Summer on the Convention Trail

Hey, looky there. It looks like I’ll actually post something here before the month runs out.

OK, so every now and then I get to pick the lock on my cage and escape into the wild for a few days before a refugee from Animal Planet comes and shoots me with a tranquilizer dark and hauls me back to the Freelancer Designers’ Home for the Mad. As summer creeps up, I know for certain I’ll be out and about and those of you interested in meeting me in the flesh can find me at certain venues. If history is any indicator, I suspect your second or third question for me will be “When’s Stonehell 2 coming out?”

As of right now, I’m scheduled to attend three conventions this summer, with a fourth a strong possibility. Here are the stops on my Summer Rampage Tour:

June 6^th-9^th: North Texas RPG Con—I’ll actually be arriving on the 5^th, so you’re sure to see me if you’re an early arrival at the hotel. I’ll be looking to play something because I’m a busy man that weekend once the con officially starts. I think all of my games are filled, but you’re always welcome to come by and see if there’s a no-show or two. I’m really very accommodating. My schedule is:

Thursday, June 6^th @ 6 PM in Trinity III at Table 4: DCC RPG—“Frozen in Time”
Friday, June 7^th @ 10 AM in Trinity III at Table 8: DCC RPG—“A Night on the Town”
Friday, June 7^th @ 6 PM in Trinity IV at Table 7: Shiverwhen Playtest—“The Perils of the Book Trade”
Saturday, June 8^th @ 10 AM: I’m actually playing! “Metamorphosis Alpha” with Jim Ward. I’m two for two in MA with Jim at the helm. This means I’m likely a casualty this time around.
Saturday, Jun 8^th @ 6 PM in Trinty IV at Table 7: Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future—“The Great Stonehell Laser Massacre”

July 3^rd-7^th: Dexcon in Morristown, NJ. This one is not 100% guaranteed yet, but do to its proximity to my base of operations and the good things I’ve heard about it, it’s likely I’ll be attending and running some DCC RPG. More details as they emerge.

July 12^th-14^th: Connecticon in Hartford, CT: Hey, look it me! I’m a Tradition Gaming Guest of Honor at Connecticon. I’ll be bringing DCC RPG and doing another Shiverwhen playtest. My schedule is:

Friday, July 12^th @ 8 PM: DCC RPG—“Frozen in Time”
Saturday, July 13^th @ 9 AM: DCC RPG—“In the Court of Chaos”
Saturday, July 13^th @ 8 PM: Shiverwhen Playtest
Sunday, July 14^th @ 9 AM:  DCC RPG—“A Night on the Town”

August 15^th-18^th: The mother of all conventions, GenCon! It’s my first GenCon ever. It’s taken more than 30 years, but I finally get to attend the biggest RPG convention in the U.S. if not the world. I’ve got a bunch of games schedule and it’s also likely I can be found at or around the Goodman Games booth in the exhibitor’s hall in between events. My schedule is:

Thursday, August 15^th @ 7 PM: DCC RPG—“The Croaking Fane”
Friday, August 16^th @ 9 AM: DCC RPG—“Frozen in Time (zero-level funnel)”
Friday, August 16^th @ 7 PM: DCC RPG—“The Croaking Fane”
Saturday, August 17^th @ 9 AM: DCC RPG—“Frozen in Time (1^st level heroes)”
Saturday, August 17^th @ 7 PM: DCC RPG—“A Night on the Town”

Crap. That's a lot on my plate this summer. I better get back to work.

The Aspiring Lich

I’d like to take a moment and direct your attention to the blog, The Aspiring Lich. Chris, the blog’s author, is currently suffering under my refereeing efforts in the Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path. Like many of us prodigals, Chris cut his eyeteeth on AD&D and then drifted away from the hobby for awhile. He’s recently returned to the fold, taking the route that many suffered through upon coming back: sitting down to play the more recent incarnations of the game before rediscovering his old school roots.

It’s fascinating to watch that process from the outside, looking in, simply because it’s very similar to my own path. I came back into D&D with 3.5, struggled to make it resemble the game I remembered it to be, and then realized there was no need to do so when my old books and the various retro clones allowed me to play the game I was weaned on. Chris is sitting behind the Labyrinth Lord screen for the first time and realizing that is a world of difference between herding the cats and meowing amidst the masses of them. He’s already written some insightful things and turned his attentions to crafting OSR goodies. Please check out Chris’ work at the Aspiring Lich if you get the chance. Steering some traffic his way is the least I can do considering what lies in store for his Pathfinder PC…

New Realms of Crawling Chaos Review

It has fallen out of public view in the past several months, which is only natural given the sheer amount of good stuff that's been coming out of various OSR publishers (professional and amateur), but I've seen signs that people are beginning to give Dan Proctor's excellent Lovecraftian supplement for Labyrinth Lord another look-see. People still seem to enjoy my paltry contributions to the book as well.

A new review of Realms of Crawling Chaos is up over at Reviews from R'lyeh. Swing on by and give it a read if you've been wondering if this might be the book to spice up your old school D&D game.

Otherworld Miniatures' Labyrinth Lord Boxed Sets 1 & 2 Available for Pre-order

It was announced back in March of last year that Otherworld Miniatures and Goblinoid Games were teaming up to provide a series of miniature boxed set that correspond to the various levels of the dungeon. After some delays, the first of those boxed sets are now available for pre-order at the Otherworld Miniatures store. Both are expected to be released September 20th of this year and will cost £60.00 now and £75.00 after release.

Originally, each boxed set was to include a 3-4 page adventure that would link together to form a larger dungeon complex. I do not believe this is still the case and that the adventure concept has been discarded--which is a shame since I participated and submitted my level on time so that I could get a set of these bad boys myself, but such are the whims of fate.

In Order to Discover New Places, You Must First Throw Out the Old Maps

My Labyrinth Lord campaign recently experienced a complete party wipe, which can happen if you decide to let events unfurl naturally rather than guided by a firm yet biased hand. I look upon it with mixed emotions. It puts a damper on campaign momentum, but also allows me to introduce a few changes, ones I was lamenting over in my yearly review not so long ago.

In retrospect, I realize that I made an error in introducing material from the Advanced Edition Companion. Not because the supplement is flawed, but because it essentially undermined my whole purpose for going back to the roots of the hobby for this campaign. The campaign began to resemble AD&D in rules and style, and if that was the case, why wasn’t I just playing AD&D? It was time to chuck all the extraneous material and go back to basics and cultivate anew.

One of my primary goals in keeping to the basics and building from there was that I was hoping to create a game that was uniquely my own and not just another standard D&D world. This has been a mental hobgoblin of mine for quite awhile now, one which gets aggravated every time someone decides to expand the types of playable classes and wanders into the same old paladin, ranger, bard, druid, etc. territory. Having seen some of that appear in my own world, I had had enough and was seriously looking to break out of these same old variations on a theme.

It was a route I had taken before with both my Mule and Octopus class—solid, yet unorthodox player classes that explored what you can do with a class-based fantasy RPG—and one I plan to continue following. So, instead of adhering to the classic fantasy archetypes, I’ve become more inspired by other driving forces: “Is it something I’d like to play?” and “Is it something different?” The answers to these questions so far are indeed inspired.

As an example of where my mind had been wandering, an instance I’m most proud of, I’d like to present you with my latest class: the ghost. That is not a metaphorical name; it is a dead adventurer who continues to practice his former profession, unwilling to let a little thing like kicking the breathing habit slow him down.

I’m continuing to tinker with a trader class, one that relies more on role-playing than combat and avoids the granting of magical powers, which is a route I’ve seen before, but never quite understood. There are a few other classes (or races, rather) in the stew pot and I’ll either debut them here or submit them for publication as they come to completion.

The ghost may not be for everyone, and it is certainly not for all campaign worlds. My vision of what D&D continues to change, even more so after a year-plus of old school playing. It is unlikely that I’ll ever return to what I once considered its default settings, and I’m looking forward to what this new territory contains.

Download the ghost class here.

Informal Stonehell Poll Results

To give everyone a deserved break from all the April Fool’s bullshit and the “A-Z Blogging Challenge” that is going to make everyone’s blog roll look like Alphabet Soup for the next month (and “Oh what a JOY that’s going to be,” says the man who has been there, done that, and wrote a book about it), I wanted to extend my gratitude to everyone who took the time to provide feedback yesterday.

As I mentioned, I had my own bias before I asked the question and I’m glad to see that the majority of people are of the same mind: Keep it Labyrinth Lord and leave out the AEC. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing in my home game and I always meant to keep the published version as close to the basic rules as possible. I shall strive to continue in that vein and remain pure to my original intentions.

That being said, if I do happen to decide that Level Eight really, really, really needs a floating, multi-eyed, eyeball monster, I might cite the appropriate page number in the AEC rather than take up valuable page real-estate reinventing the wheel yet again. Such occurrences, if any, will be limited to the absolute minimum and only be done when I feel there is no better route to go than to use something form the AEC. But such measures will be of the last resort variety.

Thanks again, all. Looks like it’s time to put my mining helmet back on, pay off my kobold guides, and see what lays beyond the Vrilya check point on Level Five. I’ll send progress reports as they develop.

Informal Stonehell Poll: AEC or Not?

My design schedule is finally clearing up, allowing me to actually start looking at the Stonehell sequel as an actual task to accomplish rather than a wistful dream. I’m beginning to collect my scattered notes and to try and remember where I left off. As I’m doing so, a matter has arisen that the first book didn’t have to deal with: The Advanced Edition Companion.

When I wrote the first book, the AEC had yet to be released and all the material found in Down Night-Haunted Halls either came directly from Labyrinth Lord Revised or was homebrewed by yours truly. With the sequel, I now have access to official Labyrinth Lord supplementary material that wasn’t available before. And, quite frankly, I’m on the fence about what to do with it.

One the one hand, keeping Stonehell Dungeon in line with what’s included in the main rulebook allows me to keep the dungeon slim and sleek, and also provides impetus to create funky monkey homebrewed stuff to fill in the cracks normally occupied by materials from the Advanced game. On the other hand, by referencing the official versions of monsters, magics, and spells that I’d normally have to improvise and riff off of, that frees up space in the book to add completely new material, monsters, or more details about the dungeon. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.

My question then to you folks who are currently running, borrowing from, or thinking about running Stonehell is “What would your preference be for the sequel’s rule base: AEC or strict Labyrinth Lord Revised?” I’ll state now that I’m extremely unlikely to include anything from Realms of Crawling Chaos or any other supplemental material that appears between now and the book’s release, simply because I want to make things easy for the largest percentage of gamers and I know that not everyone who follows the Labyrinth Lord path has all the supplements.

I have my own bias, but I figured I’d engage in a little marketing surveying before I commit myself. Chime in with comments or via an email and let me know what you think. Thanks!

The Acererak Caper

Once upon a time, I caught some forgotten comedian’s bit about men and heist films. His contention was that, deep down inside, men want to participate in a heist. There is some primal, masculine allure to the idea of hanging upside-down in an air vent, spraying aerosol to detect invisible trip beams while another guy sits in a van three blocks away screaming “They changed the code!” into his headset mike. The challenge of defeating the undefeatable and walking away with a fortune is tempting no matter how law-abiding one is in everyday life, which is why the heist remains a popular crime genre in both fiction and film.

As I was out walking yesterday, The Tomb of Horrors burbled up to the surface of my thoughts for some reason. As my readers undoubtedly know, that module is largely considered to be the most challenging dungeon ever written. In fact, the Tomb of Horrors is so notorious that I’ve had younger gamers, ones who’ve never even seen the module in the figurative flesh, tell me with complete and utter sincerity that it is unbeatable and that everyone who enters the Tomb dies. They don’t believe me when I tell them otherwise.

Personally, I’m of the school of thought that there are no truly unbeatable dungeons or deathtraps—provided one has a fair referee and enough time and money to spend. I maintain that the Tomb can be navigated with greatly reduced risk if a) the referee is neutral, and b) you’re willing to take a financial and magical loss on the venture. Again, when I mention this, these younger gamers assume I’m talking about buying every last sheep in town and driving them ahead of the party to serve as mine detectors when they explore the tomb. Not so, my friends.

The key to defeating the tomb is patience, money, and research, not livestock. One of the great things about the Tomb is that, when inserted into a campaign setting rather than used as a one-shot, there is no time limit present when confronting the lich’s crypt. This gives the smart and cautious player all the time in the world to plan his foray before he gets within sight of that skull motif hill.

In a world where sages can be paid vast sums to dedicate all their time to researching the past and unearth forgotten scraps of information, why not do so? When priests quite literally have access to the knowledge of the gods, who wouldn’t consult them to inquire what lays beyond the entrance to the Tomb? Genius mages can cast spells that access other planes of existence or delve into legend to retrieve scraps of knowledge, so it would be foolish to not hire their services. And in a milieu where magic items exist that can detect traps, contain spells of augury or divination, see through illusions, detect poison, magic, and evil, reveal secret passages, and otherwise access the unknown and unseen, why wouldn’t you take as long as was necessary to buy, beg, borrow, and steal those items to take with you?

It then occurred to me that all this prep work was the fantasy equivalent to putting a crew together in a heist film. Why not make the entire campaign one big heist job with the Tomb of Horrors as the once-in-a-lifetime score?

The set-up would be simple enough. First, figure out what treasure makes the players drool and stash it in the Tomb. Staff of the Magi? It’s in there. Hammer of Thunderbolts? Acererak stole it. A diamond the size of a baby’s head? The lich has six of them.

Then start the players off at first level and let them know exactly what’s in the Tomb. Give them a scrap of information to get them started and then let them figure out how to get it. They’ve got 10-14 levels to plan their heist.

The result would be a sandbox-style campaign with a definite end game. The players would have to determine what information, equipment, magic items, favors, assistants, etc. they would need to breach the tomb and then figure out how to get access to that material. This would lead them to tracking down the possible resting places of a gem of true seeing or a wand of secret door and trap location. They might have to do a few favors for the Great Oracle in order to gain her favor so she will contact the gods to see within the tomb. A council of mages might need pacification before they’d agree to use their crystal balls and legend lore spells to peer beyond the veil. And, of course, the Thieves Guild is going to want in on a heist like this…

To make it true to the heist genre, you could even start the campaign with a single PC and have him decide who to recruit. As he puts his list of needed accomplices together, the other players come in as possible candidates, leaving it up to the first PC and his player to best determine how to go about recruiting them to participate in the caper. Now would also be the time to slip in a mole or secret rival too.

Like any sandbox, this would require a lot of prep work for the referee, but with a predetermined campaign goal to consider, he could concentrate his efforts on people, places, and things related to the ultimate heist. No need to design a ten-level megadungeon, just lots of little dungeons that hold secrets and heist-related magical items, for example. You could even use James Raggi’s The Grinding Gear as a low-level dry run to give the PCs an idea of what sort of challenges lie ahead.

One thing that would be required of the referee is complete 100% fairness. The Tomb’s a tough nut, and with it as the focus of the campaign, he might even want to make it 25%-50% more deadly ahead of time. Although, once that’s done, he can’t toughen it up again later on down the line if the PCs become better prepared than anticipated. If the players are smart and take steps to learn and overcome the Tomb’s dangers, they should be rewarded for doing so and not have to face a Tomb “adjusted for their challenge level.” On the other hand, if they fail to make the correct preparations, there’s nothing wrong with the campaign ending with the death of everyone.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I have the concept for the next Labyrinth Lord campaign I run.

The Siege of Fort Wolf’s Head

Last Sunday saw the players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign defending a remote frontier settlement against a horde of goblins. The scenario was lifted directly from Night’s Dark Terror, although the events leading up to the siege were a result of the players’ own actions. Putting them in charge of the fort’s defense was a great way to shake up the game for a session before returning to the dungeon crawl that seems to be the preferred style of play. I almost, almost sent out an email to players to suggest they watch Zulu or Assault on Precinct 13 before the game, but decided to not tip my hand ahead of time. Michael Caine references were made nevertheless.

The biggest problem in preparing for the battle was that I didn’t have a map of the frontier fort that accompanied the module. My copy of B10 is secondhand and is missing the big map and counters. If I was dealing with people who maintain a reasonable business model, I would normally have the option to buy a PDF version of that adventure and print out the map in pieces to tape together. Alas, Hasbro has an interesting method of doing business. Thankfully, someone was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the map so I could reproduce it on a sheet of Gaming Paper ahead of time. I’m attaching a photo of that reproduction to this post—just in case anyone else out there was wondering what the map of the outpost looks like.

The Stars Are Right…And Much Sooner Than Expected

Start off your week with soul-searing revelations and alien vistas of non-Euclidean geometry. Realms of Crawling Chaos is now available as a PDF or saddle-stitched paperback. The tome is expected to go into distribution early this summer, but be sure to tell your FLGS about it now. Orcus…I mean Great Cthulhu commands it!

Labyrinth Lord Text Documents Available

After much pleading from the DIY crowd, Goblinoid Games has finally made the text of Labyrinth Lord, Original Edition Characters, and the Advanced Edition Companion available on their website. Here’s Dan Proctor with the announcement:

Hi all, I know a number of you have been waiting for the text files for these books, and they're now up.

An important note about the text files: These files are merely text versions of the books. Therefore they still contain product identity. This may or may not be relevant to you depending on how you use them. FYI.

Enjoy!

http://goblinoidgames.com/ogclibrary.html

Rejoice, oh ye who hath dreamed of making a "Rules Compendium" of your very own for your home game or just wanted to cut and paste the rules you use and leave out the ones you don’t. Quite frankly, I’d love to be able to make my own “house rules” version but I don’t have the time right now. Put it on the “to do” list.

Krang the Steel God & Quintessential Items

Steel screams when it's forged, it gasps when it's quenched. It creaks when it goes under load. Steel is alive, son.

Krang the Steel God, sometimes known as Krang of the Hammer or the Ever-Smith, is a minor demi-power, but an important one. Krang rules over the tensile strength of steel, the durability of iron, and the ability for those metals to hold an edge. Smiths and soldiers are his usual devotees, but many who rely on metal for their trade or survival will speak a brief prayer to Krang before using an item under his influence. Krang’s holy symbol is a piece of razor sharp steel or iron etched with unusual symbols that spell out the deity’s name in Smithik, the secret trade language of smiths. Krang is aligned with Wonder in the Old Pantheon.

Although Krang has no true priests (spell-casting ones that is), he does possesses a small group of fanatical smiths who are able to invoke the god’s power when crafting an item. This group is known as the Ferrumic. Each Ferrumic smith is a migrant crafter, travelling from settlement to settlement to trade, teach, and, most importantly, search for veins of hematite especially blessed by Krang, for it is these special strains of ore that they need to create the quintessential weapons and armor they are known for.

Quintessential Objects

Ferrumic smiths can create objects using the rare forms of iron ore infused with Krang’s essence. These items are known as quintessential pieces, being superior to even masterwork items. Each has a minor magical effect of limited duration, but is not a true magical item such as one enchanted by magic-users and elves. As such, quintessential objects cannot usually strike creatures only affected by magic item (but see below).

Quintessential objects enjoy the benefits of masterwork items (+1 to attack OR damage rolls in the case of weapons; movement rate improved by one step for armor). Additionally, there is a chance that a quintessential object gains a random magical ability during its creation process. This base chance is 20%. However, the smith can attempt to improve the chance of attracting Krang’s attentions to the crafting process by using rare or exotic substances during the item’s forging. Such materials are expensive and they require an additional expense on the part of either the smith or the one who commissioned the piece. For each additional 100 gp spent, the chance for the weapon developing a spontaneous quality is increased by 10%. The probability may never be increased above 80%, however, and the money is spent regardless of whether the object develops special qualities or not.

Krang is an enigmatic god and even the Ferrumic cannot predict what qualities he might bestow upon their work. If the check reveals that the object is imbued with a special quality, the referee should roll on the table below to determine what power the item possess. Note that each of these abilities can be invoked only a finite number of times, and that, like a wand; each use reduces the number of “charges” the item contains. Each quintessential item has 2d10 uses when first crafted. After all those uses are gone, the item is treated like a regular masterwork item. The object’s owner can attempt to have a Ferrumic smith re-consecrate the item, but such a service costs a flat 500 gp and has only a 50% chance of success. If this attempt fails, the item’s power can never be restored. If it successful, it regains 1d10+5 charges. A quintessential weapon can only be re-consecrated one time.

01-03: Item can throw magic missiles as if it were a 5th level magic-user (3 missiles per use)
04-06: Item unlocks a single, non-magical lock within 5’.
07-10: Item causes any single attack against the owner to be rerolled.
11-13: Item allows the owner to levitate for 1 round per use expended. Movement rate is 20’ per round.
14-17: Item allows the owner to reroll any failed check against fear. This is a reflexive power and requires no action on the part of the owner.
18-21: Item produces a small flame (candle-sized) up to 30’ away.
22-25: Item allows the owner to affect creatures normally only struck by magical weapons. This effect lasts for 1d4+1 rounds.
26-28: Item produces a shocking grasp effect when striking/struck by an opponent, doing d8+1 damage.
29-33: Item allows the owner to ignore the effects of a web spell or giant spider webs.
34-37: Item turns undead as a 2nd level cleric
38-41: Item detects poison within 15’ radius.
42-46: Item can produce light as the clerical spell (12 turn duration)
47-50: Item reduces any fire-based damage taken by half. If the damage allows for a saving throw and it is successful, only one-quarter damage (rounded down) is suffered.
51-53: Item has a 4 in 6 chance of detecting secret doors within 15’ radius.
54-57: Item negates the effects of a sleep spell on the owner only. This is a reflexive power and requires no action on the part of the owner. The owner is still included in the # of HD affected.
58-62: Item resists the effects of corrosive attacks from creatures such as rust monsters, green slime, grey ooze, etc. This is a reflexive power and requires no action on the part of the owner.
61-64: Item cloaks the owner in gloom, increasing his ability to surprise opponents to 3 in 6. The created shadows only affects owner and the surprise chance is cancelled if accompanied by others.
65-68: Item grants the owner a +1 bonus to any single saving throw.
69-73: Item creates water as a 1st level cleric.
74-76: Item allows the owner to blink for 3 rounds.
77-81: Item grants the owner infravision for 2d6 turns.
81-83: Item creates an arcane eye which lasts for 1 turn.
84-87: Item deflects non-magical missile attacks with a successful save vs. breath attacks.
88-91: Item grants the owner a boost of speed that allows him to automatically wins initiative for the next round. It has no other effect. The rest of the party must roll for initiative as normal.
92-95: Item allows the owner to read languages.
96-99: Item prevents the owner from losing his footing. This is a reflexive power and requires no action on the part of the owner.
00: Item becomes a true, permanent magical item of +1 power.

Cost of crafting a quintessential item

The base cost of materials and labor for a Ferrumic smith to create a quintessential item is the item’s normal cost plus 400 gold pieces. This allows for the base 20% chance of the item developing special powers. Additional funds may be spent to increase this percentage as noted above.

Crafting times

The time required to forge a quintessential item depends on its size and complexity. A quintessential weapon can be created in one week’s time. A quintessential shield requires 7+1d8 days to complete. It takes a full month to create a quintessential suit of armor.

I am a Meta-Gaming Referee

When WotC announced that they’re introducing the new Fortune Card marketing gimmick, some folks took it to be the final nail in the coffin of a game they once loved. Others saw it as the long-delayed inevitable step and wondered why it took this long to happen. I read about it on the blogs, shrugged my shoulders and went back to what I was working one.

I did this for two reasons. The first is because, other than the re-issue of Gamma World, nothing WotC does anymore affects my game playing or purchasing habits. As such, I’m no longer involved in any customer-publisher relationship with them, and outside of making the older editions available in PDF format again, I’ve no opinion on what Hasbro and the Wizards do with their products, money, and time. I do wish they displayed greater employer loyalty to their designers though.

The second reason was that I beat them to the punch by almost a year.

I’ve made note that I will sometimes award players with a certificate of commendation for reaching certain milestones or displaying exceptional growth in play. What I didn’t mention is that these award letters are accompanied by a chit or card good for use in game. All of these cards affect the mechanics of the game in some manner and they do so in a meta-gaming manner. It is the player who steps in the apply these award cards, much like using a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to avoid an unfortunate dice roll in Monopoly.

I make no apologies for this behavior. I find them enjoyable and the players love having this additional resource at their disposal when things start going incredibly wrong for them. Such an obvious “gamist” element might not meet with everyone’s approval, but if you are the kind of referee who likes giving the players another factor to consider when deciding their actions, you can download a PDF copy of the chits I use in my Labyrinth Lord campaign here.

Iä!!!

At long last I can break my silence since Dan Proctor has officially announced it.

Without saying too much about the supplement just to be safe, this is an incredibly cool book and I’m honored that I was asked to be a part of it. My response on seeing Dan’s manuscript was, “It’s like you took the Cthulhu Mythos chapter from the unexpurgated Deities & Demigods and turned it into a sourcebook of its very own!” Dan did an amazing job on this one and I think a lot of folks are going to impressed by the stuff in there. You’ll find it awful stuff, by which I mean you be both “full of awe” and hopefully disgusted too. I know I blew out the “weird gear” in my mental transmission doing my section of the book and I hope the pain and madness comes through in the text.

Pick this one up when it hits the market. The psionic system is worth the price of admission alone. Your players will hate you for it.

Welcome to My World

Since I’ve taken a good look around me and realized that I have a literal box of books that I’ve purchased in 2010 and have yet to crack open, I’ve decided to catch up on my reading. Some of that reading includes the more recent issues of Fight On!, since I got sidetracked somewhere around issue #6 and haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy that publication as of late. However, rather than dive right back in, I started with #1 again and I am slowly working my way forward.

While the premier issue still holds up and contains more than a few nuggets worth mining, what really caught my eye this time around was the editorial written by good old Ignatius Ümlaut, publisher and editor of the fanzine. Entitled “In the Time of the Broken Kingdom,” it is, amongst other things, a love letter to the open game of yore, the sort of campaign where anyone at anytime could stop by, pull out a character from their overstuffed briefcase, and spend a few hours as a guest in an ongoing campaign world.

That is a rare thing these days. As a whole, the hobby has become a place where, to quote the editorial, “we often content ourselves with smaller communities: our own group’s game world, the fandom of worlds like Tekumel, Glorantha, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Arduin, the Forgotten Realms, the World of Darkness, and so on, communities devoted to the particular ruleset we like best, even communities of game designers.”

The way we play these games has changed since they first blossomed out of the organized chaos of the sand tables of the Mid-West. If I may be so vainglorious as to quote myself from the intro to The Dungeon Alphabet, the hobby, like the dungeon, “is no longer the unexplored country it was in its youth. And, like any unexplored land, it has lost its wildness and unpredictability with the arrival of more and more people and the laws and rules that a population brings with them.” Things have been “mapped and codified, rendered predictable with familiarity. It is no longer the Wild West or the lawless high seas.”

It is almost difficult to imagine, as the clock slowly winds down on 2010, that the campaign world was often a much more fluid place, one where people came and went depending on the whims of their schedules and travel times. The gamer of today might be hard pressed to imagine this scenario described in an article from a 1980 issue of New World entitled “It’s Only A Game…Or Is It?”, by Moira Johnston and quoted in the Fight On! editorial:

The liberal immigration policies of [Deanna Sue] White’s D&D-based ‘open universe’ allows characters to visit from other worlds and universes, making Mistigar an intergalactic entrepot. “Whenever I’m in L.A., I call to see if Deanna’s having a run,” says Clint Bigglestone, Bay Area fan and producer of the FRP convention, DunDraCon. His characters adventure through Mistigar, returning to the Bay Area with wounds and stories that spread Mistigar’s network of contact…The FRP network has become so sophisticated that it is now possible for jealous, upstart worlds from all over the country to attack Mistigar. Two attempts to subvert her world have already been thwarted, one by Bigglestone, whose characters discovered, while campaigning through Dave Hargrave’s world near San Francisco, that evil members of Hargrave’s Black Lotus Society planned to attack Mistigar. Loyal to White, Bigglestone’s characters attacked and killed the plotters.

As the date of the article suggests, the situation described above was not an uncommon one even as the hobby entered the boom years of the early 1980s. I remember playing in several campaigns in junior high which featured characters hoping from one world to another in the school cafeteria depending on whose turn it was to referee, bringing their grudges and artifacts of unbelievable power with them for the journey. This style of play was to fall out of fashion as the years progressed and campaign worlds became more insular in nature. Ironically, the open campaign went into decline as the commercial campaign setting began to ascend, a product that, on paper, would seem to make the open campaign more accessible to gamers around the world.

This editorial got me thinking about the way things once were and what they are no longer. There have been and continue to be attempts at “organized play,” moderated events that do what White and others did without the benefit of an overseeing committee or communication methods more advanced than the mailed letter, mimeographed fanzine, or telephone call. Outside of a brief membership in the RPGA back in the late 1980s, I haven’t been exposed to these efforts and I can’t claim to know if they do an adequate job of recreating or maintaining this level of campaign openness. But what I can do is undertake efforts to make my own campaign world more accessible to visitors.

I’m not proposing some OSR-wide organized play: that way leads to madness. Instead, I’ll be taking steps to make my own personal campaign setting, the Kinan-M’Nath or “the Uncertain Lands” that forms the basis of my Labyrinth Lord game, a place where people can occasionally come, experience Stonehell Dungeon first-hand, gain some treasure, and depart with “wounds and stories”…and maybe a bit of loot.

I’ve been thinking about this since I reread the FO! piece and it seems to be a logical step for my own campaign. When I was younger, I always envisioned that I would someday have a massive campaign world of my own, one detailed down to the smallest little square foot. As I grow older though, I see the sense in quality over quantity and it’s becoming quite clear that any and all of my future campaigns will be set in the same small(ish) region that I’m currently playing in. Since the Kinan-M’Nath is based on both an original play map (Outdoor Survival) and original rules (D&D via Moldvay via Proctor), why not go whole hog and assume the original play style as well? I would much rather have more visitors to a well-detailed region than a vast world that rarely gets visited by tourists.

The fact that Stonehell Dungeon has become a popular visiting place for adventurers also makes an open campaign style of play sensible. With a pre-existing axis mundi to rest cross-campaign travel on, it’s a small matter of extending the idea of many Stonehells scattered across the multiverse and allowing travel between worlds (although I claim rightful possession of the Ur-Stonehell!).

Lastly, I run my campaign in a public setting, one where anyone can walk in and see the campaign unfold. And although I may not live in a transportation hub, I am located a short train ride from the most magical city on Earth. One never knows who might be in the area and looking for a game to play during their visit.

Like any nation, my campaign world will have some laws regarding visitation and immigration, and I’ll get to those in posts next week. In the meantime, let it be known that the borders between worlds have grown a little thinner in the Kinan-M’Nath. Should you ever find yourself headed to the New York area, be sure to pack a character sheet or two. I might need help defeating the Black Lotus Society.

Newly Discovered Lore for Stonehell Dungeon

Last year, as I was putting together the first Stonehell Dungeon book, it became clear that I had more stuff to cram between its covers than I had space for. Rather than wait until the sequel came out, I decided that I would launched a series of supplemental PDFs to be used in conjunction with the main books. The material included in these supplements was intended to be just that – additional information that could be used or discarded without affecting the overall dungeon. Not only would this allow me to release the game information that had to be trimmed due to lack of space, but it also gave me a way to continue to build on the Stonehell Dungeon setting after the second and final book was released.

It was and remains my intention to limit these supplemental releases to a strictly PDF format. Since each would be relatively short in pages and word count, it didn’t make much sense to go the printed route. It also would keep them cheap to produce and I could then pass the savings along to you, the potential consumer. Each supplement would be available on my Lulu storefront for no or low cost.

The very first of these supplements, The Bandit Caves, was released in conjunction with Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls. It was and is a free PDF file that details the lair of a bandit gang who has unfinished business within the dungeon. From the feedback I’ve received, people seem to enjoy it and have a lot of fun customizing the bandits and their aims for their own campaigns. My own players just got around to tangling with those outlaws the other week and barely escaped with their lives.

It has been nearly a year since that first supplement was released, and I didn’t want 2010 to end without some new Stonehell material seeing the light of day, especially since it was my original intention to have the sequel out by the end of this year. I mentioned previously that my workload for this year has made that an impossibility, and you’ll have to wait until 2011 to see the final book. In light of these events, I’m pleased to announce that the second Stonehell Dungeon Supplement will be available tomorrow.

Entitled Buried Secrets, this 20 page supplement is an anthology of adventuring sites located in and around Stonehell Dungeon. They include a monster-inhabited cellar beneath a ruined tower that was home to a magic-user with a most unusual agenda; a cave system that was once the sanctuary of a loathsome cult dedicated to the King of Pests; and lastly, the very first sub-level for Stonehell Dungeon, a somewhat safe haven for the PCs to rest – provided they don’t upset the ancient mistress of the place.

Stonehell Dungeon Supplement Two: Buried Secrets is a direct result of my own group’s exploits in my home campaign. Each of the adventuring sites included in the anthology was first explored by them, often with hilarious and lethal results. Now, through the means of the Stonehell Supplement series, you too can tread where they did. Even if you’re not using Stonehell Dungeon in your own campaign, the sites can be used as stand-alone adventures suitable for most any fantasy world.

Now, a word of warning or at least full disclosure: The Stonehell Supplements are not slick, professional products, nor were they ever intended to be. They are my own cleaned up and edited notes laid out in a clear, easy-to-read format – the same one used in the main Stonehell books. And since my only budget for these is time, they suffer from a severe lack of commissioned artwork, using clip art or public domain pieces for their covers and lacking any interior illustrations at all. If it’s any consolation, I try to make the best use of that extra space by cramming in as much fun stuff as I can. Supplement Two is no exception to this. I wanted to make that perfectly clear so that nobody feels duped. Also, the format of the supplement is somewhat different from the first Stonehell book. The first two locations are detailed in a more traditional dungeon notes method rather than the modified One-Page Dungeon method used in Stonehell Dungeon. The last location, which is a sub-level of the dungeon proper, does use that abbreviated format and can be printed out and inserted inside the book for easy reference during play.

Buried Secrets is the first supplement that comes with a price tag, namely a $2.99 one. For that low price, you get the three adventuring sites (Modnar’s Cellar, The Nest of Otrogg, and The Sanctuary of Chthonia), two new spells, eight new monsters, two new magical items, and a pair of minor deities. All that for less than the cost of a bag of Tostitos chips, and it’s guaranteed to last longer, too.

If this sounds like something you’d like to add to your gaming collection, be sure to swing by here tomorrow when the official announcement is posted and the storefront link provided.

And the Answer is...

...to the question, "When you think about Dungeons & Dragons, the cover of what product comes first to mind?" Had you asked me this question some years ago, the answer would have been very, very different. It is only because of my experiences over the last two years that I've come to realize how much I love that box. It is simple elegance just waiting for you to make it your own. This goes just the same for its excellent sister daughter, Labyrinth Lord.

The Wrecking Crew

Fungal Dead
No. Enc.: 2d8 (3d10)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60’ (20’)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1+2
Attacks: 1 (bony claws)
Damage: 1d6
Save: F1
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: See below
XP: 27

The fungal dead are human corpses whose bodies have been overtaken by a virulent strain of unwholesome fungus. These alien spores animate their non-living hosts into a nightmarish semblance of life and seek to spread the colony into new, recently-deceased corpses. Luckily, this horrid fungus is only known to grow in places steeped in the unwholesome radiance of that bizarre fertility deity, Ishnigarrab.

Fungal dead tear at their opponents with ragged hands, raking their victims with sharp, splintered fingers. If a fungal dead is struck by a weapon, its body emits a cloud of foul-smelling, psychotropic spores. Anyone in melee combat with a fungal dead when struck must save vs. poison or become afflicted by horrific but short-lived hallucinations. Such characters suffer a -1 penalty to all attacks and saving throws for 1d4 turns. A successful save indicates that the character is immune to further exposure by these spores during that encounter.

Although fungal undead can be “slain” by normal attacks, the fungus that powers them reanimates the host corpse after two turns with full hit points. Only by completely destroying the fungus that affects the corpse, usually by using fire, acid, or similar destructive means, can a fungal dead by permanently slain. As they are not true undead, fungal dead are unaffected by turning attempts or holy water.

On some occasions, fungal dead are born from sacrificial victims that have been exposed to colonies of the loathsome fungus as part of the veneration of Ishnigarrab. These sacrificial victims are adorned with symbolic, low grade jewelry prior to being cast into vile pits filled with the fungus and some may still bear these tokens when discovered. Each group of fungal dead has a 40% chance of wearing these decorations when encountered, with the jewelry on each corpse worth 2d10x10 gp.

Just Roll the Dice

Boy howdy, can I pick a good time to take a break from the blogosphere and the intertubes or what? Maybe I'm not the only person who needs to walk away from the computer and concern themselves with other things for awhile, neh?

So what are you doing for International Traditional Gaming Week? I'm breaking my online fast for a brief minute to tell you what I did before I return to my Fortress of Solitude. I spent four hours playing Labyrinth Lord today with five players and ten PCs. We then got the opportunity to teach a kid and his father about retroclones and give them the links to some of the free PDFs available online. Now said kid wants to come play with us next Sunday. All of this while clutching his soon-to-be-forgotten copy of the 3.5 Players Handbook in his hand. Not a bad way to "put butts in chairs," which is really what this whole week is supposed to be about, correct?

At the risk of embarrassing one of my players, who'll remain nameless because I didn't ask permission for what I'm about to do, wouldn't you rather be hanging around with these guys than getting riled up online?

The Eldritch Frontier Wiki

I've gone ahead and made my Obsidian Portal site for the forthcoming Eldritch Frontier campaign open for viewing. There are still a lot of little details that need to be added and the whole thing needs to be gone over with an eye for typos, but my goal was to have it up today.

Looking it over, I get the impression that it doesn't quite convey all that I have in mind for the world and seems a little too vanilla in places. The spice will have to wait because I'm certainly not going to tip my hand before the campaign even begins. A lot more will be revealed in time and the campaign's atmosphere will certainly be much more palpable around the table when dice start clattering.

Wiki is here.