options on the bottom shelf of the graphic above, and the results were: What, Nostalgic, and Accessory. That worked out great!

So, here’s my question for today: What accessory motivated me that I’m nostalgic about?

The answer is easy: the Central Casting books! What was Central Casting? Allow me to tell you.

Central Casting was a series of four books: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend, Heroes of Tomorrow, Heroes Now!, and Dungeons. The last one, as far as I can tell, was written by another author. I intend to write about the first three.

These three supplements were written by the amazing Jennell Jaquays, a gaming luminary known among many other things for her astounding game design and art. Janelle sadly passed away last year; she is sorely missed.

The Central Casting books are system-neutral genre books for fantasy, sci-fi, and modern games, allowing you to roll your character’s background in a series of interconnected random tables with great detail, from birth to just before they began adventuring. In many ways, when I first read it, it reminded me of character creation in Traveller, but you can’t die while you roll up your character’s story.

While generic, there are notes on converting the bonuses, boons, and curses granted by the tables to all the popular systems at the time. The books were published in 1988, 1989, and 1991.

There are some notes in the book that may seem strange to our more modern sensibilities, but I can put them aside, understanding, from an outsider’s perspective, the journey Jennell went through and all she shared with her followers. So, enough said about that.

Allow me to tell you what these excellent books make me nostalgic for! I used books to generate different NPCs for my campaign worlds, drawing inspiration from the events and details of their stories, as well as the adventures and elements of those campaigns. My player used them for their character, and I used some tables to generate random events when I felt uninspired.

The book had advice on using the tables just for that reason, like I said before, notes on converting the bonuses generated through the book into the most popular role-playing games of the day for that genre, rules for using it to create simple backgrounds for NPCs, and a nice piece on character motivations and essays on how to put it all together.

These are my favorite background generator tools for role-playing games. While some people may chafe at the idea of simply randomly rolling for a character’s background, this is more of a mini game unto itself where you put together all these events and details and create your own story. I was a fan back then, and I still am now.

There are random background generators out there, but none have ever captured my imagination quite like these. The tables and tools by Kevinn Crawford in his Without Number series, published under his company, Sine Nomine Publishing, are the only ones that come close in sheer usefulness and value for me.

Sadly, these books are out of print. You can still get them used online. I have mine as they are among my most treasured RPG books. Jennell was working on an updated version of the series before her untimely passing, and her wife, Rebecca Heineman, had mentioned her intention of publishing the project. Still, I have not seen any news on that front. But I understand this; such a project after a significant loss cannot be an easy undertaking. Here is a link to a New York Times article on Jennel’s life where Central Casting is mentioned.

While still saddened by her parting, my life as a gamer, as a creative, and as a person was greatly enriched by Jennel’s work, whether she knew it or not. I’m motivated by the nostalgia for these books, as well as her fantastic work, which has allowed me to continue enjoying this wondrous hobby, of which she was one of the founding figures.

What motivates you, your games, your characters? Are you a fan of Jennell Jaquays’ works? What’s your favorite of her works?

Do you know or recommend any other similar product you think I should check out?

Would you be interested in a post where I generate a character using Central Casting?

I would love to read your feedback and comments here in the blog, or tag me in your replies, wherever you make them. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to tag your entry with the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

No, Brightborne isn't an OSR game (but it is a dungeon crawler of sorts). Nor is it old school in nature. But for 2 bucks, I'm more than happy to read a ruleset that offers GM-less - or even solo - play. It might be fun for a pick-up game to kill some time at a convention.

Until tomorrow morning, Brightborne is on sale for $2 (normally 5 bucks). It's impulse-buy pricing, and I'm being impulsive today ;)

From the creator of the bestselling games ENTITY, KUROI, CAMPFIRE STORY, and STORYTELLERS comes a new GM-less, roguelike, diceless dungeon-crawling RPG for 1–4 players: BRIGHTBORNE.

Set in a richly detailed, lore-packed grimdark world, all you need to play is the rulebook, a pencil, and a deck of classic blackjack cards.

Featuring tactical grid-based combat and easy-to-learn rules, it’s perfect for both newcomers to dungeon crawlers and seasoned veterans alike. It also contains a structural loop to keep your story focused, as you have seen in the Entity title.

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