Tabletop Gaming Feeds

After yesterday’s heady post, I am aiming for a more easily approachable post. Let’s talk about today’s prompt, Ancient.

Which reminds me of another pop-culture reference. Remember this guy?

When I think about Ancient, I immediately think of a Lich in fantasy role-playing games. Mumm-Ra seems like a Lich, but I knew about the D&D concept of a Lich, i.e., a powerful undead wizard or cleric, from reading the AD&D 1e Monster Manual. Here is that entry:

From reading that entry, I just knew this was a special monster. I’ve always been a particular Game Master (GM) who wants to plan for long-term adventure ideas, looking at certain monsters and not wanting to simply throw them at the players, knowing I want to do something special with them. It was like that with Tiamat, Orcus the Tarrasque, and the Lich.

I don’t recall using a Lich in an AD&D 1st edition game. However, a mighty Lich was a major antagonist in our AD&D 2e campaigns. A former noble wizard from ancient times, corrupted by his lust for power, he was an antagonist in two campaigns, eventually awakening a dracolich in a necropolis on the campaign world’s moon that the party defeated with a fantasy mecha, a Spelljammer Spirit Warrior (that’s the Monstrous Compendium vol. 9 image for the Spirit Warrior below). However, they were unable to stop the Lich’s evil plans, and he became a god!

During a D&D 3rd edition campaign, another lich was also an antagonist. The idea of a Lich’s phylactery has always been part of my fascination with the creature. I think I understood what the phylactery was upon reading the AD&D 2nd edition entry for the Lich; the description read as follows:

“In order to become a lich, the wizard must prepare its phylactery by the use of the enchant an item, magic jar, permanency and reincarnation spells. The phylactery, which can be almost any manner of object, must be of the finest craftsmanship and materials with a value of not less than 1,500 gold pieces per level of the wizard. Once this object is created, the would-be Lich must craft a potion of extreme toxicity, which is then enchanted with the following spells: wraithform, permanency, cone of cold, feign death, and animate dead. When next the moon is full, the potion is imbibed. Rather than death, the potion causes the wizard to undergo a transformation into its new state. A system shock survival throw is required, with failure indicating an error in the creation of the potion which kills the wizard and renders him forever dead.”

Don’t you just love that description?

The Lich in the 3rd edition campaign was a thorn on the character’s side, and they wanted to locate the phylactery to destroy him once and for all. But, despite their exhaustive search, they could not find it. Turns out the Lich had enslaved an Inevitable and tasked it with endlessly traveling across the campaign world, protecting the phylactery. The characters could not magically find the ensorcelled phylactery, but they found the Inevitable, defeated it, and used the phylactery to defeat the Lich.

I liked these two antagonists and feel that I did right by truly making these ancient creatures, truly formidable opponents.

Do you like ancient liches? What other ancient creatures do you use as antagonists in your games? Have you done anything new or different with a Lich’s phylactery?

I would love to read your 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. See you in the next post!

Disregard the fact that Green Ronin has been running a GoFundMe to pay for a lawyer in the Diamond Distributors Bankruptcy case (hint - it ain't going to help). The fact is, the AGE System, introduced with the Dragon Age RPG, is a decent system. Additionally, The Expanse is a setting full of gaming. Literally a Win-Win.

Adventurer! We've resurrected (for a third time!) our December 2020 Modern AGE and Expanse RPG Bundlefeaturing The Expanse Roleplaying Game based on James S. A. Corey's mega-popular science fiction novels of diplomacy, danger, and discovery in the future Solar System. This bargain-priced revival also includes Modern AGE, which adapts the same rules for high-power action from the Industrial Revolution onward. Both these tabletop roleplaying games use the easy and fast-playing Adventure Game Engine (AGE) from Green Ronin Publishing. You have a new chance to get everything you need for your own campaign of modern adventure or high-flying hard sf.

For just US$17.95 you get all six titles in this revived offer's Modern Collection (retail value $85) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Modern AGE Basic Rulebook and the Modern AGE Companion; the cross-dimensional campaign setting Threefold; Enemies & Allies for Threefold and other Modern AGE games; the adventure Missions: Warflower; and the Modern AGE Game Master's Kit.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $33.19, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Expanse Collection with five more titles worth an additional $80, including the complete standalone The Expanse Roleplaying Game core rulebook, The Expanse Game Master's Kit, the scenarios Abzu's Bounty and Salvage Op, and – newly added in this revival! – Ships of the Expanse, the 144-page guide to every kind of spacefaring vehicle in the Solar System. And if you purchased this offer during any of its three previous runs, you get the newly added Ships of the Expanse automatically on your Wizard's Cabinet download page and in your linked DriveThruRPG Library. When you buy a Bundle of Holding early, you never worry about missing a title added later – even much later.

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Treasured by sorcerers and whispered of in dark temples, these rare blossoms hold secrets that can unlock forbidden visions or deliver a swift, silent death.
For my Shadowdark campaign, Lotus is rare and costly but sometimes appears through traveling merchants, hidden sanctuaries, and in the guarded reserves of mystics or the hands of dubious street vendors.

"Black Lotus... Stygian, the best!" — Conan the Barbarian

Black Lotus
Use: Powder or inhaled (burned pollen smoke)
Effect: DC12 CON or drop to 0 HP. 
Magic: Spellcasters who inhale the pollen smoke for 1 hour may cast one spell without a spellcasting check.
Addiction: DC13 CON
Lore: Harvested in the lost jungles of Khitai and the shadowed swamps of Stygia, the black lotus is a deadly poison or creates sorcerous dreams.

“[The powder] was made from black lotus… those blossoms strike dead any who smell of them.” — Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant

“A glance back, before the heavy, gold-bound teak door was closed, showed him Xaltotun leaning back in his throne-like chair… It was the pollen of the black lotus…” — Robert E. Howard, Hour of the Dragon. .

Purple Lotus
Use: Ingested or inhaled
Effect: DC12 CON or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds
Addiction DC: None
Lore: Grown in haunted swamps of Stygia, the purple lotus freezes the flesh but leaves the mind aware. Sorcerers use it to separate will from body; others use it to imprison victims silently.

Yellow Lotus
Use: Inhaled
Effect: Induces a visionary trance for 10 minutes. While entranced, ask the GM one question about a course of action. The GM answers with “Serpent” (treachery, peril) or “Star” (guidance, promise).
Addiction: DC12 CON
Lore: Revered in the shadowed temples of Khitai, Yellow Lotus opens the mind to haunting visions and whispered omens from beyond the veil.

“’…their lives are filled with exotic ecstasies, beyond the ken of ordinary men.’ ‘Damned degenerates!’ growled Conan.” — Robert E. Howard, The Slithering Shadow.

Grey Lotus
Use: Ingested or inhaled
Effect: For 3 rounds, take 1 extra action each round (Move, Attack, Hide, Use, etc.).
Addiction: DC13 CON
Lore: Feared and sought by pit fighters and cult zealots alike, Grey Lotus ignites savage fury and razor-sharp reflexes, though its grip sinks deep, twisting body and soul alike.

White Lotus
Use: Crushed and applied
Effect: Acts as a Potion of Healing and cures one disease.
Addiction DC: None
Lore: Cultivated in the hidden gardens of Vendhya, White Lotus is a treasured remedy that soothes wounds and cleanses afflictions. 

Golden Lotus
Use: Ingested
Effect: Cures all mind-influencing effects, addictions, and withdrawal symptoms instantly.
Addiction DC: None
Lore: Rare and revered, golden lotus juice is said to restore sanity and sever chains of compulsion. 

“He drew a phial… ‘If your lover drank it he would be sane again.’” — Robert E. Howard, Shadows in Zamboula.

Poison Rules

When using poisons, the user must succeed on a DC12 Dexterity check or risk poisoning themselves by mistake. (Trained users only poison themselves on a natural 1.)

Poisons only affect living creatures of Level 10 or lower.

Addiction

If you fail the addiction check, you become addicted. If you don’t take the Lotus again the next day, you suffer disadvantage on all checks until you do.

You may attempt to break the addiction once per day with a Constitution check. Luck tokens and resting do not help. You must overcome the addiction on your own.

By Matthew Jennings
Missspire Publications
OSR
Levels 5-8

So, you have helped your brothers deliver your family’s hard cider all over these valleys and you’ve never even heard of Arcadia. When you asked the parents about helping Rigs out with a delivery, they dispar- aged the idea. Said it was “out past Broken Valley… straight up a mountain…in giant and barbarian territory … a bad idea”

This 129 page heartbreaker uses seventeen pages to describe a ruined village full of kobolds and a red dragon. Your level eights are helping a mary sue move and hew new house isn’t working out right. It is a classic heartbreaker, full of wall of text, extraneous detail, disorganized, and conversational. I’m not even sure how you run this. 

Ah, the heartbreaker. Let us wax poetic on the creations of a single designer with a vision of what they want, and falling far short of reaching it. I salute you, and your singular visions, even if I ant absolutely nothing to do with them. GenCon approaches, and I’ve always to have a booth where I just sell heartbreaks and my Worst list. There are many ways for me to not want to have anything to do with an adventure, and a heartbreaker is perhaps the saddest.

You’re old buddy RIgs wants you to help move Karen. You are levels five to eight, so, sure, why not? In this adventure your old buddy is a level 3 in like five different classes, Karen the Herbalist is a level seven magic user, and the old hag living on the mountainside is a Level eleven cleric and a level five illusionist. Which, maybe, makes sense because one of the towns has a golem factory where they make and export them. This is not my D&D style. It sets my teeth on edge and reminds me of the bad old days of adventures with Sphere of Annihilation garbage disposals. But, whatever you’re in to I guess.

This is a single column wall of text adventure and regional setting. I guess it describes “The Valleys” and then has a small adventure set in it. For level five through eights. Again, we can see that “delivering your families hard cider” and “levels five through eight” is clearly a sore point with me. Anyway, the first ninety or so pages describe, abstractly but in many words, the various locations in the valley. Then there’s the adventure of about twenty pages, and then a description of the various magic items and creatures. Is it a regional guide with an adventure in it? I don’t know, the product description makes it sounds an adventure.

I really can’t emphasize enough the mess of the text. Things are just dropped in to it without much thought. Your hooks, with your buddy RIggs, appears on page seventeen in the appropriate physical location where he might be found. And then seventy pages later comes the adventure. WHich then starts with “Karen will send the boychild that didn’t runaway on the porch off with a handful

of gold coins to fetch some lunch for her friends,” Uh. Ok. Sure. Time to refer back to page whatever earlier in the adventure to find Karens home, I guess. You’re gonna be doing a lot of flipping in this adventure.

So, the adventure. You show up, have a long and tedious lunch with Karen, who you are instructed to be as long-winded and rambling as possible, then you help Karen move in to her new home.  Which involves going through a trunk to the connected magic trunk, coming out in the ruined village, and fighting a bunch of kobolds and a 10HD red dragon. Oh, and Karen is with you the entire way. Invisible. And when you reach the dragon then “Karen ends the fight almost before it gets started with a lucky Polymorph Other, changing the dragon into a blood raven.” Groovy, I guess. That IS the role of a mary sue. Anyway, so you’re fighting kobolds. As level five through eights. A large group is the kobold common room with fifty in it. Fifteen males, 25 females and ten children. So, fifteen kobolds. Dump in a fireball, I guess? Anyway, the ruined town has about twelve locations, one being the clocktower with the dragon it. 

It is TEDIUM, beyond words, to wade through. Information is scattered everywhere. A section heading may be important or it may be just more background information. And, given the page count, it is almost always fluff. Unless of course you actually needed it. And the whole conversation tone of the long form paragraphs … There’s this thing that some event based adventures do. FIrst this happens and then this and then this and then this. This isn’t really scene based, in the way those are (and, I’m differentiating between scenes and the “first this then this” style) but the encounters, the various keys, many are in this format. And sometimes the format, the conversation, runs across rooms. And then there are just other things dropped in out of nowhere. “Karen will ask what the burned corpse smells like. If the answer is “cinnamon”, she’ll know there is a female red dragon involved” Uh. Ok. Does it, in fact, smell like cinnamon? I don’t know. I guess if I go wade through everything else I can see its a female red dragon somewhere in the adventure and then make the inference? It’s just bizarre, these random assumptions coming out of nowhere with no context to them. Second person read-aloud abounds “You pass an iron brazier upon entry that fills the room with the smell of sickly sweet herbs and incense but all you really notice is the idol of Naama on the far wall.” except it’s not really read-aloud, in the traditional sense? It’s not set apart and you really wouldn’t know its read-aloud except for the fact that there’s some second-person tenses to it. It’s all just a mass of text, with a running conversation throughout, changing tenses, changing tone, changing meaning and purpose, willy nilly. It’s a fucking stream of consciousness adventure. Which can be a fun way to write and deliver SOME sorts of entertainment information (like a review …) but is absolutely terrible in a piece of reference material. 

There’s not much here. It’s a regional setting, I guess. The actual adventure is a nightmare of finding information, scattered throughout the book seemingly at random. I know, I bitch about organization a lot, but this is just on a whole other level. Imagine I put half of the room one description on page 18 and the other half on page 86. The whole tone (which, I admit, is a matter of taste) is just off with the level 5-8 thing and the hard cider thing and the helping a chick move thing. The mary sue. The kobolds as enemies? Second person? I salute the hubris, but am horrified by the result. 

This is $4 at DriveThu. The preview is six pages, and is actually the first six pages of the actual adventure portion. So, decent job. Check it out. It really does a decent job of conveying in a nutshell the issues.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/524001/the-valleys-a-grunions-and-flagons-mirrspire-module?1892600

EDIT: I take it back. It’s not a heartbreaker. Future Symbolism …

To my mind, the these works and works provoke an impeccable Spelljammer vibe:
Don Lawrence (Storm)


Al Williamson


Magnus (Milady 3000, I Briganti)


Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon)


Howard Chaykin (Cody Starbuck, Ironwolf)

 

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Hack & Slash 

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" Issue five offers better cover quality and improved interior page quality. We've brough in a new design team and this issue shows it.""Crusader Journal is one of the few magazines that offers today's role playing gamers articles about the games they play and how to play them. Specifically geared toward Castles & Crusades, it also contains nuggets and tips on the hows, whens, what and Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Happy Monday to all! Today’s topic is Massage. Let’s go down this rabbit hole.

When I read the topic, I think of two men, Marshall McLuhan and Sting.

Sting for having written the song by the Police, Message in a Bottle.

The second may not be as well known to you unless you studied communications theory at some point. I remember my professor quoting Marshall McLuhan on the topic and his phrase, “the medium is the message”, and the book McLuhan co-authored, The Medium is the Massage. Here is a short video explaining his theories.

While this post does not intend to explore McLuhan’s theory or any pertinent criticism thoroughly, I think we can use the simplest ideas presented and consider how we communicate our messages in the context of a role-playing game.

The medium we use to convey messages and share meaning when we play might be considered different from others. My grandfather used to refer to tabletop role-playing games as “that talking game you play”. To an outside observer, yes, we primarily talk and collectively imagine a shared universe that may be quite different for everyone at the table.

We are having a conversation, conveying a sense of scenery, characters, motivations regulated by a specific rule set that exists outside the conversation, and often involves tangible details like a miniature on a map, add to that numerical values that constrain or modify the story, all coming together in a shared narrative that, I am sure, we all visualize in slightly different ways in our head. Some may imagine the same fantasy combat as an anime, another player like an episode of Game of Thrones, another like a comic book, or a video game. All completely valid.

I didn’t come up with this idea, but since I can’t remember where I read it, I’ll paraphrase it. When we play role-playing games, we enjoy a communal trip, no drugs required!

To reiterate, not trying to tackle this complex idea, but it is still important to consider, especially as a Game Master. Our games involve communication at various levels. What we say, the rules we read, and the collective imagination of the action all come together to collaborate on the plot and develop an understanding of the action —a seemingly complex task —yet all in the name of fun!  

Suppose we know that each person will imagine what we describe based on their own experiences and references. How do we go about it? Is there a way to create a cohesive vision? If we all play the same computer game, we’ll mostly see a similar story. Read a book, we all last read the same plot, but might have imagined it in different ways.

In an RPG, should we use reference images, miniatures, and maps to create the most immersive and accurate version possible? Or do we embrace the chaos and feed the creativity of each person at the table, allowing them to run with it?

There is a reason why handouts have been such an integral part of the hobby since the beginning. The tactile experience of reading a paper that resembles parchment, as opposed to being told you are reading one and then the content, is very different.

I like to try to walk in the middle ground. With the help of technology, I use illustrations and art to present locations or NPCs, so players have a clear, shared idea of who or what they are. Relating a mannerism, voice, behavior, or event I’ve described to an image makes the NPC, occurrence, or location easier to associate and remember. I also use art to convey a sense of tone and style in campaigns or adventures.

These days, with technology, you can search for or create images that represent what you are trying to convey. Some of these things you can do before the game, but even for locations and NPCs that emerge during the story, I sometimes provide a reference afterwards.

I cannot describe every detail of every interaction; I have to understand that players will visualize the game world in different ways, and I want to encourage that. I review the references and character descriptions, focusing on their primary connection to the game, to better understand their expectations of the game world. I am also fortunate to play with close friends; I know who they are and what they like, which I can take into account.

Also, I try to encourage ways in which the players collaborate in creating the scene and the conflict, and give them agency to narrate events and create situations. As a compulsive homebrewer who likes to create complex worlds with lots of background details, I am always thrilled when players add to the process, and we can imagine a world together.

I have gotten way too philosophical. So let’s return to the first person I mentioned, Sting, and the song he composed that The Police sang. Message in a Bottle. It gave me an idea for the time travel campaign based on a bar I mentioned yesterday, Hoppers!

Imagine the characters returning to their base, only to find all the bottles in the bar are gone except for one—a bottle with a message inside it. A message from a chronal Robinson Crusoe, trapped outside the timestream, warns them that they will fail to rescue him. Will they prove him wrong? Can they save him and themselves? Who took all the alcohol in the time-travelling bar? All questions to be answered in time! Pun intended.

What did you think about when you saw the message prompt? I would love to read your comments, or tag me in your replies, wherever you make them. If you choose to join in, don’t forget to tag your entry with the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community at large can find it. Have a great week.

I'm not even going to go into whether or not the ENNies are relevant (I cover such in THIS Video). Nope, simply appreciate the number of useful titles in the Award Winning & Nominated RPGs (Presented by the ENNies) Bundle and judge accordingly.

As usual with Humble Bundle, the mid-range Bundle lacks the bargain of the low end (5 bucks includes Peterson's Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, Forbidden Lands RPG, Ashen Stars RPG, The 20th Anniversary Release of Freeport, and others), and the $25 level offers 27 titles, including titles such as Blade Runner, Dragon Age, The Strange, The One Ring Core Rules, some Delta Green Releases, some classic D20 era DCC releases, a solo CoC adventure, and much more.

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I'm in a comics mood.

I was in a comics mood this time last year and I knocked out a 25 pager with Hellion Cross. I printed 50 copies of that book with an egregious error on the center spread... I had drawn the center pages without considering the correct margins. I had to manipulate the positions of captions to make it work and in doing so I duplicated one caption and deleted another. No idea how.

Fast forward to today... I'm finally going to launch ROC: Random Order Comics... a "regular" comic book title I where I can just stuff all my comics work. When I get something finished, I can just add it to the next issue. When I hit the 28-32 page count, I can do a cover and pull the trigger on it.

I'm not worrying about what kind of content goes in each issue or how I'm going to publish them. They are standard American comic book format and I'm keeping it Rated R or under. I'll probably stick to black and white for now. Those are my only rules. There may be fantasy comics, goofy strips about politics or memories, or whatever I feel like drawing.

Here's a few pages from the first issue. I'll post more about it later. This issue is complete other than a cover.

Well, thank you for dropping by the blog on Sunday. Here for day 3 of RPG a Day? Let’s get going.

Let’s try something different today. The prompt for today is Tavern, but I wanted to use the Question, Mood, and Subject options presented in the graphic, so I rolled some dice, and the additional prompts were:

• Question: Why?
• Mood: Excited
• Subject: Genre

I’m going to put my money where my mouth is after yesterday’s post, and integrate those three additional prompts into the topic at hand, putting my thinking cap on. Here is what I came up with.

Why are you excited about incorporating a tavern in other RPG genres other than fantasy?

The tavern, the gathering place for fantasy adventurers, has been a constant throughout the editions. Just search for “You all meet in a tavern” or a variation thereof online and see all you get. What was the meeting place for the heroes in the first Dragonlance book? The Inn of the Last Home, a tavern! If the Dragonlance book were self-referencing the trend back in 1984, you can see how ubiquitous the tavern is in fantasy games.

It is such a cliché! But, to reiterate the previous question, why be excited about incorporating the tavern into different RPG genres?

First, it’s not as common in other genres. Yes, there is the cantina in Star Wars (same thing as a tavern), and I included a cantina in the first session of my Stars Without Number campaign in 2019, but looking back, I don’t think I’ve used them as much in other genres.

But think about it, socially, the “tavern”, whether we call it a bar, pub, or cantina, is such a shared social gathering place in real life. Out with your friends on a Friday? Beer at the bar! Need a place to meet after a zombie apocalypse, to the pub!

The saloon in a western game is probably as common as a tavern in a fantasy one. But the tavern can be a meeting place for your heroes in your WWII superhero campaign. A pub can be the meeting place for your Victorian steampunk heroes. A seedy bar is the place where your creatures of the night gather to plot against their elders. It can easily be used across all genres. But what about if we go further?

How can we use the tavern as an adventure location for other genres? The Winchester in Shaun of the Dead is a great inspiration for a zombie game. Still, a tavern can also serve as a meeting place for survivors, a source of supplies during a raid, or even a base of operations where weary survivors can exchange stories of their exploits.

In a superhero game, it can be a place where the heroes meet in their civilian identities, a familiar place that is then threatened by villains, or neutral ground where heroes and villains intermingle—a version of The Continental from the John Wick movies.

There are numerous examples of multi-dimensional, multi-genre taverns that connect different fantasy settings of worlds. Imagine a time-travel campaign where you enter a tavern by the end of the game, and after a few drinks, you exit to another time. Finding the tavern might be integral to most adventures; the tavern may be a base of operations for the time-travelers. Make the tavern a fixture of the campaign! Perhaps it serves as the base of operation for the players. They own it, or it is their interdimensional base with doors that open wherever they need to go. Go bar hopping and go time hopping. Now I want to run a campaign called Hoppers!

See, we can be excited about a tavern, despite all the clichés; we just need to be creative about how we use them.

How do you use taverns in your games? Are you a fan or are you tired of them? I want to read your feedback.

Leave your thoughts in the comments, or tag me in your replies, wherever you make them. If you choose to participate, don’t forget to tag your participation with the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community at large can find your entry.

I always liked GURPS, even if the rest of my gaming group wasn't as enthralled. Before the internet, GURPS supplements were some of the best-researched gaming material (or otherwise) available.

The GURPS 4e Core Collection is $19.95 on Bundle of Holding, the 4e Essentials Bonus is a hair over $40 as I type this.

Adventurer! We've extended this revival of our June 2022 GURPS 4E Essentials Bundle featuring GURPS, the Generic Universal RolePlaying System from Steve Jackson Games. With the GURPS tabletop roleplaying rules you can be anyone you want: an elf fighting for the forces of good, a spy on a deep-cover mission, a futuristic swashbuckler carving up foes with a force sword, or literally anything else. For more than three decades GURPS has been supported with hundreds of supplements and sourcebooks. This second revival gives you a new chance to get .PDF ebooks of all the important rules and supplements you need to get started with the Fourth Edition (2004) of one of the longest-lasting and best-supported universal systems in the hobby.

For just US$19.95 you get all six titles in this revived June 2022 offer's 4E Core Collection (retail value $95) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete two-volume GURPS 4E Basic Set – Characters and Campaigns – plus Template Toolkit 1 - Characters, Adaptations, How to Be a GURPS GM, and the GURPS GM's Screen.

And if you pay more than this revival's threshold price of $40.09, you'll also get this offer's entire 4E Essentials Bonus with five more supplements worth an additional $109, including High-Tech (plus its High-Tech Weapon Tables), Ultra-Tech (plus its Ultra-Tech Weapon Tables), Bio-Tech, Low-Tech, and Mass Combat.

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Hack & Slash 

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Hack & Slash 

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 I've been drawn to Hong Kong, the 1920's, the South China Sea and more from the Interbellum years between the World Wars as a possible campaign setting. Time and again real life gets in the way. I've been going over old campaign notes from 2016 from Dragonring Issue #1 Comicbook by Guang Yap From Aircel Comics As D&D Campaign Fodder Possibly using Wretched Interbellum as the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 

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Hack & Slash 

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By Allan Bollinger
Black Dice Games
Cresthaven
Level 1

Something has awakened beneath Black Hollow, and the veil that once separated the world of men from deeper horrors is beginning to thin.

This twenty page adventure uses all twenty pages in a meaningless flaccid jerk off that never pays off in the end. Self-indulgent and purple prose with over explained situations that MEAN NOTHING. 

As I was going through this I had this great schtick I was going to use. I was going to quote various parts of te purple prose and then just say something like “I’m going to kill myself” after each section. And then I started to get worried. The page count kept creeping up. I suddenly only had two pages left and the adventure had not started. Ought oh. So, the designer has denied you, gentle reader, of my most excellent purple prose quoting and instead I get to do this.

FUCK YOU!

You know those fucking tick-toks that cut off the ending? All that edging and lead in and no pay off? Making you go watch part two (which is never fucking posted …) Fucking click bait piece of shits. Well guess what the fuck this adventure is? 

The adventure ends with instructions for the DM to conduct a survey! What fun!

• “What was your favorite moment from this session, and why?”
  • The part where it ended. Also, the moments of column long read-aloud allowed me time to rant about Connections. I appreciated that.
• “Was there anything that felt confusing or frustrating?
  • No. It was all pretty transparent. I mean, the whole Mayor Is An Imposter thing didn’t make sense at all, but that didn’t matter, so.
• “Did any part of the story or world-building pique your curiosity?”
  • I liked the part where the focus was on me and my character and my interaction with the game world. Oh, wait, there was none of that. 
• “On a scale of 1 to 10 …”
  • -9. Fuck you. Would rather sit through another six hours of simultaneous gallbladder and kidney stones.

A summary, I guess. Dude steps out of the shadows, is a prick, and tells you his boss wants to hire you. (He’s also a prick.) You maybe investigate a little, go to the village which is mostly abandoned, and only a day away, and question the four or five people left. To no actual end. You then go to the mine entrance and the adventure ends. It’s supposed to be horror themed. Building suspense and the like. It’s pretentious nonsense and fucking clickbait. 

THAT COSTS $20!!!!! I don’t like to mention price in reviews. It is what it is and I’ll pay a lot for a short adventure that is good. But, also, I resent the expensive adventures because I know they are gonna suck ass and spending $60/week on garbage kind of annoys me. I don’t have a good reason for this. It just feels wrong? But, also, This is 22 pages long, costs $20 and is not an actual adventure, in spite of what the naysayers will quote about lead in and roleplaying. I know how to do those fucking things. And I also know how to make an actual fucking adventure out of them. 

So, you gonna wander around your start village and ask some questions, maybe. Then you gonna go to the village in question and ask some questions. That’s the adventure. I guess there are some fire beetles you could disturb. And a Carrion Screecher Swarm, whatever that is. A little description might be nice. All we get is “As the party nears a ruined spiral-marked stone, a swarm bursts from the dead canopy.” Ok, sure, whatever. Just yell COMBAT and roll the dice, I guess. No creature description. No real encounter. Just getting attacked. Fun.

One of my favorite sections of the adventure is the “PURPOSE IN ADVENTURE STRUCTURE” notes that are pervasive in the text. Long, lengthy sections that tell us what the purpose of the encounter is. Which is inevitably build dread, foreshadow, offer subtle backstory. Over and over again the text takes, what, a quarter of a page each time, to explain what the fuck it is trying to do. Repetitiion is one thing, but fuck man, its repeated like a gazillion times in twenty different ways. I get it. Be creepy. Note, it’s not advice on HOW to be creepy, it just says the purpose is to be creepy. So, you know, worthless. “The Mayor’s House is a roleplaying-heavy location full of tension, contradictions, and concealed information.” Yup, just like every place in this adventure.

Column long read-aloud. Almost a page long in places. Purple prose. “The man is tall and pale, his features sharp as winter frost. His eyes are cloudy like river glass, and his black robes seem to drink in the fading light.” Ok, so, I know, I said write evocatively. There’s the “stick an adjective/adverb in front of each noun/verb” method of fucking that up, and then there’s the simile.metaphor method of fucking that up. There is so much of this that I was going to make it the entire review. “From the moment the characters leave Cresthaven, the sky above them hangs heavy and oppressive, a leaden gray promising no warmth” Jesus H Christ. “Only silence, and the growing sense that whatever lives here no longer remembers how to greet strangers.” I’m gonna kill myself. “The final pages are nothing but spirals. Something broke them. Something reached in and rewrote what they were.” If I had to sit through it then so do you. “A stern but sincere man, Father Harder warns against venturing into forgotten places. He’s begun leaving the chapel door unlocked at night, in case the light must Flee. “ In case the light must flee? 

Look, this is just a shit adventure. Or, as the initial observations noted, not an actual adventure at all. To put a cherry on top of it all, there are passages out of place in the text. As if there were a copy/paste error and chunks were just moved to other area. EASL I can forgive, but a final proof read? [Insert standard joke/comment here] I think not. Twenty fucking dollars for this. Twenty fucking dollars. For 22 pages of nothing.

This is $20 at DriveThru. The preview is three pages and shows you nothing but endless designer puffery.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/529970/echoes-of-black-hollow?1892600

I wonder if I’m still alive and out of surgery yet?

 

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A little background on me and James Spahn, the creator of White Box: Cyclopedia. I've known James for well over a decade and consider him family. I sent James my spare copy of Swords & Wizardry Complete, and a decade later, here we are. Blame me ;)

So, what is White Box: Cyclopedia? It is Swords & Wizardry White Box that has reached all of its potential. This White Box goes to 11. Can you use this with other OSR rulesets? Of course, but it's a perfect fit for Swords & Wizardry Core or Complete campaigns. As for Swords & Wizardry White Box? This one goes to 11, as I said above.

The White Box Cyclopedia is a stand-alone roleplaying game that takes the simple elegance of Swords & Wizardry White Box rules and countless options to allow you to create a custom fantasy roleplaying experience. Modular and fully integrated, you can make your fantasy as fantastic, as gritty, as strange, as traditional, as gonzo as you want it to be.

Thirty classes and dozens heritages. Over 100 spells. Nearly 200 monsters. Strongholds and seafaring. Psychic powers and spell duels. Chivalry and natural-born sorcery. Custom rules for the Referee to run campaigns that mimic your favorite Appendix N inspirations. A treasure trove of magical items, both familiar and new.

Five Decades of Dungeon Crawling packed into a single, simple rules set.

White Box Cyclopedia builds on that rock solid foundation, unifying the original Swords & Wizardry White Box rules with two hundred pages of additional material. But White Box Cyclopedia isn't "White Box with a ton of options," it's White Box if Dave and Gary had remained friends and partners. It's a dream of how gaming would have evolved with the simplicity and elegance you remember it having, but brought into the 21st century. White Box Cyclopedia  asks what would happen if we had rode nothing more than a d20 and a d6 into the same infinite well of adventure of the modern era? You'd get a complete fantasy roleplaying game we all loved, without the baggage of being "advanced." Remember those simple days? You had a few pages of rules, but somehow there was no limit to what you could do. That is the essence of White Box Cyclopedia.

Some of the options you'll find in White Box Cyclopedia include:

• Thirty Character Classes: Even the traditional Fighter, Cleric, and Magic-User classes have optional rules to make them more unique. Classic fantasy archetypes ranging like the Acrobat, Barbarian, Cavalier, Ranger, and the Thief are are joined by more exotic options like the mysterious Metaphysician, the Tomb Robber, and the Friar. 
• A Dozen Character Heritages: Alongside Humans, Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings, players using the optional rules can select crafty Goblins, powerful Troll-Kin, elusive Shadow Elves, whimsical Gnomes, and other fantastic heritages to give your campaign an exotic flavor that is still rooted in classic fantasy.
• Strongholds and Homesteads: Every character, regardless of class or heritage, can construct and maintain a stronghold that will provide unique benefits during their adventuring career and give them a meaningful way to spend their plundered wealth.
• New Spells: The White Box Cyclopedia includes over 100 spells. This includes all the spells that appeared in Swords & Wizardry White Box, dozens of new Magic-User and Cleric spells, and (by popular demand) a unique spell list for the Druid class.
• Exotic Arcane Abilities: Optional rules allow players to have psychic abilities, latent spellcasting abilities, engage in Arcane Duels, summon wily familiars, and craft magic items.
• Chivalry and Nobility: Optional Honor rules allow any character to earn their knighthood, unlocking unique abilities independent of their class or heritage.
• Genre Customization: Players aren't the only ones with new options! Referees can draw upon optional rules to flavor their campaign. So, whether you're trying to solve the riddle of steel, facing off against a vampire count in a realm of shadow and mist, or an eclectic collection of heroes on an epic quest to destroy an evil artifact, you'll have optional rules to highlight what makes those classic fantasy sub-genres unique and engaging.
• Endless Exploration: Rules for hex crawling, dungeon exploration, seafaring and ship-to-ship combat, are all included, meaning players can seamlessly travel to the ends of the world and back again.
• New Monsters: Almost 200 monsters are detailed here, ranging from classic goblins, to the familiar floating, eye-stalked Orbitus, to exotic new monsters like the Sanguine Fog and Killer Bees ("Not the bees!")
• A Hoard of Treasure: All the classic magic items found in Swords & Wizardry White Box are found here, along with new, unique treasures. Over 200 magic items are provided, including intelligent weapons.
• White Box Cyclopedia is an all-in-one tome that will allow you to craft the classic fantasy game experience you want - and it does it all with just a d20 and a few d6s. As part of that, we've worked hard to provide a simple, effective, and minimalist bookmarked PDF that will be easily usable and accessible for reference, quick searching, and reading! Function and utility carried the day here. 

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Dan Ayoub, the new Head of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, recently shared a message to the community. It hit many of the right notes. A stronger SRD. Accessible digital tools. A renewed focus on community involvement. And most notably, the formation of a rotating advisory group made from the gaming community.

In the announcement, Ayoub said something that stands out:

“This isn’t a one-time survey or a PR move.”

That line matters. Because for many of us, that is the central question. Is this a meaningful shift in how WotC engages with the D&D community, or is it just another layer of polish on top of the same old corporate strategy?

Intentions are easy to write. Trust is not.

If the advisory group turns out to be a collection of brand-friendly influencers, established creators with existing ties to WotC, or personalities chosen for how safe they are rather than how honest they are, then the community will see through it immediately. No amount of transparency rhetoric will hide the reality of a managed echo chamber.

Trust is not restored by handpicking people who already agree with you. It is built by making space for voices that do not. That means including dissenting perspectives, critical feedback, and people who have been openly skeptical of the company’s recent decisions. Not just people who are good at making content, but people who are good at asking hard questions.

For too long, the relationship between WotC and its audience has been one-sided. We are presented with decisions after they are made. Feedback is filtered through layers of marketing. When things go wrong, damage control often looks like outreach, but without real change behind it.

That approach does not work anymore.

If this new direction is going to be different, it needs to be different where it counts. That starts with who is invited into the room. Not just to listen. Not just to approve. But to shape the future of the game in meaningful ways.

D&D is not made by announcements or digital tools. It is made by players and DMs at real tables. It is shaped by third-party creators, homebrew writers, critics, educators, and old-school fans who keep showing up even after being let down. These are the people who deserve a voice in what comes next.

If WotC is serious about rebuilding trust, it will show up in the composition of that advisory group. It will show up in who gets heard, not just who gets quoted. It will show up in whether criticism is welcomed as part of the process or kept safely at arm’s length.

This is not about cynicism. It is about accountability.

Saying this is not a PR move is a good start. Now prove it.