Tabletop Gaming Feeds

 This session picked up with the player's PC's hanging out with T.H.E. Cat and Wei Wan's Ninja Cutie clan, This adventure picks right up from New Flesh Rpg Adventure - Mission Brief: Operation "Threnody in Glass" Adapting The Cultclassic TV show T.H.E. Cat into our New Flesh campaign.But who are this clan of Ninja Cuties?!  Because this clan is in Avivadad things are not as Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 If you’re bringing the Titanian (the creature from the 1985 cult classic Creature, also known as The Titan Find) into your Barrows & Borderlands campaign, you’re looking at a perfect high-lethality "stalker" encounter.The creature isn't just a physical threat; it’s a parasitic puppeteer. Here is a breakdown of its biology and how to stat it for your game.The Creature: Titanian Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Standard OSR sci-fi (think Stars Without Number, Mothership, or Traveller) thrives on high stakes, weird ecology, and the cold indifference of space.Here is a d100 Random Encounter Table designed to provide a mix of social friction, environmental hazards, and "what the hell is that?" moments.The Deep Space & Frontier Encounter Tabled100Encounter TypeDescription01-05The derelictA silent Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Joseph R Lewis
Dungeon Age Adventures
OSE, etc
Levels 3-5

In the Garden of Amuul, the fey raised a palace for their human guests. But the humans betrayed them, so the fey swiftly slayed them. Now Amuul is a Wasteland, where the dead cannot rest. Twin necromancers, a sister and brother, found the jade palace, and then turned on each other. They raised undead armies and decadent courts, and turned the palace into two warring forts And in the Fey Realm, the Twilight Empress watches and rages, sending her goblins and elves to pay the intruders bloody wages. But all the while, the palace groans with cruel weapons and bright treasures, mythical creatures, and strange magics beyond measure. So will it be wealth, justice, glory, or bliss that entices you to enter the Lovely Jade Necropolis…?

This 81 page adventure uses about sixty page to describe one hundred locations in and around a complex full of undead and fey. Lewis always does at least a fine job, and that’s present here also. It does seem to lack a bit in the joy category though, as in a sly wink and wry grin. It is better than the vast vast majority of the dreck produced today and easy to run.

Lewis is a good designer and a good writer. There’s some balance between specificity and abstractions that needs to be obtained in order to provide effective encounter text. In the very best you can kind of detect a bit of glee in the designer as they were writing it. I’m not entirely certain that this Dungeon Age is quite up to the standards of most of the others. 

The set up here is a cave/camor thing that was built by the fey queen for her prince lover, then they betray her and the fey, there’s a big slaughter. Now, long later, two necromancers move in and start animating bodies, and then turn on each other. So we’ve got a fey queen section, and a section for a necromancer interested in having a good time and a necromancer interested in killing just about everyone. This is mostly backstory though. It explains the “please go kill my sister/the other necromancer” deal one of them is willing to make, and the bored/jaded/disgusted elves wandering around who just want to go back to the fairy realm instead of carrying out the gruesome work of their mistress. Otherwise … meh, it’s a framing for some conversations and a different way of saying Die Petty Human Scum/Adventurer.

Our zombie friends bring a bit of joy to the environs, retaining a bit of their old selves and acting, perhaps, more like a charmed undead person than a mindless undead ravenous thing “Under rare circumstances, a zombie may be able to bend the meaning of their commands to act more freely: “I’m looking for supplies! Just not very quickly…””

I am not exactly thrilled about the treasure here. The magic contains that Lewis charm of effects over mechanics, but the mundane loot is handled by a loot table. I love it in The World of Gamma, but here “ivory flute” or Glass lens” have no monetary values mentioned. Nor does “Walls, floors, and ceilings are solid green jade covered in elegant carvings of forest plants and animals.” What was that adventure I just reviewed that had the villagers stealing the old abbeys walls for their own uses? I guess I’m supposed to not be a murder-hobo and just IGNORE walls and doors made of solid jade. What do you think that does to the local jade economy? Don’t I recall some system or article about inflation and devaluation beaue of the party when they flood a town? Anyway, Gold=XP and that’s all abstracted away here with no treasure values. Boo, Hiss. And “silver chalice” and “ivory flute” are not exactly winning me over either in the description department.

Writing of the encounter descriptions remains relatively solid “Two massive dead trees flank the broken road, their fragile branches interlaced overhead. Tiny white slivers dot the trunks, and tiny black nodules pepper the ground” Thats a decent rooms one, Elsewhere “Giant dragonfly wings glitter in the ceiling, high above a long table laden with sumptuous dishes. A well-dressed couple and a dozen soldiers linger by the buffet.” Glitterring, sumptuous, well-dressed, linger. All great word choices that communicate a lot without being purple. I’m not sure, though, that I ever got the complete picture, room after room. I’m not sure why. The descriptions are there, in each room, but it never clicked in to a unified whole for me.

And, at times, that balance between specificity and abstraction seems off to me. Those two well-dressed people lingering at the banquet table? “COUPLE. “Master Dulcim” and “Mistress Vina” (spice sellers from Kalahar). Silken robes, sparkling veils. Lured here by dreams of opulence. Want to escape. Fear the undead. Unaware of the fey. Suspect “poison (so no one is eating). Also, the soldiers are undead zombies. Pretty much everyone you meet who was lured in are “Lured here by dreams of opulence. Want to escape. Fear the undead.” This just seems off, there’s little personality here, none I would say. The grounding, the think to hang your hat on, is missing. And that’s a little too common here.

I do like the general set up here. Some fey loathe their existence and just want to go home. Some are still greatly embittered by their experiences with the humans. One old goblins living in a hut that is precariously balanced on a silt is slowly dying from a col iron splinter in gut form a hundred years ago. Embittered, he will try to collapse his beloved house down on the party if need be. Elves tasked by their still-enraged queen to torment and torture the undead with salt knives, not to their noble callings of grace. Pixies as thumb sized mindless eaters of bones. The bored, jaded, disgusted undead zombies. The totality here is great, “ZOMBIES in gray tunics drag an old corpse toward #19 for Lord Marfest to animate” but that wandering example could use one more word. Chatty zombies. Jaded zombies. Upbeat zombies. The final bit of framing for the encounter is often missing, as with the two spice-merchants agave. And maybe that’s the theme running throughout; there’s one more bit that seems to be missing to add life to it. The NP’s, the ire between the the parties and their machinations, even the room … themes/layouts/interactivity? There just seems to be one bit more missing that would really send it. Maybe it seems, passive? In an expansive sense of that word?

It’s not bad. It’s certainly better than the vast majority of stuff I review. But I think you can see what this almost is and really WANT it to be that.

This is $12 at DriveThru. Lewis comes through on the preview. Forty pages; more than enough to get a sense of the work and see a great many parts of it. Great preview!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/540137/lovely-jade-necropolis?1892600

“When a PC spends a turn chanting this word, there is a 2/6 chance that each nearby fey will be stunned for one turn.” OMG! You have to chant a word for ten minutes and then there’s a 33% chance the fey will be stunned for ten minutes?! Oh Dungeon Turn, you are the gift that keeps on giving long after the thrill of living is gone.

 Nightshift: VTSW (Veterans of the Supernatural Wars) is a love letter to the gritty, urban fantasy horror of the 80s and 90s. If you grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, or Supernatural, or if you spent your nights playing the classic World of Darkness, this game is aimed squarely at your nostalgia.It’s designed by Jason Vey and published by Elf Lair Games. Here is the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Hello friends!

The preorder for Middarmark 2E is now live! It’s a huge expansion for Torchbearer.

• 45 new denizens, creatures and monsters!
• 28 new settlements
• 4 new maps
• 3 new classes: the elf dream witch, human sea raider and jotunn salt heart!
• 1 new stock: the jotunn!
• Rules for forming clans, hero cults and adventuring bands!
• Rules for ritual boasts, grudges, feuds and lawsuits (including judicial duels!)

Check it out!

Tsutomu NiheiThe following suggestions for dungeon adventure rpgs may not be entirely novel, but they certainly aren't common in published rpg dungeons, and I feel like they have potential.

Master of the Dungeon

Rpg dungeons sometimes have bosses, but mostly they seem to sit and wait for dungeoneers to get to them. In other media, they sometimes take a more active role taunting the protagonists or bedeviling them in various ways before the ultimate conflict. While this might become tedious, I feel like when used judiciously, it could be an interesting change of pace.

Time Trial

Despite the emphasis on resource management in some dungeon games, I don't think I've seen a dungeon that opened and close on a certain schedule. This is the case in all the "bauble"-based vaults in Reynolds Revenger series and forecasting the opens and how long they will last is an important job for looters. The anime adaptation of I Left My A-Rank Party... also has some dungeons for which time is a factor, as I recall.

A dungeon with strict time limits, in addition to adding pressure to move quickly, would also force characters to have some strategy about what they explore and loot. Do you try for the big-ticket items immediately or focus on quick exits with lower value items?

A Team Sport

While adventuring guilds aren't ubiquitous in settings, they're an established element. What I don't think I have seen in a rpg setting, though, is competing guilds or organizations (larger than individual parties). Inspiration could be found in the chariot racing factions (demes) of Byzantium or Roman collegia. 

Welcome back to my 40-year retrospective as a gamer.

If the early years were defined by beautiful chaos, 1993 was the pivot. At that time, my gaming schedule was highly irregular. We’d get together whenever we could, play whatever game was popular at the time (with mainstays like Rifts and AD&D 2nd Edition), and rarely play longer than a few sessions before moving on and rolling up new characters.

I quickly realized I wasn’t enjoying this scattered approach.

I sat down and seriously considered what I loved most about tabletop role-playing games. I knew I preferred being the Game Master. I loved long-form campaign play where characters grow and weave a massive story together. I wanted a regular schedule—weekly, if possible—and to stick to one system to facilitate long-term play, rather than constantly chasing the hot new game.

Playing in a world of my own creation was key to this. Running a homebrew campaign was a form of creative expression that kept me deeply invested. I figured that if I set a firm date and time and stuck with it, people would show up. I also hoped it would naturally pare down the increasingly large, rotating crew of players I was managing.

The Metro Comics Crew

By 1993, I had been working at Metro Comics for two years. It was my part-time job while I went to college. Metro Comics in San Patricio Plaza is a comic and game store (and yes, it is still there!). Back then, they had a great game selection, carrying the big-name releases of the day: lots of TSR, White Wolf, Palladium, and a few smaller indie games.

Through Metro Comics, I made many new friends, and my close-knit table grew. Gamers I met through my work at the store—like Luis Alvarado, José Fernando, and Pierre Anthony—pulled up chairs alongside my high school classmates. (Fun fact: José is still a regular in my current weekly gaming group, 32 years later!)

Circa 1996 or 1997 (from L to R): Roberto (me), Gilberto, Luis Alvarado, José Fernando,
Luis Miranda, Pierre Anthony, and Misael

We also connected with friends of friends who played at the University of Puerto Rico. Because I’ve always had trouble saying “no” to people who want to play, I typically ran TTRPGs for groups of eight or more. To this day, I consider six players a “regular-sized” group; anything smaller feels too small.

Circa 2000 (from L to R): Karlo, Luis Alvarado, Roberto (me), Pierre Anthony, José Fernando, Piwie

When I decided to put my new long-term campaign plan into practice, I invited the players I thought would best mesh with the style: a mix of high school friends, longtime players, and the Metro crew. It took a bit of shifting, but we found our rhythm. In no time, we established a core of six or seven long-term players, with a few others who came and went as real life demanded.

The Games We Played

The changes were a massive success. Over the next 13 years, I ran 12 distinct campaigns. Three of those were multi-year epics (averaging 2 years), with 8 shorter campaigns interspersed, ranging from 6 months to 1 year. We played all of these from beginning to end. (The only exception was a 9-month play-by-email campaign that fizzled out when work ate up my free time).

What did we play? Mostly D&D. While the rest of the world went all-in on the World of Darkness in the 90s, I stuck hard to D&D and fantasy. We played a lot of AD&D 2nd Edition, and when D&D 3rd Edition came out, we eventually made the change.

We also dabbled in variations of Big Eyes, Small Mouth, the Silver Age Sentinels system, and its Tri-Stat dX versions. Alternity was a short but incredibly important game for me during this era. I also kept going back to Palladium to try and make the system work for us; aside from Heroes Unlimited, I was growing weary of Rifts and their other titles.

Gaming in a Bubble

Because my group was so large—mostly friends and friends of friends—my gaming circle became incredibly insular. I left college, started working, got married, and essentially played in my own little bubble.

I was completely disconnected from the larger Puerto Rican gaming community. When Dragon magazine stopped publishing, and no new AD&D 2nd Edition books were coming out, I noticed, but it didn’t affect my table. We just kept playing with the books we had.

I wasn’t a recluse; I was online, but my internet use was focused elsewhere. I started my Master’s degree and wasn’t heavily involved in wider fandoms, TTRPG forums, or gaming news. I was perfectly content just creating maps, writing lore, and running my homebrew world.

Mind you, gaming was still a massive pillar of my life. The night before my first wedding in 1998, what did I do? I played a TTRPG session all about friendship with my regular players.

But life inevitably brings changes. This era saw me finish college, start a professional career, get married, and eventually go through separation and divorce.

After my divorce, things shifted again. I found myself with more free time, so I started playing with a more varied group of people, expanded my circle of regular gamers, and slowly began to reconnect with the wider gaming community around me.

Circa 2002 or 2003 (from L to R): José Fernando, Piwie, Luis Alvarado, Luis Lao, Roberto (me), Karlo, Pierre Anthony, Victor, Luis Lao, José Fernando, Karlo, Piwie

Then, in 2006, some friends mentioned they were heading to Gen Con the following year and invited me to tag along. I said yes.

But that is the beginning of a whole new era, and the subject of my next post.

The Stats (1993–2006)

• Total Campaigns: 12
• Years Active: 20 (Consecutive play from 186 to 2006)
• MVP Systems: AD&D 2nd Edition & D&D 3rd Edition / 3.5

How were these years for you? Did you ever go through a phase where you played in a “gaming bubble,” completely disconnected from the wider community or what was happening online? And during the 90s, were you a D&D loyalist like me, or did you get swept up in the World of Darkness craze?

A new Stars Without Number (SWN) supplement dropped five days ago, and I missed it!

How could I? It’s not like any important event happened this past weekend around February 14th, or that I’ve been sick since last week… okay, maybe I have excuses. But honestly? I feel like I should turn in my fan card.

If you’ve followed me here on the blog, on social media, or if you read Part 1 of my recent posts about my current favorite TTRPGs, you know that (quoting myself from somewhere online), “I worship at the altar of Kevin Crawford.”

I am a huge fan of his corpus. There are a few TTRPG authors whose works I support in crowdfunding or buy sight unseen as soon as they are out. Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Publishing is one of them.

(Bruce Heard is another such creator, by the way, and he recently announced his next project for the World of Calidar. I’ll be sure to share more information on that as it becomes available. But I digress.)

The new supplement for SWN is titled Proteus Sector: A Gazetteer for Stars Without Number.

This gazetteer and rule expansion was created as part of Mr. Crawford’s latest Kickstarter campaign for a reprint of the offset edition of Stars Without Number: Revised. His Kickstarters are a masterclass in running an effective campaign: he never overpromises, communicates clearly, and is always on time—if not early.

I’ve backed 12 of his 14 Kickstarter projects. I only missed Spears of Dawn (his first, which I eventually got!) and this latest one.

Here is why I missed it: When I read that the rewards would include the Proteus Sector, I was tempted. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I already own two offset copies of SWN, plus a POD copy I got for table use. Not to mention a POD copy of the original edition. I think I own every supplement Crawford has published in print or PDF.

I couldn’t justify buying a new core book just to get the PDF of the supplement. I contacted Mr. Crawford to see if there was a reward level for the Proteus Sector alone, and he told me the book would be available as a PDF and POD on DriveThruRPG later.

True to his word, the book is available now by clicking this link. It’s an 83-page PDF for $14.99 and a softcover POD for $24.99 (which includes the PDF).

Is it worth it? Oh yeah.

A Short, Spoiler-Free Review

The book is part gazetteer, part rule expansion, and another winning entry in the Stars Without Number line.

The layout follows the classic Sine Nomine style we know and love. This book feels denser with illustrations than the core book, and the interior art is excellent and fits the tone perfectly. It includes a detailed description of a very interesting sector of space, including government structures, and every planet described gets its own image.

Kevin Crawford is all about making books usable. He provides tools to make a GM’s life easier, and this is no exception. Besides an excellent setting that continues to flesh out the default SWN universe, it includes a one-page player’s guide to the sector, plus tools and ideas on how to connect this sector to your existing campaigns. Planets include all sorts of details, adventure hooks, and NPCs. It empowers the GM rather than constraining them.

The Mechanics (The Good Stuff)

While I love the content as a source of ideas, I am a homebrewer at heart. What I really want are the rules.

Crawford’s work is renowned as a toolbox that can technically be used for any system, but I really love his version of the classic D&D B/X engine. Proteus Sector adds some great new levers to pull:

• Smuggling & Trade: It includes a simple smuggling and trade system—much simpler than the one presented in Suns of Gold. This is likely the one I would use at the table going forward.
• Augmentations: There are very interesting rules for augmenting characters and abilities that feel a lot like proto-ideas for a superhero game. (We can hope for Capes Without Number someday, can’t we?)
• Genetics: There are rules for genetically modified beings. This might finally be the tool I need to make that Buck Rogers XXVc conversion I’ve been thinking about for almost 10 years now. (Gennies Without Number, anyone?)
• Cybernetics: There are new, more powerful, almost mythical cybernetic rules. The book discusses how these differ from the main rules and how to adapt the cybernetics from Ashes Without Number for use in SWN.
• Combat: New opponents appropriate for the sector, as well as new starship systems, weapons, and rules to accommodate them within the existing starship combat framework.

One Caveat

I will admit that the cover and title design for Proteus Sector seemed off at first. I wasn’t a fan at first glance, but after reading the book, I understood the choice. It is a very evocative, certainly OSR-looking cover, but it’s my least favorite of the SWN books’ covers.

Final Verdict

I said it before, but I’ll say it again: this book is worth your time and your money.

If you are a fan of Stars Without Number, you’ll find something to use. If you want a sector to drop into your game—even if it’s not SWN—you’ll find something you can use here. I know I certainly will get a lot of mileage out of it.

I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Welcome back to my 40 Years a Gamer retrospective.

In the last post, I looked at the first game I played. But today, I want to talk about the early years of playing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG) and Game Mastering, from 1986 to 1992.

If I had to describe this period in one word, it would be: Chaos. Beautiful, creative chaos. It all started in the summer of 1986 with the D&D Mentzer Red Box, and suddenly, the gaming table became a revolving door of neighbors, school friends, and random kids from the building I lived in. And we played everywhere! My house. On the floor in a small nook in the building’s lobby. We even commandeered the ping pong table in the recreation room to play D&D.

The Neighborhood Crew

My first “party” wasn’t a carefully curated group of role-players. It was whoever happened to be around. We had Ricky (Mano Fast, the thief), Jorge (Conan the Elf), Emilio Ruiz (Dragon Knight), Jose Luis, Hector, and, for a moment, Gretchen and Mari Vanessa.

We didn’t worry about campaign balance or narrative arcs. We just played.

I remember running one-shot adventures for up to 13 neighbors at once. Can you imagine running AD&D 1st Edition for 13 teenagers? It was madness. I remember one specific homebrew adventure where the world was flooded by non-stop rain. It was basically a prequel to Waterworld before Kevin Costner had the idea, but with more dice.

Eventually, the group stabilized. My “regular” crew became Emilio Ruiz, Gary Burden, and Luis Miranda, with Emilio Rodríguez joining us for the long haul.

From left to right: Me (Sunglar), Emilio Ruiz, and Luis Miranda, playing Dark Suns in 1991.

We Played Everything

While D&D (specifically the Known World/Mystara early) was our main game, we played many other games, as soon as I could get them and read the rules, at least most of the rules.

• Robotech: Because in 1987, who didn’t want to pilot a Veritech?
• Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP): We spent hours fighting villains in New York.
• DC Heroes & Champions: We dabbled in crunchy stuff, too.
• Star Frontiers: This was a huge one for us. We ran a campaign that ran from 1987 to 1990. I don’t think we had a proper name for it; we just called it Star Frontiers. Because of recurring antagonists, I often refer to it as “Ninjas in Space!” Yes, really. I regret nothing.

I also must mention the countless “One-Player Adventures” I ran for Emilio Ruiz. Whether it was Star Frontiers, Robotech, or Forgotten Realms, if the other people couldn’t make it, we were still rolling dice.

The Birth of a World

Looking back, what surprises me most is that the seeds of my current campaigns were planted right there in the chaos of the 80s.

In 1987, I ran a campaign called Ruma (proto-Lagamur). In 1988, I launched the second version of Lagamur.

I didn’t know it then, but those messy, teenage sessions were the rough drafts for Lagamur—the world I am still running campaigns in today, nearly 40 years later.

What Happened?

Early on, we played a lot, whatever game, whenever or wherever we could, every day if you let us! My grades slipped in 9th grade, and my mom limited game time to Fridays and weekends. Now and then, we slipped in a game on a weeknight.

While we ran long D&D and AD&D 1e games, mostly set in the Known World, aka Mystara, based on the information in the Expert set, including one with an all-thief party, I am reluctant to call these campaigns. There was continuity of characters, but most of them were one free-wheeling adventure after another, with very loose connections between them and fewer consequences.

True campaigns were the two early versions of my long-running homebrew Lagamur, which I ran with daily sessions over the summers of 1987 and 1988. That and the long-running Star Frontiers campaign, which ran on and off with a rotating cast of characters from 1988 to 1991. I also ran a one-player campaign for Emilio Ruiz around 1987 or 1988.

Other than that, from 1986 to 1992, the rest of my gaming was a series of one-shots, games that lasted a handful of sessions, and trying out the latest new-shiny game. After high school, college was a time when we played whenever we could, often making new characters and not playing long-term. This was not what I wanted out of gaming, so I took stock and made some radical decisions. But that is a tale for another time.

The Stats (1987–1992)

• Total Campaigns: 4
• Primary Systems: AD&D 1st Ed, Star Frontiers
• Vibe: Pure, unadulterated enthusiasm.

Tell me about your “Early Years.” Did you start with a massive group of neighbors, or was it just you and a friend trying to figure out what a hit die was?

I just saw that Far West Redux is live on BackerKit, and it hit me with a wave of nostalgia.

I was a backer of the original Kickstarter way back in 2011. If you know the lore of this project, you know the road wasn’t exactly smooth. It faced serious challenges, delays, and a vocal crowd of detractors who thought it would never see the light of day.

But here is the thing: Gareth Skarka never gave up.

I’ve always maintained that crowdfunding isn’t a pre-order store; it’s an investment in a vision and a creator. Through the long journey of Far West, I got to know Gareth. I only met him once in the wild at Gen Con (I have no idea if he remembers!), but I consider him a friend and a genuinely terrific human being.

He is a passionate, creative force who pushed through every obstacle life threw at him to get this book into our hands.

And he delivered. The final product was great, and this Redux version looks even sharper.

If you have any love for Wuxia and Westerns—and specifically, the magic that happens when you mash them together—I highly recommend checking this out. It’s a cool setting, but more than that, it’s a testament to resilience.

Check out the campaign here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/adamant-entertainment/far-west-redux

Question: Have you ever backed a project that took the “scenic route” to completion but turned out awesome in the end?

Legendary RPG author and designer Rob Kuntz is adding TWO very sought-after PDF products to his Three Line Studio Store, after those products recently sold out as popular print releases elsewhere on the web (DATG at TLB Games, and DD at Chaotic Henchmen Productions)...

Rob's seminal treatise Dave Arneson's True Genius, and iconic RPG adventure module Dark Druids, have now joined our range of downloadable digital (PDF) products!

 

And here's the double-whammy to all our fans and friends: if you purchase DATG and DD together as a bundle — The DATG Dark Druids Bundle — you will get 20% off your order (*valid until 5th July 2023). Now that's regal!

Good Day to You All!

There is no better way to start off a New Year than with -- not just one but TWO -- brand-new, never-before-published creative, exciting products!  Even better, when such creative, exciting products are about a CELEBRATION...

Throughout 2023, Rob Kuntz and Three Line Studio will be celebrating 50 years since the inception and playtesting of the world's first commercial RPG in 1973!

And there is no better way to celebrate than to reward YOU, Rob's loyal fanbase, with our launch of Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws and Pryce's Price, both available to purchase exclusively from our newly-launched Three Line Studio Store!  Please note that for the very first time, we are 'going' digital as those two products are published in professional high-quality full-colour PDF format, printable and viewable on all electronic devices, PC/MAC/Android.  Cartography, interior art and Gewgaws cover art by are by a promising young Italian graphic artist, Davide Gambarara, who did a stirling job!  Davide brought a crisp line work to both Gewgaws and Pryce.  We cannot praise him enough and can already hint at the fact that Davide will be involved in forthcoming TLS projects!  https://www.facebook.com/dagamarts/
More information about Davide from our TLS Facebook post.

Rob's two celebratory releases are part of Three Line Studio's Red Book™ collection, and are send-ups to Gary Gygax:

Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws is divided into two sections.  The first part references in detail some special magic items, while the second part features the films, literature and authors that historically inspired the beginning of the RPG form.  Pryce's Price is a very exciting and captivating action-packed adventure module with gothic undertones, described as "one of the most fantastic adventures written by Rob Kuntz to date!"  Gewgaws and Pryce are sure to brighten up your day... and your game!  Head off to our store -- only one click away -- and while there please also make sure to download Rob's latest FREE (26-page long) Newsletter: https://threelinestudiostore.company.site/ If you wish to purchase Gewgaws and Pryce together, why not take advantage of our SPECIAL OFFER on the Gewgaws Pryce Bundle and save 25%! Happy Celebrations!
 

Download the first issue of Cepheus Journal. There is an article about CE skills, part one of a scifi adventure on salvage and recovery, a Sword of Cepheus NPC, a description of a free trader with deckplans, a small pseudolizard species to encounter, a piece on modern war, tech level comparisons and more. We want … Continue reading Cepheus Journal Issue #001

Rosalis Cluster is Sector generated using the Cepheus Engine rules. It can now be downloaded from the downloads page. The download includes a huge PNG-image (4227 x 5305 pixels), and two text-files with the UWPs and the XML-data. In the map of the sector we can see two multi subsector empires. The Raniera Worlds and … Continue reading Rosalis Cluster

You are rolling up a new Traveller character and you aren't sure which Background Skills to choose. In this article, I will show you the best background skills for your Traveller character.

You need scout ship deck plans for your virtual tabletop game. Check out my new Pioneer-Class Scout Ship Deck Plans For Roll20 AnD VTT.

The Cepheus Journal is a free and ad-free Fanzine. We are looking for submissions. While we wait for the first issue, these mock-up covers might provide some inspiration.

Looking for sci-fi RPG adventure seeds for your next game of Cepheus Engine or Traveller? Check out The Missing Survey Vessel.

Need a new hairdo?  Need that crooked nose straightened out?  Need to go incognito for a while?  Try the new Cosmedoc Cosmetics Autodoc!