Micro-Adventure - #114 RATS!

 Dungeon tropes are a thing to embrace, not to dismiss. It's simple to handwave the storm the orc infested tower to save the princess, evil wizard in a tower, a cult has kidnapped a child, and the one I am addressing is the rats in the cellar trope. This is actually the third micro-adventure using the trope. None of them are alike. I like taking expectations and twisting them. That's what I do with RATS!

This is part of my Micro-Adventure series that I write for my Patreon. Please take a look at patreon.com/gothridge and check it out. All my offerings are free.


https://youtu.be/1F5jAAd8TUc

My Next Project on Patreon

Hey Everyone,

First off I'd like to shout out a few new members that has joined our ranks. The latest one is Peepeetugboat. I believe I know Peepeetugboat from somewhere. It's hard to forget a name like that. Mike Halleron aka the Erudite DM is in the house. Mike is a notorious Franophile and a friend I've gamed with last year. And Jon Smith has decided to get some cool things in the mail. I appreciate you and everyone else who's joined my Patreon. I'm nearly at 550.

On to the things that are happening. First, The Demon of Porters Crown has been printed. I just need to sit my ass down and prepare the labels and shove them in the mail. I plan on getting them out on Monday.

The picture above is what I'm working on for the next project. When I did my poll a few months back creating urban locations was the highest vote getter. Fogest & Beluer Alleys is the first of the series. I am including what the cover will look like.

One of the reasons I started this Patreon, in 2011 (I think), was to do these short projects so I could play with different layouts, graphic design, and just ways to present information in different ways. This one is a little different from my typical offering as it is a top fold. I have to perform some acrobatics with revising it for printing compared to a typical zine design. It allows the GM to see a full page when opened.

It's one of y more involved projects for Patreon, probably my largest. I am adding a lot of elements into the project.

· A map of solid blocks to represent each of the individual buildings. Labels on the detailed entries. Not all buildings are labeled. The way I uses the unlabeled buildings is as homes, tenements or yet to be determined. Sometimes your party needs a cartographer nearby and you can take a blank building and create a cartographer shop instantly.

· Each block has its own unique random encounter table. Each neighborhood has its own unique feels but I also have things overlap with other parts of the city so its not isolated.

· Each entry has a short description of the building itself.

· Then owner and who ever is involved and the services provided.

· Price lists.

· Averaging 4 to 5 Adventure Seeds if the GM would like to get the party involved into something more than buying charcoal.

· Other NPCs that can often be found frequenting the business.

· What associations the location has with the neighborhood. It provides a quick look at how the neighborhood reacts to the business.

· And then there are sections where I describe/stat an important NPC or item I mention.

· Art from kickass artists like Rick Hershey, Dean Spencer, The Forge and others. I've linked to their Patreons. I highly suggest you take a look and consider joining. 

As you can you can see by the list I've tried to jam this full of cool content that is easy to access and use at the table.

I'm hoping to complete it this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Unbalance the Scales, a free ShadowDark Adventure

It's Christmas. I'm in my office. Snowing outside. Coffee in hand. Netflix in my ears. Drawing a map. I wanted to share an adventure I shared with my Patreon a few days ago. I used a different layout. Very much inspired by the one page dungeon contest. It's full of great artwork! It's an adventure using ShadowDark. Grab the PDF for free. As all of my adventures are available for free on PDF. Grab a small stocking stuff adventure gift for yourself.

Enjoy!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-115-unbalance-146333607

Indexing Adventures

June 11th, 2014 I started my Patreon. 1While I haven't been active during the past half year or so I've accumulated 110 micro-adventures, 37 micro-locations, 43 NPC cards  and 2 collections of Shadowdark magic items. Through those years I've written for different systems starting with Swords & Wizardry Complete, Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, Old School Essentials and most recently, Shadowdark.

Nearly all have a place within my home campaign of the Komor Forest. Joe the Lawyer has been on my ass about combining them all. 

While I am no place to do a setting compilation I am cataloging everything I have created on Patreon and my other products over the years. What I am creating an index. I go through each one and detail the place type of the adventure (i.e. crypt, forest ruins ect...) enemies, any new thing I introduce such as gods, items and magic items, relics, spell reagents, disease, groups and places of note. 

It's been interesting returning to the old adventures. I've forgotten a lot. It'll be good to have them organized so I can finally have a definitive guide to the Komor Forest. This will allow me to generate more content that will relate to other pieces I've written and allow me to funnel down into my world mythology.

If your interested in checking out my work, my world please join me at https://www.patreon.com/gothridge. I'm going to tell you secret. To get access to my content. All of it, you don't even have to join. Don't tell anyone. All my PDFs are free to grab, but if you'd like physical copies check out the pledge levels. 

Hope you'll join and partake in some fun nonsense. 

ShadowDark Magic Items

The next campaign I run will use the ShadowDark RPG. I'm not sure when that'll be (I'm hoping a little later this year), but ShadowDark is my choice. I've only experienced it with one-shots. I want to kick the tires on a campaign. 

ShadowDark is a grim, gritty, and other words that begin with g system. It is geared for low-level play, only going to 10th level in the rulebook. There are several low-level magic items included. Some familiar, some not so much. I needed to play around with creating a few of my own. Here is a quartet of magic items I offered on my Patreon. The PDF is free to grab. Some folks prefer the actual item can join and get some cool stuff in the mail. 

These magic items are very specific to my setting, but adjusting them to your setting would only take a little elbow grease. I just thought to myself younger people have no idea what elbow grease means. 

A trio of artists with their fanatic black and white artwork made these cards possible. Carlos Castillho did two of the pieces, Daniel Whitehall, and William McAusland. I used the format of ShadowDark and I like the section dedicated to the history of the item. It helps ground the item within a setting.

I hope this finds everyone well and gaming. Enjoy.

Growling Mage Tavern

The other day I used Frog God Games Journey Generator. There was a set of tables to create an inn or tavern. So I rolled up one because you can never have too many taverns. So here is the Growling Mage Tavern. 

Some of the tables have what other buildings that may be around the tavern. This one has a full compliment of services and buildings. 

Growling Mage Tavern is newly constructed tavern a days travel east of Hounds Head. It was built upon with the ruins of a Northman homestead. The base of the tavern and a good portion of the wall is the original construction of the Northmen. Graham the Grave is the owner and has a staff of six others that assist him with keeping the tavern running.

• there are no rooms to rent, but travelers can camp within the stone walls, but if attacked must assist in the defense
• ale.....2sp
• wine.....5sp
• roasted pork with fried mushrooms.....4sp
• bread and cheese.....2sp
• roasted eggs and sausage breakfast.....2sp

Stone Wall: The stone wall is 5' high to keep out wolves and other nocturnal predators. Holly Brewston tends to the wall. She has a pile of stones behind the outhouse. Those that are short on their tab are tasked with going into the forest to gather stones or make various repairs on the wall or other buildings.

Stable: There are eight stables. One stall is occupied by a yak as all times.  Graham has a chance of a riding horse for sale (2 in 6 chance, triple the listed cost). It costs 5sp a night to stable a horse which includes two feedings and a grooming. Edrea of Eccleston takes care of the stable services. Prices are not negotiable. 

Blacksmith: Merl Rey is the blacksmith. He makes horseshoes and nails. He repairs some tools and on occasion he'll repair some weapons and armor. He'll only do this if he knows and likes the person. 

Outhouse: There are three stalls to do your business. The waste drops 30' into a small cave system below. There are rumors of an otyugh living below due to the noises heard through the poop holes.

Chicken Coup & Dovecote: There two are tended by Jolene Johnnycakes. There are thirty chickens on average, they produce the eggs she uses in her meals. There are are over sixty doves used as meat birds and also their eggs. 

Staff

Graham the Grave is the owner of the Growling Mage Tavern. The name came from his fellow adventurers who often took pleasure with aggravating the stoic mage. Graham kept the name, secretly liking it. While the tavern isn't making money, but he has a small fortune saved. He plans to clear land to encourage others to settle. There have been trouble with wolves and heard rumors of a worg nearby. He'll give a generous reward to anyone who brings him the worg's head.

Holly Brewston is a broad woman with a big smile. She is always working on something. She cleans the tavern, maintains the wall, and tracks the patrons who are volunteering. 

Erdea of Eccelston takes care of the horses. She is here for a short time to get money to upgrade her equipment so she can adventure again. She is often found next to the stables cooking up a meal she trapped or hunted. She likes talking to adventurer types and knows the surrounding area well and warns of massive packs of wolves. 

Lindley Hawkins is one of the servers in the tavern and Graham's significant other. She keeps the everyday business going and handles any issues. Since Graham doesn't have the tolerance for stupidity. Lindley is nice until it's time not to be nice. She's also a trained mage with several nasty surprises at her disposal. 

Jolene Johnnycakes is a halfling who does the cooking. She is fanatical about eggs. She'll talk about eggs for hours. 

Merl Rey is the blacksmith. He is only doing it as a favor to Graham. He hates being in the Komor Forest. He'd rather return to City of Scorn. That's where his friends and guildmates are. But Graham promised to help him with money to open his own smithy in Scorn.

Edmund is the 'bouncer'. Edmund is eight years old. He has the innate ability to look at someone and get them sober. This usually causes people to reconsider their actions. Lindley found him Scorn and adopted him. He is a peculiar little one, she believes he may have untapped magic abilities. 

There is a more detailed version of the Growling Mage Tavern over at my Patreon. You can grab the PDF for free. And if you like what you see please consider joining. 

Thanks!

Who Wants an Adventure? A Cool Location? How about an NPC Card?

 

July I created three 'things' for my Patreon. You can see Viviana above. She is my 34th NPC Card. An elven mage with some anger issues. She is statted for OSE rules. And the artwork is by Quico Vicens-Picatto of Misfit Studios. 

Next is The Maggot King. An adventure that'll take the players back a few hundred years to face an undead abomination, but the truth is, he was more of an abomination alive. This is a quick adventure for a single session. Artwork is by Yuri Perkowski Domingos. 

And lastly is Crystal Hunters. A location with interlacing situations going on for the party to get entangled. How could they not want to help out a party of poor miners against the giant Mining Guild. Dean Spencer and William McAusland helped bring this location to life.

Those who'd like to sample of collect my offerings, head on over to my Micro-Adventure Patreon and the PDFs are free. And if you'd like to get these in the mail please consider joining in on the fun. 

Revisiting Old Micro-Adventures: The Pig and the Ogre

 

I've been doing my Patreon since June of 2014. Yep, a way long time. The Pig and the Ogre was my 3rd micro-adventure. It was done on a 4" x 6" notecard that I laminated. My mapping style was basic with a flair of colored pencils. I was using a program called Xara to add the numbers and adventure title. What you see on the map is about the extent of what I could do. 

I used silhouettes to depict the monsters, and the pig in this case. I can't draw worth a shit and I didn't have a lot of money to buy stock art so I made due. And the system I used was Swords & Wizardry.

I present a simple situation where the crops are being damage by an ogre and villagers are afraid that they won't have enough food for the winter. I love my fake sleeping ogre and the fact he created a makeshift catapult escape plan. What could go wrong? 

I present you the adventure with warts and all. If you're interested in the PDF of The Pig and the Ogre you can grab it off my Patreon for free. 

Introduction

An ogre was spotted in the forest outside the village. The northern crops were heavily damaged. If more fields are harmed the villagers will not have enough food for the winter.

1. North Field

The three north fields look like a giant pig routed around ground leaving large holes. Nothing to do with the ogre. Only a few plants managed to survive the onslaught. Also apparent is the large foot prints next to giant hooved prints. They are easily tracked into the dark forested area.

2. Forest

The forest is thick with large trees and heavy undergrowth. The ogre has left an easy trail to follow. Within the forest the party will need a light source. Fire light sources may cause a bit of extra excitement (a 1 in 6 chance of catching debris or dead branches on fire).

3. Pit Traps

The ogre has dug a series of crude, but effective pit traps. He’s trying to catch the boar. The pits are hidden by a few branches (4 in 6 chance of spotting it). Each pit is about 12’ deep with spikes at the bottom. Falling damage is 1d4 due to the soft earth, but if the player get impaled by a spike (2 in 6 chance) it causes 2d6 damage.

4. Giant Boar

Off the path the party hears loud snorting and huffing. A squeal erupts, and the under branches shatter as a giant boar smashes through and charges the party.

Giant Boar: HD 6+1; HP 30; AC 4 [15]; Atk gore (3d6); Move 15; Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; CL/XP 7/600; Special: Continues to fight for 2 rounds after it is ‘killed’.

The boar weights over 500lbs and if the meat is processed correctly, it can be sold for 2sp/pound. The pair of large tusks can be sold as a novelty/trophy item for 50sp.

5. Sleeping Ogre

The party comes to a ridge and they hear the loud snoring. Beneath a rocky outcropping is a sleeping ogre. The ogre is faking. He’s hoping to lure the party into another trap. He holds a rope that triggers six logs to tumble onto the trail. The logs attack as a 5HD creature and do 2d6 damage. The ogre will attack as soon as he releases his trap.

Ogre: HD 4+1; HP 20; AC 4[15]; Atk scimitar (1d10+1); Move 9; Save 13; AL C; CL/XP 4/120; Special: None. 

The ogre is armed with a crude scimitar and made a shield from the side of a horse cart. If he feels he may lose the battle, he will run for a tree he has tied down. He will lay on the tree, cut the rope and catapult himself on top of the ridge to escape (target roll of 12 (using a d20), if he misses he hits the side of the ridge taking 2d4 damage). There is one large sack made from a deer hide. Inside the party will find 23sp and 17cp loose, a small metal coffer (locked) with 100sp inside, two silver rings (10sp) and a silver ring with a ruby (50sp), a longsword, two wood axes and a battered helm.

NPC #27 Kalem

NPC#27 Kalem is the first time I've altered the NPC Card layout. I've been using Old School Essentials for the past couple years and wanted the cards to reflect that. I had a few tweaks. But I think it looks good now with all the information at the GM's ready.

This time I went with Luigi Castellani for the artwork. His work is prominently featured in my NPC Cards. 

Please head over to my Micro-Adventures Patreon and grab a free PDF. And if you like what you see consider pledging to get a laminated copy sent to you in the mail.

Free Adventures for the Plague

I've seen several folks offering up free adventures due to the current plague-ridden world we currently live in. I just wanted to remind folks that over on my Patreon of Micro-Adventures, PDFs have always been free. Right now there are 86 Micro-Adventures, 29 Micro-Locations, and 25 NPC Cards. Along with a handful of other available items. 

That's 140+ items free for the taking. You could easily grab a few of those adventures and cobble together a micro-campaign. 

Please stop by and grab some PDFs. I include GM and player maps for virtual tabletop play. 

Game on motherfuckaaas! 

Forgotten Crypt of Sir Reginald

Click to grab the PDF

I've been grinding away this month working on a hex crawl adventure that I plan on adding to Zine Quest 2 on Kickstarter. Last year was the first time Kickstarter took the month of February and featured old-school zines. I missed it. I'm not going to let that happen again. 

But I needed a break. So what do I do to take a break from writing an adventure. I write a different adventure. 

The Forgotten Crypt of Sir Reginald is my 86th micro-adventure and my 140th offering created for my Patreon. Everyone of them I've released for free on PDF. And those who wish to get a physical copy push a pledge button. Or if you just like what I do, there is the option to throw a tip into the jar. 

This adventure has been laying around for a while. Sir Reginald's Crypt is actually one of the many entrances into a mega-dungeon I work on occasionally. I believe there are over 350 keyed areas and I've written about 50 of them. I haven't had a party plunder those depths yet. Maybe someday soon.

Sir Reginald is a regional hero in my campaign. For a small group of people he's the shit. He's the one that helped them when no one else would. This adventure is an introduction to the end of his story. I may have a couple more adventures coming out that feature different deeds through out his life. 

I should mention I used a piece of artwork from Rick Hersey of Fat Goblin Games. And I am using another piece of his art (I'm hearing Janis Joplin in my head) for this month's NPC card, coming soon. 

I created a new undead using this piece as the inspiration, skull collector. He's a weird skeleton-like undead who can grab the skulls off of corpses and adhere them on its shoulders. Then use them as missile weapons that do d4 damage. I liked the idea of it. Kinda creepy. It's good to throw an unknown at the players every now and then. 

I also added an element of where nature interacts with magic. I love weaving those elements into my campaign. In this case moonstones are used by necromancers to enhance their raised undead. Effectively they get their max hit points while wearing a moonstone. 

And lastly, poor Reginald suffered one of the worse fates he could have ever imagined. He became one of the undead he hunted all his life. A victim of a wight's drain. Sometimes fate has a cruel sense of humor. 

Alright folks, thanks for stopping by. Again, please stop by Micro-Adventures Patreon and grab some PDFs and consider pledging. But only pledge if you like getting cool gaming stuff in the mail. If you hate that kind of thing...why?!?

Take care!

Patreon: Year's End of Micro-Adventures

I'm not sure if I've done a year end report for my Patreon to check on the growth (or decline) of my Micro-Adventures. This year I thought it would be good to take a look at the past three years just to get some perspective.

Why don't I start off with my production through these years.

Stats for 2016

• 16 Micro-Adventures
•   7 Micro Locations

Patrons
Start: 68
End: 63
Highest: 73
Lowest: 63

Pledges
Start: 165.75
End: 158.75
Highest: 176.25 (Aug)
Lowest: 149.75 (Feb)

• Loss of 5 patrons
• Loss of $7 of pledges
• My production was 1.92 releases a month. 
• I had six months of growth and six months of decline.
• The largest losses were $16 in pledges in February and $10.50 in October. 
• The largest gains were $10.50 in May and $8.50 in October. 

Notes

Since this was a couple years back my memory about what happened is fuzzy. I do remember struggling with the lack of progress with my Patreon. It seemed to have 'topped out'. I decided to try a few things to increase patrons such as being better with sharing my content. I was lax on spreading the word about what I was doing. If I wanted to get my Micro-Adventures in the right direction I needed to try new things. Even if they were out of my comfort zone. 

Some of My Favorites from 2016

The Hoblin Goblin Run

First off, I love the title. My wife, The Happy Whisk, is the one who came up with it after mishearing me say hobgoblin. It is also the first micro-adventure with a isometric map. Not the best in the world, but suited the adventure. I also created a Potion of Treasure Finding that was specific toward one item and with a horrible side effect that would kill the imbiber if the item was not found in time.

The Charcoaler's Ransom

I did a lot of research for this adventure. I love grabbing a piece of minutiae and digging in to find an adventure. Taking a simple charcoaler out of the economy can cripple the area.  And to top it off, those that kidnapped the charcoaler, treat him like a king. While the kidnappers wanted to extort money from the nobles, they had no intention of harming the charcoaler. Providing another small twist.

The Weeping Witch

I've run this adventure a few times. It's a ton of fun. It has a lot of elements squeezed into a situation. A boy goes missing. There are some questions about his caretaker. The identity of the Weeping Witch. And why are all of them connected? It is a cool little mystery that can have very different endings. I feel good about all the elements and possibilities I managed to get in this one. It is my go to adventure for cons right now. 

Stats for 2017

• 15 Micro-Adventures
•   4 Micro-Locations
•   4 NPC Cards
•   1 The Manor #9

Patrons

Start: 68
End: 74
Highest: 84 (April & June)
Lowest: 68 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $147.25
End: $227.75
Highest: $227.75 (Dec)
Lowest: $147.25 (Jan)

• A gain of 6 patrons
• A gain of $80.50 of pledges
• My production was 2.0 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in November.
• I had seven months of growth and five months of decline.
• The largest losses were $11.50 in January and $7.50 in May and July.
• The largest gains were $32.50 in March, $20.50 in December*, $18.50 in June and $13.50 in April.

Notes

It was in December of 2017 that Patreon announced they were no longer going to charge creators fees, but rather transfer the cost to the patrons. I was pissed because it asked more from people who were already being generous. This caused an exodus of patrons, but the strange thing is while I lost eight patrons that month, my existing patrons actually increased their pledges! Amazing. Patreon did reverse their decision before the month was out. It just goes to show how fantastic my patrons are. 

My growth was fantastic in 2017. After a decline in 2016 I thought about winding the my Patreon down. That I had peaked. Or I needed to promote a little more, do some giveaways. Get some interest. I kept creating content I enjoyed, and one by one my following increased.  

Some of my Favorites from 2017

 

Mr. Cruddy's Grave

Again, I go back to simple situations that have gone wrong. When Cross-Eyed Willie gets himself in a spot, the party may have to lend a hand. This is clumsy cross-section map, but I still like it. Kinda illustrated that you don't need a grand setting to have an adventure. This one lends itself to humor, with the incompetency of Cross-Eyed Willie coupled with the still angry in death Mr. Cruddy. Plus, I like what's in the chest. 

Brax

My NPC cards started hitting their stride and became a favorite of my patrons. Brax is an NPC I've used a lot. He cracks me up. He seems to crack up the players. While I had some very cool, earlier NPC cards, I think Brax hits that balance of being interesting, simple, and humorous. Those anti-spider ties would sell on QVC like hotcakes. Or Potions of Healing to stay in game.

The Manor #9

It had been a couple years since I released an issue of The Manor. Because I geared my Patreon to populate my campaign using the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light system, this issue became easy to write. It's funny how daunting it can becoming to release an issue even with several under my belt. I was glad to get this one released. And I thought the content was useful.

Stats for 2018

• 8 Micro-Adventures
• 4 Micro-Locations
• 6 NPC Cards
• Adventure Time Cards

Patrons

Start: 76
End: 86
Highest: 89 (Oct)
Lowest: 76 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $229.75
End: $254.75
Highest: $256.25 (Oct)
Lowest: $224.75 (Feb)

• A gain of 10 patrons
• A gain of $25 of pledges
• My production was 1.4 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in May.
• I had nine months of growth and three months of decline.
• The largest losses were $5 in February and $3 November.
• The largest gains were $9.50 in April, $6.50 in May, and $6 in October.

Notes

It was an interesting year. My lowest output compared to the previous two years, but I still managed to gain traction. There were no real big swings in loss or gain from month to month. I enjoyed a steady growth for the most part. I was hoping to crack a 100 patrons in 2018, but couldn't quite do it. So guess what my goal for 2019 is? 100 patrons! 

Some of My Favorites from 2018

The Broken Girl

I love the vibrate colors and simplicity of the map. The mysterious giant dock tells of an age long past. But the true meat to this adventure is the weird little creature that murdered the little girl. The creature goes from a raging murder without thought of its consequences to become overcome by a flood of emotions and regret. I use children often as a factor in my adventures, for good or bad, they play an important role. 

Ansel's Secret Workshop

I absolutely love this location. A place the group can find and take it with no combat. And if nothing else how can you not like a spider named Clyde who likes long walks and playing chess. An example of how all locations or adventures don't need to end in a bloodbath. 

Thurber Village

Another piece created to fill out a section of my campaign. I've found this entry and the format for other villages very useful. I provide given the GM lots of opportunities to to breath life into Thurber Village in a small space.

Final Thoughts

I'm planning of moving my Gothrdige Manor blog to a new home, set up an honest to goodness eCommerce site. Getting help with edits. And finally getting around to compiling these adventures into a book. As of this time I have a total of 78 Micro-Adventures, 26 Micro-Locations, 11 NPC Cards, and 3 miscellaneous for a total of 118 items I've created for my Patreon since July 2014. 

As always, I can't thank my patrons enough for their support, past and present. They provide me the inspiration to create and to share. And while we hear a lot of negative things about the OSR, I think in part it is because of its success, as a group. But the foundation is built upon sharing ideas, creating content, and if nothing else, drawing a map.

Thanks for reading.

Hearth of the Hill Giants

Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you guys got some good gaming stuff in your stocking and under the tree. I was given a nice collection of books this year. They should keep me busy for at least a couple of months. 

Having a little time off, my brain finally had a moment to focus on gaming material again. The Hearth of the Hill Giants is an adventure that I started months ago. It was born out of a random encounter. I decided the big buy needed a home. I surrounded the giants' home with worgs to the south protecting a corrupted an ancient Northmen well. To the north is a crabbers paradise. Imagine a single crab where you could harvest 40 pounds of meat. You're going to need a LOT of butter. But that's a different adventure. 

I've implied different reason why a party would journey this way, but the end reason is the privilege of the GM. I've dropped a few hooks a party could latch onto. Maybe papa hill giant chewed on a messenger with a very important message. Rumors of a long lost treasure of the Northmen, or the worg problem is getting out of hand. The source must be destroyed. 

With the year coming to a close I'm planning a year end for my Patreon. I want to share the progress, accomplishments, and challenges over the year. As much as I can remember. 

Thank you and enjoy the holidays.

Thurber Village

I reworked Thurber Village for my Patreon. I added a few things and cleaned up the text. I do like how it turned out. I've been fiddling with layout options and what information I provide. The goal is to make it as easy to run as possible.

With Thurber Village you'll get the map you see above. Random Encounters table. What I really love about this table is it provides life and movement to the village. It also helped me create the Recent Happenings section by rolling twice on the table and combining the two rolls. I found it to be very effective.

I provide general information, a little bit about the lord of the area and detail six key people within Thurber. But players are always going to different parts of the village talking to people not detailed so I added a list of names a GM can use to use to provide names and a space to write in their connection to the village.

I also added a Random Merchant table. The previously mentioned Random Happenings. And to spice up the surrounding area, some Local Folklore tidbits. The last thing included are brief description of the keyed building in the Village of Thurber.

His any of the links and you'll be transported to my Patreon. The PDF is free for anyone to download. But, if you'd like to get a physical copy, something cool in the mail, then consider the pledge levels on the right hand-side.

I hope you find Thurber Village useful and fun.

Enjoy!

Adventures! Micro and Not So Micro

The other day I decided to do a video. Why not? I got a cool video editing program, but no video to edit. So I made one. And thanks to +Shane Ward I've got some kick ass music.

I'd tell you more, but that's why I made the video.

December's NPC Cards and Micro-Adventures

It's that time again, I've printed my micro-adventures and NPC cards for the month. I've got a few extras lying and like to give them to a few folks who are interested. All you need to do is leave a comment about your favorite magic item and then email me your address so I know where to send these two laminated beauties.

Those of you who might be interested in getting adventures and NPC Cards in the mail please consider joining my Micro-Adventures Patreon so you won't miss anything. Plus, I've been adding a extras along the way. 

Now let's hear about some cool magic items. 

Patreon Backs Off Fee Changes

On December 7th, I wrote a post about how Patreon planned to change their fee structure. I was not happy. Many patrons were not happy. The basic premise, Patreon was shifting the cost of the fees to the patrons instead of the creators. That was bad enough, but then they tried to make it seem like a good thing. Glossing it over with a couple graph bars to demonstrate how much more creators were going to make. Smarter folks than me figured out this was far from the case especially in the lower pledge amounts.

The result of this announcement, unsurprisingly, had effect on my Patreon. I had 82 patrons at the end of November. I lost 11 patrons, 9 of them specifically mentioned they did not like the fee change. There is always an ebb and flow in patronage, but this was my largest exodus in a week's time. 

I also to back off some of my pledges to creators. On average I pledge between $32 to $40 a month spread out between 12 creators. I cut my pledges in half when they announced the fee change. I've always been one to believe, you can protest all you want, shout it to the hills, but it isn't until they get hit in the wallet will they listen. This was my small gesture to do that. While my reduction was insignificant in the larger scale, so many patrons left that it had a seismic reaction in the Patreon offices.

On December 13th, Patreon sends an email that states that they made a bad decision and will not roll out the new fee changes. Great. Now what?

I was glad to see Patreon backed off the fees and admitted to making a mistake. How often does that happen? I am going to take Patreon at their word. I can't imagine they benefited from this decision. Some folks are painting Patreon as an evil, money grubbing entity. I'm not drinking the hatorade. They screwed up, admitted they made a mistake. And yeah, they are a money making machine, they are a business that revolutionized a modern take of patron of the arts. 

However, it has opened my eyes, that their are options to Patreon. Kickstarter has Drip, which is not open to the public at this time, but plans to open to the public early next year. The one that I found interesting was MakerSupport. I'm sure there are others, but those two stood out.

Now I am going to end this by looping around and talk about my patrons, the people who voluntarily pledge a few bucks so I can make my micro-adventures. As I stated above, I lost 11 patrons this month with no new pladges. Hell of a hit. But, the amazing thing...my revenue increased. Why? Because a bunch of patrons who were at a lower level upped their pledges. They wanted to show their support and if someone pledges at a higher level it off set the cost of the new fee structure. That kind of generosity catches me by surprise, and it shouldn't. As a whole, the gaming community is made up of an altruistic crew. Think of all the charity auctions earn thousands of dollars. People posting personal GoFundMe pages and earning more than the set goal. It's good to see. 

Now go make something. 

Ranting About Patreon Fees

I may say some bad words.

I'm not sure why Patreon decided to change their pledge payment structure. I have to believe they thought this would be a good thing, but it isn't. It qualifies as stupid. If Patreon cared so much about their creators they should have presented this proposal to us so we could have stopped it before they rolled it out.

I am talking about Patreon charging patrons instead of creators, the fees. Michael Prescott sent out an email that drove it home for me. So if one of my patrons pledges $1 they will get charged $1.35. 

I hate that. No wait, I fucking hate that.

Patreon's basic philosophy is to have creators do their thing and then have people tip them for what they are doing. "Hey dude, I like what you're doing, here's a few dollars, keep doing what you do."

Now it's like, "...keep doing what you do." Patreon man steps in and says "Wait Patron, now you have to pay the tax for being generous and supportive. You must put more money into the tip jar so I can get my cut."

Bullshit.

As a creator, having to pay the fees was fine. A necessary evil of business. Everyone needs their cut so I didn't mind. It was a place to share my work, get feedback and make some money on the side. But to put it back on the patrons is just bad. There is nothing more aggravating when someone is being generous, and then that person who is on the receiving end of that generosity, demands more. 

I've already lost a group of excellent patrons. I don't blame them one bit. All of them have said they were not happy because of the new payment system. And I think they have the right idea.

So patrons, if you want to leave, go with my blessing. I don't like what Patreon has done. I am writing an email to them after I finish this post. 

If you have the time, please drop Patreon a line to tell them you aren't happy with what they have done. 

It's time to stir the shit pot and let them know that this new payment fee arrangement is clumsy, arrogant and wrong. 

Adventuring in Different Planes of Existence: Undolee Cave

The Komor Forest is filled with strange and dangerous locations. The Cave of Undolee is one of those places. It is located close to Hounds Head, the locals know of it, interact with it, but when the cave 'gets to acting up' they run like hell.

The Cave of Undolee is a powerfully charged location through natural magics. Heavily borrowing from Celtic mythology where gates between worlds open during certain times of the year, phases of the moon, or whatever schedule the GM needs to drive an adventure forward. The map itself was created when I was mapping for game night. I screwed up the map so bad, I just kept it and thought I'd create my own version of it.

The image from the 1st edition Player's Handbook (pg. 121) sticks in my mind.

For me, the Planes of Existence are layered upon one another. Sometimes sharing the same space as other planes. Places where planes overlap and conditions are right, natural gates occur. The Cave of Undolee is a gateway to the Plane of Water.

These gateways provide opportunities for gameplay beyond the normal realm of existence. With preparation, probably a few trial runs, a party could adventure in the Plane of Water. This provides complications the party has rarely come across.
In this adventure, The Cave of Undolee is a glimpse of that possibility. And if the GM chooses, could be a focal point for an 'outsider' enemy group. The sahuaghin are a fantastic enemy race that provides a new threat beyond the traditional orcs and goblins. Plus, they have that otherworldly feel, especially if a GM plays up the sahuaghin's potential for mutations. And with the threat of possible invasion, it is not like the party can track the enemy to a cavern stronghold. No. The party would need to travel to a place where the environment itself could kill them at any moment.

I have a map drawn already for an adventure in the Plane of Water. I hope to have it out next month. It'll be the first adventure that will include sharks. So I'm excited about that. It'll take place as soon as the party moves through the gate.
As always, my thanks to my patrons. Their continued support is incredible. I love creating these adventures, printing them and having them in hand. Here's to a productive December.

Anyone interested in grabbing a PDF copy of The Cave of Undolee only need to follow the link to my Patreon. If you would like a physical copy, please consider pledging and get used to getting cool stuff in the mail.

Iron Crawlers Ready to Mail and Yep, I'm Giving Away a Few Copies

Iron Crawlers is a Swords & Wizardry Continual Light Adventure. You can click the link and grab the PDF for free. Or...if you want a print copy comment below and then send me your address through email (elder(underscore)sensa(at)yahoo(dot)com) or Google+ (Gothridge Manor) cause without your addy I can't send you a damn thing.

It's a starting adventure that puts the party against a not so clever, not so tough gang. If the Iron Crawlers can take advantage of the party. they will. But if the party plays out the situation in the right way, they could gain themselves a group ally. Possibly. I wrote a long post about this last month, if your interested in reading about me stealing office supplies from my mother's work place you can read it here.

Last month Tenkar and crew released a print version of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. If you click the image it will magically whisk you away to Amazon where you can purchase a copy for only $7. I bought 4 copies, went to Con on the Cob, gave them away and now I have 0. So I gotta reorder! This link is an affiliate link, so I may get a giant kickback if you order from my page.

Seriously, the book is great. Simple, quick, learn the system within 30 minutes depending on how fast you read.

Hey! Have a good gaming week. Roll some dice for me. Don't forget to make an offering of Unosum, the God of 1's, A slice a pizza or beer usually does it,  or you'll become a 'cursed 1' like myself. It is no way to live.