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The Big Book of Beginner Amigurumi by Maggy and Pippa Woodley features "60 Easy Projects for Charming Crochet Creations!" Take a peek inside, and enter to win your own copy of this hefty collection below! Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book for review; all opinions are my own. This post includes affiliate links. […]

The post The Big Book of Beginner Amigurumi - Review and Giveaway appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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 Because the Clement Sector leans heavily into grounded, human-centric hard sci-fi, "Dark Artifacts" in this setting aren't supernatural or magical items. Instead, they represent terrifying pre-Collapse human military experiments, highly illegal genetic or cybernetic technology, lost subsector projects, or deeply unsettling remnants found on worlds that look suspiciously terraformed by an Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who Confidential, 2006 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Baron Vraka the Unbroken views the upper levels of Quasqueton not as a monument to dead wizards, but as an encroaching geopolitical threat. The Orc Vanguard currently occupying Level 1 has begun choking off the ventilation shafts and blocking the surface access points that the Chitin Regime uses for light smuggling. This blog post picks right up from Meditations on the classic In Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Circuit Breaker continues with Adversary of the Daleks, out now from Titan Comics!

Circuit Breaker has already kicked off with Calling the Doctor, free on the UNIT website. From there it will continue all summer, in books, audios, and more. Part of the epic storyline takes place across two new issues from Titan Comics. The first of these is titled Adversary of the Daleks and is out now!

In Circuit Breaker’s overall story arc UNIT scientist Osgood discovers that items from the highly secure Black Archive have gone missing. Worse, these powerful alien artifacts could also tear reality itself apart. But when Osgood summons the Doctor for help, she comes face to face with a stranger. In Adversary of the Daleks, the Doctor and Osgood begin their quest to put things right and immediately run straight into conflict with the Daleks. The Time Lord would appear to be at a disadvantage, against an unfamiliar threat that seems to know her better than she knows herself. But then again, the Fugitive Doctor is more ruthless than any incarnation the Daleks have ever met before…

Adversary of the Daleks is written by Dolce M Montoya and Dan Watters. Watters also wrote the recent Doctor Who series Everyone Must Go! and The Prison Paradox as well as the acclaimed Batman series Dark Patterns. Meanwhile, Watters’ Prison Paradox collaborator Sami Kivelä joins them on art duties.

You can order Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #1 now from Forbidden Planet. in the UK and via Titan in the US. There’s a total of eight different ways to get your copy, with variant covers, textless versions, and even pre-signed copies.

The complete list of covers for Adversary of the Daleks Cover A by Jay Anacleto Circuit Breaker Cover A by Jay Anacleto (c) Titan Comics Cover B – Photo Cover Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #1. Cover B (c) Titan Comics Cover C by Robert Sienecki Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #1. Cover C by Robert Sienecki (c) Titan Comics

 

Cover D by Flops Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #1 Cover D by Flops (c) Titan Comics

 

Cover E by Flops (Black and White Textless version) Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker #1 Cover E by Flops (c) Titan Comics

 

Cover F by Jay Anacleto (Black and White Textless Version) Circuit Breaker Cover F by Jay Anacleto (c) Titan Comics

 

Forbidden Planet Exclusive: Textless Photo Cover Circuit Breaker 1. Textless photo cover (c) Titan Comics

 

Forbidden Planet Exclusive: Jay Anacleto (Textless, Signed Version) Circuit Breaker 1. Textless cover by Jay Anacleto (c) Titan Comics

 

Circuit Breaker continues with The Honourable Society in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine 632, out on the 23rd of July

The post Doctor Who: Adversary of the Daleks – OUT NOW! appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Our Nimble game continued last night with the party leaving the city of Brookdale Mill to rescue the local patron fae Moonblossom who had been kidnapped by a band of goblins. Following the goblin's trail, the party came upon another sign of their aggression: a caravan wagon overturned and at least partially looted. Frea found some loose gold pieces and a cowering halfling, who introduced himself as Shag Marigold. Marigold says he's an artificer traveling to Ervessos to work for the nobility. He was robbed of a manastone, and the oxen that pulled his wagon was chased off.

The party promises to get him back the manastone, if they can (though not the gold). Aelarion used his Naturecraft to figure out the goblins' trail. It was a good thing he was so skilled, too, because the goblins had laid false trails that led to pit traps. The party found the ox in one!

Further into the woods, they came upon a ridge, and they heard raucous laughter. A stealthy reconnoiter revealed a group of goblins playing a "dodge ball" sort of game with stones and one goblin on a giant rat. The party tried to sneak around the ridge and surround them, but they flubbed their stealth rolls and the goblins are alerted. 

The party still held the high ground, and the goblins were at a disadvantage. Aelarion, Tamarra, and Pan blasted the goblins like proverbial fish in a barrel with spells. G'Mbalisto and Frea charged in for melee. 

The rat rider managed to charge up the ridge and smacked Pan, knocking him prone. The other goblins hurled the rocks they had previously used in the game at the party.

In the end, the party wins with very little injury. They even manage to nab one goblin to interrogate. He confusingly asserts that the faerie is "a power source" that "Greb" plans to use for "the juggernaut."

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This adventure is still mostly the intro adventure in the Nimble's GM's guide, though I'm mixing in some other elements to make it more interesting (to me, at least!). We're still getting used to the system. Though its lighter on paper, combat is still taking us about as long as 5e. Of course, we had 10 years' experience with 5e, so no doubt there's plenty of room for improvement here.

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Doomsday Unseen Footage, 2006 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Hello! Welcome back to my Sunday interviews, where I talk to artists and creators from Puerto Rico whose art or creative expressions are related to TTRPGs, gaming, fantasy, and sci-fi.

I must admit that I had wanted to interview Samuel for a while, even if he didn’t know it. Last September, I bought his fantasy comic at an event at the Cuartel de Ballajá. My son and I loved it; we read it and enjoyed it immensely.

We also bought two copies of his monster book, Saving Point: Monster Book Vol. 1 (one for me and another for my son). As a fan of RPG bestiaries, I found Samuel’s art and designs to be excellent. I want to use his creatures at the table soon. The stats in the book are very easy to drop into D&D 5e or adapt to any OSR system.

I highly recommend his published works, and I am eager to see the next installments in the series. Without further ado, I’ll share the answers that Samuel so kindly provided.

Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?

Greetings, everyone. My name is Samuel Figueroa. I am an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer, originally from Cupey Alto, San Juan. If you go to my Instagram gallery (sadsamuart), you will realize that my passion and favorite subjects are creatures, fantasy, and science fiction. Since I was little, I have been a fan of nature and science, and as my decisions steered me toward creativity and illustration, it was inevitable that I would find joy in creating original worlds and strange creatures to populate them.

How would you describe your art?

Even though I would love to be a painter and create the kind of illustrations that often accompany fantasy stories and Western role-playing games (RPGs), my artistic development took me down the path of comics, manga, anime, and Disney. Comic artists like Joe Madureira, Mike Weringo, and Yukito Kishiro formatted my mind, and although my style is distinctive, a very personal mix, I always seek to connect with those who find those styles appealing.

How did you discover TTRPGs?

In high school, I had a friend with “advanced” knowledge of RPGs. While the only thing I knew was Zelda, he already knew about D&D and a long list of RPGs from that era, like Lunar and Final Fantasy. What he brought to school was what got me hooked on RPGs. From then on, it was the only type of game that interested me for many years, until it became clear that the genre was transforming and expanding with series like Mass Effect and Halo, among others. Very beautiful times.

Today my tastes are “set,” so it’s obvious that games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Baldur’s Gate 3 were purchases that took zero brain cells to add to my collection. Beyond what I learned in high school, my fascination with fantasy creatures and stories set in a medieval environment led me to collect books on creatures and mythology, including the D&D Monster Manual, Pathfinder books, Magic: The Gathering, and lore books. Now I am also soaking up the Warhammer 40K universe, to the horror of the characters in my own worlds. They know things will get complicated, having Warhammer as an inspiration.

Do you play actively? What are you playing right now?

As for games like D&D, I would love to say yes, but all the groups I have played with promise a campaign, and then it just ends up being one-shots. I have bought dice and books galore, but I haven’t found a consistent group to play a story from beginning to end. That pushes me toward digital, which is why the games I have played recently are Baldur’s Gate 3, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Fallout 4.

What is the next thing you want to play?

Since I haven’t been able to have a complete D&D and/or Pathfinder experience, I think I would focus on getting that. I suppose D&D or Pathfinder is “vanilla,” considering all the variety out there today in RPGs and homebrews, but well… I want to enjoy the worlds that drove the industry and bounce ideas off players immersed in those worlds. I love seeing memes and videos from influencers who obviously play D&D frequently and offer a glimpse of their highly imaginative adventures.

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

Right now, I am developing the Saving Point series, a fantasy comic whose adventures center on a group of adventurers trying to recover a “lifesaving” sphere stolen from their village. Without it, warriors who die cannot be revived by magic, and in a world where humanity has few tools to compete with monsters and mythical creatures, being able to return to fight another day is essential. But that quest is just the beginning, and the group of adventurers couldn’t be more wet-behind-the-ears, more immature, or more vulnerable to the machinations of evil already in play.

The comics Saving Point #1 and #2 and Vol. 1 of the Monster Book are already available. I am working on the script for the 3rd comic and, simultaneously, developing creatures for the Saving Point Monster Book Vol. 2. I already have enough creatures to fill the book, published as previews in my Instagram gallery (sadsamuart), but I keep designing to include the most interesting ones in the final book. I would love to do a selection of minifigures, perhaps inspired by the classic Bandai “M.U.S.C.L.E. Men / Kikenshi,” but for now I am working on the project by myself; I won’t be able to move it forward until I finish comic #3.

Where can people find your projects?

Right now, what I have left online is available at the Tripleta Studio store. The first two comics were developed and illustrated in partnership with Rangely García, a talented Puerto Rican artist whose comedic sensibilities and art underscored the series’ beginnings. Once I finish comic #3, I will be preparing a selection of products to participate in convention activities again. Previously, the series lived alongside the Tripleta Studio selection, but due to events out of my control, I will now have to move it on my own until it picks up steam. It’s a big challenge, but I don’t see it as impossible.

Any final comments?

These past few years have been challenging for me personally, and economically for the island, and I must admit they have affected my plans for this year. But if no other unexpected blow comes along, I hope to fully invest in the comic and other Saving Point products, perhaps by bringing in a compatible artist to publish faster. My guiding star is the ambition to create a Latino Wizards of the Coast and to bring the imagination and local flavor of fantasy and science fiction to the world. If Japan can do it, so can we. Hopefully, the series’ success paves the way for much more.

Thank you again, Samuel. I am looking forward to seeing your upcoming projects and hope to promote them when they are available.

Thank you all for reading. I will see you next weekend.

Links where you can follow Samuel and see his work:

Art of Bayul on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bayularts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sadsamuart

Saving Point at Tripleta Studio: https://tripletastudio.myshopify.com/collections/saving-point

(A Spanish version of this interview is available on Sunglar’s Musings.)

 D100 Primeval Monster & Hazard EncountersThe wilderness of the Kull era is untamed, featuring prehistoric beasts, dying elder races, and cosmic horrors that predate humanity.d100EncounterDescription & Threat Profile01–15The Serpent Man InfiltratorA single assassin disguised as a trusted ally or local noble. Tactics: It waits for a moment of vulnerability to strike with a poisoned Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Continuing from this thread, here's a few more random RPG pulls and my off-the-cuff thoughts on how they handle setting.

The Black Sword Hack by Kobayashi is a sword and sorcery RPG based on David Black's The Black Hack and is essentially Elric the RPG. It's fantastic. The majestic art of Goran Gligović makes the book shine.

Anyway... setting. In this book, the setting is strongly implied by the tone and themes with the names of locations and kingdoms scattered in random tables, such as a list of languages. There is no default map or specific setting details. Instead, you invent the setting as a group, using the setting elements of the game. For example, there's a "dusty, crumbling empire" called Askavian and a little set of events that could happen in relation to it. But that's about it. The rest is up to you.

The book includes a nice little example setting by Evlyn Moreau.

It's a good approach. If I remember correctly, Orkworld did a similar thing. In that game there is a map without names and you put the various setting locations wherever you want. Either way, these approaches are a hybrid between a written setting and tools for creating your own setting.

Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse by Derek A. Kamal with illustrations by Jacob Hunt is a game about mice and rats in motorcycle clubs. I think this is a FATE-based game and is explicitly called a storytelling game by the author. The way it handles setting is very simple: the game is set in Thunder City, a fictional city on the west coast (of the USA, I think). It's a commerce town, a young town, a place to seek your fortune. The first page of the game is a little map of Thunder City.

So that's a pretty straightforward way of handling setting. But since this is a storytelling game, they aren't overly concerned with laying out every street and dive bar. It's pretty open ended, I think. There's a lot of descriptions of motorcycle gangs, clubhouses, and so forth. Fun.

 

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

The TV Movie looks better than ever in a new 4K remastering

It’s time to party like it’s 1999 because the Doctor Who TV Movie is back, and it’s looking better than ever. It’s undoubtedly one of the most re-released stories in the history of the series. Yet, this new version certainly justifies any double, triple, or even quadruple, dipping it asks of fans. Produced as a co-production with Universal Studios the movie was always a sumptuous affair by Doctor Who standards. It was shot entirely on 35mm film, with none of the sudden switches to video tape any time characters moved indoors that typified the BBC made episodes. Now, however, that original 35mm footage has been rediscovered in a Universal storage facility. Thanks to that, the painstakingly remastered Blu-ray edition looks incredible, even in 4K.

In a way it simply emphasises how stylish it’s always been. For years, there was a lingering reverse snobbery about it among some corners of fandom. A belief, perhaps, that Doctor Who actually should be wobbly sets, dodgy rubber monsters, and fuzzy videotape. However, more than twenty years since the show’s revival, the sort of fun transitions and smooth blocking that punctuate Geoffrey Sax’s direction seem much more familiar. That said, these 90 minutes are still more packed with gorgeous lighting and beautiful direction than your everyday Who. Cameras rotate as they travel down empty hospital corridors, the torture device intended for the Doctor is first glimpsed in a mirror, and the Doctor’s rebirth swaps back and forth with footage from Universal’s own Frankenstein.

There’s only disadvantage this new upgrade, in fact. The lace front of Paul McGann’s wig is rather more obvious to eagle eyed viewers than before.

 

The new set reuses pre-existing commentaries and info text, however 2010’s The Seven Year Hitch is as compelling as ever

Having been around the block a few times now, the Doctor Who TV Movie already comes with a healthy package of existing extras. Inevitably, these are a bit of mixed bag. 2010’s The Seven Year Hitch continues to be one of the most compelling Making Of documentaries in the Whoniverse. It’s a frank recollection of the difficulties involved in the dramatic, and sometimes frustrating, battle to get the beloved Time Lord back on our screens. On one side of the Atlantic, Philip Segal battles against the BBC’s disinterest in the show. It’s a lack of faith which sometimes tips over into outright hostility towards the project. On the other, he struggles to infect luminaries like Steven Spielberg with his love of the show.

There are also two commentaries, one by Sax, and the other by erstwhile Doctors McGann and Sylvester McCoy, both hail from the early days of DVD commentaries. It was a time when contributors weren’t entirely comfortable with the format yet. As a result, they’re both rather tentative in their own way. The two Doctors provide a rather low key round of anecdotes. Meanwhile, Sax’s is very dry, with some rather redundant observations like noting every time the Master-snake appears that it was CGI.

Most disappointing perhaps, is the decision not to update the original Info Text, leading to oddities like it claiming Paul McGann never played the Doctor on screen again.

 

The set also has new interviews with almost all the major players with one notable exception

Sax is much more enthusiastic form 25 years later when In Conversation with Matthew Sweet. It’s one of the highlights of the set, revealing the director as a deeply imaginative creator responsible for many of the best things about the TV Movie. He’s also almost pathologically humble, to the point that even Sweet scoffs. McCoy is similarly revitalised compared to his commentary performance, this time in an interview with Doctor Who’s own Janet Fielding. Unexpectedly though, the main takeaway is a new appreciation for the genius and generosity of their mutual friend and collaborator Ken Campbell.

Paul McGann has always drawn special praise for how quickly he nails his version of the Doctor. But rare behind the scenes footage here will deepen your appreciation of just how fragile and magical that is. During his audition a single two word note (“More excited,”) suddenly brings the Eighth Doctor we’ve known and loved for a quarter century since to instant life. It’s a testament to McGann’s skill that he infers so much about the character’s entire personality from that simple note.

In between all this, there are gems like the TARDIS model footage from the opening credits, and an isolated soundtrack. The latter in particular is really elevated by not being in competition with the bombastic dialogue and sound effects.

It’s just a shame there isn’t more of Paul McGann himself here. But then again, any plans for a new McGann commentary and In Conversation can be held as selling points to justify quintuple dipping for the inevitable Collection Wilderness Years set…

 

Doctor Who: The TV Movie on Blu-ray and 4K. Cover by Lee Binding (c) BBC Studios Doctor Who: The TV Movie

The Doctor is returning home to Gallifrey with the remains of his arch-nemesis, the Master. Forced off course, the TARDIS arrives in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1999, where the Doctor is critically wounded in a gangland gun battle. At the local hospital, Dr Grace Holloway fights – and fails – to save his life.

Later, in the morgue, the Doctor wakes up a new man. But he is not the only one – the Master has also found himself a new body. As the clock counts down to the start of the new millennium, can the Doctor stop his oldest enemy destroying all life on Earth?

The post REVIEW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie Blu-ray appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Quick note: This is something I do every Saturday on my Facebook Page, Sunglar’s Musings. Since I know not everyone is on Facebook and I wanted to close out the week here on the blog, I’m sharing my post from FB here.

To close out our week here on the blog celebrating Vampire: The Masquerade’s 35th anniversary, let’s look at my recommendations for playing VtM and exploring the World of Darkness (WoD).

(Note: The links below are DriveThruRPG affiliate links!)

The Classic World of Darkness

First, most obviously, Vampire: The Masquerade. I own the current 5th edition of the rules in digital format, but I feel like I would probably run a game with the 20th-anniversary rules. For those of you who have played both, which do you recommend?

• VtM 20th Anniversary Edition: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/94815/vampire-the-masquerade-20th-anniversary-edition?affiliate_id=3727
• VtM 5th Edition: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/256795/vampire-the-masquerade-5th-edition?affiliate_id=3727

Like I said earlier this week, if I were to run VtM, I would keep it an all-vampire affair. But if you want to mix your games, I have played Werewolf, Mage, and I really like Demon: The Fallen (I never actually played Changeling or Wraith).

• Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112871/werewolf-the-apocalypse-20th-anniversary-edition?affiliate_id=3727
• Mage 20th Anniversary Edition: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149562/mage-the-ascension-20th-anniversary-edition?affiliate_id=3727
• Demon: The Fallen: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/636/demon-the-fallen?affiliate_id=3727

My absolute favorite book for VtM, other than the core rulebook, has always been the lore-heavy Book of Nod:

• The Book of Nod: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/538135/vampire-the-masquerade-5th-edition-the-book-of-nod?affiliate_id=3727

A Savage Alternative

For something COMPLETELY different, I could easily see myself running a Vampire and World of Darkness campaign using (say it with me now!) Savage Worlds.

What would I need? The core rulebook, of course, and the Horror Companion. The rules in that latter book have most of what I need, including rules for Vampires, Werewolves, Demons, Ghosts, and magic for Mages.

• Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE): (A steal for $9.99 in PDF!) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/261539/savage-worlds-adventure-edition?affiliate_id=3727
• SWADE Horror Companion: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/448302/swade-horror-companion?affiliate_id=3727

Finally, Contagion Savage Adventures is a setting for Savage Worlds that proposes a world not unlike the WoD—a world where mythical creatures fight a once-secret battle now out in the open. It is a very interesting setting, fully compatible with the Horror Companion above, and something I would definitely mine for a possible “Savage World of Darkness” homebrew:

• Contagion Savage Adventures: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198324/contagion-savage-adventures?affiliate_id=3727

(Bonus tip: If you look online, you can also find a fan-made Savage Worlds conversion for Monte Cook’s World of Darkness. While it’s not exactly the original WoD, it has rules for the creatures in that book that give you great ideas for additional tweaks!)

Thanks for reading along this week! It’s been so much fun doing this themed week on the blog. Is this something you enjoyed? Let me know in the comments, and if it proves popular, I may try doing another themed week soon!

The second volume of the Fifteenth Doctor’s Doctor Who Magazine comic strip adventures is coming soon

The Fifteenth Doctor’s adventures continue in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine! Join him as he hurtles through time and space in this action-packed collection of comic-strip adventures! From a deadly game of ‘It’ on the planet Grey Grieving to battling a skeletal Ossurian at the Museum of Natural History, the Doctor faces thrills, chills and unexpected dangers at every turn! Impish enemies, disco delinquents and spine-chilling spooks are bad enough. But there’s even worse on the horizon for the Doctor when he clashes with the Daleks in 1920s Paris. Drawn into a cabaret of shadows and secrets, he finds familiar faces and dabblers in the occult – and discovers his oldest, most deadly foes may have struck a deal with the devil!

This second volume of comic strip adventures for Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation of the Time Lord reprints the strips from DWM issues 613 to 631. It includes the stories:

• Run
• Dance Till You Drop
• No Signs of Life
• His Mad Pranks
• Field Trip
• A Ghost Story for Christmas
• Corruption of the Daleks

Scripts are by Alan Barnes. Jason Quinn, John Freeman, and Mike Collins. Meanwhile, art is from Martin Geraghty, James Offredi, Mike Collins, and John Ross. Across these seven stories, the Doctor travels variously with Belinda Chandra, Mel Bush, his classic DWM companion Fey Truscott-Sade, and by himself. And not only do they provide an unexpected prequel/sequel to Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s classic Black Legacy, but an opportunity for this incarnation to finally face the Daleks!

 

Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks (c) Panini Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks

Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks is available to pre-order now from Amazon with a release date of the the 4th of November. There’s still no official confirmation, but there will likely also be an alternate cover exclusive to the Panini store once the listing goes online there.

The post Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Greg Daley
Tarichan Games
B/X
Level 3

In the delta city of Portic, the heralds walk the bridges and call for the brave to save the settlement from the pernicious Thieve’s Guild. Papyri offering rewards in the thousands of gold pieces are handed out to the armed, the weaselly, and the wise. Advertising had its effect and dozens of applicants turned up at the Lighthouse. Even after describing the undead infested island, and the underground trap maze expected to confront them, four groups of adventurers drew lots to select which night they enter. The party is assembled, with retainers in tow, as the sun sinks west on the third day. No one has yet emerged from the Odd’s Sink (the Island of the Death). Straps are tightened, supplies checked, and holy symbols kissed as the guards move the barricade on the pontoon bridge.

This 26 page adventure uses about sixteen pages to present forty rooms in two tomb/undead themed dungeons. It is … obscure? In a good way. Full of tomb encounters that are familiar and yet not boring old vanilla tomb encounters. This feels like a lived-in world. That needs an editor in charge of formatting and layout.

You’ve read the marketing blurb, above, and it sounds a little early days to me. Like, 1972 early days. But, let’s back up a minutes and cover what has lead to that marketing blurb, above. We’ve got an old city. The nobility want to revolt cause they don’t like the current .gov. Revolts cost money. They get a loan from the local Guild Bank. This is a legitimate front for the thieves guild, which the current .gov kind of telerates. Revolution successful, there’s a new .gov in charge. Oh, the nobles have a VERY large sum to pay back to the Guild bank. And don’t want to. And the new .gov HATES thieves. Thus starts a pogrom against the thieves and the guild bank, which has an air of neighborhood watch death squads to it, an/or citizen checkpoints/militias. The last of the guild has been tracked to the Isle of the Dead, a funerary isle for the city. Chill during the day for burials, at night the undead walk about and giant beam of blue light shoots up into the sky. And the last of the guild was seen descending in to a tomb tha the light shoots up from. NOW you can go to the lighthouse and apply to root out the last of the guild … and you’re third in line to do so after drawing lots. Needless to say, your turns pops.

There are two dungeons to explore, each with about twenty or so rooms with a “tomb” or catacombs theme to both of them. Supplementing this is a small handful of other encounters nearby. A ship anchored offshore that could be aligned with the guild. Another, with a letter of marque, bringing in smugglers and pirates. Not exactly an adventure locale but more support for play AFTER the tombs are entered and the party returns out again, either successful or taking a break before they reenter. IE: things to support downtime, and such. This is further supplemented by eight or so “events.” Each takes up about a quarter of a page and details some things that could happen to complicate things. If the party returns out of the dungeon then maybe they get approached by someone and a conversation is had and an alternative entrance is offered, or bribes, or so on. 

I’m hoping, from all of that, you take away of a kind of context tha the designer has provided for the adventure. A context that all directly relates to things going in the adventure that a DM can use to add interesting things going on in the real world, to riff on and further enhance play. Specifics. It gives the world a kind of lived-in feel. The dungeon encounters, also, have a kind of lived-in feel to them, but its done in a different way. One room is kind of partially flooded. Below the water, is a grate that shifts if any step on it. (That, alone, is pretty nifty room feature. The use of a shifting grate implies things that a static grate does not.) “The Red Tree brigade, who entered the vaults first, are still here. They move through the water, their mail and robes torn, the wizened and twisted shapes no longer alive. They thrash through the water toward the warm meat of the party. – Red Tree Brigade Ghoul (3) “ The flooded room. The grate in the floor. The SHIFTING grate, and then the former party. It’s layered, and feels real to me. And the adventure does this over and over again. I think tomb dungeons can usually feel boring. But this has more of an undercity vibe, with tombs, vibe thing going on. Not completely, but there’s enough that it does bring a freshness to it. Ye Olde Slamming Locke Door is present as a trap room in this, but the room fills with smoke, a real life hazard that is quite seldom used. And this in spite of the twenty-ish room size of each of the dungeons. 

And this thing is a PAIN. I mentioned “obscure”, yes?

It’s like, all over the place. Sometimes we get a “you” in the descriptions. “A set of creatures clunks toward you, heavily decayed, skull domes showing. …” Sometimes there’s a random monster stats in a room that IN NO WAY mentions a creature. The rooms are inconsistently written, not clear in many places, or similar features described different ways, in the same room, making you wonder if you’re missing something. The text is … obdurate. Lengthy, maybe with a touch of self-indulgence, but not falling in to any clearly recognizable sin, like backstory, trap and door porn, or explaining why. Maybe a little of the if/then style. It’s just hard to dig through it all. Hard, but not unrewarding.

I am waffling, back and forth, on the Tarichan adventures. Best. No Regerts. I’m going to Best this one, I think. But, also, you know what I really wish? That Daley keep writing. Keep working on his products. And every day go back and edit the manuscript to this adventure for ten minutes or so. Every day. Not with the intent to publish it again but just to rework it and try to clean it up. Call it a daley trip to the adventure formatting and writing gym. Just to kind of get in the practice of seeing what’s possible, without any pressure to produce.

Anyway, good little necropolis adventure. and, frankly, I think Daley is about at the point in which he’s on an auto-buy list.

This is $3.50 at DriveThru. The preview is fourteen pages, more than enough to get a sense of the piece. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/570696/wmc-vaults-of-urpiram?1892600

 Here is a comprehensive d20 table of complications, hazards, and unexpected operational twists to throw at your players once they breach the airlock or cross the threshold of a space wreck.d20 Space Wreck Complications & Environmental Hazardsd20Hazard CategoryDescription & Mechanical Impact1Structural DecompressionThe hull integrity is hanging by a thread. Any explosive weapon fire,Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – TV Insider, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The topic for today’s post may seem a bit odd for a gaming blog, but bear with me. I was getting ready to write my next post for this week’s theme of vampires—all in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Vampire: The Masquerade (VtM)—and then I heard the news this morning.

I heard it on AM radio of all places (yes, at 53, I am officially that old) that Bonnie Tyler passed away at 75.

Just by looking at my friends’ reactions on social media, I can tell that her music resonated deeply with those of us who have been rolling dice for four decades. But what does this have to do with vampires and gaming, you ask? To that, I say: have you actually listened to the lyrics and watched the music video for “Total Eclipse of the Heart”?

Let me show it to you:

With lyrics like these, you can immediately see the vampiric undertones:

“I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark.” “Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time.” “Once upon a time there was light in my life / But now there’s only love in the dark.” “Forever’s gonna start tonight.” “Turn around, bright eyes / Every now and then I fall apart.”

I am NOT making this up. Writer Jim Steinman originally conceived the song as a piece for a musical adaptation of the movie Nosferatu (you can read about it in this People article), and the song’s Wikipedia page notes that its original title was “Vampires in Love.”

The connection is not subtle! Even the TV series The Vampire Diaries has an episode named after the song.

This track is a core part of the music I automatically relate to vampires, forever playing on the gaming soundtrack in my head. I KNOW that fans of VtM and the World of Darkness probably have very different, likely more goth-punk, musical references for their games. But between Dracula the Musical, Bonnie Tyler, and other sweeping 80s rock epics, these are my ultimate GM musical references.

Bonnie Tyler had many other hits, of course. The one I immediately think of in a broader gaming context is “Holding Out For A Hero.” It’s been used in superhero movies and countless action sequences, and it is a truly perfect anthem for TTRPG heroics. Here’s the video:

And, keeping with the World of Darkness theme, I must mention that Whitesnake’s “Still of the Night” is obviously an anthem for Werewolf: The Apocalypse:

So, appropriately enough, we started the workweek with a post about musical inspiration for VtM, and ended on the same topic we began with.

See you tomorrow for the final post in our Vampire series. Rest in peace, Bonnie.

Events have conspired to put in a wuxia mood what with the Wandering Blades draft, the impending release of the new Last Airbender movie, and the recent Criterion sale on Amazon where I picked up a couple of wuxia titles among other things. Then there's Wesley Chu's wuxia-inspired fantasy novel, The Art of Prophecy. I've been listening to the audiobook.

Chu's book is interesting because it mixes the epic fantasy elements with the wuxia ones. The people of Zhuun have been training a prophesized champion to defeat the Eternal Khan and free them from the menace of the Katuia tribes and their steam-powered roving cities of the grasslands. The first problem is the champion, a fifteen year-old boy named Jian, hasn't really received the proper training. Instead, he's just grown up spoiled by luxury and self-importance. The elder "master war artist" Ling Taishi shows up to set things right, but she's just starting to make headway with the boy when the second problem drops: the Eternal Khan is killed while drunk by a random Zhuun soldier. 

With the prophecy busted, Jian is a political liability for the five Dukes of Zhuun and the delicate balance of power between them. Tiashi rescues the boy, and they both go on the run.

When while, the Katuia are thrown into chaos and the warrior Sali, decides to break tradition and delay her duty in order to try to find the only surviving member of her family. There's also the mad assassin Qisami thrown into the mix.

I like how Chu uses familiar wuxia elements but remakes them for a fantasy world. Instead of the wulin we have the lunar court as the society of martial artists, presumably related to the world's three moons and their seasonal cycles. Instead of "lightness kung fu" Tiashi's abilities are described as manipulating air with her spiritual energy. There are also the completely un-wuxia elements of the Steampunkish Katuia cities and their home grassland which is formed by gigantic blades of crash and a brittle crust of earth over a sea.

There are 2 more books in the series after this one, and I am interested in seeing where it goes.