Swords & Stitchery

This little thought experiment came about after I cancelled my game last night after real world concerns came to light last night. I've been thinking of dusting off some older AD&D campaign notes for my my a Godbound/Cha'alt campaign set in Las Vegas. The demand here is a modern AD&D world. Now how the Hell does a dungeon master pull that off? Well by reaching for Mayfair Games's Role Aids Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

I've been wrestling with my a Godbound/Cha'alt campaign set in Las Vegas especially how the undead lords & the underworld are gonna fit in into a modern occult setting. Funny thing is I've already done all of the heavy lifting with the public domain setting of the Beyond ages ago. There are weird and modern realms of supernatural horror where Dark Forces can snare the living and adventurers Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"In Feast of Goblyns, a party of adventurers must use all their skills to escape the manipulations of one of Ravenloft's most powerful lords as they attempt to seek out the accursed Crown of Soldiers. If all goes well, they just might live long enough to escape this dread land and return to their homes."RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley marks the first real expansion & explosion Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So last night I was sitting around with DM Steve at the usual watering hole & we were going over my notes for the upcoming Las Vagas Godbound/Cha'alt game. He's thumbing through Cha'alt & comes in with there's too many God damn Elves in this game! And this starts us off on a discussion about original Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons's PC Elven race. This gets us involved in our Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

A noble creature has come down from the Hypborean mountains, and polar regions, the ancient Atlantian war bears & their mystically bonded companions are once again appearing upon the stage of Hyperborea and the ancient pocket realms. Measuring up to fifteen feet in length is the uplifted Atlantian war bear, a rare species of hunter, companion, and very loyal being. These once plentiful Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Last night was interesting on a number of levels one of which I'm going to talk about today. But one of the books that happened to fall into my hands was the original Dungeons & Dragons quartet of supplements. And one artifact drew my attention to Eldritch Wizardry .  That item is the 'Sword of Kas' which has a whole lot of  Greyhawk back story cannon by now. For the moment I'm going Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"In a rain-soaked graveyard, a small group of men stands round a coffin bound with heavy chains. 'We are here to mourn the passing of Jean de Cardeau, ' intones the village priest. 'Let us pray that his rest is eternal, and that he never returns.' As the pallbearers lift the coffin, something scrapes on the wood from inside. Quickly and without emotion, the attendants slide the casket into aNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

I was asked by Jason Vey the author of the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars Quick Start Kit. This is a part of an ongoing kickstarter for the Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg. What  Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is a sort of  beer & horror game that is easy to pick up & run with; "Debuting the new Elf Lair Games house system, O.G.R.E.S., Night Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Enter this world and discover excitement far beyond your wildest dreams. Greyhawk is the place where adventure begins and ends?."James Ward usually gets the attention for Gamma World but actually he contributed to the second phase of Greyhawk back in Nineteen Eighty Eight. Greyhawk Adventures is a solid & very useful book to this day for both the old school dungeon master & the OSR Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

  There are times when I want to take a break from the normal run of OSR stuff to concentrate on some things that I really love & one of those is half orges. Half-ogre PC, by Timothy Truman, from the article “The whole half-ogre: The best darn door-opener there is” by Roger E. Moore, Best of Dragon Magazine Vol. IV, TSR, 1985.  (Article without illustration originally from Dragon #73, May Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So last night I dragged The Dragon issue#42 out in into the light. This issue has some fantastic stuff for the dungeon master looking for something spooky but all of his or her players have memorized every Ravenloft & monster manual around.The issue only runs about sixty pages but these are solid additions to any dungeon master's tool box; " The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow - A spooky AD&D Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works! There's a decent amount of setting detail besides dungeoncrawling - space opera bar, domed city, mutants, weird ass elves, desert pirates, a city ruled by a gargantuan purple demon-worm, and much more!"There's beenNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Long ago there were rumors of strange lights in the skies over the Barbarian Lands to the north of Zanzia. These rumors have been ignored as natural phenomena such as the “northern lights” known to exist in some arctic areas. But these rumors persist. There have also been stories, passed down for generations among the barbarian tribes that live in that frozen wasteland, about a powerful tribeNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

When it comes to the obscure Pulp magazines few outside of certain collectors of the Pulp esoterica have heard of 'Oriental Stories'. For me this was a semial series of the pulps because it contains one of my all time favorites by Robert E. Howard. No not Conan but a modernish Pulp ballad known as 'The  Voice of El-Lil' . This little tale of Babylonian survivals in an African lost world Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

My own experiences with Fantastic Adventures began when my uncle gave me a stack of these magazines to read when I was in the hospital & my experiences with Khor an adventurer from Crete began.Robert Fuqua / Ziff-Davis Publishing - Fantastic Adventures, May 1939The contents tell the appenix N influence & shows the Pulp draw of the material: Fantastic Adventures [v1 #1, May 1939] (20¢, 100pp, Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"The essential Saltes of Animals may be so prepared and preserved, that an ingenious Man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Studie, and raise the fine Shape of an Animal out of its Ashes at his Pleasure; and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any dead Ancestour from the Dust whereinto hisNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Its been a long time since Vault of the Weaver from Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures Corp  was held in my hands. This collection of adventures is seminial to Dave Hargrave whose work holds such an infamous & yet wonderfully long shadow in old school gaming. So what is Vault of the Weaver?!  Vault of the Weaver  basically collects the infamous & classic modules of the three Arduin rpg Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Its about ten thirty at night & its after work, I've been doing a lot of thinking tonight about The Dragon magazine. I grew up playing original Dungeons & Dragons as well as  Advanced Dungeons & Dragons during the height of the Satanic Panic. The whole nine yards of my soul being up for grabs,suicide, & the whole cloth gamit  was shrieked on various television programs, religious phampletsNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works! There's a decent amount of setting detail besides dungeoncrawling - space opera bar, domed city, mutants, weird ass elves, desert pirates, a city ruled by a gargantuan purple demon-worm, and much more!" I've been Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Green Death... That's what old hands call the Great Dismal Swamp. For centuries, this tangled maze of sluggish watercourses, stagnant ponds, and festering marshes has defended Blackmoor's southwestern frontier. Large armies and smaller parties have disappeared altogether inside its vast, dripping, claustrophobic corridors.Among those who have dropped from sigh in this arboral hell is youngNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0