Tabletop Gaming Feeds

The AI-generated image I used to illustrate this post is pretty much the feeling I am in all the time. Since I started running games as a GM so many years ago, I always felt at least a bit overwhelmed. I always felt like I wasn’t really at the top of my game. But for the longest time things worked out quite well. My players had fun and didn’t even notice that I was panicking and improvising like a madman. Eventually I learned to really rely on my improvisational skills and preparing a session just minutes before meeting the players became like second nature. The feeling of being overwhelmed cropped up from time to time, but for most of the time running games for my players was fun for everyone at the table.

Unfortunately things didn’t stay the same. My roster of players regularly changed as people moved away or lost interest in the hobby. At the same time work got more and more into the way of my hobby. In most cases it’s a time issue. One just doesn’t have as much time as before to run, play, or prepare games. In my case it was different: I had major conflicts with superiors which led me down a dark path into depression.

Many years of therapy followed and eventually I emerged stronger and more confident than before. I took on new responsibilities at work, changed into a new position and ran for the staff council and was eventually elected deputy chair. Confidence in my skills and my work is better than ever and I am respected by coworkers and superiors.

BUT when it comes to gaming, my confidence issues are worse than ever. I feel totally overwhelmed all the time, even when trying to prepare something as simple as a one-shot. I have constant doubts that cause me to change my mind often. Sometimes I feel that I don’t even know what I want anymore. The only thing still burning bright inside of me is the wish to get back into the GM’s chair. It’s something I love(d) and which I am quite good at.

So what caused this? One reason is that I had a pretty serious falling out with a particular player who I considered a friend but who turned out to be quite toxic. Our relationship started to deteriorate when he began attacking my style of running games. He didn’t just discuss his criticisms with me after our gaming sessions but usually muttered things under his breath during the game or actively sabotaged the campaign by acting like the proverbial “that guy”. Unfortunately I tolerated this behaviour far too long and it let it affect my confidence as a GM. Probably because I still was struggling with depression and anxiety I fell into the trap of believing that it was to blame, my lack of skill as a GM was the cause of his behaviour. Instead of setting boundaries I became more vulnerable to the whims of my players. Usually I try to limit the players’ options to what I can handle. Back then I threw all of this out of the window and let them run wild. It ended in desaster. The campaign basically derailed as soon as it left the station.

The second problem I’ve been facing for years is that I own way too many cool TTRPGs and deciding what to play becomes increasingly hard. I would love to try out as many games I can, but that isn’t compatible with the interests of my RPG-playing friends and our schedules. At this point I am feeling like I am pretty much burned out as a GM. I am still playing in a Pathfinder and a Shadowrun game. But putting on the GM’s mantle is still something I’d love to do but I feel I can’t. My fear of messing things up is still pretty strong.

Why am I telling you all of this? There are a few reasons. Writing about these issues help me deal with them. I also hope that some day I get helpful advice I can use to get out of that hole I’ve dug myself into. Perhaps this post can also help others not to make the same mistakes or show them that they are not the only ones having these issues. I’ve also thought about how I could try to get back on my feet.

Planning and running a whole campaign is pretty much out of the question. I don’t want to set myself up for failure again. It’s probably best to stick to one-shot adventures with pre-generated characters. I might have to do some convincing to do with my regular players but this could help me get my feet wet again while also trying some of these fancy games which have been sitting on my shelf all these years.

I am also considering offering to run games online. Since it has been very hard to schedule meetings with my regular gaming group, perhaps looking for new people to play games with online sounds like a viable alternative. I am pretty hesitant though since I have mostly run games for people I know. The last time I introduced new players into one of my games things didn’t turn out that great.

Last but not least I could offer to run something for the groups I’ve been playing with. We’re still in the middle of the respective campaigns, but perhaps we could squeeze in a one-shot adventure when the regular GM or one of the players can’t make it to a session.

I don’t know if this approach might help me in any way, but I have to try. Roleplaying games are my favorite hobby and I am a pretty good GM (at least when I can get my depressive thoughts in check). At the moment I am reading both the fan-translation of Group SNE’s Sword World 2.5 TTRPG and TSR’s Alternity RPG. I haven’t run those before but I’d love to. As of time of this writing I haven’t really approached my gaming groups if they were interested in giving these games I try. What do you think? Does my approach make any sense at all or are you in danger of repeating the same mistakes I did before? Have you been in my shoes before? How did you deal with these issues? Please post your thoughts in the comments below. Any advice is highly appreciated.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on April 25, 1985.

Tales of the Legion #325: Levitz/Newell and Jurgens/Kesel deliver what feels a bit like a cable TV season finale in that things with the Dark Circle reach a fairly abrupt (but pat) conclusion. The Legionnaires storm their base and discover that the Dark Circle leaders have cloned themselves (also that Ontarr is one of them). The leaders seem to commit mass suicide, killing their clones as well. Afterward, Gigi and Dev-Em get flirty, and White Witch and Blok fall asleep together watching future-TV.
Then we have a coda where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl explain that Tales is going all reprint form this point on, so this will likely be the last I talk about it here. It feels like they left some plot threads dangling (with the Dark Circle and the stuff with Dawnstar and her new love) that just sort of get dropped.

Action Comics #568: In the first story by Yee/Kupperberg and Norvick/Rodriguez, a bullied schoolgirl is a conduit for a demon ("Ravenjh") to attack her classmates. When Superman gets involved, the demon briefly possesses Lois, leading in the aftermath, to the two of them having a discussion of why their relationship failed.
The second story by Wolff and Bender/Marcos gets the cover and is more humorous. An alien filmmaker comes to Earth and asks for Superman's help in choosing an actor to portray him in a movie. It seems that all humanoids look alike to the alien, which is proven by their choice of a rather un-super would-be actor to portray the Man of Steel.

Ambush Bug #2: Giffen, Fleming, and Oksner keep up the funny this issue. We're first introduced by Jonni DC, keeper of continuity of the DC Universe, a topical character given what's going on over in Crisis. Most of the issue though, deals with Ambush Bug dealing with the threat of Quantis, once a scientist working on a cuteness formula, now a giant, man-koala. Jonni DC's powers prove insufficient to deal with the menace, so it's up to Ambush Bug to save the day with an antidote.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #33: Kupperberg and Duursema/Mandrake conclude "The Magic Odyssey." Jhy and Jheryl work to free Arion from his mother, Majistra. They enlist the aid of the entity known as the Weaver, who ultimately restores Arion's magical powers, so the sorcerer can battle his mother, himself. Meanwhile, Chian discovers Tokomata's treachery and gets into a fight with him. He's caught in the blast of the evil released with Majistra's defeat and injured, then Chian finishes him off. 
Arion returns, to the physical world and is reunited with Chian who is really sorry (again) about being duped by somebody who wanted to kill him. Arion uses his power to restore Wyynde to normal. Next, they're headed to Atlantis and a new arc.

All-Star Squadron #47: McFarlane provides the pencils for most of this issue retelling the origin of Dr. Fate and his first encounter with Wotan. McFarlane's stylization is already starting to be evident, but his work here still has an amateurish look. After Fate finishes, the Squadron gets word that Winston Churchill requests their presence in Britain.

Detective Comics #552: An assassin named Cutter is offering his services to the Gotham Underworld to get rid of Batman. Our hero here's about this and fakes his death to catch both the assassin and mob bosses off guard. It's a clever story, though Moench parallels it with Julia Pennyworth's first published story about a historic tree being cut down in the name of progress, which doesn't really add much.
Cavalieri and Moore/Patterson continue the "Green Arrow versus Immigration Enforcement" story. After arguing with the official running the detention facility, Ollie is thrown in detention himself. Dinah Lance helps him break out of detention, along with two Salvadoran refugees. They head for the next stop on the "underground railroad" and leave the refugees there. Apparently, that's that, and the government just let's Ollie get away with it! A night later, Green Arrow makes his way back to Oliver Queen's apartment, unaware that Onyx is watching him.

World's Finest Comics #317: Cavalieri's and Stroman/Aiken/Garvey finish up the Cheapjack story. Batman's cover is blown, and he takes a beating from Cheapjack's thugs, but he rallies as Superman arrives. Cheapjack has built a giant machine that is part shack, part construction equipment, and he threatens to kill Massimo's daughter in its back-hoe claw grasp, but the heroes use smarts to save her, and Cheapjack is defeat, then consigned to the comics limbo he deserves.

Here we are again, with my renewed effort to get a blog going ... This third essay is about how AI will impact publishing in general and what we can do about that. Even got a comment and all that good stuff!

Gotta say, I'm happy with what Substack does. And I was surprised (just a little) to find so many familiar faces posting there. It seems to be a somewhat closed ecosystem, but that isn't a bad thing per se, as it allows bundling some different aspects of blogging that don't go together easily in other places. So far it's the closest to what g+ had been, imho. The UI is a bit fickle, but nothing that can't be handled.

This newest essay is also free, and you'll find a link to it just below the picture:

Find it here!

Needless to say, I'd be happy to have you over there, reading what I wrote. Maybe following. Maybe even subscribing. Would mean the world to me.

I'll keep posting the free stuff here for some more time. Subscribers will soon find some more (also free) essays on the site as that's a thing we do. Paying subscribers will find even more content, once that's a thing. Either way, I'm putting in the work AND some more Notes on a regular basis.

 

 

 The Codex Exaltum is a sourcebook for the Castles & Crusades tabletop RPG (published by Troll Lord Games) that bridges the gap between mortal adventuring and divine or cosmic play. It is designed for players and Castle Keepers who want to explore high-level campaigns involving demigods, celestial beings, and planar travel.Here is a breakdown of what the Codex provides:1. Ascension and Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

After looking at two artists I discovered in the early 90s—between what I had termed the Early-Years and the Middle-Years—let’s travel back to the Proto-History. Let’s look at the art that inspired me before 1986, long before I even considered myself a gamer.

I discovered some of this art through a large coffee-table book my mother bought for me:

National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Universe

Published in 1980, the book was honestly too long for me to read on my own. My mom and uncle read it to me, and I managed some of the smaller captions myself, but my English was limited back then. The illustrations, however, completely captured my imagination. Throughout the early 80s, I kept returning to that book, reading more of it as I got older.

There was a “What if?” section early on about what life on other planets might look like. I absolutely loved this part. I had no idea the art was by Michael Whelan until I started writing this post!

Each celestial body also featured an illustration of the mythological figure that gave it its name, also painted by Michael Whelan. I was completely unaware of how much his art influenced me so early on!

(You can borrow the book on the Internet Archive at this link: https://archive.org/details/nationalgeograph00gall)

Another large book in that same style was:

The Dawn of Man

Published in 1978, this one belonged to my uncle, and I would peruse it every single time I visited him. He eventually gifted it to me, and I kept it for years.

The art by Zdeněk Burian, a Czech illustrator and palaeoartist, fascinated me. I asked so many questions about evolution and the origins of humanity just by looking at those pages that I know my mom had to scramble to explain it all to me in terms my younger self could understand.

To this day, when I picture early humans and lost worlds in my TTRPG campaigns, these are the exact images I conjure up.

(You can see the book online here: https://archive.org/details/dawnofman00wolf/mode/2up)

I mentioned this next comic series in my post on comic books that inspired my worldbuilding, so I won’t rehash what I said there, but it is definitely worth mentioning that the art style inspired me greatly:

The Gods from Outer Space

Polish artist Bogusław Polch illustrated this. I found the art I originally shared in that post over on the We Are The Mutants site, which includes some great details about how the books were published in Britain: https://wearethemutants.com/2020/04/30/ancient-astronaut-comics-the-gods-from-outer-space-1978-1982/

Fantasy calendars were also a huge thing for me! I would frequently get one as a Christmas gift. Often, they were Tolkien-themed, even before I had read the books. But none were quite as influential as this one:

The Brothers Hildebrandt 1982 Atlantis calendar.

I’ve mentioned this wall calendar in posts throughout the year. Yes, it was genuinely that influential.

Here’s a video of one of the artists talking about the project, and another featuring some of the art from it:

Another calendar I vividly remember was this one:

Boris Vallejo’s 1983 Calendar

I remember this one distinctly, even though it wasn’t the only Vallejo wall calendar I got. The Atlantis calendar told a cohesive story through its art, so I remember the narrative more vividly, but this Boris calendar might have been the first time I ever read the name “Red Sonja” or saw “Doc Savage.”

Of course, Vallejo’s art was also prominent on the covers of the movies I rented at the local video club, even if I didn’t make the connection at the time.

Another influence I have mentioned often in many posts is perhaps my favorite fantasy movie:

Fire and Ice

I believe this was my true introduction to Frank Frazetta. I later explored his other work—his Conan, John Carter, and especially Death Dealer were awe-inspiring—but I first discovered his art right here in this movie. Outside of the original Star Wars trilogy, Fire and Ice might be the film I’ve rewatched the most in my life.

There were also some video game tie-in comics whose artists deeply impacted young me:

Yar’s Revenge

When I got the game cartridge for Yar’s Revenge, it came with a mini-comic that told the background story of the game. According to the internet, Atari’s in-house creative team of Frank Cirocco, Ray Garst, and Hiro Kimura created the art.

(You can read the comic here: https://atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.php?MagazineID=48)

Swordquest

I got the Swordquest: Fireworld Atari cartridge. I honestly don’t remember playing it much, but I do remember the included fantasy comic and how George Perez’s art completely blew my mind. I returned to that comic many times, long before I even knew what D&D was. I only ended up reading parts 1 and 3 years later via the links I’m sharing below.

• Swordquest Earthworld: https://atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.php?MagazineID=45
• Swordquest Fireworld: https://atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.php?MagazineID=46
• Swordquest Waterworld (no connection to Kevin Costner!): https://atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.php?MagazineID=47

And the final entry on this list of artists that inspired me before I played TTRPGs is cheating, because it’s actually a book featuring the work of multiple artists:

Aliens in Space

This was written by Stewart Cowley under the pseudonym Steven Caldwell, with art from various contributors. All the art seems to be reused from other sources, but despite the disparate styles, Cowley’s writing really ties it all together. (You can see the full list of artists if you follow this link.)

I borrowed this book from the school library, and along with the Terran Trade Authority Great Space Battles book, it fundamentally shaped how I conceived sci-fi beyond just Star Wars or Star Trek.

Now I want to ask you, dear reader, what art inspired you before you became a gamer?

 Bringing the She-Devil with a Sword into a Sword of Cepheus (2nd Edition) game requires balancing her legendary prowess with the grounded, often lethal mechanics of the 2D6 system.In Sword of Cepheus, a character like Red Sonja functions as a high-tier Heroic NPC or a veteran Player Character with significant career terms in Barbarian and Mercenary.Red SonjaDescription: A fierce Hyrkanian Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

About two and a half years ago, I bought a pair of shoes for work. I usually maintain three pairs of shoes - a pair of sneakers for weekends, a pair of black dress shoes for whenever I have to dress of up, and these - my go-to work shoes that I used to wear almost every day. In September of 2024, I realized that these shoes were starting to wear down - they were about a year old at that point, and they were starting to fade. However, I decided that I could probably get to Christmas with them, so I waited on replacing them.
Then I got sick. A doctor gave me a letter that said I had six to twelve months to live. My priorities shifted. I had to 'get my affairs in order'. I had debts to resolve. Bank accounts to organize. A will to revise.
I looked at these shoes and decided that they were sufficient. They would see me through to the end.
I no longer needed these shoes for work. I was 'permanently disabled'. I still pulled these shoes out from time to time. I wore them to the doctor's office when he told Mary and me that the many rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy had not helped; my tumors continued to grow. He explained that he had 'nothing more he could do', but suggested we consider a 'second opinion'. 
I wore the shoes again when we drove to Pittsburgh. To our surprise, the doctors had a plan. Lutathera; a nuclear treatment designed for pancreatic cancer, but which may also attack my tumors since they shared many characteristics.
Four trips to Pittsburgh. Four treatments. Eight months. Same shoes. Because why get new ones, right?
But, because of God's grace and mercy, the treatments have worked. My small tumors have been destroyed. Larger tumors made smaller. 
I decided I felt healthy enough to substitute teach a few days a week. I looked at the shoes and decided they'd get me through that. They could substitute teach one or two days a week. I was still 'permanently disabled', right?
But my most recent visit was the most optimistic. Out of my team of doctors, my local oncologist was the most positive. He was effusive in his hope for my future. We have options - either more treatments of Lutathera to destroy the tumors further, or other treatments that are likely to prevent further growth and stablize tumors where they are. I will have cancer for the rest of my life. I don't know what that is, but it's no longer 6-12 months. My affairs are in order as much as they need to be. I don't feel permanently disabled.
This morning, I saw a listing for my dream job. If you could write up a perfect role for me, this is it. It would allow me to leverage everything - my education, my passions, my experiences, my hobbies. All of it comes together in this one job. 
I sent in a cover letter and my resume.
I think it's time to buy a new pair of shoes. I'm going to need them.

By Operant Game Lab
Self Published
OSR
Levels 1-2

Decades ago, there were two adventuring bros—Thom the Mighty and Oolnor the Weird. After much questing and looting and war against the hated bone men of the North, they carved for themselves a dungeon fortress one day’s march from the nearest village. Here, in this righteous bro cave (RBC), they stationed their henchmen, stashed their gold, and hosted epic parties. But there has been no trace of Thom or Oolnor for ten years now. A brave few have trespassed into their RBC, lusting for the riches that no doubt reside there. None have returned, for no force could be mightier than Thom and Oolnor’s eternal, bloodthirsty friendship. 

This ten page adventure describes about 32 rooms in a “double adventurer” lair much akin, and a homage, to B1. It’s trying hard, and has some decent formatting and a writing style that is, in form if not function, almost consistently great. And, also, it comes off a bit staid and disconnected from itself. You getting close there, Operant Game Lab.

The set up here is much the same as B1, on purpose. Two adventuring buddies build a fortress to live together and then they disappear for over ten years now. Inside you’ll find some things harkening back to B, like pools, as well as some mushroom men wandering around, “the bone men”, a tribe of barbarians trying to retrieve the bones of their ancestors that were stolen by the dynamic due, and  some leftover orc servants trying to fend off the bone men incursion. 

I talk sometimes about good writing and great writing and how there is a way of writing in which more is implied than the written word. If I can write three words and it makes you think of some kind of misty forest glen, coming alive in your minds eye, then I’ve done a good job. But if you can build the rest of the forest from that then I’ve done an even better job. A good room description may bring a room to life and an even better one brings the SITUATION to life, or the NPC, or so on. And, one hopes, it is tersely written, helping us scan the page and run the game at the table, the whole idea being using words to their maximum effectiveness, implying more than the words themselves describe. At one point in this adventure you come across some orc officers, planning to repel the bone-men barbarians. They will talk, but want to make sure you are “orc tough” and “they are willing to generously split the resulting bone-men meat 50-50.” This is very good writing. You know EXACT:LY the tone that the designer is going for with this encounter. From this you, as the DM, know how to run this encounter perfectly. You can ad-lib and fill in the gaps of the encounter, and, because of this, can turn it in to something quite memorable for the party, something they will recall in stories for sessions to come. More than just imaging the environment of the room, it has communicated tone and a situation. And that is the very highest form of evocative writing. That certain wryness comes through in other places in this adventure as well, so while not consistently hitting, it’s not an accident either. One of the wandering encounters, on a roll of 00,  has the two adventurers, “Thom and Oolnor, returning home at long last” with their seven giant golden idols. Well there’s a sticky wicket to toss in!

The writing here tends to be terse, but not overly so. Formatting and layout is done paragraph style, with a a few short intro sentences and a word or two bolded and then followed up in their own paragraphs, with rooms given names next to their key numbers in order to help frame the text for the DM. This is all great, easy to scan at the table while running. 

Encounters can be, in places, well done. Outside the entrance we get a couple of sentences that ends with “Every few minutes, a gust of wind blows away the humidity and mosquitos.” More than just padding and setting the scene, if you listen to the wind you you catch the faint sounds of a flute, following it leads you to where the bone-men have made their encampment and their lon guard killing time playing his flute. This, obviously, helps the party, giving them clues as to whats to come. Depth, following up on what the DM has related to the party leads to more information and revelations. And that’s what you want in a room description. 

In another spot, the treasure room, we get “Piles of Gold. On the scale of Scrooge McDuck, one could swim through these stacks of silver and gold coins. All told, there are 2,834 silver pieces and 198 gold pieces (many of them stained with the old blood of their previous owners)” On the Scale of Scrooge McDuck, this gives us an immediately visual image to work from as a DM. (As an aside, is that many coins really a hoard ala Smaug the Golden/Scrooge McDuck? The imagery works well but I’ve not sure I’ve ever seen an adventure in which the actual coinage lives us to that imagery. Or maybe I just don’t know what 2800 coins looks like in real life?) Other wry things include a room with an effigy of a woman in it, a crude statue built. “Parading the false wife around in “civilized” settlements confers a -1 ongoing penalty due to its creepiness.” That’s solid. The use of parading, civilized in quotes, creepiness. Great use of descriptive words to help nail the vibe.

There are some decent vignettes in this. Bone-men stacking up chairs and climbing on each other to get to their ancestors bones hanging from the ceiling in the great hall. A wounded bone-man, with his buddies keeping watch, that drank from a pool and hulked out and got wounded badly. In spite of this though I’m not going to even Regerts this. It’s close, but there are a few things that keep me from that. The entire thing feels, sparse? Staid? Disconnected from itself? Static? Maybe static. It’s not that there’s a lot of empty rooms, that can be cool in a dungeoncrawl. But it just doesn’t feel like a unified whole. There are little linkages, the bone-men through, the orc sector, the previously mentioned wounded bone-man from the pool. Certainly no order of battle though, or anything overly dynamic in the environment. It doesn’t feel like a place that is alive. The overall vibe of the place just doesn’t come through well. I wish I could put my finger on it. It doesn’t feel like a bone-man incursion to a place and the orc servants repelling them and the mushroom men adding trouble in a place that is already a little weird, being an adventurer home. Certainly all of those elements are present but they don’t feel like they are working together to create a unified whole. I’m thinking of this in terms of, say, the first level of Stonehell. Stonehell level one, or even the outside, feels like an empty dungeon but the overall emptiness, exploration, and creatures there make it, all together, feel like a certain place with a certain something going on. 

I’m certainly not angry about this. Most adventures are piss-poor wastes of paper and this is not that. The overall environment just doesn’t get me excited to run this. I think it’s close, though, to being something worthwhile. 

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $2. The preview is ten pages, essentially the entire thing. Great preview. I’d check out, maybe room 3, 12, and 25 for an example of some of the better rooms. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/561741/righteous-bro-cave?1892600

The youngest state of Southeastern Parsulan is at once ill-omened and favored with great promise. Morrgna, capital of the Republic, is famed for the strange lights that can frequently be seen in its night skies: the aurora-like ribbons and curtains of pale color, sometimes with faces or forms moving through them and the flickering will-o'wisps that pass through the streets or hang in place for a time before fading. Such lights are often seen in association with the irruption of shadow cysts and they do seem to foreshadow the difficulties the area has with demonic forces.

At the same time, the Republic seems to be on the rise. Less than two decades ago, it was a sparsely populated backwater, ravaged by the demonic Wild Hunt. The tide turned with the so-called Miracle of the Church of Saint Lampada, wherein Leonhart Urzen, now First Citizen of the Republic, led a band of refugees in repulsing an assault by a demonic host. The cost of victory was the death of Leonhart's adventuring companions and their retainers, a group now celebrated as the Fallen Heroes. Those Heroes are entombed with honor in a crypt beneath the great church, guarded by special Keeper-Priests, for reasons that are doctrinally obscure. They are venerated on All Heroes Day, and the night before their spirits and those of the city's other dead are propitiated with offerings and their forgiveness is sought through rituals led by the priests.

Leonhart guided the formation of the Republic by inviting in neighboring cities and towns, and organized a militia, both protect the land against demonic incursion and to collect magical artifacts that emerge from the shadow cysts and bring them to Morrgna's dungeon vaults for safe keeping. While citizens guard the cities and serve in officer roles, Mercenaries and adventurers compromise most of the forces sent into emergent shadow cysts and patrolling beyond the walls of the cities and towns. Those who die in service are considered to be added to the ranks of the Fallen Heroes laid to rest with the original group beneath the church. Though few would refuse such as an honor, agreement to this burial honor is said to be a stipulation of admittance into the militia's ranks.

Chris Achilleos is another artist I discovered while working at Metro Comics. Two years before Mike Ploog’s trading card collection,  which I mentioned in my previous post, the same company, FPG, published the Chris Achilleos Fantasy Art Trading Cards.

I don’t recall if I consciously knew Achilleos’ work before becoming obsessed with those cards. I had probably seen some of his Lord of the Rings pieces. I had definitely seen his most famous work—the Taarna Heavy Metal cover and the movie poster—on the record sleeve and later in other related media, but I had NO idea who the artist was.

You can listen to the Heavy Metal soundtrack below:

When I finally discovered the depth and breadth of his work through that trading card set, I was blown away. This was amazing fantasy artwork, but it felt entirely different from the work of the typical D&D artists and other fantasy painters I grew up with, like Boris Vallejo or the Hildebrandt brothers. His work had this fine-art quality mixed with a fantastical allure that completely fired my imagination.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was the early 90s. We didn’t have Pinterest. We were online, but we certainly didn’t have access to art and images the way we do now. Art books, calendars, and these trading cards were my absolute main points of reference and inspiration. The best part about the trading cards was their utility at the table: I could make notes about the campaign, a specific adventure, or an NPC, clip them to a trading card featuring the art that inspired that bit of worldbuilding, and then physically show them to my players during the game.

The timeframe when these two trading card collections came out—1992 to 1994, and the years immediately following—was a defining era for me as a Game Master. I was actively organizing my campaign world, my written adventures, and my GM notes. In fact, 1993 was the year I officially rebooted the homebrew world I originally created in 1987, turning it into the version we have been playing ever since.

The Ploog and Achilleos trading cards, along with sets featuring legends like Elmore, Parkinson, Easley, Brom, Caldwell, Kelly, and Wrightson (some of those names might just pop up in future posts!), were a massive source of inspiration and reference throughout those formative years.

By the time I put together my first official, printed campaign handout for my players in 1999, I had already moved on to using desktop publishing tools and digital art. The physical trading cards started to see less use, and at one point, during a house cleanout, I ended up getting rid of many of them. The cards themselves might be gone, but the art and the artists I discovered through them continue to amaze and inspire my games to this day.

 This table transforms standard treasure rolls into immediate "Wait, why is the gold moving?" moments. Instead of just mimic chests, these entries turn the loot itself into the threat.d100 Treasures as Monstersd100The "Treasure"The Monster Identity / Twist01-05Loose Gold PileThe Coin Swarm: The coins are actually the scales of a buried, gold-plated subterranean serpent or a swarm of Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

By GMaia
Knight of the Lake Games
OSR
Levels 4-8

[…] A bold entrepreneur decided to reopen the “cursed” stage, now renamed the Daggerpierce Theater, and revive what was hailed as the greatest play ever written, and at the same time the one everyone wished never to see again. The from the Côte d’Écume, were not fully aware of the rumors surrounding the theater, the play, and its infamous author. Ignoring those who begged to keep the Daggerpierce Theater shut, the troupe accepted the job and sealed its fate along with that of The Tragedy of Gus de Montagne. The play was cut short just Wave fled Pont-Verre without leaving a single word or trace behind.

This 48 page adventure has a few locations in and around a theater with a curse. It’s pretty obvious what the adventure WANTS to be and it’s also pretty obvious that it is doing VERY little to make that happen. Maybe something like “This 48 page adventure presents some napkin notes that could one day be an adventure.” Oh, and it’s fucking pretentious.

Life. You try to make some money then you die. A symphony that is bittersweet. And this adventure explores that. The theater (always a good sign when there’s a theater in an adventure) is cursed. “the curse can only be broken when the play’s profound message is understood and performed with the sole purpose of teaching the people to value what truly matters.” Yeah, I guess The Verve is wrong because “as long as the work brings success and enriches actors and theater owners, it will remain misunderstood, and its performances will claim lives.” I don’t know, it’s love or selflessness or some shit like that. The playwright’s lover got framed by rich people to draw attention away from their counterfeiting. (Which, shows an incorrect view of counterfeiting. You don’t get away with fucking with the States money supply no matter who you are.) Anyway the designer, or playwright or someone somewhere, knows the meaning of life and The Verve’s more nuanced view can go fuck itself. This leads us to this interaction near the end where THE ENTITY asks the party questions. And you better get them right, or else! ““What would you have done for him, knowing he was innocent?” Examples: Refuse to be passive before injustice; vow to place life above wealth. 2. “What truth have you hidden for material gain that you could confess?” Examples: Based on PC story, reveal a secret of greed or betrayal. 3. “What act of justice would you perform now, even at great cost?” Examples: Cut off a hand that committed a selfish act; blind an eye that witnessed corruption.”  So, yeah, childish morality. Which means I can take the stance that this is the designer attempting to impose their own childish value system on the rest of us, and their players, in a game night that is supposed to be fun, or ITS ON PURPOSE!!, the standard artist cop-out. In this case that would appear as something like the intent of the curser, the playwright, his beliefs, and curse following that and the characters needing to figure that out so they can navigate his bullshit reality correctly. But we all know that’s not what is going on here. It’s designer imposing their morality on the rest of us and punishing us for not following it. This is absolute fucking bullshit. You can stick in all the fucking orc babies you want, you just can’t punish people for not holding whatever bullshit views you do. ESPECIALLY when there is a god of evil in the game who is ACTIVELY rewarding their followers for evil acts. Fucking bullshit.

Hey, you want a challenge, how about this one? “Two to eight (2d4) energy discs hover in the air, half a meter wide, razor-thin,crackling with electricity.” There’s your fucking combat. I guess fighting rats might make a statement about man’s subjugation of the natural world. Far better to die by crackling electric discs. 

The adventure is fucking garbage, what there is of it. I can make a decent case that this isn’t an adventure at all, just an outline of one, if that.  You get a few locations, you get some NPC”s with motivations and the rough outline of a plot. GO!. This leads to discovering clues like “Torn letter referencing a mysterious debt – Actually belongs to Auguste, proving his ties to a shady merchant guild.” How’s that for evocative gameplay?! No more to this. Just that. No letter. No details. No specifics. That’s all you get. And everything in this is like that. Just a few general ideas and notes. No specifics on how to use things. It’s weird, how detached it is. You’d think, with actors, customers, and so on that you might have some vignettes or something, but, no. Nothing. Dads house has a couple of sentences on background and then three bullets of clues. “Empty painting frame in the bedroom – Points to the diary hidden in the Red Hills hideout.” How the fuck you make that jump I have no idea. Everything is like that, half finished? Just an idea? I think it might be referring to this? “Concealed inside a magic mirror hanging on the wall, framed identically to the empty frame found in Edwin’s house (Clue #1)” So. I don’t know? Is that a clue? Am I just being obtuse? Anyway, given the page count here the lack of specificity of ANYTHING resembling a plot or details is confounding. 

The formatting is … well, an interesting choice was made. It’s doing a “facing pages” layout thing. Hardcoded in to the PDF. Ug. Not cool. Anyway, the left page is a more traditional text based description while the right is essentially a cliffs notes version of the same text. As the designer notes “this is to test whether presenting the same content twice can serve both those who enjoy a full,detail-rich reading experience and those who prefer concise keywords and minimal description.” I would take exception to this statement, The two are not mutually exclusive. Well, ok, maybe they are if we take “detail-rich reading experience” to mean “people who buy adventures to read instead of to play.” In which case, Fuck You. But I’m going to go with that the designer is taking the view that somehow full text and usable text are mutually exclusive. I think we all know, from numerous Best examples from this very blog, that is not he case. 

In any event, this experiment fails. The facing page “terse view” is a disaster. The font is in some faux-handwriting thing, which immediately destroys readability. And then its in a light blue text, which makes it even hard to read. Then it slapped down on some “lined paper” background, which again interferes. IF something sane had been chosen to put the “bullet points” in then maybe this would have worked. But not as presented. Which is too bad because every once in awhile the summary information IS good. The theater producer, in his “full on” text has a line that says something like “Does not believe in the daggerpiece curse.” But, in his summary it says “The curse does not exist.” This is interesting, presenting what is essentially the same idea in two different manners., using two different wordings. Which conveys two different attitudes. The summary version “the curse does not exist” is, I think, far better, giving a much more solid foundation on which to roleplay the manager from. 

The level range here appears to be arbitrary, with no real reason you’re level eight are fucking around with a playhouse. Also, the fucking overland map is a disaster with hard to read fonts on it. Why legibility” remains a barrier in 2026 is beyond me. And, for the final cinema sin, there’s a fucking expo dump in a fucking diary. It explains everything. Lame. LAME. DON”T PUT IN FUCKING DIARIES! DONT EXPO DUMP! Figure out how to convey information naturally through the game, if it even NEEDS to be conveyed. 

This is $1 at DriveThru. There is no preview. You make baby jesus cry when there is no preview. You don’t want to make baby jesus cry do you?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558386/a-grinning-ghost-s-grim-tale?1892600

 The Solar Frontier is a vast and unpredictable expanse where hard sci-fi grit meets the wonder of the unknown. In Thirteen Parsecs, the O.G.R.E.S. system thrives on fast-paced, high-stakes situations.Below is a custom D100 Space Encounter Table designed to fit the tone of the game—covering everything from industrial hazards and corporate shakedowns to the eerie isolationist horror the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

I’ve been a fan of Columbia Games and the Harn setting since the early 1980s. It’s not just a strong medieval fantasy world in its own right. What has always set Harn apart is its modular design. Each product consists of self-contained articles, which makes it easy to incorporate material into other campaigns. I’ve used it extensively in my own Majestic Wilderlands and Majestic Fantasy Realms.

   Evael, Kingdom of the Elves Kickstarter

For decades, Harn products came as three-hole punch, loose-leaf articles. That format was ideal for organization. You could build your own binders exactly how you wanted.

That said, I’m aware I’m in the minority there in liking that format.

In recent years, Columbia Games shifted to hardcover releases, and they’ve just launched the Kickstarter for Kingdom of Evael, the final book in their nine-kingdom series.

Evael, Kingdom of the Elves Kickstarter

While a hardback, the format is still a series of articles covering the kingdom and various locations. So even if you don't ever plan to use Harn itself, it will be useful in giving you a capital for an elven realm (Elshavel*),  an elven port (Ulfshaften*), a strange, enigmatic ruin to explore (Pesino), or a cultural article on the Harnic Dark Elves (Morsindarin**)

While a lot of settings are good at lore, Harn is good at providing usable material for your campaign. And the Evael, Kingdom of the Elves, will do just that for the elves in your setting.

*I guess I am a superfan of Harn because I was able to type those names from memory correctly spelled.

** This would be useful to those of you who are fans of my Blackmarsh setting and want to flesh out the Brotherhood of the Raven.

Been awhile...
Cool way to mix random spell determination with choice...
When you level up (or even at character creation) and are gaining new spells, you roll randomly to determine what spell(s) has turned up in your off-screen research (you're a wizard, you're always researching).
This requires random lists of all possible spells (by level) in whatever system you're using. You may have to make these yourself. (I have such disdain when spells are simply listed without the option of random determination; laziness).
After a spell is rolled and you want to learn it, you need to make a learning check. In AD&D 1E this would be a "chance to know spell" check. In 3.Path, it would be a spellcraft check. If you don't want to learn it, you can pass and roll again (you can only "pass" a number of times equal to your level). You may regret this, because that spell is lost to you until you randomly roll it again or find it in the wild. (Speaking of, if you have a scroll with a spell that you want to learn, you can skip the random roll and try to learn that spell instead. Failure means you didn't learn it and must roll randomly. Success means you learned it and the scroll is destroyed. Critical failures could get interesting, as could critical successes.)

• Spell Books are coveted because they contain a variety of spells you can choose from, thus bypassing random research. But learning rolls must still be made.

If you fail to learn a spell, you record that spell on a list of "spells being learned" and can try again the next time you gain a new spell of that level. This will probably be an easier roll as your skill/intelligence score should/could be higher. If not, a small bonus may be granted each time an attempt is made.
Success on your learning roll means that you've learned the spell, of course.

More flavor... How did you find the spell? (Roll this before you roll for the spell, as it might influence whether or not you choose to learn it).

1. Library Research.
2. Dream/Meditation.
3. Another Wizard. (This might cost you, perhaps 1,000 GP/spell level, but thanks to expert tutelage, this spell is always cast as one level higher).
4. Demon/Devil. (Could be a multitude of beings, but as I view magic as black...) Learning the spell from a demonic/devilish source could come with a price such as a contract, blood sacrifice, or physical/mental corruption: Horns, rotting flesh, scars, hooves, etc. (represented mechanically by stat loss), but, the spell is learned with greater potency; cast as 1d4 levels higher.

And just like that, Wizards are infinitely more interesting.

 

Substack is starting to come together for me. Regular Notes, first couple of subscribers and here's the second post. A design post about some ideas I had for a game I'm writing just now: That Eldritch Sea. You'll get an idea what the game is about, how it will work and the details on one little idea I needed to make that game click.

You can find it here (for free):

Click this, please. 

As I said in the introduction, there's a bit more to discover now. I'll use blogger solely as a sign post from now on, until I think the blog is dead for good. It is for the better. Blogger has run its course and I need a new start of sorts. Substack fits that bill, and I'll be happy to see all those over there who liked my stuff here. As well as making new friends, of course.

Another post will hit Sunday. Meanwhile I'll do a little series of note about all my projects. That's a lot, as you'll find ^^ 

Click to get it full-size
front and back!

I’m the guy who does “monsters on a business card” posts, and I just started at MCDM, so I should probably do a Draw Steel Monsters on a Business Card, right?

Well it turns out I don’t have to! Amber over at amby.navy did it for me!

If you’re new to DS, there are a lot of new terms here and it may look intimidating! Luckily, it’s all spelled out in a few pages in the introduction of Draw Steel: Monsters. (No reverse engineering required!) But once you’ve read those pages, you may want to grab Amber’s card, which is a clever and compact distillation. Print it out, carry it, and use it to design monsters, and, heck, run completely improvised Draw Steel monsters on the fly!

The latter goal may seem crazy, but why not? In my never-ending goal to reduce my game prep time to just thinking about story beats, I intend to try out the business card to do that very thing.

In the post-industrial fantasy, The Gutter Prayer, by Gareth Hanrahan, gods are essentially strange loops of magical energy, powered by worship and quite obviously a lot more trouble than they're worth. At least most of them don't eat the souls of living being like the gods in R. Scott Bakker's The Second Apocalypse series, but that's about the only thing one could say in their favor. 

One of the interesting things in Hanrahan's portrayal are the saints. These saints are much like "The Gifted" in my Weird Adventures setting and in other posts in that they are people effectively imbued with super-powers by a god. As such, they make good inspiration for an approach to clerics in fantasy rpgs.

Saints differ from your standard cleric of the D&D variety in a few ways. One, they don't seem to cast spells, just manifest divine powers. Two, they aren't necessarily people of high faith, but ones who just happen to be on the same psychic wavelength as the god, making it easier for the god to establish a connection and work through them. Third, the saints, then, aren't the evangelists and expanders of a faith, generally, but it's holy warriors.

I've long felt that having clerical magic-users that are separate and distinct from regular priests and priestly hierarchies worldbuilding-wise, and this remains a really good approach, I think, and I feel like Hanrahan provides a flavorful implementation of it, with an interesting take on the gods, in general.

My recent deep dives into comics led me to explore other fantasy and sword-and-sorcery books I’d either missed or forgotten about over the years. That winding path eventually led me to Weirdworld, a comic created by Doug Moench and Mike Ploog. And honestly, rediscovering this series sparked an entirely new topic for my “40 Years a Gamer” retrospective: the artists who inspired my campaigns.

I absolutely love Mike Ploog‘s fantasy art. I first became consciously aware of him through his 1994 trading card collection, back when I was working at Metro Comics. I collected all those cards and used them as visual references and inspiration for NPCs and events in my homebrew world.

I eventually realized I had already seen his comic work in various back issues. I also found out later that he worked on Ralph Bakshi’s animated movies, Wizards and The Lord of the Rings, which were two of my absolute favorites!

His art style was a bit cartoony—different from the more traditional fantasy art that usually inspired me as a young GM—but it had this incredible dynamism and movement that other pieces just lacked. Sadly, I no longer have the complete trading card set. But back in the days before high-speed internet and Pinterest, physical art books and trading cards were the main sources of visual inspiration for the table.

The Weirdworld connection that sparked all these memories is actually pretty funny. I had completely forgotten about these characters. I originally read about them in Marvel Fanfare issues 24-26 back in 1986. Because I was such a huge Elfquest fan, I was thrilled to find another fantasy story, but I remember being a little disappointed. It just didn’t capture me the way Elfquest did. As it turns out, the stories I read were NOT drawn by Mike Ploog!

Because of that, I completely forgot about the setting until I stumbled across it again a few days ago and realized it was co-created by one of my favorite artists. What a great connection to finally make. You can see some of Ploog’s original Weirdworld art below.

Bonus! There was a map of Weirdworld published in Epic Illustrated #9. The map is a little silly—or perhaps whimsical, and fairy-like is a better description! While I might not use it as direct inspiration for a TTRPG right now, we’ve had two significant adventures in the Fey Realm in my long-running homebrewed campaign, so I am absolutely keeping this handy for later reference.

Random notes.

After having ran and played in multiple games with player-facing dice rolls, I gotta say I strongly prefer them. Having players roll all the dice frees the GM up to focus more on what's happening and what happens next and it keeps players being active contributors.

Player-facing rolls have moved up the ranks in my gaming preferences right up there with luck points and death choices.

Speaking of gaming... shit I'm behind. I playtested ZSF and I'm in a spot where I could hone it, focus in, and get the game done. But right now in this instant I do not have that fire. I'll get back to it later.

Meanwhile I've dashed out a few other game ideas. I wrote one the other day based an older idea called Dirty Dozen Death Squad. You make a unit of 4 or 5 characters, then all the players bring all their characters and you just go through a violent mission. I guess it's more of a skirmish game and RPG.

Made another one this week. No name yet, but it's got a neat little core where you roll a d20 if you've got a skill and a d12 if you don't. Each hit you take knocks you down a die step. But it's not a combat game... it's more of an explore and interact kind of thing.

Sketching is always on the table. Tons and tons of drawing and doodling and coming up with ideas. I've written many comic book scripts lately. I just can't seem to find the oomph to focus on one thing long enough to get it done.

But I'll get there.