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The post Video of the Day – Patient Zero, 2018 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 The road in a Sword & Sorcery setting is rarely just a means of travel; it is a gauntlet of ancient grudges, desperate survivors, and cosmic indifference.Here is a D100 Random Encounters Table designed for grit, atmosphere, and high stakes. This table picks right up from D100 Sword & Sorcery Random Urban Encounters Table for Castles & Crusades rpgThe Trail Encounters Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Billie Piper is currently filming Elsinore, telling the true story of the behind the scenes drama of the National Theatre’s 1989 production of Hamlet

Filming has begun on Elsinore, a new drama film co-starring Billie Piper. When Doctor Who returned to screens in 2005, Piper was a key part of its success as the Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler. She recently returned to the series in the shock reveal at the end of The Reality War, though her role in this year’s Christmas Special is still unclear. In Elsinore she joins a cast led by Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag) in the true story of Ian Charleson’s run as Hamlet at the Olivier Theatre in 1990.

When the play’s star Daniel Day-Lewis leaves the stage mid-performance, and refuses to return, it throws the National Theatre production of Hamlet into high drama of its own. They find a replacement for the remainder of the run in Ian Charleson, who accepts the challenge despite being seriously ill with AIDS. The result is a performance many critics regards as one of the greatest Hamlets of all time, tinged with tragedy as Charleson dies only weeks after finishing the run.

The actor was one of the first high profile figures in the UK to be open about their battle against the disease, and the news coverage of his final role and death helped change public attitude to HIV and AIDS.

Andrew Scott stars as Charleson, while Olivia Colman (The Eleventh Hour) plays his doctor. The roles of the rest of the cast are still unannounced. One possibility is that Billie Piper will be portraying Stella Gonet, who played Ophelia opposite Charleson in the production of Shakespeare’s most iconic work.

Other members of the cast of Elsinore include Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Matthew Beard, David Dawson, Kadiff Kirwan, Dickie Beau and Peter Mullan.

The post Doctor Who’s Billie Piper Heads to Elsinore appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Shanklimb
Self Published
OSR
Levels 4-6

In recent months, strange mushrooms have erupted across a corner just outside the Mulchgrove. Local foragers reported vivid, peculiar dreams after extracting them – visions of mosslings sharing tea with mammoths, a boulder tucked in for naptime, and other odd sights. Now the dreams are coming uninvited, in daylight, to people who never touched the mushrooms at all.  The mosslings of Mulchgrove are divided. Most believe the fungi are a divine offering – though no two can agree which god sent them, or why. But it’s to be sure: someone, or something, is broadcasting.

This eleven page adventure describes fifteen rooms, mostly linear, in some caves. Low on interesting, you get some sub-standard descriptions of slime mold rooms. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. 

The locals have discovered a new type of mushroom. You’re hired to check it out. You find some caves with some friendly trolls in them. They grow moss. In beds fertilized with corpses. Looks like slime molds have attacked their caves. You go kill the slime molds.

Aimless, perhaps, is how I would describe this. There just isn’t much motivating going on in any sense. The situation in the local village is “oh, look, new mushrooms!” with no real sense of urgency behind it. The hooks are all Hiring in one sense or another, usually with a “I’d some of that new mushroom variety …” There’s little personal motivation in any of that, just a blatant appeal to your desire to play D&D tonight or go to a bar instead. There’s not much of a hunt for an entrance, I guess all of the locals are blind or something, just “here’s the hole in the ground!” and then, once inside it’s more of the same. You enter a room with moss in it. This room has trolls and moss. The trolls are friendly. They don’t care. Well, one room has some sleeping trolls in it who are not pleased at being woken up, if you hang around. I wouldn’t be either. Anyway, they don’t care. Yeah, they are fertilizing their ground with corpses, but there’s no indication they are KILLING people. The descriptions are entirely neutral on that point. “Investigating the corpses: Human commonfolk, arranged with almost ceremonial care. Their hands are folded, mouths held agape with sticks. No possessions of any value.” Sure thing man. No one cares. Well, the trolls are not happy that their moss tunnels have now been invaded by slime molds. Pretty please? This puts us, I don’t know, halfway through the encounters? So you wander around looking at moss and trolls until you reach the barricades that block off the other half of the rooms. Once there things change. You kill gelatinous hulks and other mindless blob things. Yeah! You did it! ‘ 

The last half of the room, eight rooms, are handled in two pages. So, two pages of content here. Two pages of things to do. You enjoy yourself here.

Room descriptions are in the old OSE style and meh. “The Threshold Black walls (thicker roots). Translucent threads (hang from ceiling, like a curtain).” This is ok, but not great. It’s just not very evocative, but, at least, it’s not overly long, thank god. 

There’s just not much here. Stab the blob things. Maybe don’t touch the pools that are obviously acidic. It’s like The Adventure Of Getting Inzto My Condo! Avoid the church people in the drive and hit the open gate button on the app. Don’t yell at the old person driving slowly in front of you. Open the garage door with the opener. Park in the garage being careful not to hit the concrete post on one side. Roll 1d6, if you get a 1-3 then the car on the other side is present also and you should not hit it. Push the elevator button. Wait forever. 1-3:d6 other people get off on floor one, slowing your ascent. Yeah. Ok. I guess things happen. I guess? Do they matter? No. 

Also, I’m annoyed that the numbers on the map are in a black font in purple background blobs. This is my usual Hard To Read rant. And, then, the dungeon proper, “This dungeon is made up of an expanding fungal root-system, the roots of which form mid-sized tunnels and rooms.” I guess the roots are hollow?

Nothing here. Move along. Move along. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/560343/corpse-husbandry-an-adventure-in-dolmenwood?1892600

My vacant in Hawaii last week got me thinking about the subgenre of pulp adventure fiction that dealt with tales of freighter captains or sailors making having adventures in various ports of the South Pacific. The radio show Voyage of the Scarlet Queen is in this genre as are Howard's adventures of Sailor Steve Costigan. Aviators get into similar sort of adventures in the same locales as well, as seen in the 80s TV Tales of the Gold Monkey and the comic strip Terry & the Pirates.

I think the same basic setup of these stories could be transported to a science fiction setting. Imagine a group of relatively closely spaced, small worlds (to be "realistic" about it, they would likely have been placed there by an Arbitrarily Advanced Civilization). It could be a Dyson Swarm or its remnant like in Reynolds's Revenger series, or it could just something like the Vega System as presented in DC's Omega Men (which could be a kind of modular ringworld, I guess). Why small worlds? Well, I think it better reflects the island or city focus of the source material and makes it easier to place them relatively close together.

Whatever the setup, this system is on the hinterlands of "galactic civilization," a place where outlaws, adventurers, and malcontents would drift to from the more controlled, "safe" worlds. Within the source material, of course, this is the unexamined Western-centric view of South Pacific, but in a science fiction setting this could more genuinely be the case. Similarly, the elements of colonialism and exploitation of native peoples is probably something to avoid (unless one wanted to make that a central conflict of the setting), but like in Vance's Demon Prince series, a lot of unique or eccentric societies may have grown up there as generations of nonconformists fled the core. Perhaps among the ruins of an alien Precursor race, ideas about whom may be part of the eccentricity of some of the societies.

The vibe could be very retro pulp, but you could just as easily do it with inspiration from Cowboy Bebop or with an Alien/Outland aesthetic.

 The House of the Rising Sun is the sixth volume of the Arduin Grimoire series, released in 1980. Authored by David A. Hargrave, it is a seminal piece of the "Old School Renaissance" (OSR) DNA, known for its kitchen-sink fantasy style, high lethality, and unapologetic weirdness. This picks up from Diving into the Arduin Underworld - OSR Commentary On Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Series 2 Launch Trailer, 2006 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Adapting Travis Morgan, the iconic Vietnam-era pilot turned barbarian king, requires balancing his modern military background with the high-adventure tropes of a "Dying Earth" or "Lost World" setting.In Sword of Cepheus (2nd Edition), Morgan is a high-ranking character, likely having completed 5–6 terms before being "stranded" in Skartaris.Travis Morgan: The WarlordSocial Class: 9 (Officer/Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 The sprawling, soot-stained alleys and marble-clad plazas of a Sword & Sorcery city are often more dangerous than any dungeon. This table is designed for Castles & Crusades, leaning into the gritty, "Long 90s" gritty-industrial aesthetic and the pulp tradition of Howard and Leiber. This picks right up from d100 Random Wilderness Swords & Sorcery Encounters table for CastlesNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: 50th Celebration, 2014 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Gabor Lux
EMDT
OSRIC
Levels 5-8

Linquar the Eternal has fallen, its palaces and temples decaying in the teeming jungles. Few dare to head for the misty island plateau where the ruins stand, and even fewer have succeeded in claiming its treasures from the savage ape-men who now rule in its citizens’ stead. The great city is largely forgotten, and even its name only refers to a squalid pirates’ nest that had once been its trading outpost. What had been the capital of the isles is known as a cursed and abandoned place that’s better left undisturbed. But more often, it is simply known by its current inhabitants… as the City of the Ape-Men!

This sixty page adventure is an Isle of Dread, but with ape-men in the lost city. A complex environment with large groups to challenge the parties looting efforts, it does a hex crawl with some locations being mini-dungeons. Bring those cargo ships to haul away the loot and avoid the pirates while dodging the secret masters manipulation of the apes. The logistics game is the only thing missing. 

We’ve got the ol Dread here, a jungle island with some dinos and ‘big fucking snakes’, the former seat of an empire that prospered from the spice farmingo n the island. Their former slaves, the ape-men are now all that’s left, along with a smaller island off the coast that has a pirate town on it that can serve as a home base. You hex crawl the island looking for spice, pirate-loot, and the wonders of the fallen empire. Don’t worry, in spite of dinos and ape-men there are also a handful of giant frogs, frog-lizards and frogodiles. 

The hex encounters, about twenty, range from the very small “R. The weird rock: A large stone with a spongy, greasy surface stands here with nuggets of a rare ore embedded in it (2500 gp).” to more involved paragraphs to handful (sixish) of mini-dungeons. These range from the “wildlife wants to eat you”, with flying manta rays and dinos and snakes and spiders, to monoliths and locales from the old empire, usually with some mythical bend to them. (Meditation on the holy ruins on the highest peak gives you a +1 to two stats … if you can make it to the top.) 

Running throughout we’ve got LARGE groups of ape-men running around, like, in groups of five to forty. And then in their bases near the lost city, proper, groups of forty to seventy. Ouch! I love a large group of enemies to challenge high level parties in an open environment like this where the party can plan and plot, and flee in a crazed terror through the jungle when the masses appear. 

The apes are divided in to three factions, buying for power. They hate each other, but, also, they hate all humans more. Like, ravenously hate them. They are taking instructions from their GODDESS, a talking statues. We’ve all seen Oz, so we know what’s up, Turns out that there are tunnels full of spider people who are the secret masters, subtly working the apes against each other to keep their numbers low. But, also, they are gonna make sure that nosey adventurers get fucked up hard. Once technologically advanced, their crashed spaceship is on the island also. Don’t worry, it doesn’t really go gonzo at all. The whole place is nice and sandboxy.

I do have a few issues though.

I can’t make much sense of the elevation contour lines on the map. I think the text says something like the island rises to 1200 feet high, and the map says that contour lines represent 1200’ feet. I assume there’s a typo in there somewhere, but, also, I’ve had a REAL hard time making sense of the contour lines on the map. There IS a separate map that just shows the contours, and it helps a lot, but that’s alot of referencing back and forth when trying to relay information to the party. 

The hex crawl instructions are decent, and none of those fucking environment/humidty rules that I hate dealing with in crawls. “You can’t wear platemail!” Fuckoff. You’ll have to kiss me first. My major issue is, with most hex crawls and this one, the lack of mentioning how far you can see/landmarks when getting high up. It makes sense to climb a tree, or a plateau, to see what’s around (See also: the Fallout Red Glow At Night) and a sentence about that would have been nice. 

Given that there is a high likelihood of this being a treasure extraction game, the pirate town could have used a little more as well. It’s covered in several pages and there are several factions there as well. A little more on off-loading the goods and/or a pirate ship/response to the party brining in loot would have been nice. A sample raiding ship or two, perhaps? There is enough, generally, to understand that there SHOULD be complications but a sentence or two, maybe a paragraph, on potential extraction play would have slotted in quite nicely for this one.I might quibble as well with their being simple ruins that are unlooted in a town full of destitutes, or bordellos opening at sundown in a lawless place, but those are just quibbles. It’s also full of good human nature type things like “Linquar’s beggars are downtrodden wretches begging for scraps. At night, more aggressive begging also takes place if the beggars outnumber the opposing party 2:1”

This is a better jungle crawl than Dread. Where Dread was a little sparse this contains the makings of a nice long game, with factions and complications, as well as a base, to help support that longer arc of a game. There are real rewards for dealing with a group of forty flying dinos, or making it through the ape-city, or climbing the highest peak. Intelligent play, by following ruined roads that see from up high, will help direct the party to most places. Three is a place to recruit and offload loot. The apes are presented as SO hateful, though, that it doesn’t leave much room at room for factions, other than, perhaps, subtly working them against each other. 

This is $6.40 at DriveThru. The preview is the first thirteen pages, which shows the island map and some of the town and general instructions. That’s probably enough, although, as always a page of the island encounters or lost city encounters would have been nice as well.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/559570/city-of-the-ape-men?1892600

The post Video of the Day – Video of the Day – Comic Relief, 2013 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The new Doctor Who Doctionary explains the Whoniverse, right up to the Fifteenth Doctor era

A new version of the official ‘Doctionary’ will be out this October from BBC Children’s Books. The original Doctionary by Justin Richards came out in 2012. It sought to define some of those tricky words and concepts from the Doctor Who universe. It’s not clear yet if the new Doctionary is updated from the original text, like the 2018 ebook edition or written completely from scratch. Similarly, there’s no author included in listings but, then again, the original was likewise credited simply to the Doctor.

However, we do know it brings the Doctionary up to date with all the latest concepts from the show, including bi-generation, the Vindicator and more.

If it’s anything like the original version, the 208 book will be full of colourful photos to illustrate the entries. We can also expect engaging, witty text, written by the Doctor themselves! The cover certainly reflects a fun approach to diverse topics, with brightly coloured images of the Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby, the Sonic Screwdriver, K9, a fez, and more.

‘The Doctor’s dictionary of definitions for time travellers’ as the cover describes it, will be in bookshops from the 22nd of October. The hardback edition will be £16.99. Meanwhile, an ebook version will be available to read on devices, at the price of £8.99. You can pre-order it now, though, with links for your preferred retailer on the official page here.

 

Doctor Who: The Official Doctionary (c) BBC Children’s Books Doctor Who: The Official Doctionary

Have you ever wondered what the Doctor is actually talking about? Are you burning to find out what a Vindicator is? Or what bi-generation is? In this book, the Doctor takes you through all those tricky Time Lord words and phrases to teach you everything you need to know for travelling through time and space in the TARDIS.

The post Doctor Who: The Official Doctionary – Coming Soon appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Thought I would share a health update with all y'all...

After about ten rounds of chemo, at least fifteen rounds of Keytruda, and four rounds of a nuclear treatment, my most recent scans show that the nuclear treatment, Lutathera, has actually stopped the tumors from growing on my spine, ribs and pelvis, and may in fact be shrinking them. We're working on getting another round of Lutathera to see if we can make more progress, but the fact is that they have stopped my cancer from growing. My original prognosis was that I wouldn't be here today, but I've actually started to substitute teach a few days a week when I'm feeling up to it, and I have some hope for hanging around a few more years. Thanks again for all of the prayers and support that you've sent my way, and for the support you've all given Mary and Grace as well. We truly appreciate it.

 The Adventurer's Backpack from Troll Lord Games is a major expansion for the Castles & Crusades role-playing game. It is primarily designed to streamline character creation and expand player options with a focus on equipment, classes, and magic.Core Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Partners in Crime, 2008 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

This Puppy Squish Crochet Pattern is just begging you to pick up your hook! It is a quick, cozy project with simple stitches and an extra dose of cute. To help you with the tricky bits, I have included both right-handed and left-handed video tutorials below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. Be sure to […]

The post Puppy Squish Tutorial appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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 Originally published in 1980 for 1st Edition AD&D, C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a perfect candidate for Castles & Crusades (C&C). Because C&C is built on the "Rosetta Stone" of the Siege Engine, it is largely compatible with 1E modules with minimal on-the-fly conversion.This picks right up from Aethel, the Sunken Core Inner Earth Sword & Sorcery Campaign Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting the classic C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan to the Barrows & Borderlands (B&B) framework requires shifting the focus from standard dungeon crawling to a high-stakes, survival-horror "extraction" crawl. This blog post picks right up from Adapting X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d' Amberville) By Tom Moldvay For Barrows & Borderlands RpgIn B&B, the primary antagonistNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0