Two T-Shirts Going into the Rotation

It's been a weird day.  A t-shirt day.  No one has given me clothes for millions of years.  Today I received two t-shirts.  The first is a Game of Thrones t-shirt, a couple who I let borrow my GoT discs and acquired an addiction.  The husband bought three t-shirts for him and his wife (I work with her) to wear during the premiere.  She asked who the 3rd shirt was for and he said it was for me.  I love out of the blue, geekery (sp?) gratitude.

Then at lunch I go the post office and there is a package from Zazzle (I think).  I got my LIZARDMAN GLADIATOR t-shirt.  I was like, are you fucking kidding me?  I nearly disrobed right there on federal property to put it on.  But decided I did not need to collect misdemeanor offenses.

After these are washed they are going into the rotation. 

Random Map Monday 15

I drew this one on Friday.  I liked how it turned out overall.  I added a new map element and that is a stone damn.  That's what that black thing is going across the creek.  It's made up of dozens of tiny circles.  I didn't have any ideas when I drew this map, but once it was done I thought of how this would be a two house homestead.  A harsh father with five sons who hones them into fighters.  He himself was a champion of the arena and now he expects nothing less from his sons.  That's about all I got.  Not sure how the damn or creek or pond work into it yet.

I had a sale on Starter Adventures (print version) over the weekend at Lulu.  I'd matched their 30% off with my own.  Seven people took advantage of the sale.  I was hoping for a few more, but that was seven more sales than I got the month before.  heh.  I need to get back to doing my monthly sales reports.  It helped me keep track.

This week I've got gaming nights on Monday and Wednesday.  Looking forward to the aftermath of slaughtering the people in charge and burning down their pretty keep.  

Starter Adventers, Sale Upon a Sale

Lulu is having a 30% off sale this weekend when you use the code: APRIL30.  So I saw some others matching that discount and I decided to do the same thing.  So I cut Starter Adventures print version by 30%.  BOOM!  If you've had it in your cart for a while or just doing a giant shop like I did, grab a copy, it's the lowest cost it has ever been. 

If you've got a player who is just starting to learn RPGs, Starter Adventures is a great product to have.  Short Adventure designed to assist someone learn the game.

Friday Review: Barrowmaze

Three+ years ago I did a review on a newly released OSR mega-dungeon called, Barrowmaze by +Greg Gillespie .  I'd bought the PDF and did a review of it then.  I really dug the it.  Still do.  Recently I had a transaction with +Harald Wagener and he generously threw in a print copy of the original Barrowmaze.

My apologies to +Stefan Poag for blinding his beautiful cover with the flash.  I was thumbing through it again and found myself wanting to integrate into something I was running.  The whole mega-dungeon is basically a tomb and my favorite monsters/adventures to run involve undead.  A few years ago I ran it with two different groups.  While I did keep it intact, I ran it as a 'thing that was out there'.  Not the entirety of a campaign, but a significant landmark within the campaign.

My memory is not the greatest, but for me, it was the first OSR mega-dungeon I remember or at least the one the kindle my liking of mega-dungeons all together.  Greg developed a few interesting sub-games such as bashing in walls and looting burial coves.  A sledge hammer will fast become your friend.  Both these are time sinks, each time you do either you may cause that evil bastard behind the screen to roll another random encounter to gobble you up.

Here's how I used Barrowmaze.  In both instances Barrowmaze was well known and a hotspot for adventurers, and not just the party.  I played it like a boom town during the gold rush.  Secondary business sprung up around the known entrances.  Business folks knew adventurers were going to need things such as sledge hammers and healing potions, weapons and armor repair, booze, women, and some good old fashion religion.  And you could get it all outside and in the a few of the rooms inside Burrowmaze.  You just had to pay for it.  Basically I multiplied the standard price by ten.  Had one party become enterprising and they bought extra sledge hammers to sell to another set of adventurers within the crypts. 

I also did not play it as a mega-dungeon, but I let the mythology of the place speak of its size.  Usually the players would enter and explore a dozen or so rooms before exiting.  With so many undead around it was nearly impossible for the party to recover.  I used Barrowmaze to plant certain things to recover.  Maybe a magic item, or family heirloom or maybe Timmy fell down the Barrowmaze well and needed saving.

Barrowmaze was a place to get a lot of loot quick...or die quick.  Both happened.  Either way it provided a great setting to use.  I've always been a big fan of Barrowmaze.  The only fault I see in it is it needs a separate map booklet.   To solve that issue I was able to print the maps from the PDF and I taped them together.  I then used colored pencils (I know your shocked to hear I use those)  to assist me with keeping track of their trek.

Greg now sells Barrowmaze Complete over at RPGNow.  This includes the original Barrowmaze and the second Barrowmaze.  I can't comment of this book, but I have both the first and second Barrowmaze so I know the content is great.

And that is my Friday Feature this week.  I hope to be back next week and do a little something on a little something call a zine I recently received.  Time to sign off.  It's Friday.  And remember, the best thing about a cell phone is you can order your pizza to be delivered ahead of time so when you get home your pizza guy will be there already so no waiting. 

The Manor, Issue 8 - Sneak Peek

I've been plugging away at issue 8 of The Manor.  This issue has a great feature article from +Douglas Cole and +Peter V. Dell'Orto.  They've created a very usable system for Old School Grappling.  Also included in this issue is +trey causey who has a Strange Stars entry.  It is the first 'sci-fi' entry in the Manor.  And finally I'll have two pieces sandwiched in between this cover... 

Here's a sneak peek at the cover.  This is a mock-up for now.  The artwork is by +John Larrey.  I'm going to finalize what the cover looks like by this weekend, but this is pretty close as what the cover will look like.

In a week or two I hope to have the final piece in place and ready to go to the proofreaders.  This is going to be another fun issue. 

Random Map Monday 14 (Just Under the Wire)

I think I prefer doing Random Map Mondays after work than before.  I am so negative otherwise.  He's one of the most recent maps I drew.  I went through a drought the other week and couldn't get myself to draw.  Then over the holiday weekend I drew four.

This one I went with the more textured trees.  Or sometimes I call them my 'brain trees'.  Instead of the blob trees.  A simple creek running through, some steep hills with colors contour line and a broken up building.  Oh, and a broken road.

I used this map in my latest Patreon, it is called Old Sloculm Road.  It's an out of the way place.  A road that once connected a kingdom that no longer exists.  This map spoke to me right away.  Told me what it wanted to be.  Here's the end result.

I used Xara to add the white backing to the labels to make them pop more.

When I go on Google+ and look at all the amazing maps people are doing, I mean some of these guys are absolute artists, and hope my maps add to the whole.  A little pontificating before sleep.

Lighter Side of Gaming

Before I go further, +Chris C. when I say lighter in the title I do not mean the kind that sets fire to things.  Okay, now we can proceed.  Lighter side of gaming, as in a little comedy within the frame work of the game.  Sure, around the table there is the occasional fart joke, 'that's what she said' moments and the unrelenting puns (pointing an my inquisitor pokey finger at +Ken H and +Chris C.).  What I'm writing about is the fun stuff in game.

It doesn't have to laugh out loud funny or funny at all, but an encounter that is light in nature.  In the first Manor, in the forest encounters, the last entry was about a woman who was cooking for folks who came around.  Put a couple of coins in the cup as appreciation or even a few ingredients she could use in her next meal.  I guess this would have been the early version of Patreon. 

Not sure this has anything to do with the post, but I do like monkeys.

In the encounter the players could easily slaughter the group.  Take was food and coin was available and move on.  Or they could partake in the situation, and enjoy a non-life threatening encounter.  I get that some groups are not into this.  Too bad.  I think it's an important part that gets under utilized.

In tv shows and movies, many times the situation will be happy, people will smiling in slow motion, children laughing as they swing, adults having that moment of not a care in the world with happy music in the background.  The BAM!, it all goes to shit.  I think those small moments before things go to shit are a great tool in an adventure.  Those brief moments give the players something to care about, raise the stakes of the situation.

Using the situation about, the players meet this lady and find her food to be good and they come back.  Maybe even grab her a few herbs she could not afford.  They strike up a friendship based on a situation as simple as sharing a meal.  A few sessions down the line, something goes bad.  The lady is captured, killed, poisoned or accused of something. 

The players are going to take a special interest.  The GM has them hooked emotionally in the situation.  This is where things can get very interesting in a campaign.  If done correctly the players will talk about it as a highlight or one of the favorite series of gaming sessions. 

Add a lighter side to your game so the darker side matters more.  With enough practice you'll find it a cool tool to use during sessions. 

Without a Plan, the Keep Burned, the Party Lives and the Revolution Just Got Serious

Last night our Monday night gaming group's siege of a keep came to a semi conclusion.  +Douglas Cole's optimistic title, The Siege Ends goes into way more detail than I will.  I play an ex-gladiator named Leshar, a lizardman.  There is a connection to +Rob Conley's historical background to his game, but I won't go into that.

I can't tell you how bad I need this shirt.

Leshar found himself in a burning keep and last session he found the wife of the (now dead) sheriff, and other female members of his family.  Leshar, while he posed it as they were hostages, he was making sure they got out of the keep.  If he could parlay that into the knight surrendering, well that wouldn't be horrible.

A cool cinematic moment during play was when Leshar opened up the keep's double doors, flames erupted between Leshar and the knight and his men.  The women around Lashar.  I thought it be a very intimidating scene.  But I failed my intimidation roll, even with advantage.  They attacked.  I said oh, shit.

Leshar was outnumbered and out leveled.  However, he used his riposte to great effect and his high strength shredded through the first couple victims.  But there were too many, including the main knight, son of the (now dead) sheriff.  But then something wonderful happened.  Arrows.  Arrows from three different locations along the keep walls.  Some how our party, which we were all separate managed to take up positions to break their moral as arrows fell from the sky.

Still Leshar and the knight fought.  The knight believed he'd freed his family.  I did stop them even though I could have killed them at any time.  I wanted to get them to safety.  Which I did, but now the knight thought he had a higher morale ground and pressed his attack.

Idiot.

I was wounded and not rolling well.  I tried to grapple on my turn and failed the first two attempts.  I could incapacitate him, stopping his two attacks.  I had 7hp remaining.  On my 3rd attempt I grabbed the boy knight and held tight.  He failed to break free.  I walked him over to the room where the fire raged and tossed him in. 

His scream was cut short as his lungs vaporized in the heat. 

Leshar, bloodied and burned, walked out of the keep as the fire raged around him, raised his sword to the world and felt that old rush from his days in the arena, "Who's next?"

UNDERDOG GLASS

I got another Underdog glass.  This makes me happy.  My mother was at an antique show and claimed this one for me.  Most know of my liking of sleestaks, but Underdog is right up there in my pantheon of childhood characters.  I had one glass I got years ago and now I have a second.  I'm thinking a Underdog glass section in the cupboard should be implemented. 

Random Map Monday 13

A little hamlet in the middle of here and there.  A small creek runs through that floods on the north side.  A few flood walls were built to redirect the water during the heavy spring rains.  There are a few travelers that visit.  To the north there are two pitch camps located in the forest.  Workers from the camps come to visit Chancey's Pub (the largest building on the map).  And once a month, a tinker named Brisco comes through with his cart and a pony named Cheddar.  He fixes things for a few coppers and sells random items. 

To the east, a low stone wall (4' to 5') surrounds a graveyard.  There are a pair of heavy wooden doors that give access to the graves.  They are old, but work surprisingly well.  There are sixty-two grave markers.  Most are low, foot markers that only have a first name crudely etched into the dark granite.  There are a few dozen other sites where there looked to have been a marker.  The locals stay away from the graveyard.  A small shrine (located across the road to the west) with a broken wooden altar still stands.  There looks to have been some sort of writing or pictures on the wall, but all have worn off.  The locals considered tearing it down, but they fear that they might attract the anger of a sleeping god. 

To the south, is the road of many ways.  Several other roads split off from it, leading to a dozen other hamlets and villages.  It ends at the north gate of Crothia, the only town in the area. 

Been a Busy Afternoon

I spent the afternoon going through a batch of my micro-adventures, reformatting some of the so I could print them out in some form of hard copy.  On the table is about half or what needs to get done.  The different formats I have currently are laminated 4" x6" note cards, laminated half-sheets and the one is a full sheet that's laminated.  In a addition to those, I also have the one page fold over (card stock folded in half) and not pictured here is a small zine.

The Whisk was a giant help.  She worked at one table as I worked at the other.  I called my table the creative department and her table production.  I failed to consider that creative had their backs to the production team.  So time your smart assness accordingly.

I'm formatting all the things I made for my Patreon into a book at some time.  Whenever that happens the patrons at the $2.50 and $5 level will receive a coupon to order it at cost.  I have a few details to work out.  Plus, I am going to add some artwork to it.  +Si W and I are big fans of the old Book of Lairs from the way back and he made the suggestion one day and I thought it would be great to have them all in a book form. 

Micro-Adventures are Headed Out the Door

Here's a picture of the few laminated micro-adventures, The Hypnotic Horror, that are headed out the door tomorrow.  Three different continents, five different countries and twelve different states.  I have no idea, but its cool to know it'll be to more places then I've ever been. 

I send these out to my $2.50 and $5 patrons.  And occasionally I throw them in as an extra when someone orders a batch of Manors.  They are printed on 4" x 6' notecards, front and back, and then laminate them.  That way you can use a dry erase marker, Sharpies will even work, but you'll need some elbow grease and a little water with them.  I used one in a game a couple of weeks ago and I surprised myself how well they worked.

If your just interested in grabbing the PDF of the adventure, just be-bob over to my Micro-Adventure page on Patreon and download it.  Check it out.  Check out all the adventures, locations and sandbox I've created and if's to your liking, please consider putting a tip in the jar.  No worries either way.  I love writing these adventures.

Coffee Cups Give the Best Names

Porters Pass is my 26th release for my Patreon, Micro-Adventures.  It's available to anyone for download.  This one is a micro-location.  Small places you can drop into your world without disrupt the whole.  Adventurers sometimes go off in an unexpected direction and its good to have one of these at the ready to give the area some depth and to give the GM some adventure ideas to dangle in front of the party.  My original inspiration for this is when I created Execution Corner.

The Porters of Gideon is a group I created for my first publication release, Knowledge Illuminates.  I've only used them sparingly in my own games, but always liked the concept.  Porters Pass the party meets a group of weary Porters whose purpose is in question.

A fun note about the main NPC, Arhald, I saw a post by +Harald Wagener that a coffee shop had slaughter his name, but thought it was perfect for an NPC.  Thank you Harald.

Random Map Monday 12

Here's a map from my latest Patreon offering, The Hypnotic Horror.  I always like suggestions from my patrons and +Si W  wanted to see a micro-adventure featuring a morkoth.  He wanted me to do a series on some of the lesser used creatures.  In case you don't know what a morkoth is...

Yeah, that guy.  I remember it from the original Monster Manual, but I gotta say I cannot remember ever running into one.

Here's what the map looked like after I added the do-dads and title blocks.

The morkoth tunnels are spiral, hypnotic things.  My artistic ability is limited so I just made a central cavern with tunnels protruding out.  I drew a second map to show what it looked like within the tunnels but it didn't makethe cut.

Looks like a weird doughnut.  So it hit the editing floor.