Tabletop Gaming Feeds

 Creating a d100 table for barbarian hordes requires a mix of environmental flavor, unique cultural hooks, and immediate mechanical threats suitable for the Castles & Crusades Siege Engine system. This picks right up from Two D100 Random Sword & Sorcery Underdark & Underground Encounters Table For Castles & Crusades CampaignsBelow is a breakdown of 100 barbarian groups, Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 In this issue of Red Alerts issue #1 you will find The Abandoned Temple of the Veiled Sun, a one-shot scenario for Savage Swords written by Mark Brooks, who also wrote A Red Vision of an Alternative Retro-Future. Roger Jones contributes The Price of Silver, an adventure for the upcoming western game Blood and Dust and a short story, Brides of Darkness. The Red Room team presents Absolution Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 This d100 table is designed for the high-adventure, "siege engine" style of Castles & Crusades, blending classic dungeon crawling with the eerie, atmospheric tension of the deep earth. This blog post continues from Two D100 Sword & Sorcery sewer & dungeon encounter tables For Castles & Crusades CampaignsUnderdark & Underground Encounters (d100)d100EncounterDetails /Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 The Crusader Journal #28 marks the significant revival of Troll Lord Games' flagship magazine after a decade-long hiatus. Released in 2025, it serves as both a "journal of intrepid adventure" and a bridge between the classic era of the publication and the modern OSR (Old School Renaissance) scene.

Do you remember my interview with Eliana Falcón-Dvorsky a few weeks ago? She is officially crowdfunding the project we discussed, Arcton: From Ingala to the Wastes, over on BackerKit!

Here is the description of the setting directly from the campaign page:

What is Arcton?

“An uncontested and insurgent undead army laid waste to the frozen nation of Arcton centuries prior. Now, 8 oligarchical Liches oversee their respective regions, sending their Officers to craft their undead labor force out of their own living citizens. These powerful and arrogant entities consume and destroy the land that once held a vast resource of wild and unpredictable magic.

However, the story is not truly about them. Arcton is a vast and distinct nation with various cultures, people, customs, and beliefs that remained isolated from region to region. This is the story of the details, the inhabitants, and the dangerous, but beautiful, land, as complicated and nuanced as it can all be. But most importantly, this story is about you.”

Eliana is an active member of the Puerto Rico TTRPG community and an absolutely amazing creator. The project is already fully funded, which is fantastic! I am proudly a backer, and if this setting interests you, I highly invite you to check it out and support it if you can.

I wish Eliana continued success with this amazing project!

Project link: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/cosmographia/arcton-from-ingala-to-the-wastes-books-1-and-supplements

By The Crafty DM
Self Published
OSR
Levels 1-3

Arriving with little coin and no reputation, the player characters must earn their place through action, not titles. The town is wary, its people practical, and its problems real. Strange signs gather along the docks, the nearby wilds grow unstable, and something stirs beneath the waterline. Through investigation, negotiation, and hard-earned victories, the party builds trust with the townsfolk while uncovering the first threads of a larger danger.

This 39 page adventure presents three mostly scripted fights mini-quests in a small fishing town. They follow a pretty rigid outline with some kabuki of interactivity that amount to monologue, fight, monologue. It seems to have some U-series overtones. 

We’re not starting out strong with this one. The pretext here is that the party is new to town and they have to do a bunch of mini-quests to gain the town’s trust. Then, in another module in the series the town will trust them enough to give them an actual task.This strikes me as aking to the asshole quest-giver tropes who treats the party like shit and still expects them to run errands. The implicit assumption is that you can treat the PC’s like shit and that they have no free will. Yes, we all want to play D&D tonight but how many hoops do we need to jump through before they just go somewhere else to seek their fortune? The party has free will. This is followed up with bythe designer with a comments “Not all of these quests are presented with full detail in this module. This is intentional, allowing you to tailor certain tasks to the personalities, abilities, and backstories of your players.” I see this sometimes in adventures. This is inevitably NOT a sealed off passage for the DM to expand upon. It is instead getting ahead of criticism by saying the flaws exist on purpose. The whole It;s Up To The DM To Bring Life To The Game thing. Which, while true, ignores the central tenant of adventure writing for others: you’re supposed to be helping the DM out. Leaving a sealed off passage is great. Flaws in execution are not.

You’re in town, arriving in a bar in the opening read-aloud. What follows is a series of mini-quests that all follow the same outline. Some comes up to you to ask you to do something. You talk to them. You go to a location and maybe roll some dice in a performative way to “investigate.” You get in a fight. You talk to the person who gave you the quest. I know, this sounds kind of like the platonic outline of a quest, but, the difference is that this is three scenes. Someone runs to get you. You talk to a fisherman and look at a body and talk to an old lady. You might roll some dice to look at a body. You go back to the docks at night (I hope …) and get in a fight. You talk to more people the next morning and are told you did a good job. You talk to someone about a druid. You go looking and fight some woodland beasts in three waves. You talk to the druid and do the performative thing. It’s all a really simple pattern here. 

There is nothing really to fail, except I guess the combat. If you don’t do the thing you are railroaded in to then you’re instructed to modify the end monologue but to keep the arc going. On the docs, the Sea Devils you fight are looking for the body you examined, and that get stolen no matter what you do. I guess if you have it strapped to your chest and chained to you it still gets stolen? 

It’s just so … obvious? Low effort? Read a bunch of text. Lots of read-aloud and lots of italics. Everything just follows along the “plot” without any deviation, no matter your actions. Your actions and die rolls don’t really matter. What’s the point of this? 

It’s just a railroad of an adventure with a VERY simple outline of a pattern that repeats. I mean, again, I get it. We;re playing D&D tonight. But the meaninglessness of it all. Rolling dice for no reason. No pretext of choice at all. Yes, the DM can fill in and bring it to life. But you have to give them something to work with.

A haunted house on a hill. Sea Devils Lizardmen, The house in this is red herring, not even really covered. The lizardmen are friendly. But it’s the same elements as the U series. It’s fine, I guess. You get to reimagine and respin the classics. Well, if done right. And this isn’t done right. Perhaps the platonic example of a low-effort adventure that one might throw together on the back of a napkin in three minutes before the game starts?

There is no price of trust in the adventure. And I’m not sure I’d come back for anothe rgame if this were the campaign kickoff.

This is $3 at DriveThru. There is no preview. There is an annoying youtube promo. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/563326/sinister-secrets-the-price-of-trust?1892600

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on May 16, 1985.

Batman #386: This was the subject of the last recorded but to date unreleased episode of The Bronze Age Book Club and an episode I am fond of. Moench and Mandrake set out to create a new major Batman villain, and they are more successful here than Moench's attempt with Nocturna and Night-Slayer at least to the extent that Black Mask continues to appear and has even been in a movie.
We're introduced to Roman Sionis scion of a wealthy family and subject of childhood trauma in parallel to Bruce Wayne. After his company releases a poorly tested cosmetic that has horrible potential side effects, Sionis is ruined and snaps, becoming the masked crime boss Black Mask and contesting with Batman as the head of the False Face Society of Gotham. Black Mask uses his toxic cosmetic to kill his enemies, and Bruce Wayne is his next target.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #12: Potter and Colan/MacLeod bring the series to an end, if not a definitive one. The Red Saturnians storm the one remaining ship of the White Saturnians and Synn, grieving the death of her lover, distractedly agrees to end hostilities, but in no way indicates a willingness to make peace with Jemm. In fact, Jemm's own people are still ambivalent about his actions. He flies to Earth to save Luther from the Kamah, the last belligerent Koolar. His fight with her is sort of perfunctory, but its decisive. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Crazy Eddie find Bouncer still alive in the rubble. They offer him to come with them to find a place to live and he agrees. They reunite with Luther along the way, but not before the boy and his alien friend say their goodbyes. Jemm returns to his people even if they are not yet ready to embrace him.

Amethyst #8: I have this issue, but I didn't remember anything about its contents. Mishkin/Cohn and new artistic team Jurgens/Kesel (though we're told Colon will return to the title he co-created next issue) finish the Fire Jade arc. After her identity is revealed to Princess Emerald, Fire Jade attacks, but Prince Garnet appeals to her, and she hesitates, allowing Amethyst to take out the demonic creature commanding her. Then, what's left of Lady Emerald in Fire Jade, sacrifices herself to stop the grim reaper from taking Citrina. It's doesn't have the old woman, but it does give her enough time to pass on custody of Gemworld to Amethyst before dying.
Meanwhile, Prince Topaz and Lady Sapphire are caught in a storm and seek refuge in an isolated city which is under the leadership of White Opal, brother to evil overlord.


Arak Son of Thunder #47: Arak and friends are in a harbor in China and Arak is unsettled by all the dragonboats given the beef he's got with the Serpent. Seemingly confirming his suspicion, a real dragon attacks some ships and Arak dives in to save a woman, but Arak himself is knocked out. He's rescued by his old ally Haakon who is in China possessing as a Byzantine ambassador as part of a scheme. After all that, Valda and Arak get some time alone, but then Mu-Lan attacks, and it isn't the Disney version!

Flash #348: After seeing the footage Frye recorded, the Flash believes Reverse Flash is back. He tells Cecile, who starts an investigation of her own. Meanwhile, Reverse Flash keeps taking down the Rogues, and some in the police force wonder if the Flash is responsible.
While all this is going on, the jury in the Flash's trial deliberates. They are deadlocked until Nathan Newbury steps in. Contrary to my expectations, he actually seems to be trying to help the Flash. He uses a device to show the jury what really happened: that the Flash is Barry Allen and so had a good motive reason to murder use lethal force to stop Reverse Flash. They jury members are all going to vote for acquittal, but then Reverse Flash appears in the strange realm Newberry has taken them to and somehow possesses him. He then uses Newberry's power to make the jury vote unanimously "guilty."

Legion of Super-Heroes #12: Levitz and Lightle/Mahlstedt send Timber Wolf and Karate Kid's Sensei to Lythyl, a planet like a combination of a deadly martial arts tournament and a bondage club, to fulfill a request from their dead friend. Things get bad enough that some other Legionnaires have to come to the rescue, but they managed to rescue a boy named Myg.

Omega Men #29: Klein and McManus/Mitchell continue the Omegans' trying to get out of the Psions' research station. Their benefactor, the mysterious Artin, through robot minions requires them to complete a task on their way out. The Omega Men penetrate the Psion temple of the Four Questions with Kalista projecting an image of the Psion leader Malthus. In the end, the identity of Artin is revealed, and its Primus, only he doesn't look like the Primus we've known.

Red Tornado #2: Busiek and Infantino/McLaughlin continue on from last issue in pretty much the same mode. The Construct gloats while civilians reject Tornado even as it helps them, and Superman shows up to enforce that the JLA meant their prohibition of Tornado's heroics by tearing the android limb from limb. He self-repairs but in the end he's had enough and says he's never going to help humans again. The Construct takes control of electronic devices across the globe. T.O. Morrow figures out the Construct is behind all this and begins formulating a plan to fight back.

Star Trek #16: We get a new writer this issue, L.B. Kellogg, with a same artistic team. This story is less like a TOS episode and more like something we would have gotten in a later series. Sulu, Uhura, and Bryce go on an undercover mission in a capture ship to make contact with a dilithium smuggler on a space station who happens to be an old flame of Uhura's. Meanwhile, Kirk and the Excelsior discover the mining is being done by slave labor. Uhura and Sulu take down her old lover, putting an end to slave trading and illegal mining, and Kirk promises to relocate the aquatic native species whose environment has become untenable.

Superman #410: Bates and Swan/Williamson give us another one of those action-free puzzle stories so common to Superman comics in the era. Superman stops a satellite falling toward Hawaii by kicking it into a volcano, but after Clark Kent writes the story evidence goes forward that it didn't happen, and Clark's fired in disgrace after (as Superman) he's forced deny being the source of the story to keep Earth's trust in Superman. It's all a hoax contrived by Lex Luthor in a plot to take down Superman, but how it plays out we'll have to see next issue.

 The Book of Valkyries, published by Night Owl Workshop (authored and illustrated by Thomas Denmark), is a 108-page supplement designed for the Original Fantasy RPG and compatible with a wide range of OSR systems.Released in late March 2026, it serves as a companion to Denmark’s previous work, Norse Beasties, providing deep lore and mechanical integration for the demigoddesses of the Norse Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting Secrets of the Nethercity—a sprawling, "classic-style" underworld crawl—to Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) is a match made in gaming heaven. Both share a love for high-lethality exploration and meticulous underworld ecology.Since Secrets of the Nethercity was designed for a similar OSR chassis, the conversion is less about rewriting the book and more about mapping theNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By Nicole Mattos, Icaro Agostino, Davide Tramma
Angry Golem Games
OSE
Levels 2-4

After being denied recognition as the supreme lord, Severo cursed the region, bringing a devastating drought to the Village of Rangdum. In desperation, a Council of Elders performed a forbidden ritual, sacrificing a young woman who became a Rusalka, bound to preserve the lake through a hidden artifact deep beneath its waters. After being denied recognition as the supreme lord, Severo cursed the region, bringing a devastating drought to the Village of Rangdum. In desperation, a Council of Elders performed a forbidden ritual, sacrificing a young woman who became a Rusalka, bound to preserve the lake through a hidden artifact deep beneath its waters.

This fifteen page document is the outline of an adventure, in which most of what’s presented doesn’t make much sense given two seconds of thought about it. It’s just the usual low effort crap that gets churned out. 

Ohs Nos! People are disappearing down by the lake! There’s singing coming from the lake. Nobody knows whats going on! People are moving out! The village is dying! Blah Blah Blah. No one mentions that the villagers sacrificed a young woman awhile back. To the lake. To keep the lake fruitful. 

There are some timeline issues here. It’s not really apparent how long ago the sacrifice took place. It’s implied, and stated in one place I think, that the Council of Elders are the only ones who remember. But, also, how long as chickcula been doing this? Since day one? Did it start suddenly? Did the lake go from Dying to Healthy But You Never Approach It Or She Kills You in like two hours? None of the backstory makes any sense, which is gonna make an investigation pretty difficult to conduct. Oh, also, the lake is, I think, called “Cursed Lake.” Anyone? Anyone? No? No ideas? Ok, gee, I don’t know then, why people are disappearing in to the lake called Cursed Lake, that you hear singing from, that the elders know they sacrificed a young virgin to for prosperity. 

Not that it hatters, there’s not really anything to investigate. The Council of Elders are not mentioned in any detail, even by name, and  have no personality other than NEVER talk about the sacrifice. No one in the village has a name or personality. There’s a short six entry rumor table of abstracted information but that’s it. There’s one dude, in a cabin, a level five magic user who shoots lightning bolts at you and then sleeps the entire party and captures them. He’s the only one with a name, or any information. He’s also extremely paranoid, so, you know, good luck with that. 

Besides the MU cabin there’s also an abandoned tower i the wilderness. It gets no map, just a text description like “On the first floor of the Tower there is a guard room, along with a small fireplace and a spiral staircase.” and so on. PUT IN A FUCKING MAP!!! Jesus Christ, the effort is minimal. Just stop phoning it in and do it. 

Not that I would suggest wandering too much. The table has things like 1d6 wraiths on it. Civilization this is not. If they don’t get you then the bears will. This is a rough table to put right outside a town that you NEED the party to push through to explore. Oh, fuck, did I mention that the hook table is a 1d4 table? Fucking people who don’t understand the point of a table in an adventure. I guess its just de rigueur these days to slap a table in for this, nit that it matters, it just irks me. 

It’s an EASL adventure, I’m pretty sure, and that’s ok. There’s an awkward turn of phrase here and there like “The sight of the Village is devastating.” There’s no real expansion on WHY the sight of the village is devastating, just it looks a little abandoned. I am going to say this is NOT an EASL issue, but rather a general adventure writing issue, not providing any descriptions that are concrete, specific, etc.

At some point, I think maybe in the Lake entry, there are notes on how to kill the monster. Like a stab its shadow with cold iron sort of thing. We are told we can learn this trick from the council of elders or the MU. But, would it not be better to put that information in the entry of the place we learn it from? 

The adventure is rife with these sorts of basic disorganization issues. With missing descriptions. With a lack of specificity that would tie things together and bring it alive. This is just a hand wave of text balh blah blah monster in the lake blah blah blah. It’s just an idea of an adventure, some napkin notes that don’t really introduce anything interesting to the “lake sacrifice” genre. I think I’m done with the Angry Golem for awhile, especially since their liner notes say that their adventure have been well received. These designers to write this. Pffft.

This is $5 at DriveThru. The review is eight pages and doesn’t really show you anything of note. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/563628/fortnightly-adventures-7-the-singing-lake-ose?1892600

Faceless Howl is an adventure from Kabuki Kaiser for the rules lite, dark Sword & Sorcery system Many Sought Adventure, but is easily useable with any D&Dish system with a bit of work and a lot of other systems as well given it isn't a rules heavy adventure.  I received a review copy of the pdf. I don't do a lot of reviews here, but previous publications from Kaiser have received praise from quarters I trust so I wanted to check it out.

The adventure involves "malign entities of pure oblivion" known as the Faceless who are devourers of information and have been drawn to an ancient repository. Not only is this bad for said repository, but it's also bad for the townsfolk of the neighboring of Bec de Corbin ("Raven's Beak") who have their identities and knowledge eaten by the Faceless, turning them (eventually) into Howlers. Complicating matters (if they were already complicated enough) are the Ragshadows, who are subterranean evil, fairy-tale-ish goblin sort of creatures who opportunistically operate alongside the Faceless to steal physical physical valuables.

That's the set up. The adventure is broken into two parts not counting getting the PCs involved: the village and figuring out what's going on, then a crawl through the repository. There's a clock to ensure the situation escalates. The presentation is fairly terse with prose that is informal, generally evocative and occasionally staccato delivery.

It's style and the overall graphic design place it in the tradition of things like Mörk Borg and the sort of NSR/OSR stuff you find on itch. Like those sorts of publications, it values brevity but supplies you with random tables and other necessary tools, and atmosphere, but expects the GM to bring it to life. Beyond aesthetic, this isn't standard, D&D fantasy either, so people looking for that find not find it's weird, horror sort of approach to their taste. 

For me, though, Faceless Howl, is the sort of adventure I tend to look for when I don't have any other particular thing in mind. It isn't particularly combat heavy, and its atmosphere and bit of mystery is the sort of thing that intrigues my players. Its brevity would make it easier to reskin to make it fit whatever setting I'm running at the moment.

If that sort of stuff sounds appealing to you, you should check it out. It's available on drivethu.

I’ve written about the first TTRPG books I ever got at a garage sale a couple of times here on the blog over the years. I think it’s worth recapping the event for those who have not read about it—specifically because it relates to the topic of today’s post, which is (not so cleverly) revealed in my take on the classic Bee Gees’ lyrics in the title: Thieves’ World.

The Garage Sale Loot

In the summer of 1987, about a year after I had begun playing TTRPGs with my neighbors, I went to my Uncle Chechin’s house on the other side of the island for a few days. When I came back, my friends had brand new (to us!) D&D books. I remember them having a few modules from the Slavelords (A-Series) and Giant (G-Series), and I was immediately curious. They told me that a neighbor was having a garage sale, so I rushed right over to his apartment.

When I got there, he dismally told me my friends had already gotten most of the “good stuff” and that all he had left were the more expensive items. I was unfazed and told him I had money my grandfather had given me!

Before I go on, some context: while we had been playing D&D for months, I had recently purchased the AD&D Players Handbook (PHB) and Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) and was in the process of reading them to “level up” our gaming experience to the advanced rules.

The neighbor pulled out a large piece of luggage, unlocked it, and showed me what he had left. Imagine my surprise when I saw the Monster Manual and Deities & Demigods. As I’ve mentioned recently, both featured the original covers, and the Deities & Demigods included the Cthulhu Mythos (which was famously removed from later editions). Furthermore, the owner had photocopied the “Saturday Morning Monsters” article from Dragon Magazine #48 and glued it to the end sheets. This was an extra cool find, and I had no idea at the time!

He asked for $10 per book, which had been too much for my friends. If memory serves, I had paid $15 for the PHB and $18 for the DMG, so $10 seemed very reasonable. Knowing what I know now, I think that was the original cover price for those books when he got them, so he was selling them used for what he paid—but that didn’t stop me! I had a very generous grandfather, so I handed him twenty dollars and walked out with two new AD&D books.

The Second Trip

But as I left, I knew there were two other things left in that luggage. So, the next morning, I convinced my grandfather and came back with $15 for the other two items.

One was a book from the Superworld boxed set—just the character creation book. By itself, it wasn’t enough to play the game. I was a fan of the Wild Cards shared-universe anthology; I had read one or two books by then, and I had heard somewhere they were based on the author’s TTRPG Superworld campaign, so I was really interested. Alas, I was never able to play it since I never got the original Superworld box.

However, the other item I got was part of another shared-universe anthology: Chaosium’s 1981 Thieves’ World boxed set!

Discovering Sanctuary

I had never read the Thieves’ World anthology, so I had no context for what this was. The neighbor who sold it to me simply said it was the setting for a series of books, so that was all I had to go by.

However, Walter Velez’s cover was so evocative that I had to open the box and delve in. I’ll admit there was a lot I did not understand. I was 14 years old, and my reading comprehension was still developing, but I absolutely loved what I did understand.

I loved the cover of the Player’s Guide to Sanctuary. To me, it looked exactly like a GM looming over his creation!

The discussion of the city, the details, the glossary! If the AD&D books felt textbook-like, this felt like a living, breathing, lived-in world. As an adult, I understand there was a lot of implied world-building in the early D&D books, but to my teenage mind, this was the opposite extreme—it was explicit and detailed. Come to think of it, this was perhaps the first fully fleshed-out campaign setting I ever encountered. There was the “Known World” section in the D&D Blue Box Expert Rulebook, but this was something else entirely.

The Maps and the Multiverse

I loved the maps! I had actually forgotten this was also labeled as the “Known World” on the map at the end of the Player’s Guide to Sanctuary.

The maps in the Game Master’s Guide to Sanctuary were even better. I look back at the cut-aways on pages 33 and 34, the maps of buildings starting on page 37, and the details of city sections on pages 63 and 64, and I realize just how much these maps inspired my own map-making at the time and in the years to come. To say nothing of the incredible full-page Hellhound knight illustration on page 9!

The Personalities of Sanctuary book was like a mysterious compilation of other games. I knew what D&D and AD&D were, but I had no idea about other systems. I pored over the stats, trying to figure out what these other games must be like.

The art throughout the books was sparse but evocative, creating a unified feel and a deep sense of wonder for Sanctuary. Concepts like “The Maze” heavily influenced my concept of fantasy slums, and the “Vulgar Unicorn” inspired many of my tavern names in the same vein.

Looking Back

The maps were my favorite part, hands down. Early on, I would frequently use the map of Sanctuary in my games without necessarily using the setting itself.

I still have the books and the maps, and taking them out to peruse before writing this was a delightful trip down memory lane. There were so many incredible details I had forgotten.

Sadly, I got rid of the actual box years ago. To save space, I threw out many of the boxes for my classic boxed sets. I really wish I had kept them.

Two more things before I go.

If you’ve read the wonderful Designers & Dragons by Shannon Appelcline, you might already know this, but just in case you don’t: the inclusion of the Melnibonéan and Cthulhu Mythos in the original Deities & Demigods is actually what made it possible for Thieves’ World to include stats for D&D and AD&D!

Here is a quote from Appelcline detailing this exchange from this RPG.net column:

“Chaosium (1980). Jim Ward characterizes what TSR received from Chaosium as a “C&D”. Knowing most of the principals at Chaosium, I find it unlikely that anyone wrote anything that antagonistic or legalistic. In any case, at the time Chaosium held contracts giving them gaming rights to Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion novels and H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos stories. But TSR published deities for both of those fictional settings in Deities & Demigods (1980), and Chaosium complained. The end result was that Chaosium granted rights to the usage based on a thank-you in the credits (but the Blumes quickly decided to remove the mythos entirely because they didn’t want to mention another roleplaying publisher) and that Chaosium got rights to use D&D stats in Thieves’ World (1981), which would be one of the last major licensed uses of the D&D game under TSR.”

In the early 2000s, Green Ronin published new materials for Thieves’ World using the d20 rules. I own those books as well, but sadly, they no longer hold the license.

One final thought, at one point, I can’t remember if the first time or the second time, I visited my neighbor’s garage sale, I also got the Dungeoneer Compendium of issues 1 to 6. It was in bad shape, so I remember getting it for $1. It was $2.50 brand new. My neighbor fleeced me, really!

 In a Sword & Sorcery setting, a chimera isn't just the classic "lion-goat-snake" triad; it is often a blasphemous union of beasts or a sorcerous mishap. Here is a d100 table designed to generate unique, horrific hybrids for your Castles & Crusades campaign. This blog entry picks right up from Two D100 Sword & Sorcery sewer & dungeon encounter tables For Castles & Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Hello again, reader! Welcome back to my continuing series highlighting the art of incredibly talented Puerto Rican creators.

This week I’m talking to Laura, aka Lala Mágica. I’ve known about Laura for a few years. I’ve been following her on social media, seeing her creations. Laura happens to be married to a friend and longtime member of Puerto Rico Role Player (who I hope to interview in the future about his TTRPG content). It is a pleasure to talk to her and learn more about her as an artist and a gamer.

Without further ado, here is the interview.

Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?

My name is Laura, but with my knitting needle, I am Lala Mágica. With a creative spirit in crafting, I like to knit original characters that aren’t easily found. I started with dice bags and then expanded into other accessories, such as keychains and garments.

How would you describe your art or creative endeavor?

Karso the Halfling Barbarian from Juego La Mesa

I would describe my art as 3D printing, but with yarn. Usually, I do what is known as “freehand,” which is knitting without following a pattern. So, creating a plush of your original character is possible for me.

How did you discover TTRPGs?

I discovered tabletop role-playing games through friends in college. I played two sessions of Mage: The Ascension, but I was able to get into the hobby properly after getting married. My husband is a DM, so we share that.

Do you actively play TTRPG? What are you playing?

At the moment, I’m active in two campaigns: one of Paradigm Odyssey: “War is Raw” as a clown “living doll”, the system is being developed by Enyol currently, and one of Daggerheart: Age of Umbra as a fairy Seraph.

What do you want to play next?

What do I want to play next? Honestly, whatever my next session 0 throws at me. I’ll be honest, probably more Paradigm Odyssey.

What projects are available, and what are you working on next?

I’m in the process of a “restock,” since I gave away dragon and dinosaur coasters at the Juego La Mesa event last month. Besides that, I’m also recreating one of the small puppets that came out in the movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” On top of that, I’m illustrating the supplements that Enyol is sharing on DriveThruRPG, since drawing is another passion of mine.

Where can people find your creations?

You can find me actively on Instagram as Lala Mágica, and I have a FB page with the same name.

Any closing thoughts?

My hook is “My wand and my yarn is the magic”—whatever you can imagine, I can create.

Thank you, Laura, for your time and for sharing your creations. As a Cthulhu Mythos fan, I must admit I love the Cthulhu dice bag below. It looks terrifyingly adorable.

I started seeing John McKenzie's work on Facebook a while back and was immediately smitten by it. John has the perfect balance of silly cartoonery and grit. It's almost as if Basil Wolverton and Mike Mignola conspired to create a new life form and I truly love it.

My instinct is to say his work begs to be animated. It FEELS animated. But I don't want to suggest it would better if animated... It lives and breathes as is, but it would translate to animation quite easily.

Also sounds like he's making an RPG. Gotta have that for sure.

By Martin Cubas
Weird Adventures by Martin A. Cubas
Castles & Crusades
Levels 2-3

They can’t see you. They don’t need to. A colony of blind, grotesque predators has infested an abandoned temple deep inside a canyon. They hunt by sound. They move in packs. And they’re starving.

This thirty page adventure uses about fourteen pages to describe seven rooms. Obviously long-winded and padded out, you kill a few monsters. Also, it’s not dark.

Oh lop-sided page count, where have you been? I’ve missed you. Look, I get it, PDF pages are “free”; you’re not paying to print them. Why not put in a bunch of appendices, and lead in, and backstory, and everything else? It’s free! Academically, I agree. But, in practice, what I see time and time again is a poor adventure with a low “core” page count with a whole lot of extra information. While a bit hyperbolic, one must ask oneself, is the designer interested in writing an adventure or ar they interested in world building and the adventure is just a pretext for that? Again, I don’t care if you world build. I don’t care if the page count ration is one adventure page per one hundred pages of backstory. But if you’re selling me an adventure then it had better be a ROCK. FUCKING. SOLID. Adventure. And it almost never is. The designer is distracted by the fluff. They spend their effort there instead of in the core adventure text. What pops out the other end is just another crappy adventure surrounded by a bunch of backstory and appendices. Who would like to guess if this is in the one in a thousand adventure in which there is a lot of fluff and a solid adventure? We all know the fucking answer already. You have to AGONIZE over the adventure text. It should be the best possible, that you are capable of (… ) and more. 

Ok, so, we’ve got some eyeless creatures in a cave. There’s a long backstory here about bandits, a holy order, orcs, and so on but all that really matters is that there are eyeless creatures in a cave. They hunt by sound. This whole “shrieks in the dark” thing doesn’t really matter. They can use a sonic attack, but the party is never limited on light. So, you’re just stabbing some monsters in a cave. The central conceit, of these creatures who can hunt without sight, is never capitalized on. We get long monster ecologies (in fucking italics …) who nothing about them putting out lights, etc. So, you’re fighting 5HD orcs in a cave that have a sonic attack. 

Room descriptions average a couple of pages each. There’s no need for that. Nothing that interesting is going on. “The disc was collected by the Shrieklings along with other debris from the caverns and has no special significance to them.” Great. You want me to etll you about the pile of shit I collected this morning? It has no bearing on anything, so why not? Backstory, meaningless trivia. Overexplained things. “The Shrieklings’ thick, mucus-coated skin produces a scent that naturally repels the barracuda, allowing them to swim and hunt freely.” Explanations on ecology. Great. That’s not coming up during play, so it’s a great thing it’s in there clogging up the descriptions (as my aforementioned shit this morning may have the toilet?)  These are simple rooms with simple interactivity that are just padded out in what amounts to a wall of text. Bullet point up the main issues, but if the bullet is half a page then what’s the point? Sixty some words to describe “+4 to move silently when within 15’ of the waterfall.” 

The designer notes that this is inspired by the a Dungeon Design Framework. Monsters have patterns and routines, etc. There are a couple of charts to help with the monsters wandering patrol paths. I’m not saying they are wrong, but they are poorly done, not noting the creatures locations. Just dots and blips that you must then interpret and expand on. Hooks are all “you are hired to “ nonsense. And, in particular, the claim that “Inside, you’ll find tightly written areas built around meaningful encounters, and systems that keep the dungeon active between player actions.” would not be true. Tightly written. Meaningful encounters. I think not.

This is likely the last Cubas review, joining Mohr, Filbar, Elven Tower and the rest.

This is $2 at DriveThru. The preview is ten pages. Meaning nine pages of background/fluff/intro and one that starts to show the first room. (There’s another full page of room one info.) Take a look at that Gannt chart like thing. The blue and reds could be handled much better to show current location, not moves. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/563481/c-c-shrieks-in-the-dark-c-c-edition?1892600

 Exploring the depths beneath a decaying city requires a mix of environmental hazards, weird sorcery, and gritty martial threats. This table is designed with an OSR (Old School Renaissance) sensibility, favoring traditional mechanics and a "Dying Earth" or Sword & Sorcery atmosphere.This blog post picks right up from Detail d100 Sword & Sorcery Random back alley encounters For Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

I've been plugging away at the Army Ants Companion (a living document you can access at any time) for the Army Ants RPG, and I've made a few tweaks to the game. One tweak I've made is in regards to soaking damage; I had borrowed the 'save for half damage' mechanic that is embedded into the heart of my little D+D design hangups. I've swapped that out for rolling Reflex to soak damage from grenades and areas of effect. This opens me up for a variety of other attack types, linking each type to a trait. For example, sensory damage now gets soaked by Spirit, and poisons/toxins get soaked by Body. Mental attacks get soaked by Mind. I like the variety of play options that this opens up.
I also think I've settled on a 'look' for the Army Ants. I'd been giving them heavier grays in their uniforms, but this Phil design feels a little lighter and more attuned with how I want the look to carry. 

 In the Victorious RPG, where Victorian-era aesthetics meet superheroic action, a character like Reverb fits perfectly as a "dimensional dandy" or a cosmic traveler grounded in 19th-century theories of the luminiferous ether.Here is a profile for Reverb, designed for the Victorian supersetting.Hero Profile: ReverbSecret Identity: Alistair ThorneArchetype: Astral Traveler / Sound Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Art by Guy Wurley
The ramshackle boomtown called Salvage by its inhabitants and the Scrapyard by outsiders is built amid the fallen combatants of an ancient battle. The colossi are named for their color. Red Knight lies on its back, reaching for a sword that is out of reach. Blue Knight fell forward. Its weapon is long gone, but one hand is raised. The plains have made half-hearted attempts to reclaim the giants, and the knives of time have marked them, but they remain, tempting those interested in making a quick fortune or simply curious about their enigma. The colossi are unusual treasure troves, or above ground mines, made as they are from rare materials and magitechnologies unreproducible in the current age. 
All the prospectors, adventurers, scholars, and thieves looking to claim their own piece of the colossi, and the merchants, dealers, entertainers, and bandits looking to get rich off them, crowd into haphazard buildings constructed along and amid the fallen giants. It's a dangerous place. There is no law in Salvage and plenty of desperate characters. Guns are more common that elsewhere given the relative abundance of both artificers and the raw magitech materials.
The danger isn't just from the inhabitants. There are caustic fluids, poison gases, and other environmental hazards to be sure, but also the colossi are not as dead as they appear. They haven't moved in ages, but not all of their internal parts have been stilled like their limbs. Component constructs, perhaps something like immune system elements, sometimes react violently to scavengers crawling through a colossus's insides. Some grow independent and feral and prowl outside the bodies as if their look for prey or raw materials to affect repairs.