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Monday, April 30, 2018

Last half. #Aprilttrpgmaker

13. Biggest influences?
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone of the fighting fantasy game books. I love the world they created.

14. What are yer dreams and plans?
Egad,so much. I want to try and put out more than one adventure a year! I would like to release a adventure module for mutant future, a D100 tables book, a hexcrawl, and a compilation of all my stuff in pod.

15. Do you design in public or private?
I suppose both, sometimes I post here and it becomes something. More often than not I work on things while having lunch.

16. Any designer partners?
Lots! I bounce ideas off Johua Santo and frank Turfler all the time. All the cats involved in the blue baron series. My wife, my gaming groups.

17. Favourite form of feedback?
Constructive criticism.

18. Current inspiration?
There is so much. The heroes of Olympus series, old captain America, Oceania by the smashing pumpkins, he-man.

19. Game that is most essential to your design?
Probably Holmes and b/x dnd.

20. Favourite design tools?
Browning images on art websites, Inkarnate and pyromancers.com, obviously publisher, word and font sites.

21. How many playtests?
Most of my stuff comes from home games so it at least gets one test. I wish I could do more somedays!

22. How do you document your ideas?
Google docs and drive! It's getting full.

23. People who have helped you?
See #16, plus all the wonderful people who have reviewed my stuff.

24. Most notable achievement?
I'm not sure if I have anything notable yet?

25. Being a ttrpg designer means?
Never falling asleep early, always having something rattling around your head.

26.  Blogs, Streams, Podcasts? 
Myself personally I do not have any podcasts.  Obviously this blog.  However here's a list of places and things that I watch and read.

Blogs
http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/p/sites-i-frequent.html

Youtube
Uncle Matts D&D Studio
God Emperor Leto II
Eric from Bloat Games
Ivanmike
Samwise Seven RPG

Podcasts
Heros Brew
Roll for initiative 
Save or die
Hobbs & Friends

27.  Feature a TTRPG Designer?
Tim Shorts over at Gothridge Manor makes some awesome stuff!

28.  Favourite Interview? 
I've done a pile that I really enjoyed.
Old School Interviews 1
Old School Interviews 2 

29.  Your Community? 
The OSR Community on G plus 
The Blueholme Community on G Plus

30.  Top tips and advice?
Not sure if this is supposed to come from me or I am supposed to provide a link? My top tip is DO NOT OVER PREP! Because the players will always blow holes in whatever you write! Have a bunch of handy tables ready to go to help you out when you get stuck in a jam.  Including a good list of Names for NPCs, because that happens so friggin often!












Friday, April 27, 2018

It's your turn! - An Interview with Zak S.


1.  How did you get your start roleplaying? What system did you use? 


I got the Red Box and a copy of the original Unearthed Arcana when I was like 10 or something but I think my first actual game was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Road Hogs--you roll your character randomly so I was a prairie dog who was a "natural mechanical genius"--he could fix the van without even trying but if he was too far away from it, the whole thing would break down again.



2.  Tell me about Playing DND With Pornstars Blog, when did it start? 

Well I'd been reading Jeff's Gameblog, Grornardia and Monsters & Manuals for a while--I was interested in RPGs from an art/writing standpoint (Why were these things written for kids still in my head after all these years?) and then Satine Phoenix--we were friends, we met in a threeway with Sasha Grey--was like "hey I wanna play D&D" because she'd played as a teenager. Plus my gf was often too sick to go out so this was a good way to get friends to come to us--like a poker night. And then suddenly after a few weeks this was The Thing To Do and half our friends were playing. And all of them were porn people--except the stripper. 



3.  Tell me about “Frostbitten and mutilated”.  What was the writing process like?

James typically comes to me with a Really Lotfp Idea (like Red & Pleasant Land was "I want a girl with her legs spread in striped stockings and it says 'Eat Me' on the cover") and then I make it respectable and pretentious and awardwinning.
So his idea was this Conan cover of Conan surrounded by zombies and he said "Like this but with women instead of zombies and we call it 'Amazons of the Metal North'. And I go "Well for a modest advance..."
Like most things I write, the book was largely just permission to type out things that were already in my campaign. From the beginning the country around Vornheim was frozen doomforest--so I just wrote that up then added in the Amazons, who were based on basically the elf barbarian Kimberly was playing plus a barbarian tribe generator I'd made years earlier, then subtracted out a lot of the fantastical D&Disms like elves and dwarves because LotFP is a lot more like "Normal 1600s, then horror" than my home game.
Also I thought about format: I want each new book to share a new way of making the book format work for a GM. So I thought up the thing where each area on the map contains the entire area description. That 2 page spread is the formal crux of it: if people start copying the "paragraph crawl" format then that book is doing its job. (Well even if its not, I used the book on sunday so its still doing its job). 
The rest of the material was importing the Vornheim approach to cities to a wilderness crawl.
Artwise, I got the girls together, painted them like black metal warriors and they all posed and we took photos and I painted them--along with all the animals and monsters that kind of environment implies and we decided somewhere along the line that the aesthetic should be like a black metal album. So: we did that.
Also my mac crashed 10,000 words in and I had to rewrite all that. So that was part of the process too I guess.


4.  Other than elf games, what are your other favourite role playing games to play?


I really like horror and superheroes. Call of Cthulhu and a FASERIP hack I created. Oh and 40k.



5.  What was the first adventure you published? 


Vornheim I guess. Unless "published" includes blog entries, in which case I think I entered a halloween adventure contest with a thing called Wolves In The Throne Room.



6.  You are doing a patreon for “demon city”, how is that going? 

It's wonderful! People are so generous and into it. I just showed a ton of the Demon City art in my gallery in NYC and the show's selling really well. It's fun to do a game from the ground-up that's totally new but that uses an OSR sensibility. And playing at home is a blast.

With each module I was thinking "What's not in a city book/megadungeon/setting book that should be?" this time I get to go "What's not in a basic RPG that should be?"

There's the traditional indie game approach which is: solid simple rules plus a lot of advice on what to improvise. And there's the mainstream approach which is tons of rules threaded throughout the content. And then there's what I want to do: Solid simple rules plus a mountain of optional but gameable content to plug in. Why shouldn't a basic game include a Mad Libs First Adventure Kit instead of those shitty starter adventures they give you?



7.  What is your favourite OSR clone? 


I think picking is stupid, honestly. As Jeff Rients' said, once you start doing that you are playing into the idea that these are different games and honestly: all these games are just variations on a pretty good game and they're all within a stone's throw of each other. I like the OSR-ified 5e hack I wrote on my blog bc it fits my current game group, but only the way you might like a shirt because it's in your size. There's no real hierarchy, I just happen to have players who like race and class separate and probably appreciate having their specific skills spelled out. 



8.  What are you currently playing? 


Oh jeez: I'm currently visiting NYC for the aforementioned art show so I'm playing Frostbitten here with my New York friends. They fought the Fibbing Troll. When I get back home we're playing D&D of course (right now we're doing a scenario which has Hot Springs Island as an island near Eliator from Maze of the Blue Medusa) and playtesting Demon City.
Online I'm playing a Dark Heresy game tuesdays, Warhammer Fantasy some thursdays, Matt Finch's Old School 5e on Mondays (its youtubed), Nightwick Abbey D&D with Evan Elkins once in a while and Jeff Rients' D&D game when I get the chance. Jesus, that's a lot now I look at it...but when you sit at a desk painting all day thats a lot of time to roll.



9.  What is a Call of Cthulhu scenario you like running?

I write my own. I have a Weimar-era one where there's an Idea That Will Destroy The World and it expresses itself in different ways: a virus, in dadaist poetry, in a painting. All my Cthulhu scenarios are tied to my Thomas Pynchony and art-history enthusiasms I guess.



10.  Who is an artist that we should be checking out, that we don’t know about?  


SCRAP PRINCESS. MATTHEW ADAMS. JEREMY DUNCAN.



11.  When you set out to create an art piece, do you have a RPG thing in mind? Or does it depend on the situation?


Usually I have an idea but the less of an idea I have the easier it is.



12. What is one of your favorite adventures other than something that you’ve released (or worked on)?


I really like the Secret Wars scenario for FASERIP they did: a big map, heroes plunked down in one part of it, a series of events that happen in order (if the heroes don't stop them) and a series of events that can happen randomly each day.
TSR was a mess, but a lot of their modules experimented with format in a way that display a lot more options than the Railroad vs Open Setting dichotomy people imagine. Frostbitten & Mutilated takes a little of this and expands on it.




13.  If you could campaign in any world which would it be? 


Uh...the one I spent most of the decade writing books about and playing and doing blog entries about?



14.  When you get a chance to play a character, what type of PC's do you like to play? 


I roll randomly. But all my guys are the same at the core: tactical and sneaky and they tell a lot of jokes. This can be a cleric a dwarf a paladin whatever. But I have more fun if I'm trying to Kobayashi Maru every situation.



15.  What is a seriously underrated monster?


Flail snail of course.



16.  You play a lot of Marvel FASERIP, do your players tend to create simulacrums of the superheroes we all know and love, or do they create something new and fresh? Further, tell me about a typical superheroes game you run.


I tend to get like one high concept ("Assasinate the Evil Justice League!") and then run a session or 3. Characters in superheroes games are rough: SOOOOOO much of the appeal and expression of a superhero is how they look and most ppl can't draw. Often the default is to go "Ok, today we're the X Men, pick one". I did a Man InThe High Castle type one where people made their own heroes based on the high concept they were superhuman antifascists. We had an alien Ubermensch who escaped Nazi control, a mad scientist gone good, a Question-type mystery man, and the Shocker from Spiderman who becomes a resistance-hero car thief.
If I could solve the visualization problem for superhero RPGs in a commercial product that'd be pretty great. It might require computer support, like City of Heroes does.



17.  Do you have any current favourite RPG and fiction authors? (ie what are you reading).

Right now reading Borges poems. I usually don't read RPG stuff unless Im using it or someone pays me. Also halfway through Gormenghast. I haven't cracked the latest Pynchon--Bleeding Edge.



18. What are you most excited about in the DIY RPG scene currently?

I'm honestly just really happy it exists and is thriving and people are making stuff like crazy and doing patreons and kickstarters and just putting stuff out. Stuff I've never heard of and never will that's self-sustaining: awesome! The snarky Let's Sledgehammer Anyone Being Creative In a Way We Don't Like thing from the early 20teens seems to have finally fallen apart--all the people who used to do that have either put out their own stuff to zero applause and crawled back under their bridges or have self-destructed or fans have just learned "Oh, whatever people are most loudly complaining about it the good thing". It's wonderful. I think the next big leap will be when some other publishers start to consistently publish stuff that combines stylishness and experiment like LotfP does. Hydra Collective is getting there and Mike Evans' DIY RPG looks like it's leaning that way.
Like the new literature of the midcentury needed Barney Rosset at Grove Press but it also needed City Lights and New Directions. There needs to be a robust bank of people willing to experiment on a decent budget.



19.  Would you rather be a red shirt or a wookie?


I'd rather have sex so whichever one gets to do that?



20.  Scotch, Mountain Dew or a nice tea?

I never had Mountain Dew or if I did I can't remember what it tastes like and tea is so boring I always forget I'm drinking it so Scotch.



21.  What are the plans for the rest of the year?


Finish the best horror RPG in history. Sew up the holes in my jeans.



22. Where can we find you on the web?
dndwithpornstars.blogspot
ihititwithmyaxe on twitter

Thanks Zak! That was a lot of fun - Shane

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Review of Jeffersontown Setting Guide for DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS

Note: I was given a awesome free copy of the setting.  Also note that I put Affiliate links within this document.  Thanks Eric! This is wonderful. 



Publisher Blurb: 
The Jeffersontown Setting Guide is 140 pages of everything you could ever want to know about Jeffersontown.  From Maps, to History, To Modern Day, To Heroes, Villains, NPCs Monsters...this all inclusive Setting Guide is a one stop shop for all things Jeffersontown!

More about DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Following in the tradition of SURVIVE THIS!! Zombies! comes SURVIVE THIS!! Dark Places & Demogorgons, a tabletop roleplaying game that uses the Original 1970s Fantasy Roleplaying game rules but mutates it into this retro nightmare. It’s sleek, slender and creepy as Hell.

In Dark Places & Demogorgons, you play as high school students during the early 1980s. The town you live in has had a rash of disappearances and strange happenings. The adults seem lost as what to do, the police are as clueless as ever and aren’t helping and Reverend Phillips is on another witch-hunt. It’s up to you and your friends to figure out what’s going on and stop it from happening again! 



They say, "write what you know", and the guys at Bloat Games have done just that.

I'm sure the inspiration for this book comes directly from the town that the boys live in and that's frigging awesome!  Much like the Midderlands, it's a smart idea to write what you know and to write about the place that you live near.  I had actually started working on a similar idea for Gamma world and the province I live in.  (yes at some point I'll get that shit done), alright onto the review! I'll stop rambling!


This setting guide is a perfect companion to DP&D.  It's filled with a ton of adventure hooks, Monsters, NPCs, Magic items and most importantly a extremely detailed map and setting locations.  Obviously you don't NEED this to run DP&D as there's a ton of great ideas in the core book.  However if you start running out of ideas, or want to expand your campaign a bit, I'd strongly suggest grabbing a copy of this. 

First off I gotta say I absolutely loved the Colloquial dictionary! Seriously giggled the whole time.  It's basically a Jeffersontown to English table.  Having run into a few American accents while down
south, I totally get it.  Just like when we get some Americans up here, and they look at us strangely when we say "EH!" or some other typical Canadian home spun verbiage.  My only complaint is I'd love to have seen a few more pages of this, because it's a perfect thing to get you in the zone and in character.  Onwards!

I should note that timeline set out is fairly straight forward history of Jeffersotown, however once you get into the 1950s things start taking a turn towards fiction, in there are adventure hooks.  Read em.  The actual town is split up into five sections, each are quite detailed with places to visit and notable buildings, businesses'.  Each with plot hooks, and memorable NPCs.  There is so much in this book to keep you going.  The places of note section really drills down to two specific  locations, a "magic" shop (which is friggin totally Needful things! and that is exactly how I would play it).  Well not a magic shop so much as an antique store (nudge nudge wink wink).  This is where Iwould start a campaign.  Or this would be where the rumours point you.  Because the characters in the game are in High School, the actual high school is quite detailed, including a table of what classes you are taking that semester.  I think my only caveat when running this gamewould be to make sure that all the characters atleast had one classs together.  As an example each PC is supposed to have 6 classes per semester, which they can randomly roll.  I think I would have them do that, and then give them one extra class that was only a half hour a day that they were all in.
The rest of the book is detailed with Adventure seeds and monsters.  All of which are super creative! Some are throw backs or "plays" on horror movies.  The nice thing is they are all rooted in the setting.

A perfect example is "the new girl".  Here's the twist:  "Amara Giapanta appears to be a 14-year-old Greek girl (5'1”, 92 lbs.), but in reality, she is 2300-year-old vampire from Ancient Greece. "The premise starts off that your in class and the new girl shows up. She's beautiful, she likes metal.  Haven't we all been there???? Being a nerdy teenager you follow her home and spy on her and that's where things start getting into "dark places and demogorgons"..... 

That's the only one I'm going to spoil, the book has 14 of these, all of which are a good 2 - 4 pages of detail.  As usual Eric has knocked it out of the park with the layout and the art in the book.  I really dig how the "look" of the DP&D line has stayed similar across the board (this is something I've been wanting to do, but never get around to it).  Kudos! If you LOVE playing DP&D I'd suggest getting this book.  If you haven't tried DP&D or are curious about it you can check out my reviewhere:


Here are a view more videos detailing DP&D products.

Ivan Mike 



God Emperor Leto II



Obviously you do not NEED this book to run a successful DP&D campaign (just like any other setting book) however I think it really compliments the original rules, and has a lot of added value.

Further Reading: 
My review of DP&D 
An Interview with Eric Bloat 
Alternative class for DP&D "The stoner" 
A review of character classes in DP&D

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Take a U Turn

Here's a table when you need to take a campaign U turn.

1.  A beloved NPC turns up dead the next morning.
2.  A God falls from the sky, dead.  It rains ichor.
3.  A strange magical portal appears on the side of a building or animal
4.  A note from a loved one is under a PCs pillow, a relative has died.
5.  Dragons no longer have the ability to breath fire.
6.  The local town is taken over by mysterious travelers, on the outskirts is a large metallic craft.
7.  A large vein of gold has been found, rendering the gold piece completely insignificant.
8.  A famine has taken over, people are hungry, begging in the streets.
9.  A tax collector has been strung up at the gates of the city.
10.  Large holes in the ground have started appearing, someone claims they are really deep.
11.  The night has come, the sun doesn't rise the next day or the day after.
12.  Alcohol no longer has any effect on anyone.
13.  Wishes come true, even the insignificant ones.  But only for 2 days.
14.  A herd of mechanical cows come stampeding across the local fields.
15.  People are waking up from the dead, they are not undead and not zombies, they resemble themselves the day they died.
16.  Locally grown mushrooms if ingested allow a person to time travel back one day.
17.  A ingenious alchemist invented gun powder by accident and burnt half the town down.
18.  A the local militia have mysteriously fell ill.  A barbarian tribe has encircled the town.
19.  It has not stopped raining for days. 
20.  All forms of birds have been found dead.  Sometimes falling from the sky.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The Gavanov Barony

While working on "the return of the blue baron" we started writing a bit of the back story.  The original was never actually set anywhere.  When Jeff ran it he placed the Baron's castle in the city of Blueholme.  In reality these adventures can be popped into whatever world you have created for yourself. 

As it stands right now we have basically finished writing and are now on to what I like to call "Edit City", afterwards it's layout city. 

I think I will make this adventure 8x11 for the sake that most people will print it if they run it. 

I am also going to start gathering together some nice clip art and images from various sources.  I like to have a pool of graphics to pick from one I start working. 

Anyways, yesterday while recording some vocals with a nice Russian lady, I doodled this map and then did some editing on it at lunch.  All of the towns are in German, I used google translate with some basic names. 

grenzenstadt: border city
blaue stadt: blue city 
flusse rand: rivers edge
altes holz: old wood
Schneeglockhe: Snow cap

The barony is part of a large kingdom ruled by a Queen, in my mind the Blue Baron's territory is sort of Germanic/Bavarian (hence the silly translating). 

There isn't really an intention to have this within the module, as I say I just did a little map doodle for fun. 



Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Just watching Heroes Of Jordoba






If you haven't checked out Matt's channel yet, I suggest you do if you like watching D&D on youtube.  For me it's wonderful to have something like this on in the background while I'm working.  As well, I really like Matt's idea for the dungeon being a city that was basically destroyed (by a Volcano?).  It's an underground city, I'm totally borrowing this idea.

In some of Matt's other videos he plays OD&D, but in this series they are playing Fifth Edition.  But honestly listening to them, it feels and sounds like Old School to me.  Except for the occasional mechanic question.  In this video the sync crapped up, but it's totally fine as I'm a theatre of the mind guy.  You should check out the crazy mini camera action that Matt does though!

Apparently they all rolled up characters using the 3d6 method, which is great.  Matt is winging it like a good old school DM.  You can tell that he's ran games for a long time, as he just rolls with the punches.

This to me is what a group should be like, this is what my old school group was like.  Laughs, not jumping from room to room to quickly, carnage, a few terrible jokes that will probably become a "thing", and everyone having a good time.

BTW I'm amazed at Zak's rolling! The guy was rolling 20's all night.  (Well I think he had one one).

Monday, April 16, 2018

My Wife doesn't like side initiative

Saturday afternoon we were driving back from the country and started talking about D&D.  The road was nice and clear, sun was shining down, so we were both getting sleepy.  I started the conversation with "I like side initiative,  because it's easier for me DMing".  I then on to explain exactly how it worked.  I also talked briefly about the last Fifth Ed battle I had, and the weird rotating initiative that happened.  I should start off by saying normally what I/We do with D&D is roll initiative once, and then that's the order for the entire battle.  The monsters all go once, not individually.  The last battle I was so confused because there was different initiative's for most of the monsters, so when I thought it was my turn, we still hadn't actually finished a round. 

Side note: I can't believe they got rid of turns. 

Anyways, Apparently (as per Wife) she really likes the separate rolls for everyone, it's "part of the fun".  So despite how much I'd prefer to just have one side go, and then the other I think I'll have to stick with individual initiative.  Another thing I'm going to have to stick with is, the full scale +5 to -5 attribute modifiers, as another player really enjoys the swinginess of it.

My solution for initiative is the following:  Everyone rolls a d10 instead of a 20.  Part of the reason is the countdown, with a pile of people who had A.D.D. "Alright who is 16??? no one???"  "wait! i'm 16".  You see how that's wildly problematic. 

So I think what I'll do is d10 plus dex bonus.  In case of a tie, whoever has the highest dex goes first.  In the case of a tie with monsters, I'll roll their dex score and see where it falls. 

I'm not sure if that will speed things up or not? But I'm going to give it a go the next time we play some elf games.

Sometimes I can be swayed, which is a good thing.  You have to listen when you run games.

Alright that's it for me!

Sometime this week I got a review I'll be doing, as well I'll probably do a friday catch up of the April TTRPG maker thing.

Have a good week!

Thursday, April 12, 2018

First half of #aprilttrpgmaker

Not that anyone really cares, but here's the first half of the April TTRPGmaker for me.  First off, I'm not really a RPG maker, I create adventures for the most part.  Although I've released a few half baked rules hacks.

1.  Who are you?
Shane Ward, sometimes I go by the nickname "Gilligan" or "Shaner".  But don't call me that.

2.  Where ya at?
The great white north kids! Specifically the city of Winnipeg, which is currently in a "white out" situation.  ie the Jets are in the playoffs.  The city is nuts.

3.  How did you start creating ttrpgs? 
I honestly fell into it I think.  I started this blog in 2013 (holy shit!).  Shortly after that I wrote "caverns of ugard" and it sort of spiraled from there.  I normally put out one to two adventures a year and they are almost all PWYW.

4.  Describe your work? 
In my adventure writing I try for a "swords & sorcery" feel, but I think it comes off more as low magic vanilla fantasy.

5.  Favorite game you've worked on? 
I'm guessing this is based on a set of rules I've written, which I really haven't.  I really like writing for Blueholme as a game.  Favourite thing I came up with is probably "Invitation from the blue baron" collaborative dungeon project.

6.  Favourite game mechanic? 
I'm a big fan of old school reaction and morale checks, I really should have used them more when I was a kid.  Makes the game a little less hack and slash sometimes.

7.  Your workspace? 
While I attempt to write at home on the couch with my laptop, nine times out of ten I get all my writing done at lunch at work.  Pretty much everything I do starts in google docs and then eventually get's ported to word or publisher.

8.  Describe your routine? 
I get an idea, usually when I'm feeling a bit manic and creative.  Write as much as possible on that, then totally forget about it when the next ADD moment crops up, and rinse and repeat.  Eventually things come out, but I don't really schedule myself at all, it just sort of happens in time. I currently have about 5 projects on the go in various states of completion (one of which I haven't even started, but I think about on a regular basis).

9.  Describe your process? 
As above.  ADD kicks in, usually on my walk to work (that's where I get all my ideas from).  I get a coffee and sit down and write the ideas while they are fresh (when I should be working.... like now).

10.  Favourite game to relax with? 
I can run b/x or blueholme all day.  Relaxing wise it's totally mexican train.  Put on an album, grab a beer and play for 4 hours.

11.  What's yer brand?
3 Toadstools publishing, which is a stupid name.  It's basically a tavern name in a hobbit village somewhere.  That was the name that I came up with for the blog, and then later used for the publishing end of things.  (cuz cross branding I guess?).  I think my stuff is sort of in the "old school" aesthetic as far as looking like a revamped TSR product and a bit of DIY RPG thrown in for good measure.  Reading other designers stuff gives me good ideas to incorporate.  So I'm learning.

12.  How do you get your work out there? 
Mostly google plus, posting in some communities.  Just talking with people.  I don't push as hard as I could.  At some point if I get something super exciting maybe I'll pour the coals on.  I do have a facebook page for the publishing company as well.  Once in a blue moon I'll email my customers thru drivethrurpg.com

Find my stuff here. 

Grab my latest adventure "Dusty Door" here. 


Monday, April 9, 2018

Four years ago

Four years ago I released my first adventure "The Caverns Of Ugard", which started my publishing journey.  I've learned a LOT since then.  I think with every adventure I get a teeny bit better.  So far, the only adventure that may have been a step back was "Mad God's Jest", at least writing wise.  I did have a lot of fun with that one though. 

Ugard is this terrible minotaur, that I sort of modelled after Jabba The Hutt.

Here's the publisher blurb. 

The name Ugard is notorious with pain and fear!  Thru-out the surrounding lands Ugard and his minions threaten, bully and extort money and lives.  The vile Minotaur is holed up in some caves on the outskirts of town.  This OSR compatible one page dungeon can easily be placed into any campaign for a night of fun!  


You can download it here:  It's pay what you want, like all of my titles. 

Interesting note, when I wrote gardag, I was originally going to use DRAGU as the name, but totally cocked it up.  You know, so that the modules would have something in common.  Whoops! 

Eventually I intend to put all my modules together and put out a book form, with a bunch of extra adventures.  While working on that, I re drew the map for ugard (to replace the computer one).  Here it is! 




Saturday, April 7, 2018

Revisions, revisions.

I really don't like being that guy. The one that puts out revisions of products. However I'm going to work on revision four of "Dusty door ". I received some fantastic art for it, and I wanted to rejigger the fonts one more time.

At some point I would love to redo all my adventures and other releases.

I keep stopping myself though, as I would rather write more stuff!

Anyways that's what I'm up to this weekend. After work probably, I've got a recording session tonight.

Hope you have a good gaming weekend!

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Rebel Breakout!

I finally had a chance to read "rebel breakout" and the Star Wars d6 rules from WEG this past weekend.  Pretty much everything is making sense mechanically, except one thing.  How the hell damage works.  From what I gather the following happens:

A check is made to see if a hit is actually made.  That is then compared to a armour check, whatever the difference is between those two rolls you then look up on a chart and see if the victim is stunned, incapacitated or really hurt.  Regardless of those conditions the victims stats rolls are all decreased by 1D until they are healed in some way.

I'm sure it will work out fine at the table, but wrapping my head around it is slightly difficult!

I'm going to print off the pre gen characters and basically lay them out on the table for everyone to decide what they are going to be.  I am hoping not to have 2 of the same character.  I also will print off the basic DM rules/charts in the back of the book.  Then run everything with the pdf on my laptop.

The adventure in the book "rebel breakout" is pretty cool, a little railroadey, but oh well.  My only issue is that the maps kinda suck.  So I may have to re jigger them a bit.  Seems like there are a lot of side passages.

Anyways, I'm excited to give this a go.  I am unsure if I'll try and find another module to run or just write something myself.  I'm thinking after the first game, the group may get a bit addicted and want to play every week.  So a module might be a better plan.  I also intend to just use the first ed rules, I know there are illegal copies out there of all this stuff including the rules for the 2e version.  But reading the first ed, just seems easy enough to me, without adding extra rules in my head. 


Monday, April 2, 2018

Comparing a bulldog.

My cousin has this bulldog named Marty.  He's a sweetheart.  He is also sort of like a dwarf, very dangerous over short distances.  And he is an escape artist. 

Sometimes he will let himself out of the backyard and go for a run.  The thing is he runs as fast as he can for as far as he can, and then they find him sunning himself somewhere on a boulevard in a 2 block radius from their house.

When it comes to writing I'm like Marty.  I have these spurts where I write like a maniac (or a bulldog on a run) and then I end up sunning myself on a boulevard.

And that's entirely fine.  It's no way to be competitive, but its fine.

Holmes Bulldog
AC 8 HD2, MV 20 *note can run fast for like 50 feet then poop out.  ATT:  One large bite 1d6 on a good day.  STR 15 INT 8 CON 12 DEX 8 WIS 4 CHA 15