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This December, Marvel Comics expands the history of Fantastic Four: First Steps with FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FOES – THE WIZARD #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Buckingham, the latest comic…

I have a soft spot for superheroes who never found their audience, and one of them is Greer Nelson, the Cat. Created by Marvel in 1972 as a feminist heroine…

Mark along with Hassan Godwin cover the news, plus El Man Jenny Feldy interviews Filmmakers Kevin Wayne and Kurt Deimer

Barry Kitson returns for a deep, behind‑the‑scenes dive into L.E.G.I.O.N., sharing fresh stories, sharp insights, and the kind of creator talk fans love.

Title: Vampyrates # 3 Publisher: BOOM! Studios Written by: Fred Van Lente Illustrated by: Luca Pizzari Art Assistance by: Alberto Canale Colored by: Adam Guzowski Lettered by: Jodie Troutman Cover…

By Noah Green
Necrotic Gnome
OSE
Levels 2-3

he shattered remains of the arch-wizard Rakius’s tower have long stood silent—until now. Gnoll fugitives seeking refuge have unwittingly unleashed the restless horrors that linger in the ruin. Can players unravel the wizard’s forgotten doom and escape his labs with arcane treasures and their souls intact?

This 24 page adventure uses about twelve pages to describe 25 rooms in s small five level ruined mage tower. You’re running around doing things for the undead as you stab some abominations. It’s trying to keep som themes running, but it feels disconnected from itself.

Meh. It’s a small ruined wizards tower. Inside you’ve got these gnolls, hiding out after they stole some gnoll artifacts. Except, all but one are now possessed by spirits that were in the tower. They now all hate each other, or have some quest inside the tower for you to go on, which could be something like “kill the other spirit Bob” or maybe “cleanse the tower of the abominations”! Because, yes, as a wizard tower there are some weird fleshy abominations. (Nice art for them!) 

I am just so Meh about this one. I can only point to a bunch of trifling things. There is a decent little outside portion, with multiple entrances inside and windows and thicket holes entrances and so on. There’s a little read-aloud section and then some decent little interactivity in places. Let’s open up the cold dome and find some brains and put them back in to skulls with bejeweled eyes! Or a toad statue in a fountain with a gemstone hidden in an eye, all in a kind of overgrown garden setting. Or, even, a room with paintings in it, one of which is a famous missing work! This should all be decent. I mean, even the shades and their entire fetch quest little bullshitty things, that should be fine also, right? Bring me the Jade Monkey! And I shall give you, I don’t know,  a necklace hidden in a fireplace nearby. 

And, some of the magic items are not bad at all. “Leonard: A life-sized, bald human male head sculpted of rubbery material. Pulling the nose or an ear causes it to scream for 1d6 rounds; all nearby suffer a –2 penalty to attack rolls.” Or a little bonsai tree with litte fruits on it that provide full size rations. Not everything here is great, there are boring old +1’s, but, it does have some objects with some creativity

But there’s just something missing to all of it. Some life? Some joy? Some completeness?

Let’s revisit that painting. It’s in a room with like twelve other paintings. It’s the only one mentioned, at like 200go, but, are the other worth something? It’s like they don’t exist. The whole possessed gnoll thing, and the stuff they stole, it just feel random. Why gnolls? Why possessed? Why do we care about the gnoll artifacts? The spirits, and their goals and wants and stuff, It just feels disconnected from itself. Maybe I mean passive? The spirits don’t seem to give a shit about anything. And not in a cool “Im from th beyond the grave” sort of way. Yeah yeah, go kill my brother. Yeah yeah, maybe rid the place of monsters. They’re boring. The entire thing is boring?

I don’t know why. A lack of active verbing? I mean, even in B2 the place didn’t FEEL boring. It felt dynamic. Dudes were up to shit. Free room and board. Toss a bag of gold through the door.  The spirits, here, are the main “person” interactivity. And they have some sort of enemies, friends, things they want done. At least theoretically. And I guess their rooms note what they could engage the party on. But there’s nothing in this beyond that. They just don’t seem particularly interested in getting what they want. As for the rest, it’s just vermin and abominations. Oh, oh, there’s a gnoll, a single gnoll left not taken over by the spirits. He’d hiding in a garden room. The one with the fish statue/fountain. It’s got some blood moths in it, think of them as stirge. They’ll attack him and if you save him then he;ll tell you that the eye of Utnapishtim is in the fish statues eye socket. It’s all in one room. There’s nothing larger or more grand, for the most part, than whats right in front of you. 

In another place you slap the brain of a dude back in a skull. That’s it. No fun interactivity that it enables. No places to unlock. There’s literally nothing else. 

So, I don’t know. Is there some room interactivity? Yes. Is there some NPC interactivity? Yes. Are the room descriptions disasters? No. Is the formatting a disaster? No. Do I care about anything in this and/or am excited to run it? No. As I noted, it feels disconnected, like the rooms exist in isolation, in spite of a few rooms, especially with the spirits, being tied loosely to to other rooms. 

It’s not bad. It doesn’t make me want to claw my own eyes out. So, you know, good job?

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is twelve pages, with a handful of rooms in the dungeon at he end of it. More than enough, i think, to get  a sense of the dungeon. And my malaise.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/580706/quick-delve-4-shadows-and-flesh?1892600

This past week, I had a brief vacation in Michigan and picked up a book on Colonial-era French folklore. It had a chapter on Nain Rouge, which reminded me of this Weird Adventures related post from 2011.

Check out the great art above from Chris Hűth for Weird Adventures. This is, of course, the Red Dwarf--the malign genius loci of Motorton in the Steel League.

Since the days when the site of Motorton was a plague-pit for Old Fort Narrows, the area has been the home of the dwarf. He’s a harbinger of calamity; doom in a dapper, red suit.

Rumor says that those unlucky enough to have an audience with the dwarf are brought to a Room with Red Velvet Curtains (sometimes just “The Red Room”). Visitors--survivors--describe the room as located in the basement of a ritzy old hotel, but no one has been able to relocated the building or provide directions to it later.

What comes from a meeting with the dwarf can’t be predicted. Sometimes, he’ll tell his visitor’s future. Other times, he’ll ask them for a favor, or tell them how they can get their heart’s desire. However it starts, it always plays out badly.
It’s worth noting that the infernal criminal organization known as the Hell Syndicate stays out of Motorton.  It’s the dwarf’s city.
Characters may have heard other rumors about the dwarf:

1. He can only be harmed by magical weapons.
2. The tea he sometimes offers visitors can bring strange visions, and cause madness
3. He carries a pocket watch whose hands only move when someone dies--or maybe when someone particular dies.
4. Bones excavated from the old, mass plague graves can be used to ward against him.
5. He’s only dangerous because Motorton’s sick. If the city could be healed, the dwarf would be benevolent.
6. The dwarf is only a midget human sorcerer cashing in on an old legend. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
7. There’s a red leather journal of a young girl, who died in an asylum, that contains, in its ramblings, the Red Dwarf’s true name, and the ritual to bind him to service.
8. The dwarf is always accompanied by the same gang--a black-haired moll in a red dress with a silky voice, and twin bruisers with the same first name.
9. The Red Room is actually the lowest level of Hell. The Dwarf is actually Morningstar in disguise.
10. The Dwarf isn’t a real entity at all, just the physical representation of the death curse of a Native shaman on the Ealderdish invaders. Treating it like a real being only increases its power.

 Adapting  X4 Master of the Desert Nomads  (David Cook's classic B/X D&D module) to Hyperborea RPG (3rd Edition / Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea) requires translating a classic Middle Eastern-style desert trek into a pulp, sword-and-sorcery "weird science-fantasy" aesthetic under a dying red sun.

The post Video of the Day – SYFY, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Frank Mentzer did not create the original B/X (Basic/Expert) rules—those were edited by Tom Moldvay (Basic, 1981) and David "Zeb" Cook (Expert, 1981).In 1983, Frank Mentzer revised and expanded B/X into what is officially known as the BECMI edition (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortals). While gamers sometimes group Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

STEELWOLF/STRAY #1 In the pursuit of a high-end thief, STRAY follows clues which lead him from his own home of KAPPA CITY, to the West Coast metropolis of VANCE CITY,…

ARCHIE’S HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR (ONE-SHOT) BOO! It’s spooky season, boils and ghouls, and we have a treat for you. MORE PAGES THAN EVER! Riverdale becomes the scene of a monster house…

Comic book fans looking for the next independent comic book project to add to their reading list should take a look at Earthfall: The Reckoning, the latest Kickstarter project from…

TARANIS, THE THUNDERLORD #2 TARANIS THE THUNDERLORD walks the mortal world once more! After 800 years of imprisonment, the thunder god has returned, and he’s bringing the storm with him.…

DC ABSOLUTE CASSANDRA CAIN THE SHADOWS HAND #1 ABSOLUTE GREEN ARROW #5 (OF 6) BATMAN SUPERMAN WORLD’S FINEST #55 BATWOMAN #7 CATWOMAN #91 DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL II #3 (OF…

Faster Than Light #1 By Sarah Cooke Standard Comic Full Color Page Count: 60 Nine stories from 20 creators about families and how they maintain their bonds in a fast-paced,…

Denys Cowan Spotlight Anthony Ruttgaizer interviews Denys Cowan. Among the topics discussed were his being the new monthly artist on Nightwing, his start as an assistant to Rich Buckler, how…

 The shadow of the Old Serpent falls long across dark temples, forgotten tombs, and decadent city states. These d100 random encounter and treasure tables are formatted for immediate use in your Castles & Crusades sword-and-sorcery sandbox, utilizing Castle Keeper mechanics (SIEGE Engine Attribute Checks, Hit Dice, Primary Attribute designations, and classic sword-and-sorcery flavor). Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

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