Swords & Stitchery

"A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!" I've been battling a Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Desolate and abandoned, the evil alchemist's mansion stands alone on the cliff, looking out towards the sea. Mysterious lights and ghostly hauntings have kept away the people of Saltmarsh, despite rumors of fabulous forgotten treasure. What is its sinister secret?"I have more then a minor obsession with U1 Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave J.Brown with Don Turnball. Coming Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Its Monday & I've had Winter storm Abel blow in & its given me some time to think about the following.  Between snow blowing & shoving I've had a bit of time to think about my Cha'alt/Godbound rpg campaign which has been in full swing. Now I've been doing a lot of thinking about megadungeons. In my current campaign Cha'alt planar location dimension warps itself into a modern Las Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Most of my American friends have spent their day with their American families for Thanksgiving. And we've had a fantastic Thanksgiving but something has been at the back of my mind. I'm talking about the appearance of X1 Isle of Dread off the coast of California in my campaign. Let's get that pesky history of the X1 module outta of the way first;"X1: "The Isle of Dread" (1981), by David "Zeb" Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Now I've spoken at length about the real need for heroes & adventurers in OSR & old school campaign. I've spoken at length about the veneer of Dungeons & Dragons as well as it use in old school campaigns.  But when you start looking into the mind set of Dungeons & Dragons especially the length & breath of campaign several things become apparent. Even with large groups of players &Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Gnolls by LadyofHats In tonight's Cha'alt/Godbound Las Vegas campaign  the PC's freed a number of slaves from a group of Skeevers slavers who were operating right on the outside of main city. The PC's had to deal with two groups of Skeevers with over forty slaves in toe.  The Skeevers were infiltrated with the Hyena men or Gnolls. They were led by several Flints. What the Flints actuallyNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Deep in my heart, as in the hollow stoneAnd silence of some olden sepulcher,Thy silver beauty lies, and shall not stir—Forgotten, incorruptible, alone:Though altars darken, and a wind be blownFrom starless seas on beacon-fires that were—Within thy tomb, with oils of balm and myrrh,For ever burn the onyx lamps unknown.And though the bleak Novembral gardens yieldRose-dust and ivy-leaf, nor any Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

After several months of wrestling with this decision. I've got decided to take a ninety day hiatus from this blog  for work related reasons. Over the past three months I've been suffering from writer's burn out & the near constant blogger demands of doing two or three blog posts a day. The sewing machine repair business has been taking bigger & bigger swaths of my time. I need a well deserved Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Halloween is fast approaching but for me as a sewing machine repair guy its already passed. The hobbyists & sewers are already looking beyond to the next round of weddings, baptisms, birthdays, & million other holiday projects. I snuck in some time away from social media to sneak in some quality time with Dragon magazine#138 '88 Halloween issue. Its an iconic Jeff Easily cover & I've Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

What do you as a dungeon master do if things go a bit too well for your zero session?! One of my players right now is going over & making his PC with Godbound/Cha'alt. I've got another possible player coming up for this campaign. Originally I planned for this to be a one shot mini campaign to explore the system & create some adventures for a few months. Well that plan seems to have gone toNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Now I've spoken about the Wraith of the Immortals box set before but I've been quietly on the side tracing a particular favorite type of demon that I love to use. The Succubus has been a staple of Dungeons & Dragons going all of the way back to Eldritch Wizardry:"The succubus appeared under the demon entry in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement (1976)" Then they appear in the Advanced Dungeons Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Michael Weaver's cover for Dragon magazine #162 screams to Ravenloft second edition setting to me.  So the character workshop went alright folks but I've down with the Autumn sickness that seems to go around here in my neck of Connecticut. Its a very gloomy Sunday which is in keeping with the Halloween season. One of the things I want to talk about is using the veneer of Dungeons Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Just below Fairyland & connected with the lands of Fairy are the Tolgey Wood, a region of dark woods, wastelands, & mysterious shadows. Shadows so deep that some connect to the plane of Shadow.  These woods are home to many species of Jabberwocky. They are also connected with many lands through mysterious gates of old which lead to many planar bolt holes of ancient species much older Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"A long journey under an azure sky filling with brackish, boiling clouds ends at a large oak tree. Here, from a muscled branch, a man hangs limply by a thick rope strangled around his neck. Beyond, a dim, rising, yellow moon silhouette’s a village. Snaking, ashy tendrils of smoke coil above rooftops, lights glitter in windows while a miasmal fog creeps down upon the village from freshly churnedNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Sleep sometimes eludes me for days at a clip & when that happens I reach back to my days reading 'The Dragon' Magazine, my uncle's collection of Pulp magazines, & my thoughts of 'those things'. My own particular brush with the writings of  Frank Belknap Long came in the Fall of '86. I was sick with pneumonia & my uncle brought my folks a stack of Pulp magazines. In the stack was the July '37 Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The balance between the divine & mundane sometimes has to be thrown out of the window. The play is the thing. But back in 2016 I learned several valuable lessons when dealing with both Arduin & Godbound. Could these lessons be applied to an upcoming campaign?  Wayback in 2016 I had a group of players of White Wolf's Exalted rpg who wanted to take a spin on Kevin Crawford's Godbound.  So Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

So let's talk Arduin rpg books  here for a moment & one of Dave Hargrave's themes in my opinion. That is that power attracts power ergo divine power attracts divine power, affairs, gods  & themes of the powers cosmic. Now for months now I've been talking about this Cha'alt/Godbound rpg set in Las Vegas for months. Yes I've gotten away from the setting for a moment or two. Why? Because I'm Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Sometimes going back to the root of your old school games is necessary to get into the right frame of mind for a game. I've written extensively about H.P. Lovecraft's Shadow Out Of Time & the works of the Great Race of Yith. There's something to be said for growing up with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons especially Kuntz's & Ward's Deities & Demigods. This wasn't my first exposure to the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Let me first take a moment to appoligize for the lateness of this blog post & give a very nice shout out to the Tales of the Whispering Thief blog. Thanks for the back shout & all of the amazing Godbound rpg content over the years. I gotta say that blog & its posts continues to impress. Especially the Corpse of the Machine-God series of posts part 1. Part of the Corpse of the Machine God part Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

"Somewhere in the depths of Diamond Desert lie the skeletal remains of Ymir’s Serpent, a legendary Viking longship. In days of yore, Sigtrygg Forkbeard led his company upriver, piercing the desert’s hostile heart. There the Vikings unearthed a lost mine brimming with green diamonds, but the River Æolus desiccated as the Serpent prepared for launch, and the ship was swallowed by the dunes. Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0