City on the Hill

I love city maps, and I spend a lot of time downloading maps I find online, often at the cartographersguild.com. This one was posted recently by Narolas and would make a wonderful addition to any campaign.

There are a lot of things to appreciate about this map, the city sitting on a hill with a large fortress on the top, the ruined wall running through it hinting at an ancient history and hidden secrets buried beneath the city, the little villages surrounding it begging for clandestine meetings at the small inns after a desperate midnight summons and a ride through the dark countryside.

Find the map here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/album.php?albumid=4621&attachmentid=76975

 

Art

I think that art is important to set the tone of a game, one of the reasons I struggle with Pathfinder is the ridicules art. Every time I see the barbarian in the main book with a sword made of 300lbs of iron I laugh a little. Conversely the classic black and white line art of 1E and 2E really hits the spot for me. I also think 5E did a great job of presenting more realistic art after the excesses of 3e and 4e.

In my original draft I used art pilfered from the B/X books and adventures of that era. I needed art as a place holder and to let my original play-testers know the style of play I was emulating. Obviously I have the financial sense to know that paying a competent artist to illustrate my vanity RPG is an unwise decision, but I also know a consistent art style is hard to achieve with public domain art.

I have limited artistic talent so I have gone the simple route of creating my own art using black and white silhouettes. This is time consuming as I use public domain pieces and slowly turn them into silhouettes in a often slow process. This is my latest piece, I am not entirely happy with the flail, and may change it to a mace, hammer, or sword.

 

My intention is this is not a werewolf, but a primal wolf creature, probably the terrible offspring of a titan and a she-wolf. I like the size of the wolf creature and the implied resolve of the crusading cleric bent on ridding the earth of this primal menace.

Spelljamming 5e Style

I have been working on finishing Appendix One: Sample Patrons, mostly just editing and adding art at this point. It is 44 pages long, 12 more than the main rule book, but I wanted to present plenty of options for player.

The project has dragged on longer than expected and I need to finish it so I can move on to Appendix Two: Arcane Magic. Realistically lets say 2018. Lets see if I can beat George R.R. Martin.

Meanwhile I have been playing a half-orc fighter in a 5e Spelljammer game. He is a smart ass swashbuckling scoundrel type who tries to talk his way in to trouble as often as possible. He is built for stealth and thievery, and I don't think he is optimized at all, but I am having fun playing him.

Never Tell Me The Odds

I ran a game of Star Wars “Birthday Game” for my friend I have been gaming with since 1990. We used d20 Star Wars as a basis for the system, but as all d20 based systems are alike we played by the spirit and not the exact letter of the rules. I have never GMed or played d20 Star Wars, and it is way too crunchy to be a go to system for me, but I didn’t have time to homebrew anything, and figured working on an adventure was more productive than building a system.

I hate what Star Wars has become, and this game is based on Episodes 4, 5, and 6 as the only cannon, all prequels, novels, and other content ignored. I set my game in Mos Eisley a half dozen years before the events of Episode 4 and described my game as Shadow Runners in a Star Wars Universe with a healthy dose of Dungeon Crawling. No Jedi allowed just down on their luck mercenary types getting pulled into the seedy underbelly of Tatoonie.

The characters purged the depths of an abandoned moister farm looking for a stolen surgery bot. A small dungeon that ended with the characters heading off in landspeedes for a three way show down between The Empire, the goons of a crime boss, and themselves as they speed across the desert. But that will be the next session. The they hit the real dungeon HERE as they try and evade the enemies they created.

Rules Cyclopedia Charachter

This is an single session character from an online Rules Cyclopedia game, cut short by scheduling conflicts.

Halvard was rolled 3d6 in order with two rerolls and the addition of three homebrew stats. Comeliness was my downfall. I am not a fan of Basic one spell Magic Users so I went with a Fighter, a smart Fighter.

Halvard had a short but distinguished career. I will skip to the end of the adventure after we had barley managed to kill a demon. Returning to saftey low on food in the dead of winter Halvard and his adventuring band came across the one route over the river guarded by equally hungry bandits. Halvard seeing no alternative spurred his charger into battle, a battle that killed one of his companions and knocked the rest unconscious. Halvard killed bandits till they fled. Bandaging his companions I rolled a dice to see if Halvard was vengeful, he was. Hoping they would not freeze before his return he left his companion and tracked the bandits that fled then killed them.

We switch campaigns faster than underwear in high school, and Halvard will join the ranks of the hundreds of characters of mine who played one session before being retired alive and richer than they started. I will miss Halvard, and his potential, but he made it out alive and rich.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Charachter Sheet

My character sheet from a  campaign of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. This Campaign was unfortunately brief as I moved across the country.

I modified my Peril and Plunder sheet and was happy with the "Dice" for stat and skills.

Best Source for Spell Components and Magical Properties of Materials?

My work on finishing my Sample Patron’s book has been long stalled while I worked on ceremonies (complicated long lasting spells for casters using Piety). Writing the ceremonies was not really the problem, I only have 15, but I really wanted to include sample components for each as well as upgraded components that would reduce the costs of these ceremonies.

The 1E DMG has some suggested magical properties for gems and the real world medical application of herbs, but not a lot of magical effects attributed to these herbs and flowers in medieval times. Well after struggling with this as my resource I turned to my collection of RPGs looking for more inspiration.

I thought Ars Magica was going to be my savior, but it included little of this. I then spent more time reading it than I should, because I am somewhat fascinated by it as a concept. Warhammer and Pendragon were both of little help but again time thieves. Blood and Treasure had a small section which was better than expected, but I again reread part of this as I am playing in a B/X game right now.

Eventually I opened up my Chivalry and Sorcery 3^rd edition and worked my way through the walls of tightly packed text to pages 9-129 thru 9-131 which has more tightly packed pages of the Magical properties of Herbs, Flowers, Woods, Gemstones, Metals, and Miscellaneous Materials.

Thank you Edward E. Simbalist, Wilf Backhaus, and G.W. Thompson for including this in your book.

I can say I am never going to even attempt to read or play Chivalry and Sorcery, but these pages where invaluable as a source of inspiration and reference. I have no idea who did the research, but it looks legit and was much better than anything I could find on the internet.

Here is an interesting blog entry on C&S from a blog I should pay more attention too

http://dmdavid.com/tag/chivalry-sorcery-what-if-gary-and-dave-had-not-found-the-fun/

Here is a link to buy the 4^th edition which I have no idea if it includes the same information

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142316/Chivalry--Sorcery-4th-Edition

Here is a sample ceremony, about 75% complete but just editing at this point.

Animal Barrier 3 Any Non-Primal

Piety Cost: 60 (laity)

Casting Time: 3 hours Duration: 1 year

During this ceremony a line is traced using a mixture of sacred materials. The beginning and end of the line must meet, and the line can be no more than 600 feet long. Once the ceremony is successful completed no animals may willing enter the area enclosed by the line, and all animals within the area will seek to leave the area as fast as possible. The effects of this ceremony travel 100 feet above and below the line.

Sample Components: At least one gallon of animal blood mixed with primrose blossoms, mugwort, grave dirt, and ash made from burring juniper bark.

Reductions: Using a gallon of centaur blood reduces the cost of this ceremony by 20 PP. Adding soot from a forge or smelter reduces the cost by 10 PP. Dirt from the grave of a hunter reduces cost by 5 PP. Adding the powdered bones of a woman killed by a wild beast reduces cost by 20 PP. Adding snake tongues soaked in brine for 48 hours reduces the cost by 10 PP.  Gathering the Mugwort at dawn reduces the cost by 3PP.