One Page Dungeon Contest 2020

I received an email from Aaron to let me know the deadline for the One Page Dungeon Contest deadline for 2020 has been extended to July 15th. This is great news!

I absolutely love the OPDC. I have for years. To me, it's what gaming is all about. People getting together and throwing in their efforts into a creative pool. While there are winners, everyone appreciates and cheers on everyone else. It's a great thing.

While I have other pressing matters consuming my time I really want to participate. I was digging a little into my map folder to find something that sparked my interest. Here's what I found.

Something I drew for another project, but it didn't fit. There is a crypt that goes with it. Those stairs go there. I don't know. Gonna play around with it and see what happens. 

Consider joining in. The rules for submission are easy, but read the submission guide first. 

Besides creating something cool, who knows, you might win a few fun prizes. Go forth and kick some ass. 

Tales from the Darkside

The other day I was talking with my co-workers about old television shows. Somewhere in the conversation Tales from the Darkside came up. I love that show. It came on randomly on a Saturday night after the news. A time when the television had 3 good stations you could watch and at night you could get 4 or 5. I remember getting excited when I'd hear that sweeping synthesizer music during the intro. 

The one episode I remember best was the creepy little monster behind the tiny door in the room. And he's the one featured on the DVD collection.Yeah, I grabbed the Complete Series of Tales from the Darkside for $24. 

I didn't realize the show went 4 seasons and 90 episodes. And the show was created by George A. Romero. Lots of big time writers contributed such as Stephen King, Frederik Pohl, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker and so many others. 

And one of the cool things about watching a show that's 35 years old is seeing the actors when they were young. Or you see an actor you know, but just can't quite place them and then have to pause on the credits to Google them. Did it twice last night. 

Ivy and I are absolutely loving the episodes. And I wanted to give them a shout out and let you know about the DVDs. They are affiliate links because who doesn't like a little Amazon credit?

Tales from the Darkside The Complete Series at $24 is so worth it!

Requiem of a Hag...Sometimes I Suck

Requiem of a Hag was an adventure I wrote for the One-Page Dungeon contest back in 2018...I think. I drew the map a few weeks before I submitted. I liked how the map came out. I use a few new coloring and drawing techniques and while not perfect, I liked the look of it. Then the title slammed into my brain, Requiem of a Hag.

Loved it!

So I have a map and title I really like. I thought the layout, fonts, and colors I used were solid and popped off the screen.  All I needed to do was write the adventure.

That's where things went to shit.

Here is a link to the adventure Requiem for a Hag. Who says I don't give you anything? A crappy adventure for you. A crappy adventure for you. Everyone gets a crappy adventure. Here's a few highlights to look forward to.

• Room numbers are are missing. 
• Others rooms have the wrong number. 
• And I forgot to detail a room.

The adventure reads clunky and uninspired. "Oh I drew a rug. I'll make it a trapper." Makes no sense in the adventure. I didn't even mention where the protagonist was located. Oh, I drew a big crossbow so I'll put an unnecessary trap there. 

It's awful. No other way to put it. 

Things I did like. Even in shit some good things come out of it.

• Quintin the barbed devil who likes to poop on altars.  
• The image of Song of the Children and how it works. 
• The name Agatha Manor. I may be a little bias. 

I plan on salvaging the map. Rip it away from this scab of an adventure and repurposed it another time. 

Sometimes I suck. I got the proof.

Kickstarter: Folk Magic of the Haven Isles

I wanted to give a shout out to one of the best producers of gaming material, Glynn Seal. This time around he is doing the artwork, the writing duties have fallen upon Richard Marpole. And editors don't get enough credit for the work they do, in this case Matthew Pook (Pookie). So what are all these fine chaps up to? They've come together to create Folk Magic of the Haven Isles. 

It's hard for me to resist anything with 'folk magic' in the title. It just appeals to me. A crude, primal form of magic that seems simple, but has the power to devastate a person, family, or an entire community. 

We're looking at zine-sized, 60 pages, a ton of amazing artwork by Glynn. From what he's shared, it's a no-brainer. You pledge. The content looks interesting with 14 magic-user sub-classes, 16 magic-user backgrounds, 7 tomes (spellbooks), 16 magical spells, and 4 oddities.  

I went in at the $16 pledge level to get the on-demand, at-cost print level and the PDF. But I'm thinking of schooching into the $26 pledge level to get a hard cover.

Alright. Stop reading. Go get a copy of Folk Magic of the Haven Isles. Then we can talk about it. 

What's In the Chest?

 All Art by Dean Spencer

After thirteen hours in the old Swerwill Sewers we're bloodied from battles with goblins and human raiders. Even the thief fell into a pit as he checked the corridor for traps. "I found it." He yelled up from the pit.

The elf caught the merest difference in the surface of the wall. He search the wall as the rest of us watched. He had a habit of doing this even when there was nothing there. This time there was. He asked for a pry bar. He worked the section of wall opened enough the fighter could grip his fingers on the edge and pull the heavy secret door open. 

An alcove hid behind the door. Within was a battered chest. The elf and fighter brought it into the light as we gathered around it. We hadn't gotten much treasure for our efforts. The thing was covered in dust. This wasn't the goblins' or raiders' chest. They didn't know it was here. The thief rubbed his hands together and smiled. 

The chest was simple, made of a thin wood and reinforced with iron straps. It looked cheap. Something an old woman would keep her gowns and shoes in. My excitement faded, but it was hidden for some reason.

The thief worked his picks into the lock and a moment later, click. He grinned. He stepped to the side and used to small fishing hooks attached to string and stabbed them into the wood and slowly open the lid from behind. Nothing exploded. No darts. No mouth formed to eat anyone. 

Treasure time boys, the thief said. I stepped around half expecting it to have ordinary stuff it in. But to my surprise there was nothing ordinary inside.

Sitting atop of everything was a candle stub. It's flame flickered. For some reason this simple magic caused a chill to go down my back. The thief reached in and grabbed the candle. He blew on the flame, it flickered and bent, but did not go out. Magic, he said. The elf and myself, a magic-user, appreciated his obvious statement.

A metal flask with small teeth worked into the metal for a gruesome detail. I'd seen one of these before. Flasks of the Divine Mother and Destroyer. Her children would drink fresh blood from these flasks during rites. A nasty artifact. The interest I had now turned to dread.

What the hell, the thief reached in and grabbed the handle of a glass container. Once he saw some horrible looking thing swishing around in the dark liquid he dropped it to the floor and scooted on his ass away from it. I was just relieved that the glass didn't break letting whatever is inside, out. I didn't want to know what it was. I saw a tentacle. I'm out.

The elf slipped his thin hand in and brought out a small pouch. By all the gods, let it be coins. I'm poor as shit and I need new boots. The distinct sound of coins sliding over one another made us all take notice. The elf dumped the contents into his hand. I counted forty-one silver coins. But these were weird. Each coin had a crude face on one side and blank on the other. One coin had a name scratched on the back.

The thief shook his head, fucking death coins. I never saw them before, but I heard of them. Those crazy assholes that worship The Mother, scratch the name of someone they want dead on the back  then throw it into the font in their temples to make it happen. 

Are they worth anything, I asked. I really needed boots. Thief shook his head, I'm not touching them. The elf shrugged, we could get something for the metal.

The last thing in the chest was a cluster of crystals. Purple in color at the base that darkened to black at the top. I could feel the magic emanating from these crystals. It made me sick to my stomach and dizzy. The elf put them down quick. He seemed to suffer the same side effects. I didn't know what the crystals were. The elf shook his head as I looked at him. He didn't know either.

A spark jumped off the tip of one of the crystals. Then another. I didn't have time to warn anyone as a thin, jagged stream of energy shot from the cluster and hit the elf in the chest. The elf flew back into the wall. A black hole in his armor smoldered where he'd been struck. It sparked again. This time I could smell the energy building. 

I shouted run. I didn't wait to see who listened. 

Mail Call!

Yesterday was a giant smelly turd of a day. This week is turning into a pile of them. Readjusting to the third version of normal in 6 months. Maybe I'm suffering from normal fatigue. The floodgates have been opened and wow, now I want to go on a three month lockdown. However, my mail saved my day. Let me show you what I got. Be prepared to be jealous and cry. 

I'm starting off with Titan Dice. Over-sized, 25mm, dice that come in a cool wooden box. Here's the weird thing, they were sent to me in January and I got them today. Someone must have selected the expedited 6 month shipping option. The other weird thing is I already have the exact same set. I'm cool with that though. Dice are dice and I'll make my 1's larger. You can grab a set if these smoke colored with gold numbering Titan Dice on Amazon for $19.99. 

***ALERT ALERT AFFILIATE LINK***

I got these great coins from a site called Dice Dungeons. I hadn't heard of them before. I think I found them when I was scrolling through Intagram one night. They have a bunch of different coins. I grabbed the horde and zombie packs. There were five in each. The horde pack came with 3 goblin and orc coins and the zombie horde came with 5 coins. I love weird fantasy style coins. Especially when you're playing a face-to-face came and some NPC offers a 100sp to help save Timmy because he fell down the well, and then throw a pouch with a 100 coins on the table. You get a much better reaction than saying it. The weight of them hitting the table and the sound of the coins sliding over one another has a visceral effect. 

Oh yeah, I love me everything about Thieves World. This is one of the biggest holes in my gaming collection is the FASA books. They've been elusive because I forget about them or when I do look for them they are very expensive. I fell into these two on eBay for $25. They are just a fun read. I get flashbacks to the books pouring over the details of the S'danzo or strolling through the Maze or hearing about the Hell Hounds. This is my gaming gold. Have two of them now. Traitor and The Blue Camel are still missing. The latter maybe difficult to land because it was a promo item. Just checked eBay for a copy, $175 and $56.46. A bit too rich for me. 

So now you see how my day was saved by a good mail day. 

RPG Zine Group on Facebook. Come Join Us!

Hey folks, I created a group that will feature RPG Zines. I've wanted to do this for a while. To establish a place on Facebook (MeWe just never worked out), where people can come and share, talk, get advice, offer their talents, and review all things zines. 

I'd like to feature zines on a regular basis. Get a zine catalog developed to direct people where to find the zines they want. And I hope a few folks do some how-to post or videos for those who want to learn.

If that sounds interesting, please consider joining. And bring your favorite worn out zines with you.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/551466285487694/?ref=bookmarks

Going Through the Spells: Remove Fear

This is another of those first level spells I don't recall my players or myself using. I'm surprised how many first level cleric spells are meh. Before I go into why I'm not a huge fan of this spell, let's look into the particulars. 

Old School Essentials Mechanics
Duration: 2 turns

Range: touch

The creature is touched and purged of fear. Magically induced fear may be dispelled, but this requires the subject to make a caving throw versus spells. The save is modified by +1 per level of the caster.

Reverse: Cause Fear

Will cause a target within 120' to flee for the duration unless it saves versus spells. 

So I searched the monsters within OSE, just those, not any additional books, and discovered not one monster creates fear. The mummy has an ability to paralyze with terror. But using the wording, terror and fear are two different things. The fear this spell affects is magical by nature and requires a save versus spell, where the mummy's terror requires a save versus paralysis. So this spell only specifically assists in removing fear caused by the spell. There is nothing to fear, but the Fear spell itself.

Magic items that it would help with is Drum of Panic and Wand of Fear. And of course the reverse of the spell, Cause Fear. A very narrow lane of usefulness. 

And it's a prep spell first. Cast it on a creature ahead of time to boost their save so the party would have to know someone one is sporting some Drums of Panic, Wand of Fear, or their go to spell is Cause Fear. So unless those specific cases were in play, the spell is left in the bin. 

Secondly, it's a get another chance for a save spell, after you chase the fucker down because Remove Fear is a touch spell.  

Even Cause Fear is limited in use (but strangely enough has a 120' range). It scares a creature away... That means you have to chase it down to kill it or shoo it away...until a couple turns later, it returns to eat you. If there is a big, bad baddie squatting on the treasure this spell could make easy work of it and the party loot the treasure with expending a drop of hit points. And we all know, its the treasure is where the experience in OSE, not the monsters. 

AD&D Mechanics
Duration: Special

Range: Touch

By touch, the cleric instill courage in the spell recipient, raising the creatures saving throw against magical Fear attack by +4 on dice rolls for 1 turn. If the recipient has already been affected by fear, and failed their saving throw, the touch allows another saving throw to be made, with a bonus of +1 on the dice for every level of experience of the caster. A 'to hit' roll must be made to touch an unwilling recipient.

The reverse of the spell, cause fear, causes the victim to flee in panic at maximum movement speed away from the caster for 1 round per level of the cleric causing the fear. Of course, cause fear can be countered by remove fear and vice versa.

Not a fan at all of this one. First off, the duration is a single turn. So it is a prep spell, but the duration is short. In AD&D the Fear affect is more in play. I guess it is useful if the party gets information ahead of time about where they are going, and discover Fear is a tactic the enemy uses. But again, it only affects one character. So chose the one that stands in front of the magic-user.

Cause Fear duration is even shorter. One round per level. I'm sure there are tactical situations where this spell would come in handy, but they would have to be very specific. Again, neither version would be a high priority to memorize.

Swords & Wizardry Core Rules

No entry for the Remove Fear spell which is no surprise since it is a 0 edition conversion. 

Swords & Wizardry Complete
Duration: 1 hour

Range: 240'

Before I get into this version I have to state that in the Swords & Wizardry Complete ruleset, there is no Remove Fear Spell either. But there is a 4th level magic-user Fear spell. I am adding it here because of the other version had a reverse spell of Fear. 

The spell causes creatures in its cone-shaped path to flee in horror if they fail their saving throw. If they do so, there is a 60% chance that they drop what ever they are holding. The cone extend 240' to a base 120' across. 

I so much prefer this spell. Makes more sense and I love the detail about dropping things. But I think I would change that. Tie it into the save itself. 10% multiplied by what they missed their save. Miss your save by 4, you have a 40% of dropping your stuff. 

Its got a good duration and can affect a lot more. Simple. The only thing not simple is that cone shit. If I have to get my protractor out I don't want any part of it. And you always get into the arguement with your players. "Only my foot was in the path. That's just the mini standing like that, I am standing straight up." You know what I'm talking about. 

Overall though, Remove Fear and its reverse, Fear, are not high priority spells in my book. I am sure there are some inventive ways to make it more interesting, I just don't like the narrowness of it and the fact in OSE very little actually causes Fear. I think you'd need to house rule this spell and expend its usage to make it worth a lowly 2nd level cleric to use its only spell slot on this one. 

I Was Interviewed by Hobbs!

Logo by Craig Brasco

Jason Hobbs and I got together and he interviewed me on his podcast, Hobbs & Friends. We had a good time and managed to talk about gaming. I go in the way back machine and talk about the origins of my blog, why I did The Manor and my Kickstarter, it's all there. And if that's not enough, I gave Jason a lot of shit. That's worth it right there. Click ----> Hobbs & Friends.