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IN SUPPORT OF JOHN CARPENTER’S NIGHT TERRORS: CHAPLAIN GRAPHIC NOVEL IS OUT JULY 7 FROM STORM KING COMICS Existential Terror and Gruesome Body Horror for fans of The Thing and…

Cover A: Stephen Mooney The Legendary Antihero Returns in a New Series Featuring Eight Covers and Endless Dystopian Mayhem JUNE 16, 2026 (PORTLAND, OR) — Mad Cave Studios brings Snake…

A MONUMENTAL CELEBRATION OF GARCÍA-LÓPEZ’S ORIGINAL ART ARRIVES MARCH 2027 BURBANK, CA — [June 16, 2026] — DC today announced José Luis García-López’s DC Classics Artist’s Edition, a prestige oversize…

Back the Campaign Now and Take the First Step into the Magical World of Umora LOS ANGELES 06/16/2026 — Today Skybound launched the Kickstarter campaign for Worlds Beyond Number: The Official Graphic…

Ram V, Riccardo Burchielli, Christian Ward, and Fábio Veras Bring Two Tales of Dangerous Obsession and Dark Magic Praise for Creepshow: “explores the darker, more horrifying aspects of heroism from a…

Step back in time with Battles in Time’s new First Doctor era cards! The Doctor said one day he’d come back. Yes, he said he’d come back. He’s been quoted on that more than ever this past week, so it’s appropriate the OG Doctor really is returning as Master Replicas’ Battles in Time collectible card game launches into the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who with its next set. This is the first in a new line of limited-edition collector’s cards focusing on the individual Doctors, their companions and their greatest foes. Each set of 15 cards comes in a special collector’s pack that is guaranteed to contain every card. Even better, for the first time ever, Battles in Time will feature classic companions Ian, Barbara and Susan and memorable monsters such as Koquillion and the Monoids. The selection covers the entire span of the Hartnell era, from An Unearthly Child to The Tenth Planet, with stops on Skaro, the Ark, and the Sense-sphere along the way. The First Doctor cards are printed in the original black and white on silver foil, in strictly limited-edition sets of 1,000 pieces worldwide. The 15 Cards in the First Doctor set are: The First Doctor TARDIS (at Totter’s Yard) Ian Chesterton (at Totter’s Yard) Barbara Wright Susan Foreman Skaro City Dalek The Daleks (Invading Earth) The Daleks Execution Squad The Cybermen (Invading Snowcap Base) Zarbi Koquillion The Monoids War Machines (Outside The Post Office Tower) Sensorite (Aboard Maitland’s Ship)

The Toymaker

 

Master Replicas’ Creative Director talks to Blogtor Who about the new cards Talking exclusively to Blogtor Who, Master Replicas’ Creative Director, Ben Robinson, explained some of the design decisions with the set, including the use of the original 1960s black and white photography. “We wanted the classic Doctor cards to reflect the era when the stories were made,” explains Robinson. “To me, Hartnell and Troughton exist in black and white (although that first Doctor Who annual was in colour…) We knew from experience that printing on foil could be very effective and that’s really true for these cards. Koquillion, in particular, is so dramatic. Classic Daleks just look right in monochrome and the original Cybermen are mostly white and silver. “That brings up another thing: We did a bit of research that showed the original Cyberman costumes were quite strange colours. If you colourised them, what would you choose? Do you them the colour they actually were on set? Because that’s not the colour their creators meant them to be. “ Master Replicas are also seizing the opportunity to explore these classic characters and creatures, saying “When we did the original Battles in Time cards, we didn’t do any classic companions, so that was one of the first things on our agenda. In fact, we only did Doctors if they appeared on the modern show, so this was a real chance to dig into something we hadn’t done before. We had done some classic monsters, but only when there was colour photography or in those rare instances where it didn’t matter. “Doing new cards in black and white opened up all sorts of options we hadn’t had before (and I can never resist a Monoid).” The new Battles in Time sets, including the First Doctor, can be ordered from www.masterreplicas.com

The post Doctor Who: Battles in Time – The First Doctor is Here! appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Arctic Amigurumi: Step-by-Step Patterns for 18 Crochet Animals by Kristi Simpson and Kimberly Simpson features "cuddly creatures inspired by the icy tundra!" Take a peek inside, and enter to win your own copy of Arctic Amigurumi below! Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book for review; all opinions are my own. This post […]

The post Arctic Amigurumi - Review and Giveaway appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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 Building a Sky-Ship (or Sky-Galley) using Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) within the framework of ACKS II turns a simple vehicular purchase into a major logistical, engineering, and financial project. This blog post picks up right from Building The Red Planet Empire - Mixing Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) with the Domain-level Architecture of ACKS II RpgIn ACKS II, large Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

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By David Hay
Third Castle Games
OSE
Levels 1-3

Travel from sun-drenched beaches to dense jungle trails, over vine-rope bridges and up volcanic cliffs. Encounter lizardmen, the living dead, diabolical cultists and worse. Find magical items, gold and perhaps some glory too. Or at least a good tale to tell, should you make it to the taverns of Hardwind Harbour. But don’t tarry too long – for dark smoke belches from the volcano and the earth trembles. Where will your party be when it erupts?

This 74 page adventure uses about 55 pages to describe sixteen points of interest, and some of their dungeons, on a tropical island you are shipwrecked on. It’s pretty good for what it is, combining some ok formatting and a more situational approach to the adventure. I wish the overall situation on the island, how it works together, was addressed just a little more.

Oh no! You’re shipwrecked on a topical island! You probably find your way to the pirate town and there you probably find out it’s a lot harder to join a pirate crew than I thought. The island, while it has a map, is laid out like a pointcrawl. Each location is either self-contained or has a small complex/’dungeon’ attached to it. A couple of caves, a town, a necropolis, ye olde volcano temple, and so on, each with between eight to, say, eighteen locations in them. 

Ostensibly you are trying to get off the island, and many of the paths/leads go to the pirate town where you can bargain with the pirates. There’s pirate intrigue in the town, of course, and everyone wants something in order to help you out. But, also, there are other things about. You can find a small rowboat at one beach, and you see a much smaller island offshore, and it has a ship on it. A cursed ship, as it turns out. Do you know how to sail? Do you know how to recruit sailors to man a cursed ship? 

And, thus, we see a larger kind of more traditional hex crawl sort of thing going on in this adventure. In those more traditional hex crawls there are generally resources and wants/needs from others that the party exploits to fulfill their needs. They are generally not explicitly noted, with perhaps a few linkages explicit but in most other cases the party comes up with some crazy thing to do to exploit hex Y to do something in hex X. And this adventure, while a pointcrawl, does much the same thing. There ARE explicit linkages between the sites, Bob wants you to deal with the cult or Frank needs their crew found before they can do THE THING. But there are more than enough resources, and weirdo things going on, that the party can exploit things of their own design as well. This is good. The designer has written the adventure to present situations, expanding that to also present some more traditional crawls, and that situation-forward writing is what enables the more free-form non-linear gameplay. And, as the adventure reiterates a couple of times: “oh, and don’t forget to make the volcano explode!” 

The more traditional “dungeons” are decent, as well. Underground passages to swim to are a great example of a kind of hidden area of a dungeon that a party paying attention to can discover to get a reward/danger. A bridge over a chasm … and exploring the BOTTOM of the chasm is another example of that. Something a little oblique but obviously present, that the party can poke their noses in to. It’s the ol “cave behind the waterfall’ thing that I love so much. There are also rope bridges over a valley, complete with a corpse hanging from it and wild baboons on it. Or crack in a sea cave floor with an old rowboat, rickety, spanning it. The old “sarcophagus with something inside banging on it to get out’ thing. The rooms, much like the hexes, generally have more than one thing going on in it and many times the dangers are telegraphed well. A pool with luminescent seaweed, and when you go fucking around inthe pool you find out its strangleweed. Well, the DM told you the fucking seaweed glowed, did you think it was just window dressing. For that room, in particular, there’s a sandy floor with footprints, a pool of water, with the underground passage, a howling sound coming from somewhere and then that seaweed, and it’s all handled in one column rather than droning on and on. 

As that column note implies, formatting and word count here is pretty spot on. There’s a little sections at the top of an entry that could be read-aloud or inspiration, with some bolded words that reference bullets deeper in the description. A couple of sentences for each bullet, and two to three for the read-aloud/summary. It’s easy to scan and easy to locate information. There is a case of three of information being presented a little late, with something more critical to the action being presented later in the description/bullets. If there’s an ancient red dragon in the room then maybe get to that part sooner rather than later, yes?

I do want to call out something I rarely do: the art. More than once in this I thought some associated art pieces did a GREAT job of bringing the room better to life, which is what I think ALL art in an adventure should do. I understand this is subjective to some degree, but I know it when I see it. Tommaso Devitofrancesco and Gary Trow are credited with the interior art and one/both of them did a good job. “This large room is filled with magnificently sculpted statues standing in rows. At one end of the room war relics are displayed – trophies taken from the Old Empire’s defeated foes. Mosaics depicting famous victories festoon the walls.” This is accompanied by an art piece of greek-style warrior statues on plinths that really brings home the scale of the room. It’s one of the few times that good art in an adventure made me want MORE art pieces to do the same for EVERY encounter. (Which I’d probably then bitch about, but, whatever.)

There’s not a lot of padding in this thing. A few pages of pre-gens and one page of magic items at the end. The preamble before the keys are focused on wanderers and other pertinent information. Still, I wish perhaps the ‘summary’ information was just a little more in depth. A better overview of the various linkages between sites and perhaps a bit more about … campaigning? Hiring a ship, living in town, a sentence on expeditions … this is an expansive adventure and the support for that part of the play could have been better. The whole “jungle vibe” thing doesn’t really come through much at all. I think this is related to the pointcrawl nature; the immersive jungle setting doesn’t come through because the journey to the next time is essentially abstracted in a point crawl. That doesn’t have to be bad, but it needs a little attention, I think, to bring the journey part to life. The sites feel weirdly disconnected, which I guess makes sense give the pointcrawl nature. But, as I said, the designer must then remedy this. And the lack of travel time issues almost certainly strengths this abstraction and minimizes the jungle vibe. 

Still, a pretty decent adventure. I’m happy I found it and happy to see what the publisher does next.

This is $16 at DriveThru. The preview is nine pages and shows you the entirety of the starting point/cave complex. It’s a good representation of the encounters to be found, and shows off the nice Glynn Seal maps. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/552809/escape-the-devil-s-eye?1892600

Only seldom is the summit not shrouded in clouds, but on that rare day when it is visible, it's easy to see how the mining town in the high valley below gets the name Silver Peak. The pinnacle is forever sheathed in ice and snow that doesn't retreat with the change in season thanks to maddened elemental fae, forever enraged at some ancient insult.
In the glaciers that run like deep, blue veins from summit there is para-elemental ice that resists melting for long periods. If another reason to mine the Dagards beside rich stories of thaumatite and occasional manastones was needed, the arcane ice provides it. The ice is the simplest and most widespread means of refrigeration and cooling in Parsulan, and until magitechnologists rediscovered the means to make it, the Ice Barons of Silver Peak were the supplier of that ice.
Each of the ice magnate families controlled territory around Silver Peak, which was mostly neutral ground as it was a necessary resource exploited by all. Their workers lived there, and it was everyone's haven from the periodic assaults by monsters and Fomori. 
In addition to periodic attacks by hostile creatures and thunderstone eruptions that can blast a miner (or part of them) high into the sky, ice mining carries unique hazards. When they take notice of intruders (which is only occasionally but often enough to be a risk), the fae turn their anger on them. Miners have had their blood frozen in their veins or had the ice winds of a blizzard blasted into their lungs. Sometimes the fae animated crude physical forms to attack. 
These assaults have only gotten worse, perhaps, since the Ice Castle was uncovered. In the last century, the miners delved too deep and stripped a layer of ice so that the structure encased within it came into view: a castle of soaring towers and fanciful battlements. No one knows who built the castle or what became of its inhabitants.

Since the Castle was revealed, the fae have become more active. Now they howl down from their usual haunts into the valley in the winter, creating unnatural cold. They are also more aggressive toward miners.
There are other strange things. People swear they see inexplicable tracks leading down form the castle, and then there is the weird music that sometimes drifts over Silver Peak.
Fewer miners are willing now to take the risk, and then there was the miners' union and demand for fairer wages and better protections. The ice barons have dwindled in number and influence, but the most tenacious of them have over time joined by intermarriage into one clan, the Stonehearts.

 Here is a d100 encounter table tailored for classic B/X Dungeons & Dragons (and compatible Old School Renaissance systems).Yes I totally stole this photo from Wayne's Books from here. To keep this highly functional for a standard B/X campaign, the table is structured around the classic dungeon tier logic: Levels 1 to 3. It balances standard low-level fantasy staples with faction Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 In ACKS II, Level 2 of Quasqueton transitions from a military fortification to a hostile subterranean wilderness. Wandering encounters here are not just combatants—they are environmental pressures that test the party’s resource management (light, rations, sanity) in a damp, enclosed ecosystem. This post  picks right up from Meditations on the classic In Search of the Unknown (Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

You see, I do all this stuff for fun, not for a living. I admire and respect my friends and cohorts who make a living at it. I do not.

I also never look at my DTRPG earnings. I'm terrible. I even neglect comments so that I see questions asked a year later. I'm terrible.

Anyway, I did run some quick numbers just out of curiosity. I predicted that the Black Pudding Heavy Helping books would be the ones that sold the most, and it's true. By a country mile. But I was pleasantly surprised that GOZR came in second to them. I had this feeling that while GOZR was the most labor intensive thing I'd ever done, it was a big fat super unknown. And it is... in the grand scheme who the hell knows about GOZR?

In terms of pure downloads, the Black Pudding zines are far and away the highest (5,678 "sold" for BP 1, for example). But they are also free (pay what you want), so that makes sense.

All told, if I had to live off what I'm earning on DTRPG, me and my family would have died a decade ago. But I kinda knew that already. I'm just stoked when anyone buys a copy of anything I do. I appreciate it! You help me keep going.

In August 2016 I published Rabbits & Rangers. That's ten years ago! Time flies.

I thought I'd look back on the book since I haven't touched it in many years.

First, I went with a traditional digest format, which is nice. The POD print book is compact, cool. Good job, me.

Layout was done by Matt Hildebrand and I have to hand it to Matt... this thing still looks cool to me. Thanks Matt!

Speaking of thanks, flipping through it this morning I didn't spot any errors. Oh I'm sure there are some that slipped through, but Andy Solberg lent his meticulous editorial eyes to this thing and I'm forever in his debt. Thanks Andy!

The Monday Doomslakers RPG group played this game. I ran an adventure called Sheep on the Borderlands... get it? So thanks to them for enduring it. We started gaming in 2014 and, with a few changes in membership, we're still going strong today (currently playing Boot Hill 3e!).

Ok, so anyway... here are some things about the book I had forgotten that I believe are quite good.

1. Size differential table. I kept it simple. Sizes are small, medium, and large. You get +1 or -1 based on where you fall on that scale compared to your opponent in a fight. Small vs. small +0, small vs. med the small guy gets +1. Small vs. large, small fry gets +2. I think that's elegant and simple.

2. Natures. Inspired by the exaggerated personalities of old cartoons, you pick or roll for a Nature. If you're a Bully, then you act like a Bully. If you're Rascally then you're always one step ahead. And so forth. I think this reinforces the cartoon inspirations, but isn't too intrusive.

3. Death options. This has become something of a theme in my games. GOZR certainly has this. In R&R, you get to decide if your character dies at zero HP or not. The choice comes with cost, of course. If you die, you get a benefit to your next PC. If you live, you're knocked down a few levels until you earn 1,000 XP. I'm not sure why I did it that way, honestly. If I wrote this today I'd just say you're knocked out for a few rounds and get back up with 1 HP. But that was 10 years ago and I was firmly entrenched in OSR thinking... the idea of letting a PC live after the dice called for death?? Preposterous!

4. HD limits and XP mods. I put a lot of thought into this book. Looking at it now, I see hundreds of files of revisions and ideas. I spent a long, long time on this bastard. The tone and logic had to work. So it mattered to me that a mouse Fighter and a moose Fighter would have the same HD and stuff. It doesn't make sense. So I put limits on them. The mouse has a d4 HD limit, even as a Fighter. But they get a beefy +20% XP bonus. I also applied ability score modifiers quite liberally, but with balance. The mouse, for example, gets +3 to Dex but -3 to Str. They also get +1 to Cha (cute mice!) and a bump to AC for being small and quick. All animals get similar considerations for their size, speed, and traditional characteristics.

5. 21 new spells, 18 new magic items, 14 new creatures*. Notes and advice about armor and weapons that work for the vast array of animal shapes. Like... you find some plate mail in a dungeon. You're a polar bear and your companion is a bat. What are the odds this armor fits either of you? Well, unless the LL already knows the answer, you roll 1d6 to see what size it is. Then maybe you roll a percentile to see if it's specialty. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a rare All-Fitting Armor, which is described in the book.

Some of my favorite little bits:

StoatThe first level spell Ahkme's Catalog. The mage sends gold and a request by way of a magic bird to the laboratories of the geniuses at Ahkme. Within the hour, the bird returns with a package delivery containing an item that may help in their situation. You roll on a table to see if the thing explodes in your face or works like a charm. There's also a magic ring of Ahkme you can find.

Spells that target certain types, such as Down to Earth, a spell that grounds avian creatures.

The cute little animal portraits! I did one for each of the 50 animal types and I adore them, even if I drew them. I'm not above loving my own work. And it's so rare that I adore my own work from so long ago.

 

I'm waxing nostalgic now, but I have a hankering to run this again. What's more... there exists an expanded edition that started as a sequel. I did all the work of adding 50 more animals, some new spells, etc. I just didn't finish the work. It's something I'd like to do... but I would have to put myself back into a full on Labyrinth Lord mode and beg Matt to do an updated layout for the expanded edition. It would be worth it, though. Hopefully I would hold firm and keep to the classic LL format... complete with descending AC.

But there's also the strong possibility I'd want to change the whole thing to mesh with Black Pudding Play Book... and that would be awesome too.

The PDF is free to download. 

*Fun fact: the zard makes its first appearance here! I ported them over to GOZR later and I don't even know if I remembered they came from this book originally. 

 

As I mentioned last week, the community that has grown around Puerto Rico Role Players is wonderful. This series of interviews has allowed me to connect with creators from Puerto Rico who channel their imagination into games, art, and other endeavors related to TTRPGs, fantasy, and beyond—from artists publishing their own books to aspiring designers building their own role-playing systems.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Julio for a few years through the Puerto Rico Role Players group, our Geeknic events, and social media. He first told me about the game he’s developing a few months ago, we caught up about it at the latest Geeknic, and he’s been sharing some of his progress in the Tabletop Game Designers Puerto Rico group.

He was kind enough to answer my questions and participate in this interview!

Introduce yourself! Who are you, and what are you creating?

My name is Julio, and I specialize in Worldbuilding.

How would you describe your art or creative work?

Well, I try to be as descriptive as possible, so I would say it’s highly detailed.

How did you discover TTRPGs (tabletop or pen-and-paper role-playing games)?

In high school, some friends invited me to play Dungeons & Dragons. I really liked the game’s concept and saw its creative potential. Unfortunately, the DM got tired of it and killed us all with an Ancient Wyrm that left the city looking like a lake of lava.

Are you playing actively? What are you playing right now?

At the moment, I’m not playing anything. I want to focus on my personal and professional goals, but as soon as I have the time, I would like to play my own TTRPG.

What is the next thing you want to play?

I would like to play my own game, but I’d definitely get back into D&D—it has always been my favorite.

What projects do you have available, and what are you working on right now?

I am creating my new TTRPG world called “RE//in Eden-01”, which is what I am dedicating myself to at the moment.

It is a mysterious world where the player lacks a physical body, as they are a digitized soul in a crystal container. However, that crystal can be installed in a synthetic body tailored to the character’s needs (representing different character classes).

The player can have more than one body to use, depending on what they need to do. Bodies are created in two ways: Cybernetic or Biological. The player can create a cybernetic body with a human appearance or a fully robotic humanoid. They can also choose to create a “chimera,” where they can make anything from a demi-human to a tentacled aberration.

The world is in danger of being consumed by different factions seeking to gain control, exploit resources, and enslave and strip the inhabitants. The player is “isekai’d” into this world after their death because their soul was copied by an ancient system of unknown origin that saw potential in them. Will the players help restore the world, or will they use their power to eliminate the competition for domination?

Art by Julio

Where can people find your projects?

I still have a lot to write, but I plan to set up a public access site soon so people can check it out.

Any final comments?

I hope you all like it once it’s ready!

Julio, thank you very much for your time. I wish you much success in your work, and I’ll be sure to share any news about the game here on the blog and across my socials as it develops!

 Here is a d100 random encounter and lore table tailored for a high-lethality Sword & Sorcery campaign. In classic pulp style, these entities aren't just blocks of hit points; they are reality-warping terrors that twist the landscape, corrupt the mind, and demand heavy logistics or clever tactical thinking to survive. This blog post picks right up from D100 Sword & Sorcery Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

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