I am a Winner and I Want Waffles with my Chicken Dinner

Ian Willey over at The Blog With No Name has awarded me with the Liebster Award...I have no idea what that means.  But!  It's still cool.  I don't know German, but looking at the word I would say it's somebody who lies about beer.  So I accept the lying about beer award.  What I liked best, Ian broke the rules to give it to me.  I like that.  I'm supposed to answer a list of questions, but I'll break the rules and make up five of my own.
Pancakes or Waffles?
These days, waffles.   Although my heart was in the pancake camp for a very long time.

Goblins or Orcs?
I've always liked goblins over orcs.  In my campaign I've made goblins a little more flexible with their culture.  And I made them a little funny.

Cats or Dogs?
Dogs a hundred times over.  I like cats, but when they are in other people's homes.  I'm not much for any animal that shits in the house.

Tomb of Horrors or Caves of Chaos?
I ask hard questions.  Tomb of Horrors was my first adventure.  I cut my teeth on that one.  But The Caves of Chaos is just the essence of a fun dungeon crawl.  Damn.  I am going to have to go with Tomb of Horrors.  It was my first after all.

Ginger or Mary Ann?
I've considered this for a while.  So here's how I would play it.  You're on a remote island, take a coconut to Thurston's skull.  It could be easily blamed on high winds and the coconut falling from a tree.  Lovey is now a widow.  Chum up to her.  Convince her to marry you.  This is all contingent that they get rescued.  Since Lovey is of advanced age there will be a short wait for her to expire so you can inherit the money.  In the meanwhile, hire Mary Ann to be your cook and Ginger likes a man with money.  Hanging out with these two could be innocently explained as you have spent a lot of shared experiences with them and the reason why you spend time with them.  In the end you can have both Mary Ann and Ginger, get Thiston's money and you still get your coconut cream pie.

My Take on 5th Edition D&D or D&D Next or Just Plain D&D

Seems the hub bub for the next edition of D&D has subsided a little...hub bub...do people still say that?  There has been a lot of thrashing and name calling.  I've never been one to get involved with edition wars.  I like to take shots at all editions.  I am an equal opportunity shot taker.  Granted, I was no where near a fan of 4th edition.

A very important and accurate illustration.  This image is copyrighted and can only be used if some sort of pizza arrangement it discussed before use.  Any unauthorized use of this picture will result in the sternest finger waving I can imagine.  The image of +Rob Conley's forehead was used without his permission, but since it's large enough to have it's own zip code, (see the size of the Enterprise, that's the actually size difference)...I'd forgotten what else I was going to say in this very long caption.

I played 4th ed. a couple times at home and at cons and had a lot of fun.  But it wasn't for me.  Now D&D, Hasbro and Mearls are shoving another version out the door.

Here's my hopes for the new edition.

• I hope it's good.  Most are still going to play what they like.  Pathfinder dudes and OSR dudes would be fine without a different version.  While the rules we use are older, it's the game we like, not the rules.  Football and baseball and all those other sports have pretty much been using the same rules.  But I don't love football because a field goal is 3 points, holding is a 10 yard penalty and the Steelers have the most Super Bowl wins (yeah, had to get that one in, suck it wannabes).  
• I hope their treatment of 3rd party publishers is not as stupid as last time.  There is no way to put it any other way.  They were stupid. 
• If D&D is good, and I have no quantifiable way to determine what I think is good, or not good, other than I would use the system to build an adventure.  But if it's good, I think it will help small publishers.  Maybe recapture some of the gold rush feeling during the 3rd edition era.  
• I'd like to see them develop a new campaign setting, maybe something interactive.  This is going to sound funny coming from an OSR dude, but the rehashing of the same old settings is boring to me.  I'd like to see something new to play in.  
• Stop making multiple DMGs and PHBs.   Annoying.

I've pre-ordered the Starter Kit or whatever its called on Amazon.  I've heard they are going to have a free download of the rules.  Smart.  I like the direction.  Although they need to get Mearls off whatever social network thingy he is on.  He doesn't help at all.  His comments at the time were confusing and annoying.  If you have a good game coming out, shut up for a little while until you can actually talk about it.

Okay, I'm done now...
























After credits scene...

Fear the forehead!

Cost of Zine Postage, Bundles & Singles

Here's another 'peek behind the curtain' post.  This one is focusing on the cost to sent zines out into the world.  It's something that needs to be seriously considered when your set you price.

To ship single issues:
$.70 to USA
$1.15 to Canada
$2.13to the World

To ship out bundles:

$3.29 or $3.50 to USA (depends how many extras I had on hand)

$4.79 to Canada

$10.72 to the World

Total spent on shipping the month:  

$124.81

Yeah, that's more than I've ever spent at the PO.  But it just means I've had a lot of orders and really enjoying it.  And if I ever need a job at the PO I think I can get references from nearly all the workers and have the postage rates memorized. 

First Two Month Sales of The Manors

Apparently I had very few things to do so I decided to check out how the Manor sales stacked up in the first couple of months of them being released.  I did the first two months because some were released at the end of a month.  I developed a chart with the total sales over two months and the PDF sales are defined by a lighter section of the column.  Manor 6 is doing exceptionally well in only 16 days.  Just 10 issues shy of overtaking Manor 1.

Manor 1 is the best selling issue, but Manor 6 is making up ground very quickly.   It was selling very well, but when I offered The Manor bundle 1-6, I got additional sales to new customers.  I was working 14 hour days making sure I had enough printed and sent out on time. 

Anyway I thought it was interesting and thought I'd share it with you.

Friday Question: And It's Not About D&D 5th/Next

If you could take two historical setting and smoosh them together to create a campaign, what two would they be?

At the time I think I would go with a declining Roman Empire mixed with sixties space race.  I think those two elements would be a lot of fun to play off of one another.

Have an absolutely fantastic Friday.  And if you can't have one of those, have a couple Saturdays and don't call me in the morning.

GM Lessons: Mega-Dungeon Map Confusion

I hope you don't mind if I don't get into the recent announcement of the covers and content of the next wave of D&D.  While I might not understand the philosophy behind it, I'll be buying them none the less.  My group will probably give it a playtest for a few sessions and then we'll go back to playing whatever system we prefer.

But I digress. 

+Ken H runs his Monteport mega dungeon campaign on Monday nights.  We've been playing it on and off for over 18 months now I believe.  Here's what I learned from Ken that I think can be invaluable to those of us who play on-line.  Mapping a mega dungeon while on-line is a near impossible and frustrating task.  Some my argue having the virtual map in front of you is a cheat.  Well, Ken has a technique that work effectively when we are plodding along.  If we go into an area where it twists and turns and players would have trouble know north from south, he rolls a die to determine a random direction to turn the map.  Simply flipping the map makes the place look completely different.  Our group doesn't mark anything.  We've sorta become part of the eco-system.  We move ahead and see what's next.

He is able to do this with several mini-maps and the fact none of the room are numbered.  Dungeon features are sparse so there are very few to no visual tells.  I was going to give examples, but I am hoping this will prompt Ken in doing his own post because he'll do a post on his blog.

It's been very interesting having a round table group of GMs.  Over the past couple months, four out of the five of us have GMed.  I've did a couple sessions with my home campaign and system, +Rob Conley a couple of sessions using his FUDGE version of the Majestic Wilderlands, Ken continues with Monteport and +Chris C. GMed a handful of sessions using S&W Core rules in his home campaign of Ephemera.  After a batch of years of doing this it's fantastic to see what other bring to the game.

Record Month for GM Games

Since my release of The Manor 1-6 Bundle, sales have been very good.  almost too good.  My printer is running constantly.  I thought I would get a couple of orders, but instead I got a bog batch.  So I've been printing, stapling and folding like a madman.  It's a good problem to have.

It looks to be a record month for GM Games. 

Thanks to everyone who ordered.  I appreciate the business and those of you who have ordered the bundles, they are shipping out tomorrow.  With a couple of extras!

If you want in on the fun click the picture below.

My Zine Box Explodeth

I need to reorganize my zine box.  I keep them in +Brave Halfling Publishing's, Peter Mullen's, purple worm box.  I should have bought two or three of these when I had the chance.  Damn my frugalness.  Somewhere in the kitchen Whisk is laughing at that statement.

When I was organizing my zine box I noticed I had a few holes in my collection and have rectified most of those, but still need to print all the +Dyson Logos zines I purchased.  Click on the pictures below to see who is guilty of creating what.

Here is group one.  +Christian Walker has a couple of stacks that include his 13 issues of Loviatar and a collection of One Square Equals Five Feet, A Letter from Los Angles, and Shudde M'ell Confidential.  There are so many these days I can't keep track of all the new issues and zines coming out.  So much good stuff being created these days.

 This a mix of old and new stuff.  +Simon Forster out does himself.  He sent me a hand written, hand drawn map adventure.  It's fantastic.  And it was a complete surprise.  There is +Wayne Rossi's first issue of Dungeon Crawl.  +Nathan Irving's Secrets 1st issue.

List of Cool Stuff

Alex Fotinakes is the creative mine behind the full-sized zine, Wizards, Mutants, Laser Pistols.  He just released his 6th issue and I really dig this zine.  It harkens (yes, I used harkens) back to what I remember of some of the few 70's and 80's zines I saw.  Staples on the side, no fancy attempt at binding.  Inside is barebones fun and content.

 +Dak Ultimak's is the mastermind behind Crawl!, probably the best DCC supplement your going to find anywhere.  I believe he has nine issues out now, plus a special issue called Hack! Firearms!.  When he released these on PDF I think all his zines were in the top 15 spots for several weeks.  Dak and I run the RPG Zine community on Google+.  He and I are always up for trading zine for zine.

+Dylan Hartwell has created a series of incredible adventures.  The one he's probably best known for is his first, The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz.  And his most recent, The Big Book of Spiders, has inspired an adventure in my latest zine.  All of Dylan's adventures are accompanied by Dylan's artwork.  I really dig his creepy vibe he puts into each picture.  I've had him illustrate my own adventure, Knowledge Illuminates.  The best part is I met Dylan at a con this past year and I hope to do so this year.  He's got a good energy when he GMs.  It was very cool to see him GM one of his adventures I've been reading for the past couple of years.

+Pete Spahn is the man behind Brave the Labyrinth.  There is currently three issues available on RPGNow, pay what you want.  These are bad ass zines that feature the Labyrinth Lord system.  He features very cool map covers for each issue.  A ton of people contribute to Brave the Labyrinth.  Lots of interesting ideas to bring into your OSR game.  And it's not your average sized zine.  Since it is sold through PDF the page counts range from 24 to 50+.  If your going to print this puppy out, get a big stapler.

+matt jackson famous mini game, Edge of Space.  Matt was very generous and sent me a copy.  I know he is often asked about printing more.  This is a very cool space game that can get set up in a few minutes.  And Matt wrote the introduction adventure, Incident at Intrepid Station.  This is one of those product you need to own in print.  It is just that good.

Johnathan Walton and his friends have created a series of three booklets that are supplements for the Dungeon World system.  Including the Dark Heart of the Dreamer.  These three booklets and the core book of Dungeon World was gifted to me by +Tim Knight.  I've only leafed through these so far.  I need to sit down and give it a good read, but I think this is one I want to learn by playing.  I need to find a con and get in a game or two.  Or at least make it on time for the game...missed it at the last con.

+john yorio recently released his 2nd issue of 6 Iron Spikes & Small Hammer.  This is what old school zines are about.  This is another one of those old school zines that just hits all the right notes and just a pleasure to read.  John is very passionate about his zine and he should be, it is excellent.

+Johnathan Bingham created Delve!.  And here you though he was just another hot elf chick that liked pie.  Johnathan is one of the OSR's stable of top tier artists.  He illustrates Delve! with provocative illustration to go along with his gonzo adventure.  As of now he only has the single issue and I believe he's mentioned he has the second issue on its way, but when you're moving your family across half the world his attention is divided.  Johnathan has been a huge help with artwork for the Manor and he and his wife, Daisy, completed an incredible cover for my upcoming Manor Compilation. 

+Jason Sholtis, speaking of top tier artists, has created a pair of adventures.  His first being Zogorion, Lord of Hippogriffs and Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy.  Both adventures have a intelligent humor that takes the adventures beyond the normal.  Jason and +John Larrey illustrate these adventures and do an incredible job.  Jason has been a HUGE help with The Manors.  He puts up with my pestering for artwork and he always creates something above what I imagined.

+Christian Walker and all his zines and one-page letters and I don't even have half of them.  The guy is the reason why I put out The Manor.  While most of his stuff you can no longer get, if you ever get a chance grab a copy do so and save it.

+Eldrad Wolfsbane created Back to the Dungeon zine that features the Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion.  He's even created his own retro clone called, Back to the Dungeon RPG.  Right now there are five issues out for you to download.  Go ahead and do it now and thank me when you come back.  I think you'll get a fantastic picture of what it looks like behind his GM screen.  This is a simple, no nonsense zine that is full of useful stuff.

+Greg Gorgonmilk takes the lead for Underworld Lore.  He's got three big, fat issues done and the fourth issue seems to be well on its way.  I say fat because the last issue was 80 pages long!  Holy crapping Canadians Batman, that's a big one.  And he manages to sneak in half naked pictures of Red Sonja.  Again, this is one of those old school zines that just kicks ass.  It's a got a ton of great info and includes a few Petty Gods.  The last issue was dedicated to Hyboria.  And it's free to download. 

+Simon Forster is fast becoming known as an elite map maker.  His maps and style just keeps getting better and he just produces fantastic stuff all the time.  Add him to your Google+ circles because he shares his maps all the time and I want to steal them all.  Simon sent me his adventure Faces of Evil, its hand written and the maps hand drawn.   It's fricking awesome.  It was an unexpected and much appreciated surprise. 

+Wayne Rossi, creator of Dungeon Crawl, is on his 3rd issue.  He gets help from some top-notched contributors like +David Przybyla, +Johua De Santo and +Dyson Logos just to name a few.  There are ton more.  So when you have that many creative people contributing to one thing, you know its going to be fantastic.  Dungeon Crawl has come a long way from its three stapled page first issue.  Wayne does it right and adds another gaming zine that should be on your list of must-gets.

+Nathan Irving recently released Secrets #1.  Nathan was also the winner of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day with his Illusionist class.  He said this was his first issue, but it looks like he's been doing this for a while.  This one has new spells, old spells with a twist, a big batch of magic items, monsters and a cool addition, a unique magic item for each issue on the back cover.  I'm really glad Nathan got into making zines.  I'm already looking forward to issue #2.

+Tim Callahan has developed this DCC zine, Crawljammer, that has more of a outer space slant.  He's just released his second issue.  I thought I had the first issue, but can't seem to find it.  This is why I needed to reorganize my zines.  Love the layout and look of this zine.  I've been wanting to get into something more modern or sci-fi lately and this issue has pushed me more in that direction.

+B. Portly has created his own RPG that is set in the 20s/30s called Detective & Daredevils.  He uses +trey causey's Weird Adventures for the setting.  I've had the fortune of gaming the Lester (Mr. Portly) in Trey's game and also had him run me through one of his games using his system.  You can tell he loves his nior and gaming.  It was a ton of fun.  Plus, he is another one of those art/writer guys who makes us look like slackers.  He's got a ton of cool ideas for running a game with rainy night outside, while you sit in a smoke-filled room with an opened bottle of whiskey on your desk when a long-legged dame walks in with a purse full of cash asking for help. 

This eneded up being a more involved post than I imagined.  And it's not even a complete list.  I know I have +Dyson Logos zines, Dyson's Dodecahedron.  I know I printed them out.    If you want a more comprhensive list of zines you'll find it at Rended Press.  Old Bookface likes to keep tabs on all of us.  Watch out for him. 

d30 Mail Call

Woot!  My mail box just keeps on giving.  Today, my d30 package arrived from New Big Dragon Games Unlimited, all penned by +Richard LeBlanc.  I think I have all of these in PDF format, but wanted to get print versions.  His D30 Sandbox Companion has been hogging up space at the top of RPGNow for months now and probably one of the best gaming supplements to come out in a while. 

I got a lot of reading to do this weekend.

Oh and I got 3 pins/buttons.  I have a small horde of these things now.  I need to get into a time machine and retrieve my jean jacket from the 80's.

Mail Call! Zines! Adventures!

Look at what came in the mail today.  It was a happy mail day.

I wonder what could be inside?

A couple of zines and a trio of +Frog God Games adventures, from their One Night Stand series. Scott Casper's Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti, Kenneth Spencer's Death in the Painted Canyons, and Mr. Swords & Wizardry himself, +Matt Finch penned The Spire of Iron and Crystal.  I got these off an eBay auction from Pace Setter Games.  They shipped them fast and packed them very well. 

+john yorio and his 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer zine!  I got that yesterday, but wanted to squeeze it into today's haul.  I've already looking through it and need to do a review soon.  I'm so far behind on doing reviews.

And another excellent zine, Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols.  Alexey Fotinake, Bob Richens and +Venger Satanis threw in for this issue.  I really enjoy WMLP because it such a throw back kind of zine.  It's just fun.  Reminds me of when I was a kid reading comics books in my fort, be it a blanket fort or wooden fort in the woods.

Today, my mail box has been very good to me.

Our 1st Video

We were messing around with the webcam and the video capabilities with her camera.  This was us just checking out how it worked.  We ended up using the camera for shoot.  Ivy wants to mess with the video editing program.  I'm partial to just up loading the raw video.  But I need to work in at least one Star Wars wash. 

Video Reviews Coming

I've been tinkering around with the idea of doing video reviews.  Last night I downloaded a video editing program that looks to be about my speed.  I've got a backlog of products I want to go through, several zines in fact.  Once I get comfortable with the video and editing and as long as I don't sound like a complete idiot (editing can only help you so much) I hope to have it out this week. 

I'm looking forward to playing with this new toy.  I see I can even do the Star Wars scene wipes.  I am gonna guess you will be seeing one or two of those.

The FATE of FUDGE

Last night our Monday Night group did a playtest in +Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands using the FUDGE system.  I have only played in one other session using the FUDGE system, so my experience is limited.  At the Con on the Cob last year I bought a pack of FATE dice.  I'm not sure what the differences are between the two systems.

I'm not sure I like the system all that much.  There is a different feel to it to say the least.  Could be it just felt awkward because I wasn't used to the system.  The after game discussion included some of the tropes of the system.  Minions and bosses.  It's all sort of patched together in my head.  I have the ruleset, but haven't read it.

But the adventure itself was interesting.  I played Maximellius, an eccentric mage who made monkeys out of pipe cleaners.  I used to work the craft shows for years with my wife so I brought the desperate realism to the game, "BUY MY MONKEYS!"

Some Quick Shots

• Rob used a tavern map from Harn.  After last night's session, while I love the details in the maps, with all the numbers and symbols, Harn maps are too cluttered for my taste.  
•  Anyway, the other players were +Ken H  playing cleric of Dannu which he played to the hilt.  I give him honors with his roleplaying.  "Dannu, forgive me for soiling my pants."  
• +Chris C. was the glue gun for the party and gave the adventure motion.  He played an honest, hard working bouncer that seemed to always be on the verge of being over his head at any given moment.
• And +Daniel McEntee played...I think an alchemist.  He kept making tea.  
• Skill resolution was interesting and fun.  I thought the skills worked very well in this system, but I am far from sold on how combat works.

The adventure was a very slice of life type, in a tavern, things happened and then the main hook is set.  We set off to save a noble gone missing.  We track him through a gambling house where Ken spent most of his allotted mana to talk with dogs during a dog fight and pissing the patrons off.  I continued to do odd things that were in my pockets.  While we questioned a street urchin about what he saw, we felt he was not being honest, so I pulled out a piece of chalk from my soggy pocket and began writing around the boy.  This made him nervous and when I was done, I had completed a potato stew recipe.  It was excellent.

We finally tracked the noble to a tenement.  After a short attack and a little hand waving of minions due to the time crunch, we met the big boss suckling herself to the noble's neck.  This is where I wasn't sure how well the system worked.  My mage was completely useless against the boss.  I'm not sure if it was because of good rolls by the GM, which I didn't notice them being all that great, or my inept rolls...I had a bunch of those.

I'm not sure I liked that fact that my guys and I think most of our guys were unable to effect the boss.  Again, this may be the standard for this kind of system.  I don't have enough experience to know.  While the adventure was a blast, I need to read up on the system. 

Issue #6, 2nd Edition

I ran out of red card stock.  So I am going to use a few of the other card stock colors to use them up.  I was perusing some of my DCC stuff and was reminded of all the covers they did.  So I thought what the heck, I'll change it up a little also.  So the next print issues will be released with this glorious cover, another stunner by +Jason Sholtis.  I have no idea what color the cover it will be because I'm using up what I have.  I think she makes a great cover girl.  Oh, don't worry, the halfling is still strutting himself in the zine, he and her swapped pages is all.

Starting late yesterday any orders will get the 2nd edition cover.

+Erik Tenkar is a mini review of The Manor #6.  He called the adventure Witches of the Dark Room.  Apparently these witches are taking horrible pictures.  hehe.  I call it a low level adventure, I can see where he might question that, but The Manor does not suffer cupcakes.

Review Incentive Program

That sounds so official, Review Incentive Program.  I think it should be in a Policies & Procedures manual.

Reviews of products are important.  My recent discussion with RPGNow and their policy that bars publishers to review other products got me to think more on this subject.

I wrote a batch of reviews for my blog and then posted them on RPGNow.  I was unaware that I couldn't although I guess I'd been warned before.  I actually thought I was warned because I rated one of my own products.  I was looking at one of them, I forget which, and I accidentally gave it a two star rating.  I didn't know how to undo the rating.  And I was thinking if I'm accidentally going to give myself a rating its going to be five stars not two. Busted.

Anyway, back to reviews being important.  I've been doing this long enough, and put out enough products, to know a review, good or bad, small or large, is a good thing.  They don't always parlay into more sales, but most of the time they do.  Some would argue that bad reviews...well, are bad, but I disagree.  How many times have you gone to Amazon and wanted to buy something and clicked on the one star reviews.  I know I do.  I learn more about the product from them most of the time.  Some of the negative choices are personal opinions, some are quality issues and some will say it's just plain broke.

So my Review Incentive Program is going to go something like this...

• If you do a review of one of my books you'll be entered for that calendar month.
• It doesn't matter if it's a review of an old product or a new one.
• It doesn't matter if it is a positive or negative review.  Only matters that it is an honest review.
• And in this case, size doesn't matter.  There is no length requirement.  
• If you do a review, please let me know.  I miss a lot of posts.  You can just comment on any of my posts or email me.  All my products have my email.  
• Of the reviews, I'll randomly select one review.  If there is only one review that month, the selection will not be random.
• If one person does two reviews of my stuff (for what ever reason), he or she will have two chances to win.
•  If you are selected, I'll give you a free PDF of any of my other products or one of my new pdfs. 

I'll give this a shot.  I have no idea if it will catch on.  If it flames out, no sweat.

To do a review.

 

The Manor #6 Doing Well, Thanks!

The first day of sales for Manor #6 has gone very well.  Thanks to those who ordered.  I've got one batch done and I'll continue printing out two more batches tonight.  Going through the addresses and making sure I have the updated ones and need to get new stamps since the postage has increased again since the last issue.  So a lot to do yet, but all the orders I have so far will be completed tonight.

If you get an order in today it'll go out tomorrow.  Here the link to grab a copy.

Got to get going.  Folks are waiting on me.  Glad it is Friday.

The Manor, Issue #6 Unleashed!

Where you at? US $4.00 USD Canada $4.50 USD The Rest of the World $5.00 USD

Available on PDF at RPGNow and Lulu.

Well shit, look at that, it's done.  I hadn't realized it had been nearly six months from the last Manor.  I'm hoping to get the issues out a little quicker.

Anyway, here's issue #6 and a lot of great OSRians have added their own touches to this issue.  +matt jackson penned a perverse little brothel that you'll need to find a place for in your game.  +Jason Sholtis created the cover, a pimp halfling with a Cthulubeholder belt buckle.  Break it down and you get Cthul-lube-holder.  Yeah, we'll find our humor anywhere.  Jason drew a few of the ladies that you have to chose from.

+Ken H added three puzzle rooms.  Ken is great at creating puzzles.  These feature three sets of rooms and how to get from one room to another.  It's not as easy as opening a door.

I've added my Guard class.  A simple guard class that can be added to your game.  It gives the men on the wall a bit more personality and a few extra skills they would develop doing the job.  While being a guard is not the most glamorous job, this class makes it a bit more respectable.  A supplement to this is a random table of guard greetings.  Add variety to your "Halt, who goes there."

A lastly I wrote a short, low level adventure I really like.  There are so many good things coming out of OSR minds these days I wrote this adventure by using +Timothy Brannan's The Witch class.  His book helped tremendously with the atmosphere and culture development.  Throw in a +matt jackson map which I think I got from one of Moleskin Map series.  And finally +Dylan Hartwell whose Big Book of Spiders shaped the adventure.  And Dylan went out of his way and helped me with art for the adventure.  His creepy style really enhances the entire piece.  It was fantastic using these things that others have created and combining them to make something of my own.

I'm really happy with how this issue turned out.  Even down to the editing process.  +Ken H helped again in this regard.  Although he said that he could find nothing wrong with his piece.  It was perfect.  And the last couple nights, Ivy helped a ton with reading it aloud and making changes, tightening up the prose and calling out when something didn't make sense.  This issue took a little while to get out, but the process was a lot of fun.

I want to thank everyone I've mention for making this issue happen. 

Taking a Short Break

I haven't been feeling much like blogging lately.  Time to take a short break.  Recharge.  I'm calling off on a couple of games also.  I guess I have gamer fatigue.  The past few months I have been playing in three different games, working on three projects and I'm one of the judges for the OSR Superstar competition (which was a lot of fun going through all the monsters!).

So time to take a few days and step back to recharge.  Watch some movies with the wife.  Try to remember the names of my dogs are not "No", "Stop it" or "Jesus Christ".  Its ironic I'm posting that I won't be posting, but I'll be back next week some time.  I'm hoping to get back in the groove and get productive again.  I'm have a few reviews I want to do, I plan on doing a videos of the reviews.  Quick, under ten minutes.  Should be fun. 

But for now, I'm putting away the d20s.