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 " Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

UV-RPG features a video to video connection, dice rolling, and character sheet creation all in one app!

I know what you are thinking - aren't VTTs a thing? Haven't they been a thing for over 2 decades now? (Fantasy Grounds was founded in 2004 / Screen Monkey in 2005 - there may be earlier VTTs). Well, apparently, no one ever told Jonathon.

There are dice rolling apps for individuals, there are calling apps, but there's not an app the includes all elements needed for gaming virtually.

The funding goal is $5,000, and Jonathan doesn't plan on charging for it once it's released. He's raised 0 after a month (there was a $700 pledge apparently at some point, but that has flaked.

I created the video presentation which I shared with multiple App development companies. I finally found an company that agreed to make a working prototype of that, make sure it was correct with us, and then create the actual app with any revisions needed. The cost is $5,000 but includes giving us ownership of the app upon completion as well.

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After spending the last couple of months exploring deeply through the Palladium Wilderness, our main protagonist side-trekked once again to the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game where he was found pondering random character generation...

... I hate "building" characters, so much so, that I'll spend hours/days creating a system that lets me generate them randomly.

Such is what I've done for the Marvel Multiverse game.

The tables are a mix of all the classic dice, though primarily percentiles and 3d6 -- the game's core mechanic.

First you roll your rank. There are different tables for how varied you want your power levels to be.

Then you roll your origin and occupation -- these give you your "tags" and "traits" as per the rules.

Then you roll your core stats depending on your rank. For example rank 2 looks like this:

    3-4:  0

    5-8:  1

  9-12:  2

13-15:  3

17-18:  4

The bell curve favors a number equal to your rank and these results tend to give you slightly higher abilities than your starting ability points would normally allow. Example, rank 2 gives you 10 ability points to spend with a ability cap of 5 (so you could have four abilities at 0 and two at 5, extreme but allowed). With 6 abilities (Melee, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic) rolling on the above table would average you a total of 12 (6 2s) not 10.

NOTE: Abilities in this game range from -3 to 9. Negative scores are very rare though. The "typical" person has 0 in all abilities (the game considers the average civilian to be rank 1, but they're really more akin to a rank 0). The way I figure, Marvel Multiverse abilities translate to the old FASERIP system as follows:

-3 -- Shift 0

-2 -- Feeble (2)

-1 -- Poor (4)

 0 -- Typical (6)

 1 -- Good (10)

 2 -- Excellent (20)

 3 -- Remarkable (30)

 4 -- Incredible (40)

 5 -- Amazing (50)

 6 -- Monstrous (75)

 7 -- Unearthly (100)

 8 -- Shift X (150)

 9 -- Shift Y (200)

Rank 2s are given 8 powers. 1 power equals 1 ability point and as per the rules you can mix and match these. Rank 2s total points are 18 (10 ability points + 8 powers). So if you spent 12 points rolling above, now you're only going to have 6 powers. I favor stronger abilities and fewer powers (this game gives A LOT of powers and this can be cumbersome for play -- not remembering what they all do (similar sounding names) and trying to decide which one you should use, although some are never "used" they are simply built in; permanent buffers, such as mighty 1-4 (super-strength that increases your damage multiplier).

NOTE: Not all powers are actual powers, many are basically just maneuvers; feats if you will.

In my random system, when rolling a power, you first roll to see which power set table to roll on, then you go to that table and roll for a power. If you roll a power that has prerequisites, you must take all of them. The one prerequisite I ignore is "rank". So, if you had 6 powers and the first one you roll has 2 prereqs, you must take all 3 and now you only have 3 powers left to roll for. If you don't have enough powers left to cover all of the prereqs, you work backwards to a lesser power that you can afford. Or, you can sacrifice some ability points to make room for more power slots.

You may continue rolling in that power set or roll randomly for a new power set table.

Here's a sample character I rolled up (and a character sheet I made; still tweaking...):

Whyspurr is rank 1.

Origin: Unknown (as opposed to hi-tech, mutant, alien, special training, etc.)

Occupation: Outsider (conveniently, this goes great with her origin)

Tags:

• Mysterious: The character has no idea why or how they have their powers.

Traits:

• Connections--Outsiders: Connections basically allow you to occasionally call in a favor. This one requires a clever explanation as she doesn't know how she has her powers, so who is she calling for favors???
• Fresh Eyes: You have an edge on logic checks when trying something for the first time.
• Stranger: You have "trouble" on checks trying to fit in locally.
• Sneaky: Others have "trouble" trying to spot you if you're hiding.

As a rank 1 character she gets 5 ability points and 4 powers; total value: 9. With my creation tables her abilities add up to 7 so she only gets 2 powers which is MINISCULE for this rpg's intentions, however having a 2 in both resilience and vigilance make her a very durable rank 1, in that her health and focus are both 60 (focus fuels some powers).

I rolled telepathy for her first power set and then cloak for the power. Cloak requires that you have telepathic link (basic telepathy) and that you are rank 2, but, I ignore rank prereqs. So those are her 2 powers. Cloak allows you to hide your presence from someone, but being rank 1 it's not that strong because of her low logic defense (target number: 10 on 3d6 + vigilance score) -- however, she has sneaky as trait which gives people "trouble" (disadvantage) trying to spot her, quite convenient!

So, she's a durable, sneaky telepathic in the most basic sense. Not a scrapper. The most damage she can hope to do is marvel die (d6) x1 +1, so 2-7, or double that on a "fantastic" success. That's... not a lot, but, that's rank 1 for you.

Now, with "building" in mind, would she be better off knocking a couple points off her abilities and grabbing 2 more powers? Maybe, because as she is, she can't do much except sneak around and communicate telepathically -- she'd make a great spy. However, she can sustain a decent amount of damage. 

When "building" heroes for this game, I would always put the most points into resilience and then vigilance. A rank 1 hero could, by-the-book, have the following build: 0,0,0,0,1,4, with the 4 in resilience that would give you 120 health, better than half the Marvel Universe! A clever selection of 4 powers and you've got quite a bad-ass rank 1 hero (except for damage, rank 1 damage is highly limited). Why wouldn't you do this every time? This is why I don't like "point-buy". 

But, let's roll up one more power for her just to see what would happen. Sticking with the telepathy power set, I rolled Mental Punch*, which lets you do focus damage on a melee attack instead of health damage. For this to be worth it, she needs a better melee score, so now I have to take away 2 points from her other stats, one for the power and one to add a point to melee. So I would drop vigilance and agility each down to 1. Now her melee attacks have a x2 multiplier (according to MY HOUSE RULE, not official rules; see below) and can affect health or focus.

*Psylocke's psi-blade is sort of like mental punch. Psylocke also has "telekinetic attack" which stuns as well as damages and can be done from a distance, so this one might in fact be her psi-blade. She also has flight (?). Seems Psylocke's powers have changed somewhat. Traditionally, her psi-blade severely stuns anyone she hits with it; it's a finishing move. These days she can manifest this as a bow and arrow, apparently.

*Another point -- all of the character profiles use these generic power descriptions, e.g., mental punch, telekinetic attack. The term psi-blade is not used anywhere on Psylocke's sheet.

Tying health to one stat might be a system flaw. You could go the FASERIP route and tie health to Melee, Agility, & Resilience, and tie focus to Vigilance, Ego, & Logic. (then x this total by 10). So, Whyspurr would have 50 health instead of 60 and 20 focus instead of 60. Minimum health and focus for anyone would be 10. Spiderman's health would grow from 90 to 150 and his focus would fall from 90 to 70. Flipping through the hero profiles shows that this method would have results that are surprisingly close to the way they are (Spiderman's health jump being one of the more extreme changes).

Another critique...

Damage.

Damage is based on your rank. There are 6 ranks (1-6). Rank 1 is pretty much normal human level hero, rank 6 is cosmic level hero. You have 4 types of attacks: Melee, Agility, Ego, and Logic, all do damage according to your overall rank, not your ability score. So Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) who is rank 4 (with Melee 2, Agility 2) has a baseline of rank 4 damage with all attacks, so her regular punch is as mighty as her telekinesis, and, mightier than most of the Marvel Universe (actually her telekinesis is mightier still because of power boosts). So if she uses a gun she does rank 4 damage. Punisher is only rank 2... see where this is going? 

NOTE: How damage works: All rolls are 3d6. One of those d6 is the Marvel Die. If your attack succeeds, your damage is your Marvel Die x rank + ability score. Damage possibilities. Note: Marvel Die 6 is a Fantastic Success which means double damage or added effect or sometimes both.

• Rank 1: 1-6 + 1    (2-7)
• Rank 2: 2-12 + 2  (4-14)
• Rank 3: 3-18 + 3  (6-21)
• Rank 4: 4-24 + 4  (8-28)
• Rank 5: 5-30 + 5  (10-35)
• Rank 6: 6-36 + 6  (12-42)

My change: Damage multiplier is your individual stat not your overall rank. So, Melee 3 equals a x3 multiplier. Agility 4 equals a x4, Logic 2 equals a x2, and so on. In some cases, some high ranked characters will have up to a x13 multiplier with this ruling, e.g., a 9 melee with mighty: 4, and that's fine. No more Clea (rank 6) or the Invisible Woman (rank 4) kicking the ass of the likes of Daredevil, Elektra, Punisher, etc. (all rank 2) without even using their powers! So the above progression continues as follows:

(Stat) Rank 7: 7-42 + 7  (14-49)

(Stat) Rank 8: 8-48 + 8  (16-56)

(Stat) Rank 9: 9-54 + 9  (18-63)

Minimum multiplier would be 1, even for stats of 0 or less.

Fights in this game can last awhile, so more damage is not a bad thing.

This wouldn't affect Whyspurr really, unless she picked up a gun, then her agility of 2 would give her a x2 multiplier.

So rank still matters the way I do it because lower ranked characters still have lower stats and fewer powers and traits. It doesn't change the game too much, just makes things more logical to my brain.

Of course, you could ignore every mention of the word "rank" all together and roll up your stats simply by rolling a d6 for each, giving results 1 through 6, equivalent to "good" through "monstrous" in the old FASERIP system (by my calculation). Roll for origin and occupation and then roll 1d3 extra traits and 2d6 powers for a true random old-school experience! (Then again, Champions is old-school too and that's as point-buy as it gets... ugh!)

All for now, ideas for XP and advancement, another time.

Meanwhile, my thoughts drift back to Traveller and a certain fantasy offshoot I occasionally work on...

Tactic, that’s the prompt for today on Day 27 of RPG a Day 2015. A tactic is, according to Merriam-Webster,  “a device for accomplishing an end”, and Google, using Oxford’s results, says, “an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end”. I’ve been dispensing some general advice this month on keeping adventures going, encouraging player participation, and overcoming frustration. But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: how do I do it? What are my tactics for this? Apologies if you’ve read some of these ideas in a previous post. I’ll reiterate some key points and discuss lessons learned over the past few years.

Sunglar’s Game Master Tactics

• Keeping a regular game going

Pick a day and frequency, stick to it, don’t cancel unless it’s an emergency. Really stick to it!

I’ve been fortunate to have kept a regular weekly game going since 1993. I started playing much earlier, in the summer of 1986, and we played almost every day back then. We were in high school, and we played whenever we could. Granted, when my grades slipped a bit, my mother put her foot down, and I could only play on weekends. We did, almost the whole weekend. During the summers, we played practically every day. Then we went to college, got jobs, and formed relationships. We kept playing whenever we could, but it was haphazard. I took stock of my gaming habits and decided to settle on one night a week, a regular day, and stick to it.

It has worked well since 1993, for 32 years. The day has moved around; players come and go. Natural disasters and pandemics have caused interruptions, and we’ve had to adapt to play remotely. My job, which has recently involved extensive travel, has presented new challenges, but we’ve managed to adapt to them. As the Game Master (GM), the onus is often on me to plan, coordinate, remind, and facilitate the game, but I do it.

I rarely cancel, primarily due to personal illness, family emergencies, or travel, but if I can play, I run the game. If players have any problems, and they inform me in advance, we may consider an alternative day that week. I run the game at the agreed-upon time, with the players who show up. I really believe that consistency and commitment are 75% of the success in my games. If players know you are showing up, they will too. Some may not, some may be there for a time, and then life happens, and they step away from the game. Other players will come. If you are consistent, they will come!

But how do you do this when you don’t want to run a game, when you feel frustrated?

• Dealing with GM burnout and frustration?     

Grin and bear it!

That sounds harsh and a little boomer-like. It works for me, but it may not work for you. Allow me to be more nuanced.

Being a GM can be frustrating. It is all about being part referee, part improv artist, part social coordinator, part public speaker, part entertainer, part scribe, and part cat herder. A lot of hats, a lot of balls in the air, you may drop a few now and then. Particularly as a new GM, it is a lot to handle, and many who take on the responsibility of being a GM are often intelligent, perfectionists who overanalyze and can be overly self-critical. The same traits that make us good GMs also mean we can be terribly hard on ourselves, doubt our abilities, and overthink the game long after the session is over. I’ve been there.

How have I dealt with it? First of all, it gets better with time. Like most things in life, from riding a bike to public speaking to coding, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. One way to be a better GM and work through frustration is to do it.

But being a GM is so many things; we may not all be equally proficient at all of them. I may be better at improvisation and creating stories, but not so good at remembering the rules. Lean into your strengths, seek help for your deficiencies. Recruit the rules lawyer to help with combat or help other players with their characters.

Overwhelmed with things to do? Ask a player to handle initiative. Another may be the “hobbit-accountant” (fond memories of a former player, Luis Alvarado!) and keep records of the party’s treasure—parcel out responsibilities to the group.

When you feel frustrated or overwhelmed, acknowledge and address your feelings, but avoid overanalyzing them. Some of the tactics I use include trying not to linger thinking about the session after the game. Immediately after the session, I do something else; I try not to think too much about the game, and I do something else the next day. With a cooler head and some time between the game and my assessment, I sit down to take notes, review, and consider what I can do next.

When that doesn’t work, I take notes on my thoughts before making any rash decisions, read what I wrote, and then proceed. That may involve planning new strategies for future sessions, consulting with players as necessary, and determining next steps, which leads me to the next point.

• Keeping players engaged and participating

Be respectful, friendly, and treat others as you would like to be treated.

I am fortunate that the players in my group are close friends. Communicating with them is easier because we know each other, we trust each other, and they are the family life has given me!

Regardless, I treat them with the same respect and kindness I treat others with. In games and in real life, being respectful and friendly to others will get you farther. I talk with them, not at them. I listen. I receive feedback openly and with a positive attitude. Keep your players engaged by listening to them, including their suggestions, and being respectful of their ideas.

If what they say is not clear, ask. Say, “This is what I understand by what you said, am I correct?” or “Could you rephrase that, I want to make sure I understand what you mean.” Likewise, ask if people understood you, and be willing to repeat yourself if necessary.

Be very aware that people learn and interpret information in different ways. They also game for various reasons. Some cherish the social aspect, while others appreciate the tactical side, providing the space and opportunities to participate in meaningful ways. Play to their strengths and interests and give them a chance to shine. Make sure everyone is having fun!

• How do you make sure people are having fun?

Ask them!

That last bit about playing to players’ interests and having fun has a lot to do with the type of game you are playing. Ensure the game and campaign are something that everyone enjoys, including yourself. Clearly set boundaries and expectations. A session zero is an excellent opportunity to discuss the above topics, as well as safety tools, and collaborate as a group to agree on something all can enjoy. What this is may change over time; return to the topic when necessary.

As you get to know your group, creating or adapting scenarios for them will become easier. If you ask them about their characters’ history and motivations and use that information in the game, this will go a long way toward keeping them engaged. When in doubt, ask them. What sort of adventure do you want to play? Create a survey and share it with your players.

I use social media, online tools, and messaging services to keep the players engaged. I used messaging to remind them of sessions, to stay in touch, and to answer questions outside the game. I use online tools for reference images, to list NPCs, and any other resources that help players remain engaged with the game.

Remember, even if you feel bad, if you think a session wasn’t all it could be, if players are having fun, you are doing something right. Make sure being a GM is ultimately for you as well. I am one of those who prefer being a GM. It may not be for everyone, but give yourself a chance; you may find out you like it far more than you thought.

Do you agree with the tactics outlined above? What else do you do? What would you do differently?  I’d love to read your ideas and comments about the prompt; feel free to share them here in the comments or tag me wherever you’re sharing them. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to include the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

Running a Halloween one-shot and want to surprise players who have already braved Castle Ravenloft? Maybe they know the original I6 adventure or have survived Curse of Strahd in 5E. This twist is for them. Instead of the familiar brooding vampire waiting in his castle, turn Strahd into a horror movie slasher. Picture Michael Myers with fangs or Jason Voorhees in a cape. He is not sitting at a grand pipe organ; he is out there hunting.

Start early. Do not make the players wait until the finale to meet him. They should see him all night. A shape on the roof against the blood moon. A figure in the cornfield, half-hidden in the fog. They blink and he is gone. Then they hear footsteps behind them that stop when they stop. That is the feeling you want: he is everywhere, and he is coming.

Slashers love to toy with their victims, and Strahd should too. Maybe the group finds their names clawed into the mud. Maybe a villager turns up tied to a scarecrow pole with a jack-o-lantern jammed in their chest. Maybe wolves circle while he stands back and watches. It is cruel, but it keeps the tension simmering.

Do not let one lucky hit ruin it. Until the end, Strahd does not stay down. A sword through his chest? He rips it out and keeps walking. Fireball to the face? He steps out of the smoke smiling. He is not there to be beaten in act one; he is there to scare the hell out of them until midnight. Save his weak spot, or the way to stop him, for the climax. Until then, wounds just slow him down.

And let Barovia play along. When he is close, candles blow out. Doors slam. The woods whisper the characters’ names. The mist tastes like copper. Make every scene feel like the killer could step out of the dark at any second. It is cheap, it is mean, and it works.

Run the session like a slasher flick. Act one: weird signs and the first body. Act two: the stalking ramps up, nobody feels safe, and maybe another victim or two. Act three: the fog closes in at midnight and Strahd finally strikes. The fight should feel brutal and personal. Maybe they find a way to destroy him. Maybe they just survive until sunrise. Either way, it will be memorable.

Your players think they know Strahd. They expect the vampire lord hidden away in his keep. They will not expect the silent shape who keeps getting back up, leaving bloody pumpkins and claw marks with their names on them. Do that, and they will be talking about your Halloween game for years.

DM’s Corner: How to Run Strahd

Mechanically, treat him like this:

• Relentless: Before the climax, Strahd cannot be reduced below 1 HP. He disappears in mist or stands back up.

• Teleport Stalker: Once per scene, he vanishes and reappears somewhere terrifying, such as behind them, inside the house, or at the foot of the bed.

• Fear Pressure: Every time he appears, call for Wisdom or Charisma saves. Failed saves escalate frightened conditions or penalties. The longer the night goes on, the worse the fear becomes.

This keeps the tension high until the final showdown.

Turn Barovia Into a Haunted Set Piece

Slashers own their setting. Make Barovia feel alive and hostile. When he is near:

• The harvest festival turns into a bloodbath under a crimson moon.

• The woods whisper the PCs’ names.

• Doors slam on their own. Candles snuff out. The mist tastes like metal (iron content like blood).

Every location should feel like a horror set piece where Strahd could step out at any moment. The terror is that he does.

This is Strahd as a horror icon, not a dungeon boss. Try it this Halloween and see how fast your table forgets the old playbook.

 

Does it strike anyone else as odd, that we have small altars containing stacks of rune etched stone, powered by trapped lightning, while we look at a window filled with liquid crystals that shows us anything we desire?
or is that just me.

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Hack & Slash 

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Archie Fields III, Matthew C. Funk
Witch Pleas Publishing
5e
Level 1

Set in the richly detailed settlement of Greenspires, a town nestled among the elven ruins of the Hinterwoods of Witch Pleas’ Legends of Lohre setting, this tale begins at the cozy Drunken Dragon Inn and escalates quickly. A goblins raid becomes an epidemic of the un-dead, with a zombified child stalking his cellar and a grieving father wielding dark magics. Old John Stuart’s Mill is more than a dungeon crawl. It’s a reckoning of morality, justice and consequence.

Before you go bitching, think a bit about my direct and indirect illocutionary force. 

This 28 page adventure is a rather simple and linear affair full of terrible choices when viewed through an OSR lens. Beyond the normal D&D stuff, two of the encounters provide an explicit challenge to the characters to solve, one simplistic and one more difficult, that involve morality in a more nuanced standpoint than it is generally covered in D&D. The more interesting one is worthy of inclusion in a game, perhaps, and fits in well to my People of Pembrocktonshire villager vibe.

This is a 5e adventure, but they stuck it in the OSR section of DriveThru. Normally I’d pass that by, but then they called it “John Stuart’s Mill.” Ever the sucker for marketing, I eagerly dove in. Who’s that Australian philosopher, you know, the one who posited that every time you drank something other than tap water you were making a decision to kill a child somewhere who doesn’t have access to clean water, because you could have spent that cash to help them/donate?

Just as we saw with the NASA adventure, our crossover friends may be perfectly competent in their own fields but have not been born with the innate ability to present an adventure in a useful way. This results in an effort that has a rather higher bar to run it than what I would prefer, or, even, when compared to other adventures from the more mainstream designers. These sorts of adventures, attempting to crossover to other audiences (in this case, classes and the like, using D&D to help ground philosophical concepts) face the added barrier of audiences new to the game, and thus needing that rigor that comes from good deign principles across the Bryce pillars. There are The Old Wounds: long sections of italic read-alouds. It has been known for quite some time that long sections of read-aloud causes players attention to drift. Phones come out. Limiting this to two to four sentences and making it interactive instead of exposition dump is the better choice. And, of course, there are studies showing the increased cognitive burden of long sections of italics. But, every adventure does it and thus the pattern repeats as new designers learn their mistakes from old mistakes. And the fucking font is small. Grrr…

But then the other issues: Eight linear encounters. We must agree to disagree on the modern trend of giving the players no agency in their lives. I recognize that this is the reality of the modern game, and yet I must insist that a game with agency is a more rewarding game. Decisions are, after all, the conceit of game theory, yes? (Ha! You see?! You see?! It a fucking activity and not a game!) 

Lest you think it’s all fun and games down this linear path of encounters, you will also get to enjoy a mary sue. I thought we had left this far, far behind us, but I do seem to be seeing a resurgence as of late? The sheriff is clearly a werewolf and, at one point, a giant wolf charges out to scare off some goblins attacking the party, reducing the number the party has to fight. Conan becomes king by his own hand. No, this is not a power gaming fantasy. This is design in which the players, running the characters at the table, get to be in control of the game with the DM as judge, not some Storyteller bullshit. Players in charge. And don’t go misinterpreting that statement in to Storygamer territory. My scorn here is somewhat lessened because the wolf attacks when the goblins are throwing their first firebombs, disrupting their attack. Telegraphing whats to come, for smart players paying attention, is generally good design. As presented here its rather a bit blatant, with no player skill required to figure out whats going on. Meh.

I can go on. Purple prose from novel writing instead of evocative descriptions from technical writing: “ Greenspires’ humble buildings huddle in the chill of the night, the brave little lights in their windows pressed against encroaching darkness, flickering faintly upon the antediluvian emerald spires of the elven ruins.” or “The scent of cedars, pine and oak permeates the night with a heavy impression of the Hinterwoods’ age.” At the mill there are various sounds; a hobgoblin butchering an animal that is screaming very loudly. Goblins arguing in the next room. These appear, though, in the rooms in question and NOT in the room in which you hear them. I can beat a dead horse here explaining ad nausea why this is  bad, just as I could spend time describing why the opening “run in to the bar to get help help” scene is unrealistic, bread immersion,  and ineffective in creating the emotional response that the designer is going for, or the backstory exposition that muddies up the DM notes sections of encounters making it harder for a DM to locate for what is the absolute most important thing in adventure design: running the adventure at the table. But, instead …

Let’s talk orc babies, in which my perfect knowledge of adventure design that can never be questioned instead turns in to shaky opinion. 

We gotta go in to this with a couple of statements. First, at some point things changed from Nature to Nurture in the role of Evil in a humanoids alignment. When there is a god of evil and you are born evil then many of our moral arguments fall apart.Slaughter thy orc babies as ye may, Old time is a-flying. You do have a soul, there is an afterlife, and you WILL be spending eternity being happy or punished up in Olympia or the Seven Heavens or wherever. Maybe figure out what Eru Lluvatar thinks the meaning of good is? I don’t care if you like the official changes WOTC made to humanoids and their relationship to evil, that assumption is where we have to start our discussion in the modern game. If it help you live with yourself, go look up the appropriate Aurelius quote about the othering and generalization of people in order to justify doing things to them you otherwise could not. While you suck him off. The moral question is more interesting in 5e than our pre-Nietzian OSR versions. 

Alignment, used in the way its used here, does NOT make the game fun. I don’t care what version the game is and I don’t care what your decision was in killing the orc babies, a DM that modifies the game based on morality is a bad DM. This adventure makes one damning statement in it: “Don’t decide who is ‘right’ among the players. Instead, let the world you craft respond to the players, ideally with deeply meaningful consequences to their actions.” Absolutely the fuck not. There is no place for morality in D&D. It’s supposed to fucking fun. Go story game activity if you want to trauma bond and moralize. I’m drinking beer and eating pretzels. I sucked diseased cocks all fucking day, eating literal shit, dealth with my commute, got bitched at at home by everyone on earth for not taking out the garbage, and, then, to relax, some fuckwit DM is gonna moralize at me? I think not. Do NOT do this in your game. Can there be consequences? Sure. Orcs don’t trust you. They sing songs about you. Whatever. But you must divorce it from moral decisions. Fortunately, the adventure doesn’t do this, in spite of that bullshit statement.

The philosophy portion appears twice, explicitly (although I believe you can see some shadows in other areas) in the adventure. The first is with two goblins attacking you. That have clearly been beat up. That are clearly incompetent. That are clearly going to, at a minimum, rob you. Except they don’t. What do you do with them? The adventure explicitly notes that it is designed around utilitarianism and Kantian ethics, and thus this encounter makes sense in that context. I mean, the entire goal of the adventure is to bring to life philosophical problems for discussion and debate, so, you know. It does that. This is the weaker of the two problems presented in the adventure. It’s rather straightforward and, I think, hamfisted. Designed, bluntly, for one reason, that stated debate.

And then there’s encounter two. John Stewart has braved the goblin attack, abandoning his wife and children, to run back in to his mill, under attack by the goblins. You find him in his basement, next to a boy. A boy with ashen skin, kneeling next to a goblin, still twitching in his death throes, tearing at it with his hands and teeth. ““Please…please don’t hurt my boy.” The man is John Stuart, and the zombified boy is his son, Emmett. Emmett is temporarily distracted from the PCs by feasting on the goblin’s corpse, so they have some time to talk to John.”

Jesu Christo! Nice touch there with the goblin still twitching and this being Ye Olde Flesh Eating Zombie. I mean, the gobbo was going to kill them, right? None of that ham fisted morality here, abstracted away in to academia. Dude is RIGHT in front of you. He loves his son and brought him back. Is it permissible for the chronically underfunded state school for orphans to have a pet tarrasque? What could possibly go wrong? The real world is messy as will be a discussion about what to do here. There are no right choices, only wrong ones. 

As a teaching adventure spur debate in a classroom, the two explicit philosophical situations do what they need to do. The overall packaging of those two is rather poor. It is going to be a hard adventure to pick up and run at a table,  accessible to those not overly familiar with D&D. As a teaching aid, this aspect needs to be approved substantially. Font, exposition, organization, you don’t have to go OSE style here here but you do need to make it much easier on someone WANTING to use it. As is the barrier to entry is rather large, which means a focus on trying to run the adventure instead of the adventure itself. 

This is $7 at DriveThru. Stick in a fucking preview and help a prole out so I can make an existential choice on if its worth buying or not! 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/530608/old-john-stuart-s-mill-1st-level-d-d-5e-adventure?1892600

Ganz Vargle—(Neutral Evil, he/him) a human man in his early 50s with gray starting to set in his dark brown hair and beard. He tends to dress fairly well, reflecting fashions from more populous cities closer to the coast, though he’s not ostentatious. Ganz is friendly and outgoing, but he hides a dark past: in his adventuring days, he sought to summon a demon with whom he could bargain for power, power he could use to change the world for the better. He found the witch of the wood, Moldred, who furnished him with the forbidden knowledge and materials necessary to call the foul spirit. The demon demanded a terrible sacrifice: the lives of Ganz’s adventuring companions. Though Ganz cared for his companions, he believed their sacrifice would be worth the good that he might ultimately accomplish with his magical might. Ganz slaughtered them all in their sleep in a profane ritual, but the demon was as deceitful as he was cruel: after the deed was done, he told Ganz that the best thing that a blackguard who’d sacrifice his friends for power could do for the world was to die. The demon afflicted Ganz with a terrible curse that would gradually weaken his heart and lungs until they cease functioning, and Ganz has been trying ever since to find ways to alleviate and remove the curse. The powerful talisman possessed by the witch Moldred can remove his curse, but when he approached the witch for help, she told him that he’d doomed himself by his own wicked hand and that his end is well-deserved. He swore on that day that her talisman would be his— that if she wouldn’t give it to him, he’d return and take it by force.

https://www.lukesurl.com/archives/comic/281-auto-whats

I fucking love Kant in this. “Because the Monster Manual says so! Don’t pretend you don’t know what evil is!

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/23

Last week was a big one for graphic novels for me. I picked up four, and two of the three I've finished, I liked a lot. I wrote about The Avengers in the Veracity Trap over on the Flashback Universe blog, but here I wanted to talk about Drome by Jesse Lonergan. 

Drome is a creation myth in a world part Kirby's New Gods and part Metal Hurlant. He draws bits from a lot of different sources, I imagine, including the association of the platonic solids with the classic elements, but much of it echoes events in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

A black, horned, male deity creates humans, and they war upon each other and the beasts of the world until a white, mohawked or crested female deity sends a heavily muscled demi-goddess born of water to subdue the humans, then teach them civilization. Later, a bestial, nature demigod born of Earth becomes the lover of the god-queen. The two must deal with the arrival of a rampaging spirit of fire, then a rebellion of jealous humans who unleash a cosmic bull.

Lonergan's style is integral to the telling of his story. The pages are often broken in equal-sized squares which are just as likely to be a grid imposed on the scene or part of the scene as they are to organize the story spatially or temporally. There is relatively little dialogue, leaving the images to tell most of the story.

I read the story digitally, but I'm considering picking up the hardcover because it's gorgeous and a work I think I will revisit. It's definitely made me want to seek up Lonergan's other work.

 Used extensively by the Japanese forces during World War II, the Ebirah species of Kaiju were controlled by sonic impulses by super science devices. The Ebirah were not seen again around nexus of Kaiju activity of  Monster Island until 1966. Originally this huge crustacean lived in the vicinity of Letchi Island in the South Pacific.Ebirah allegedly turned into a monster due to theNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 

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 The PC's were aboard the space wreck from last game session with their own space tug. The wreck that they were aboard has power supplied by their own space tug but the fact that they ran into a radioactive ghost has been bothering the party.They can't seem to communicate with the spirit but several times its been trying to warn the party away from certain areas of the ship. These areas are Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Day 26 of RPG a Day 2025 proposes Nemesis as the topic. And all I can say is:

Cobra, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

The first thing that came to mind upon reading the prompt was one of the lamest characters in one of the lamest movies you could ever see —the Nemesis Enforcer from G.I. Joe: The Movie.

I have read that in the new Energon Universe by Skybound Entertainment, the Nemesis Enforcer has been transformed into a frightening creature in modern comics. However, for a fourteen-year-old me, the Nemesis Enforcer was the most entertaining aspect of the otherwise terrible movie.

Of course, a later franchise I enjoyed gave us another Nemesis, in Resident Evil 3. I remember it as a terrifying enemy in the game, granted, I played this 26 years ago. I don’t think it translated as well to the big screen.

According to the Wikipedia entry, the etymology of the word nemesis “is derived from the Greek word νέμειν, némein, meaning ‘to give what is due’, from Proto-Indo-European *nem- ‘distribute’.” This same entry also identifies the goddess Nemesis as the “goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods.”

While I read about many Greek gods converted to D&D and AD&D while I was growing up, I do not remember seeing Nemesis as a D&D goddess. I wonder if she’s a deity in any other tabletop role-playing game. She would certainly make an interesting goddess or retribution.

But after all that preamble, what is a nemesis in our RPGs? A nemesis, per the modern meaning of the word, is a rival or arch-nemesis. A good nemesis is a crucial component of a game. Give the players a good enemy to hate, a great rival attempting to foil their plans,  and you are on the way to a memorable game.

Since I tend to run long campaigns, recurring nemeses (the plural of nemesis) are a great tool, but often are more arch-centered rather than present the whole campaign. There are exceptions, but more often than not, there is a series of villains that may or may not work for the BBEG.

Some memorable nemesis in my campaigns include Terr Sotor, about whom I wrote before during RPG a Day in 2016, a former street urchin assassin, the players encountered in one campaign, who became one of their biggest rivals in the next campaign.

There was also Von Beck Strauss, an evil military commander, and father of one of the players in my second long-running AD&D 2nd edition campaign. He was created by one of my players as part of his background, and he became one of the major villains in that campaign. Another memorable villain was Admiral Malaver, a thorn on the players’ side in our Pathfinder 1st edition pirate-themed game.

A good nemesis has ties to the players, in their background or as a rival to their goals, as the game progresses. While it is not impossible, brute opponents may be more challenging to turn into a nemesis, unless they are so powerful that their presence and immense power pose a threat. More often than not, a good nemesis is conniving, clever, and returns time and time to challenge the characters. A good nemesis is hard to beat, but not impossible. If a nemesis is undefeatable, then it becomes a frustration. Build them up, make the players loathe them, and it will be all the sweeter when they finally defeat them!

What makes a good nemesis to you? Any memorable ones in your games? Any additional advice to make a nemesis unforgettable? I’d love to read your ideas and comments about the prompt; feel free to share them here in the comments or tag me wherever you do. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to include the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

I've enjoyed reading through Mothership, and now I want to check out Hostile!

Adventurer! Name notwithstanding, this Hostile Bundle, resurrected (for a second time!) from April 2022, is a friendly offer of the tabletop science-fiction roleplaying game of deep-space alien horror, Hostile from Zozer Games. Based on the Cepheus Engine rules (closely modeled on Classic Traveller), Hostile is a gritty retro-future setting inspired by movies like Outland, Blade Runner, and Alien – a universe of harsh planets and toxic atmospheres – claustrophobic space freighters and brutal industrial colonies – ancient horrors entombed on icy moons – killer ETs, perfectly evolved to survive at any cost. Whether you're a combat-weary veteran or a miner on a grungy corporate star tug deep in the Extraction Zones, Hostile pits you against deadly hazards in an unforgiving void where no one can hear you scream.

This revived April 2022 offer gives you a new chance to get much of the Hostile line for an unbeatable bargain price – an obviously generous and well-meaning gesture. For just US$9.95 you get all five titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $48) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete standalone Hostile Rules and Setting core books, the Gunlocker weapons guide (it'll come in handy, trust us), the Cepheus Handouts, and the Referee's Screen.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $20.36, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with eight more titles worth an additional $56 that let you build out your pitiless universe:

• Three guides to survival on bad worlds that don't want you: Explorers, Dirtside, and Colony Builder
• Two bestiaries about entities that really, really do want you: Alien Breeds and Synthetics
• Two hardware and vehicle guides: Gunboats & Shuttles and Marine Corps Handbook 2215
• A campaign framework well described by its title: Crew Expendable

 

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In the Hyborian Age, a weapon’s worth is measured in blood. These are not heirlooms polished for parade, nor relics left to gather dust. They are the killing tools of warriors and raiders, forged for the sole purpose of ending lives. From northern shield walls to the deserts of Shem, each carries the scars of the land and the people who wield it. When words fail, these speak louder than any king’s decree.

Doomhammer

A maul made to smash shields, stone, and men alike.

Damage: 1d12  Range: Close  Properties: 2H, 2 slots
Trait: Battering Ram on a Stick – Deals double damage to objects like doors, statues, or barricades.
Requirement: 14+ STR to wield
Game Type: Greatsword (reskin)
Lore: First seen in Conan the Barbarian (1982), this monstrous hammer was wielded by Thorgrim, the silent juggernaut who followed Thulsa Doom. More battering ram than weapon, it crushed shields, stone, and men with equal ease. Forged not for finesse but for obliteration.

Savage Sword

Forged by reclusive Cimmerians, these blades speak only in blood.

Damage: 1d8  Range: Close   
Trait: Hack – Once per day, add your STR bonus to damage. Must be resharpened during a rest to regain this ability.
Trait: Branded – While carried openly, you have DISADV on Reaction checks with civilized NPCs. Cimmerians may demand an explanation or draw steel.
Game Type: Longsword
Lore: A brutal slab of steel, honed by Cimmerians until it can split bone with a single stroke. It bears no ornament, only edge. These swords are rarely seen beyond Cimmeria, where they are forged by hand and passed down in silence, not trade. Outsiders risk being mistaken for thieves or killers.

Tulwar

A massive Vendhyan war-blade unleashed in sweeping arcs of death.

Damage: 1d12  Range: Close  Properties: 2H, 2 slots
Trait: Cleaving Arc – On a hit that reduces a foe to 0 HP, you may immediately make an attack at DISADV against a different foe within reach.
Game Type: Greatsword
Lore: Favored by the warlords of Vendhya and Iranistan, the tulwar is known for its sheer cutting power and cruel elegance. Heavy and demanding, it is not wielded, it is unleashed. Its sweeping arcs carve through flesh and armor alike.

Borosian Spatha

The disciplined sword of shield-wall phalanxes in Boros and Argos.

Damage: 1d8  Range: Close  
Trait: Shield Line – While wielding this weapon with a shield and standing adjacent to at least one ally, you gain +1 damage on attacks.
Game Type: Longsword
Lore: In the disciplined ranks of Boros, Argos, and other civilized southern realms, the spatha is more than a weapon, it is doctrine. Forged long and straight, it thrives in shield walls, where its measured reach and precise thrusts turn cohesion into killing.

Pictish Splitter

Crude, vicious axes wielded by ambushers beyond the Black River.

Damage: 1d8  Range: Close    
Trait: Maim – On a max damage hit, the target’s Speed is halved until their next turn.
Game Type: Longsword (reskin)
Lore: In Howard’s Beyond the Black River, the Picts strike from ambush, wound, and vanish. They do not need to kill immediately. A crippled limb ensures the prey cannot escape. The Splitter is their favored weapon: crude, vicious, and purpose-built for terror.

GM Note: These weapons are not sold in stalls or found on armory racks. They carry legacy, not a price tag. They should be rare, earned through heritage, seized from a fallen foe, or given as a mark of trust. Generic swords and axes remain the tools of common adventurers; these cultural arms are rare finds with story weight. NPCs know what they mean, and carrying one can open doors or close them.

Happy Monday! We begin the final week of RPG a Day 2025. This month has really flown by. I’m still missing one post for the month, specifically day 10, and I will get to it before the month is over, I promise. But let’s get back to the topic at hand, the prompt for today is Challenge. Weirdly, my brain has been free associating this month, and for this topic, my mind turned to the DC mid-1980s DC Challenge series published by DC Comics. In a way, this makes me think of the challenges of being a Game Master. Allow me to explain.

If you have never heard of DC Challenge, or a series with a similar concept, like the Kamandi Challenge, let me introduce you to them. I’ll quote the description by TV Tropes that summarizes DC Challenge this way: “The DC Challenge was a 12-issue maxi-series published by DC Comics from November 1985 to October 1986. It was a Round Robin series, with each of the first 11 issues helmed by a different author and artist, who ended each issue on a Cliffhanger which the next team had to resolve. The final issue was a collaborative effort by six of the authors.”

A different group of creators works independently on each issue, telling a continuous story with “no collaboration”. That last bit is in quotes because, as you read above, they worked together to wrap up the story. I don’t remember which issue I started reading the story in. It was either #4 or #6, most likely the latter, because that lines up with the time I started going to the one local comic shop back then. I believe I have #4 because I purchased the back issue later.

I don’t own the whole series. I purchased issue #3 many years later. Never owned #1 or #2. As much as I liked the gimmick of the series, I don’t recall it being particularly good. A little tongue in cheek, I was more of a fan of the execution than the final product. The idea of creators having to make sense of the story that came before and set up a cliffhanger for the next set of creators fascinated me.

This format was probably why I was also enthralled by The Dungeon series of novels and the shared world the authors created. I mentioned The Dungeon as inspiration in a previous post. I had read series like Wild Cards, a shared world super-hero-inspired anthology series, but what fascinated me were DC Challenge and The Dungeon, where new creators pick up the work of others and build upon what was created before.

In many ways, this endeavor always reminds me of what being a Game Master is all about. As much as I like world-building and the years I’ve spent crafting the worlds we play in, these are never my creation alone. I may set up the stage for certain situations, but my ideas and concepts rarely remain the same when they meet the player’s input. And that’s a good thing!

Too many GMs also want to be storytellers, but we should not strive to tell our story and have the players be the audience, which is boring. Our role is to be interpreters. To collaborate with our players, we weave together their disparate ideas and character concepts, facilitating a shared experience where we create a story together.

I guess my concept of GM is a mix of old-school and modern story-game elements. GMs should not be lone storytellers; players have agency, a shared role where we all create a story together.

When it works, when all participants are in sync, the process is delightful. When there is dissonance, where interest, mood, and expectations clash, as a GM who usually is the one enabling the collaboration, I feel like the author of an issue of DC Challenge, trying to make sense of the story the best way I can.

These less-than-ideal situations can happen in the larger context of a campaign, in a specific session, or in an encounter. Ideally, a GM can make sense of the situation, regroup, learn from the experience, and move on to become a more experienced GM, whether it’s discussing it with players after a particularly contentious session, refocusing a campaign in a larger context, or simply rolling with the punches and moving forward.

We often discuss the wonders of Game Mastering, including the tools and strategies for success, but we also need to address the small-time frustrations and feelings of inadequacy that arise when things don’t go as planned. Knowing we must improvise, and we are not always best at it.  To work through our feelings, to take a stab at making sense of the story and moving forward. The ability to do just that, to cut through the frustration and go forth, is perhaps the most essential tool you can have to be a long-term GM.

What do you think? Agree or disagree? How do you deal with frustrations as a GM? AS a player, how do you support your GM? I’d love to read your comments or reactions to the prompt; feel free to share them here in the comments or tag me wherever you do. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to include the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.

Like his brother Jamie, Gilbert Hernandez of Los. Bros Hernandez is an amazing comic book artist capable of delivering so much clarity and so much feeling in so few lines.

In truth, I was exposed to Gilbert's work more than Jaime's back in the day because as a sex-comics enthusiast in my early 20s I spotted Birdland and snatched it right up. Only later did I start checking out Love & Rockets.

Gilbert's work is fascinating to me because it seems to ride a line that I cherish. It is revered and respected as part of the Los. Bros. Hernandez oeuvre, which left a giant imprint on comics history. But it is happily and frequently dirty as fuck. Who else can draw women with huge boobs and still be an icon across generations?

Oh you sly devil, you. I see what you did there.

 

By Michael J. Bojdys
GrantWerk
OSE
Level 1

You wake in a locked cellar, heads pounding, contract signed in spilled ale. A dagger’s gone missing. A debt must be paid. And something in the dark wants more than gold.

This 32 page adventure uses three pages to describe six rooms in an underground smugglers den. I guess it’s inoffensive. There’s a compliment for you. How does “meh. whatever” sound as a puff quote to list on the back cover?

I can’t stand what my life has become. Someone, somewhere, thought this was a good idea. An adventure that uses three pages out of 32. Or, perhaps, if we are generous with the page count, seven pages out of 32? But, certainly, only six rooms and only three pages to describe those six rooms. Pre gens, house rules, appendices, backstory, game world, all thrown in. I do this page count to room key comparison for one specific reason: to show what a farce these types of adventures are. It’s hard to argue that this ratio is inherently wrong, (or that anything is or is not wrong or right) but it’s certainly clear that MANY an adventure would have benefited by a much strong focus on the ACTUAL adventure and less docs on the supporting material. When these page counts get to fucking lopsided its clear that the designer doesn’t know wat they are doing and didn’t really want to write an adventure; they wanted to write their house rules and setting. 

But on to this particular set of trouble. So, yeah, you wake up in the dungeon. I guess you signed a contract drunk in a bar last night and agreed to go get a dagger in this smugglers lair. While I’m not a fan of these sorts of forced scenarios in which you have no agency, they are slightly less odious when they are very first adventure for a campaign. Setting up things to come, don’t you know. I still fucking hate them and wish different paths were chosen for the framing. Forcing the players in to, say, a desert island with limited water heat stroke rules for wearing armor feels more abusive to me then the agreed lie that this is what we are doing tonight to play D&D and outfitting out party for an expedition to the very same locale with the same issues. But, whatever, minor issue.

Ok, the dungeon has a zombie in it. Got it? That’s the only keyed encounter with a creature. It also has a ghost that wanders around and attacks you. Every turn there is a 50% chance that the ghost moves one room closer to the party from its random starting location. 2HD so we’re looking at a 9 to turn it. And you’re gonna need a magic weapon to hurt it. And there’s one magic weapon in the adventure, the +1 Dagger you were sent to get. I wonder if this adventure was playtested?

The background information for the DM is a mess. It’s a combination of intro for the players and their characters and a lot of backstory that is irrelevant to the game at the table. So you need to dig out things to tell the party from the larger info dump of useless trivia. Not the strongest start.

Rooms are … ok? Not ok? I mean, I’m gonna bitch. They aren’t done right. But, you can run them. Basically, each room is going to take up about a column. You’ll get quite the short description of the room before it moves on to a longer section telling us information that the map tells us: where the exist go. I’m glad to see that this important duplicative information takes up more column space than the room description. Then, running on from the exist information we will get some follow up on things in the room the party might examine, the contents of a chest or something. This is likely to take up half the column. You can follow it well, except for the contents kind of running on from the exits. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is. 

The descriptions are fine. Not awfully inspiring but more than just facts. The designer has clearly tried to spice them up with adjectives and adverbs, and sometimes this runs in to being purple. “The air hangs cold.” Uh huh. I get what the designer is trying to do, and their heart is in the right place, there are just better ways. Like showing instead of telling. You can see your breathe. There’s a stillness. … Oh, wow, the air hangs cold, eek!

There’s not much in the way of interactivity. Search for a secret door. Stab the zombie and ghost. Jump over some sewage. It’s six fucking rooms. 

I’m annoyed that it took 32 pages to present these six rooms. This is just a throw away adventure attached to the rest of the campaign content, sold as an adventure. That annoys me. The actual adventure is nothing special. Id’ say it’s a typical six room lair, which means no room for anything to happen. It is written just slightly better than most of those, but that’s still the bottom of the adventure heap. 

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is seven pages and shows you the confused intro and the ghost. No rooms. Then again, if it showed you a room page then you’d see half the actual adventure … poor preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/527981/signed-in-ale-sealed-in-wax?1892600

This weekend I got my (first) shipment from Magnetic Press and the Planet of the Apes RPG Kickstarter. The books are gorgeous and the extra swag (including a cloth map of Ape City) is suitably well done. 

The game focuses on the original POTA continuity, not the 21st Century prequel/reboot films. Hopefully there will be a supplement for that in the future, but obviously the original film era is what most people (including myself) really want. Thankfully, the Burton film was likewise ignored.

The game uses the "Magnetic Variant" of West End Game's D6 system: you roll a bunch of six-sided dice and total the result, comparing it to a difficulty. There have been some modernizations and modifications, but having not played a D6 game in years, I'm not sure the extent of them. It does use a wild die to add additional consequences (positive or negative) to the results of a roll giving the "yes/no, and" and "yes/no but" sorts of spread. The Core book covers rules (and gives archetypes) for ape, astro-naut (they always spell it that way), mute, future human, and mutant characters. There's a clever detail where it is suggested (similar to the Cavemaster rpg) that the players of the bestial, future humans attempt to communicate with the other players only by gesture or pantomime, assuming they are in a mixed character types party.

After equipment, the rest of the book is given over to gamemaster (Lawgiver, in this case) stuff: setting info, campaign advice/suggestions, and adversaries/monsters.

Additionally, I got the ANSA Files Sourcebook, which details the era (or eras, really) related to the original film series. Really, the core book gave the essentials, but this book deep dives into the various time periods of each film, gives suggestions for running games in each, and stats prominent NPCs. I don't know that anyone would want to play a Cold War, space race game in an alternate 1970s, but with this supplement, you could!

In addition to the new films, I'd like to see more coverage of the TV show era and the ability to play speaking humans Also, delving into some of the more gonzo aspects of the various comic series would be cool for a supplement, too.

The Planet of the Apes rpg isn't as yet available to non-backers, but Amazon has pre-orders up for January, and I would suspect it becomes available in pdf prior to that.

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 So this weekend I picked up an old Victorious The Steampunk Role Playing Game of Supermankind By Mike Stewart from this campaign.   This campaign goes back to March 2023 and on Friday my notes fell out of an old folder. So after a brief recap the PC's settled into the newly renovated & rebuilt hotel overlooking the Yellow Stone state park they began to investigate Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0