I really enjoy the Call of Cthulhu. Actually, I’ll say that I love the genre, even if the mechanics aren’t perfect for it.

I was discussing running Call of Cthulhu the other day – specifically about the pacing of the game, and had a flashback to one of my favourite Call of Cthulhu games ever.

Pacing in most games can really be up to you – you can make it breakneck and intense, or slowly build up the tension through clue-hunting. This is especially true with simpler RPG systems (like Call of Cthulhu). Really, it depends on how you play out the scenes.

We had a game that had the clue-hunting scenes feel like a super-intense sequence from a TV show – not because of the Keeper, but because one of the players took “command” and had the team break into sub-teams and comb the town for intel. “Jerry, to the town hall, look for records” “Donna and Bates, head to the library and see what you can dig up” “Sammie and I will put some pressure on that Lawyer guy and see what he knows” “Fred, go get a drink and see what the locals know“. With the military-like precision that was so very different from how we usually play, the keeper stepped up and handed out the intel precisely and quickly with a few die rolls for each character, so it felt like a scene in a TV show where they split the screen into four mini-screens and everyone does their thing.

More typically, however, the clue-hunting is drawn out a bit, and gives you a chance to drop subtle clues and hints and weirdness into the mix also to enhance the creepiness. It all depends on how you want the game to run.

The fast-paced game? Yeah, it actually felt scarier to the players because we were in the deep end within an hour, and it felt like we were grossly unprepared, which made us all extra jumpy and freaked out. After the game though, the Keeper pointed out that we had all the same prep as our typical game speed, the same clues, and took the same precautions as his slower group did in the same adventure. The faster pace just made us feel off-balance.

Which was awesome as hell.

So don’t be afraid to try changing gears occasionally to shake up the game, sometimes it ends up being awesome. Otherwise you still learn something about how you game, and how you like to game.

The original goal for this blog was to create a character for every RPG I own. Somewhere along the way it became a general RPG blog, and then based on popular response, the whole thing became focused on my map-making.

Then I got an email to go check out what Jensan has been doing. He used to be the host of another RPG blog called Rustfoot which he no longer updates. But he’s been making characters for all kinds of free RPGs.

Better than that, he’s doing it in an uber-cool way, drawing up the character sheets himself with commentary right on the sheet as he goes (or using the character sheet that came with the game).

So, without further ado, Jensan will be posting these awesome free RPG characters here for your enjoyment.

The first of such is for the Dead… and Back RPG by Chainsaw Aardvark.

"Dead...and Back" by Chainsaw Aardvark

Because it’s a meme, and I usually avoid memes…These seven games have been the ones I’ve run the most – and I’m happy to report that none of them actually are in the list of games I’ve played the most.

In no particular order, for those who don’t recognize the covers off-hand, they are:

1981 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set - I’ve been running this game on and off since 1981. It remains my go-to game and I don’t think it will ever be replaced in my heart.

Cyberpunk 2020 - One of the “Cool 2″ games that I ran a lot in the 90′s. The style of this game was unlike any I had run before, and it encouraged play significantly outside the standards of my prior games with lots of style, flair and moral ambiguity.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 - One of two games on this list that I still run. This is the most popular D&D edition in my area, and since I have total rules mastery (no books needed to adjudicate grappling, bull rushing, etc) it is one I can run for just about anyone, anywhere. Especially for those heathens who prefer later editions over the masterpiece of 1981.

Top Secret - One of my big high school games, it played mostly as Commando the RPG more than James Bond, but it was awesome, it was fun, and it involved LOTS of guns.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness - Another high school game of mine. Lots of mutant animals in a semi post-apocalyptic America. Guns, mutants, ninja craziness, and flipped out octopi.

Vampire the Masquerade – Even more than Cyberpunk, this was a turning point game in the 90′s. It changed the gaming groups, it changed gaming. I freakin’ love it in all it’s incarnations and ran multiple simultaneous chronicles for years.

Villains & Vigilantes - The last of my high school games, I actually ran this in 40 minute sessions during lunch at school 3 days a week for 2 years. Quick little violent super hero scenes of awesomeness.

The clan maps it’s ancestry to the great warrior-priest Runulf who slew not one but four dragons in bringing this part of the land under the control of the clan. Although Runulf is no longer, the clan reveres his memory and the trophies of his great conquests. The blood of Runulf still flows strongly within the warrior priests of the clan, and only fools and foreigners mistake the toasts in his name at every mead hall in clan territories as being the antics of drunks.

But high in the mountains, something has changed. Runulf’s cairn has long been the secret centre of the druidic government of the clan, a shadow government heretical to the actual teachings and mores of Runulf. The druids have sculpted the seat of their power beneath Runulf’s cairn, hiding themselves in the one place the clan would never dare look.

But the druids never returned from the last congress, and now the clan is in disarray. The remaining druids, not of high enough rank to take part in the congress, whisper of some foulness that stalks the cairn and that has slain their fellows…

Or perhaps one of the elder druids is the source of this foul sorcery, and has slain the others in a power play?

The remaining druids need brave souls not of the clan to covertly enter the cairn and ascertain the truth.

Beneath Runulf’s Cairn

Now that Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is out (and is selling like… well… what’s the opposite of hotcakes? cold porridge*? yeah, that), I’m setting down to work on a few projects I’ve got on back-burners, side-burners and even file 13. In time, all of these projects will appear on the blog. Some (well most really) are intended to go to publication in some form or another, but all will be available (in piece-meal formats in some cases) through the blog for free.

Swords & Skulduggery

The companion volume to Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is a book of optional material for primarily non-spellcasting classes. In it so far is a complete rebuild and expansion on magic weapon generation and my reworking of the Wounds and Pain rules. Of course, the simplified 2d6 thief will be in there too. My goal is to have a bunch of non-spellcasting classes in here, possibly including a bunch of fighter and thief focused special crafts in the style of the Principalities of Glantri  ”Prestige Classes” that I wrote up a couple of years ago.

I would say this project is about 5% done.

The Valley of the Red Apes

I wrote up the first adventure in the Valley of the Red Apes a while back – the Ziggurat of Rhissel the Morning Lord. But the adventures in the valley don’t end there. I’ve drawn up a map of the valley proper (to be posted in a month or two) and am half-way done working on a second adventure using another map I posted previously (Jen’s Hall). When this is done, it should be a small regional map with wandering monster tables and encounters, as well as a set of 4 site-based adventures to take place in the valley.

This project is about 40% done.

Challenge of the Frog Idol

Yeah, I released Challenge of the Frog Idol for that B/X Blackrazor challenge (which it won) some time ago. I then received some crazy accolades for the whole thing from a variety of awesome folk in the OSR. But at heart it is still something I threw together in two days, and I’m not happy with it. I’m not planning on re-writing any of the material already in the adventure, but I want to expand it, include more material for the dwarven citadel of Kuln, actually write up the other locations I have marked in the Black Mire, and maybe tie the whole thing together a bit more tightly. Some minor re-workings of the existing material are pretty much unavoidable (some details on dealing with the party trudging through deep swamps and so on), but overall it would just be me smoothing out the corners of this adventure and adding some new material.

So far this is just stuff floating around in my noggin’, no new work has been done, so this project is 0% done (although physically it’s at least 50% done).

Dyson’s Delves II

The big kahuna. Dyson’s Delves was a pretty solid seller and seems to scratch the itch that the majority of my blog readership have. I have more than enough maps in my portfolio to put together chapter 2 of this book in a day or so of scanning and layout. Chapter 1 of Dyson’s Delves was almost 60 pages of material covering 5 adventures.

So far I’ve got Cavanaugh’s Hall, The Burial Mound of Esur the Red, Atarin’s Delve, Ochre Rock, the Treasure Map to the Red Cave, and the Ruins of Corvel on the Mount. I’ve also got Goblin Gully and By Esophagus Brood which are complete, but unstatted, so I have to go into both of those and add full game stats.

But that’s not nearly the 60 pages of material to bring it up to the standard set by Delves I, so I’ll throw in the full Valley of the Red Apes material that I have up there near the top of this list of pending projects and I hope to be good to go.

So all-in-all this project is about 40% done, and can be brought up to 75% with just a couple days of dedicated scanning and layout.

Necropolis: Ottawa

This is not for publication (except on the blog obviously – I intend to post everything RPG-related that I write or draw on here in some manner). This is my ultimate “swine” project (fuck I hate that term, but at the same time, I want to reclaim it, to point out that serious deep introspective roleplaying games can ALSO be fun, and that just because I’m an old-school D&D fanatic doesn’t mean I can’t also love my immersive storytelling games.)

I finally have a small group that want to play my darkest desire in RPGs. I have assembled a small Wraith: the Oblivion troupe. And it is now time to build up an environment to play in. A dark and twisted version of Ottawa & Gatineau, along with the wraiths and spectres that inhabit it.

This is going to suck up a bunch of my time for the next two to three weeks. And it’s only about 2% complete (and I want it done soon, so I can actually run this awesome game finally!)

Bar Fight!

This is a simple card-based sub-system for OSR fantasy games to make bar-room brawls fun, hectic, fast-paced and above all else, non-deadly. Basically each turn each character can grab something to throw or hit someone else with. They draw a card and the card tells them the carnage and bonuses or penalties that using said item provides – either towards accomplishing their goal or towards creating greater chaos and carnage if that is their goal. Cards like “bowl of stew”, “flagon of ale”, “mug”, “chair”, “annoyed halfling”, “local priest” and “flaming mess”. You get the idea.

So far this is just a list of card names and a general idea. So 10% done.

OSM-1

Yeah… about this one. I started in on a Labyrinth Lord based modern mercenary RPG called Old School Mercenaries almost exactly two years ago and never went back to it. It’s not 100% dead, and I don’t want to declare it officially dead, but I don’t think I’ll be investing much time into this any time soon (no matter how much it appeals to me). Part of me thinks I might go back and tweak it to Swords & Wizardry based rules because they handle saving throws a bit better for this kind of game and it might be the push I need to finish off the whole thing, but I honestly don’t know. As it stands, this is remaining on the back burner.

I’ve got the page layout done and about 25% of the text done.

Espionage ’88

While I’m not willing to pull the plug on OSM, I’m a lot more likely to say that Espionage ’88 has been consigned to File 13. So far it’s just a few house rules for classic Top Secret with the advantages / disadvantages from TS/SI thrown in. I don’t think it will ever go any further than this

File 13.

So there we go, a rough overview of my projects as they stand. Of course, I’ll still be posting maps once or twice a week for the foreseeable future (I still have at least 40 maps in my various mapping books that I haven’t posted yet), and the occasional other post of material outside the purview of these projects… But I find that if I actually list all my projects off, it is a lot easier to put my energy into them effectively.

*Something that is almost, but not quite, the exact opposite of hotcakes.

Because sanity is totally over-rated.

Requirements: Cha 9+, Con 13+, Int 10-
Prime Requisite: Con
Hit Dice: 1d8
Max Level: 10

Disgusting, loathsome and hungry. Gibbering mouthers are protoplasmic blobs seemingly made up entirely of mouths and eyes. While most are only semi-intelligent at best, a few are well beyond their kin, with a strange alien intelligence and hideous cunning.

Being essentially formless masses of variable size and weight (a level 1 drooler is typically the rough size and weight of a 50 pound dog – this doubles at every level thereafter with Shoggoth Lords weighing in at 12 tons of screaming eyeballs), gibbering mouthers cannot wear armour and can only carry one quarter of their normal carrying capacity.

Gibbering mouthers move by latching on to the ground with mouth-covered pseudopods and pulling themselves. On most terrain this has a movement rate of 30’ (10’), but on muddy or slippery terrain this increases to 60’ (20’).

Being made of eyes and mouths, gibbering mouthers have a tendency to notice things sneaking up on them, reducing surprise chances by half.

While gibbering mouthers can wield just about any kind of melee weapon, they usually attack by extending pseudopods covered in mouths to bite their foes. They can attack with a number of mouths equal to their level +1. Each mouth deals only one damage, but fastens to the target and deals an additional damage each round thereafter. A target with 3 or more mouths attached must make a saving throw against wands with a +4 bonus (plus any Dexterity modifiers) every round to resist falling under the gibbering mouther. A target that fails this save can be overrun by the gibbering mouther the next round and is automatically struck by twice the number of mouths the gibbering mouther can attack with. The mouther then can use his full complement of “attacking” mouths on other targets. The damage per mouth increases to 1d2 at level 7, and further to 1d3 at level 9 and 1d4 at level 10.

Drooling: Beginning at level 1, a gibbering mouther produces prodigious quantities of drool. This lubricates the ground under them, but also can be used to produce a blinding flash of light. Once per day per two levels (round up), the gibbering mouther can spit a special drool that explodes into a flash of bright light. In a dark environment like a dungeon, this is enough to blind those looking at the flash for one round if they fail a save versus petrification.

Ground Control: Level 2 spotters can change the consistency of the ground around them as long as it is made of dirt or stone. This takes one round to do, but changes the consistency of the ground within 5 feet of the mouther to that of a weird dough-like texture, a mealy quicksand, or back to normal stone.

Screaming: Level 3 mouthers are known as screamers or wailers because they can scream at incredible volumes for far too long – typically when they see something they want to eat. This screaming will attract wandering monsters, but it also renders opponents (and friends) nearly deaf. Everyone within 10 ft per level of the mouther is considered deaf for the duration of the screaming, and must make a save versus spells or be rendered deaf for 1d4 rounds thereafter – deaf spellcasters have a 20% of failure when casting spells because they can’t hear the somatic components of their spells.

Gibbering: Level 5 mouthers learn to turn down the volume of their screams, but instead produce an incoherent gibbering that causes all intelligent creatures within a 10 ft radius per level of the mouther to make a saving throw versus spells or be confused for the duration of the gibbering. Roll 1d8 each round to determine each confused creature’s actions:
1 – wander for the round
2-3 – stand stunned for the round
4-5 – attack the nearest living creature
6-7 – act normally
8 – run in fear from the gibbering mouther

Maddening: At level 8, the alien hunger’s gibbering continues to effect those who failed their saves against it for 1d6+2 rounds after the gibbering ends.

This adventure takes the map I drew ages ago and scanned as “The Reeking Hole” in March of 2012 and turns it into a nasty little adventure. This adventure also uses the Gibbering Mouther character class that I posted a while back.

This adventure also marks the first time I’ve statted a Labyrinth Lord adventure with ascending AC notation (since some old school RPGs use such instead of the traditional descending AC system). This is indicated in [square brackets] after the AC notation of the creature in question. Obviously, ignore this if you like your AC old school.

This mini-dungeon was originally written to be dropped into an overland adventure or sandbox. It is best for a party of characters in the range of levels 5-7. You will want to increase or decrease the servants of the devourer based on how well the party can handle the challenge. Never be afraid to throw another half-dozen servants of the devourer even in the middle of the final encounter as they rupture their way in from the walls, ceiling and floor.

Story Hooks

The whole “random hole in the sandbox” thing not working for you? I understand. There are times when it feels way cooler to have a reason to explore the Reeking Hole than just curiosity. Some parties skip 99% of the cool encounters you have set up for them in a sandbox environment anyways.

So here are a few ways to get the party interested in the hole:

• Myths & stories about a local “fountain of youth” or other magical pool found in the area.
• Searching for an adventurer that was looking for said magical waters and has since gone missing.
• Seeking the dark blessings of a forgotten god whose shrine is in this hole.

And for lower-level parties, give them a treasure map to something hidden in the hot spring itself that they need… and then they need to get in, get the object, and leave before the devourer gets hold of them.

The Reeking Hole

The reeking hole is one of several caves in the forested hills along the valley edge. Most are shallow caves and small limestone gullies, but the hole is obviously the source of the stench. Anyone with a modicum of experience with battlefields or butchers will recognize the mix of excrement and rotting flesh blasting forth from the hole.

The reason the smell seems to be venting from the hole so aggressively is the hot spring in area 4 producing a constant current of hot air and accelerating the decay of the corpses in that area.

the Reeking Hole keyed map

1. The Reeking Hole – One of a half-dozen small caves in the hillsides, this particular cave has a hot humid stench emanating from it.

2. Marked Fork – a red handprint has been painted on the natural stone pillar here, with an arrow drawn beneath it pointing towards area 8. The painted marking is quite old, at least a century (and was drawn to mark the way to the shrine in area 10)

3. Thieves in the Dark – A pair of red ape ghasts (AC: 4 [15], HD: 5+1, hp: 24, 30, Atk: 2 claws (1d3+1), 1 bite (1d6+1), Mv: 150 (50), Sv: F5, M:9, Special: those within 10’ must save versus poison or the stench causes a -2 penalty on attack rolls; hits require a save vs paralysis to avoid being paralyzed for 3d6 turns) lurk here with two corpses they stole from area 4.

4. Place of Dead Souls – The cave floor is 15 feet below the two entrances and is covered with the rotting corpses of red apes, baboons, and other wildlife. All the corpses are covered in human-sized bites, and their skulls have been violated, typically via the eye sockets or nose, and the brains removed. Millions of beetles and flies crawl over the field of bodies. At the back of the cave is a bubbling sulfurus hot spring keeping the temperature hot and pushing the stink out into the world. The skeletal remains of several corpses lie in the spring, a few covered in yellow crystals. One of the oldest skeletons, submerged 20 feet below the bubbling scum of fat and decomposing fluids atop the spring water, is that of an elven adventurer, still wearing a silver helm that grants the wearer the ability to cast light 3/day and feather fall 1/day. The incredibly hot water deals 1d8 damage per round spent within it. Each turn spent within this cave there is a 50% chance of an encounter. Roll 1d3 -
(1) d2 scavenging red ape ghasts from the left tunnel (use stats from area 3)
(2) d4+1 scavenging ghouls from the left tunnel (AC: 6 [13], HD: 2, Mv: 90 (30), Att: 2 claws (1d3), 1 bite (1d3), Sv: F2, M:9)
(3) d6+1 servant troglodytes from the right tunnel (use stats from area 9)

5. Chamber of 3 Fears – the stone doors leading to this chamber are both sealed with old crumbly clay and wax. The three walls that don’t have a door are decorated with mosaics of foul mutants of chaos. The left wall depicts a mutant warrior in heavy armour burning a city. The far wall is of a mutant sorcerer standing on a pile of dead humans and elves. The right wall depicts a priest of chaos summoning forth a miasma of darkness (the arrow slit / window to area 4 is in the middle of this miasma). Attempting to touch any of these mosaics requires a save vs spells for each mosaic, if one is failed, no further mosaics can be touched. Upon touching a mosaic, a second save vs spells is required, failure or success determines whether the effect is beneficial or harmful. The warrior grants +/- 3 to melee damage rolls. The sorcerer grants +/- 3 to all saving throws. The priest grants +/- 1 on all reaction rolls. The effects remain for 3d30 days.

6. Body Drop – Too lazy to dump all the bodies into area 4, many are piled up here by the servants of the devourer.

7. Infested Hole – A morass of sticky slime molds and insects infest this room. Any attempts to dig through this mess requires a save vs poison to avoid a horrible and terminal disease that deals 2d12 damage per day.

8. Eyes in the Wall – Three starving watchers (level 4 Gibbering Mouthers – AC:2 [17], HD: 4, hp: 15, 19, 24, Att: 5 bites (1), Mv: 30 (10), Sv: GM4, M:8, Special: Drooling, Ground Control, Screaming) hide in the walls of this room that have been converted into a rubbery morass by their ground control powers. They are hungry because the alien hunger will not allow them to eat the corpses it has stolen the brains from.

9. Troglodytes – Six humanoid servants of the devourer wait on it’s call in this cavern. Each has had it’s brain removed and replaced with an infant gibbering mouther (1 hp). They are treated as tough troglodytes (AC: 5 [14], HD: 3, hp: 21, 14, 10, 15, 18, 14, Att: 2 claws (1d4+1), 1 bite (1d4+1), Mv: 120 (40), Sv: F3, M:10, Special: Stench) in all ways. Two of the troglodytes wear heavy golden necklaces set with large pieces of jade worth 1,500 gp each.

10. Shrine of the Forgotten – A statue and altar to a forgotten extradimensional evil are both set at weird angles into the floor of this cave.

11. Hole of Eyes – An alien hunger (level 8 Gibbering Mouther – AC:0 [19], HD: 8, hp: 49, Att: 9 bites (1d2), Mv: 30 (10), Sv: GM8, M: 10, Special: Drooling, Ground Control, Screaming, Gibbering, Maddening) fills much of this room in a mass of eyes and mouths. It is consuming the brains from all who are brought to it, seeking a way to escape this world. It will be especially happy to see sentient creatures in it’s domain… Ensconced in the walls of this room are strange lumps containing 4 troglodytes (see area 9) and 2 watchers (see area 8) waiting to erupt at the call of their alien master.

For myself, this is the iconic image of Cthulhu.

It originally appeared in the October 1979 issue of Heavy Metal magazine. It was my first exposure to the works of H.P. Lovecraft and I drew the head and tentacles on more than one occasion, including massively blown up on the cover of my grade 9 portfolio for my art class.

I’ll admit, at that point the wings did nothing for me.

Most of my campaigns focus on the battle between Law and Chaos, not Good and Evil. Even if it isn’t the focus of the campaign, it will turn up. Like in my latest campaign, the party has traveled far enough to the North that the veneer of Law is breaking down, and the planetary crust is less than a mile deep before it breaks off into chaos – and someone was trying to break down one of the anchors that keeps it that way.

This probably has to do with two things that are closely linked in my fantasy history.

1. I love the Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock. It was my introduction to “adult” sword & sorcery fantasy at the age of 9 (prior to that, my first fantasy novels were the Chronicles of Prydain) and because of it, I have never been able to truly enjoy Tolkien’s works or the many Tolkien-derivative works out there.

2. The first D&D set I owned was the Moldvay Basic set. No Good and Evil alignments to be seen, which reinforced the concepts I had picked up from my Moorcock readings.

Thus I look at my Elric! and Stormbringer RPG books with great fondness – even though I’m not a fan of the BRP system overall and prefer my fantasy RPGs to be D&D-based. But what is lacking in these D&D-based games is the awesome demon summoning from Stormbringer. I tried in vain to make the system from the d20 version of the game (Dragon Lords of Melniboné) work, but it wasn’t all that well ported to the d20 system (actually, very little of that book was, sadly).

But then I picked up Lamentations of the Flame Princess. You can too – the Rules & Magic book is a free download on RPGnow, and for a week or so the fully illustrated version is only $2.50.

While much of Lamentations is a lightly house-ruled B/X D&D (with awesome art and production), hidden away in the spells is the wonderful level 1 Magic User spell “Summon”.

Originally, I was going to reproduce the whole spell here, with the OGL declaration and everything. But really, just go download the PDF from RPGnow. The spell in question is on page 134 of the no-art version. It actually goes from 134 to 143. At heart, it is a chaos-demon summoning spell ripped right out of the old school love for all things random, chaotic and magical. It’s as close to a Stormbringer summoning as I’ve seen yet, and it makes me ecstatic.

In fact, it was the inspiration for what burned down the house in Imp Brucke. A summons gone tragically wrong, but where the summoned beast didn’t get to stick around for long.

For use in a regular campaign, I would recommend sitting down for an hour before hand and rolling up a selection of random summons at each Hit Die level you expect the player(s) to use, just to speed up play a bit (well, a lot).

Now that you’ve read the spell, give me one good reason why you aren’t incorporating it into your OSR D&D-alike game. Right now I’ll tell you that your reason is bunk. This spell has legs. Let it run free!

I’ve got this awesome book of creepy AD&D1e compatible monsters on my bookshelf. It’s called the Teratic Tome by Rafael Chandler. I bought it based entirely on the cover on Lulu, before I met Rafael virtually through Google+

The book is brilliant. It is chock full of monsters that are made of nightmares and obsession and penises.

He’s making a second one. Lusus Naturae. This time it’s in full colour and is looking FUCKING EPIC.

Lusus Naturae Sample

You have 15 hours to run over to kickstarter to get involved. YOU NEED A COPY of this book. Get on it.

I’ve been seeing a lot of “Dice Shaming” posts lately on Reddit and a few blogs.

The thing is, dice don’t feel shame. Those little plastic fuckers are totally emotionless – cold as an artificial intelligence’s battle tactics. So don’t shame dice that betray you… It is time to “take care” of them in the only way that will ensure they never roll badly for you again.

Shamed d20

That d20 will never roll a 20 for everyone except me ever again. Fucker’s been dealt with. And this d6? It was a special edition d6 from Origins 2006 with the O6 logo on the six face and D’oh! on the one face. Yeah, EVERY TIME I rolled it that D’oh! came up. Sure, the D’oh! is still there on top, but bastard is never getting rolled again (plus it would make a cool mini if I played with such things).

Shamed d6

And if you do believe that dice have feelings, don’t shame them, just do this to the traitor while the others watch.

Earlier today I posted the Seven Secret Maps that I mailed off at the beginning of the month to an unsuspecting Badger. Now I can tell you that I did this as part of a much larger plan of terror. Originally I was going to hold this post off until tomorrow, but the Badger has figured it out. And I was scooped by another blog too!

The Seven Secret Maps can be assembled into four basic “sets” of maps that I used when I was drawing them, as such:

Already with them in their “proper” places, I feel there’s a good chance some of you have already figured out the secret. But for those that haven’t, here’s what happens when you overlay them:

Secret Map Stack

At this point it is pretty academic, but let’s also throw in the colours that were described for the floors on the original maps I posted yesterday:

Secret Maps – Stacked & Coloured

And then take away the hatching and the walls….

Secret Maps – Coloured Floors Only

And the Secret Dungeon of Ponies is revealed!

You see, there are “some people” in the RPG community who are engaged in what has become known as “the #PonyWar” and I was recruited into it by Eric & Stephanie Franklin and worked up this elaborate map set for Jason Paul “the Badger” McCartan of Infinibadger Games & OSRToday.

It was a riot to put together.

Michael Curtis wrote a somewhat silly Mutant Future module for NTRPGCon and I had to get a copy. Much to my surprise I’ve been immortalized in this particular module:

The Mischievous Mystery of Marshmarsh

Since Michael was evidently poking fun at me, I present the alternate cover to the Great Stonehell Lazer Massacre

The Great Stonehell Googly Massacre

For the record, the monsters on the cover are actually from the original AD&D1e Monster Manual, and yet they are a monster that I didn’t even know existed until today – the Masher on page 65. I actually had to look at the page twice just to find them. As Michael says in the module, I’ve never seen these guys used in an adventure, EVER. So welcome back, mashers!

“You’re walking in the woods. There’s no one around and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye you spot him…

Shia Labeouf

He gets down on all fours and breaks into a sprint! He’s gaining on you!”

A couple of months ago, over on reddit’s RPG board ( www.reddit.com/r/RPG ), a brilliant man turned the viral Shia LaBeouf video by Rob Cantor ( link ) into a micro-RPG.

Realistically it is just an uber-simple system for a one-shot horror/chase game session, but the use of the memes from the video just makes it… perfect.

About a month ago, a mostly stable 0.7 version of the rules set was released to /r/ACSLB where it waits for you to run it for your loved ones.

Hell, here’s a quick Actual Play that was posted to the original ACSLB thread:

“In the corner, in the shadows, you see Shia Labouf, naked, crouched down and feasting on the innards of a Belgian Shepard. What do you do?”

“What? We doing this now?”

“He makes eye contact and dives into a sprint. What do you do?”

“I don’t know!”

“On all fours, he’s gaining fast. That dog tries to nip at him but he effortlessly breaks its neck and discards it, barely breaking his stride. What do you do?”

“I hide behind you!”

“Shia effortlessly rips my head from my neck, and grabs my shoulders so the bloodspurt sprays him directly in the face.”

“I don’t know if bodies do that.”

“Shia has found a way. He laughs maniacally and drinks directly from my neck stump for a second. Wiping his mouth, he throws my body aside. What do you do?”

‘Scream!”

“He bashes your head against the back of the bench. As you pass out you can feel him lifting you onto his shoulders. You wake up naked, wet, chained to a wall in his Shia Chamber. You hear low moans from cages in the shadow. In front of you is a table with assorted dismembered body parts. Shia stands before you, wearing a wig and an apron, butcher knife in hand, he asks ‘Which body part do you like least?’ And lifts the knife.”

“I DONT LIKE THIS GAME WE ARE DONE RIGHT NOW. STOP IT.”

Ok, enough reading. Head over to /r/ACSLB and get yourself a copy, maybe check out a few of the other actual plays out there…

Here’s the results of my first week of Drawlloween. As I said when I started, I’m doing this to get practiced and comfortable trying to draw illustrations – to spread my wings a bit now that I’m as comfortable as I am with my cartography and even some side views of my structures.

Drawlloween #1 – Ghost

Drawlloween #2 – Devil

Drawlloween #3 – Goblin

Drawlloween #4 – Vampire

Drawlloween #5 – Werewolf

Drawlloween #6 – Pumpkin

Drawlloween #7 – Haunted House

I’m happy with all of these. Some I’m downright excited by and proud of.  All were drawn on plain white paper (pulled out of the printer) using a black 0.7mm gel pen and a black Fine Point Sharpie marker (which died towards the end of the entry I drew today which I’ll be posting next week).

So, I posted a map I drew back a while ago that was the middle finger. It looked like this:

The Dungeon of Fuck You, That’s Why

Well, the joke wouldn’t die and now I’m writing up a full adventure called… well… The Dungeon of Fuck You, That’s Why. So I saved up all the maps for the module and posted them all at once, today. Mostly because I would be embarrassed to post any one of these on its own as a map of the day.

But as a set, I love them.

So, starting with the entrance level:

Shittiest Dungeon Level EVER

Right off the bat we enter the dungeon via bathroom humour. This is not going to be a highbrow adventure when it is done. Also, odds are that no one will figure it out if you describe it as they travel (the cave bends a bit to the left, and continues to be very uneven… then it twists to the right…

Level 2 is… well… Fucking Bullshit

And with most mappers, they probably won’t clue into the text of this level either. For bonus points, check out what I used instead of cross-hatching for this map. It was… a lot of work. I won’t ever use words as background fill again.

Albert’s Prints

By level 3 there’s a better chance that they’ll have figured out that they are in a “joke” dungeon. But by then half the party should be dead or worse. And it’s only a quick run down that last stairwell to the final level of the dungeon…

The Level of Fuck You, That’s Why!

So there we go, all four levels of this uber-adventure. Soon to be showing up here on the blog and for sale in print and PDF.

Well, soonish.

The tomb of Heighnor the Strong had been sealed, both physically and magically for 228 years since both he and his two daughters were slain in the great war. A mighty elf probably from another world entirely, Heighnor and his kin were massive for their kind – Heighnor being recorded at nine and a half feet tall and over 900 pounds.

Two years ago the tomb’s doors were thrown open by an earthquake that cracked the land around it – the same event is recalled in town when looking at Jerome’s house, which now stands with the east side a full three feet higher than the west side. Terrified of what might be exposed within the tomb, the local farmers hired a few intrepid folk to examine the structure beyond the shattered doors.

What they reported back was a tomb complex with the final resting chambers still sealed by powerful magics. All three doors to the final chambers were still sealed and the magical seals were still intact. The earthquake and sundering had just breached the front entrance of the complex.

And the town went back to life as usual.

The Sundered Tomb

Until the hunter arrived.

A superfumanly strong and incredibly thin white elf-thing slipped into town one night and slaughtered three families, stealing their infant children away into the night. Darrek the herder swears he can hear their cries from within the tomb when nearby, but no one has the temerity to explore the tomb itself to find out.

And so now the townfolk seek you out, needing someone to find out if the seals have been broken and the elves (or whatever is left of them) haunt the lands again.

Immediately after drawing the Tomb of Eight, I had the urge to work on variations on the theme. The Sundered Tomb obviously has a lot of similarities to the Tomb of Eight, and I plan on drawing a few more variations on the concept over the next few months as time permits.

This map is made available to you under a free license for personal or commercial use thanks to the awesome supporters of my Patreon Campaign. Over 400 amazingly generous people have come together to fund the site and these maps, making them free for your use.

Because of the incredible generosity of my patrons, I’m able to make this map free for commercial use also. Each month while funding is over the $300 mark, each map that achieves the $300+ funding level will be released under this free commercial license. You can use, reuse, remix and/or modify the maps that are being published under the commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”). For those that want/need a Creative Commons license, it would look something like this:

Cartography by Dyson Logos is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

(I’m running a Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle in the classic early 90’s style – Camarilla city, small population of vampires, preludes, the works. I’ll be tagging all my vampire logs with this graphic at the top and the Kalisz by Night tag for those who want to follow along, and for those who would rather skip it. These are DM notes from the sessions, and thus may gloss over parts of the game or be completely mistaken about others.)

Tonight was the first prelude session for the Kalisz by Night chronicle, in this case the prelude game for Andrei Sokolov, a 12th generation Gangrel. The game is set in the Kalisz conurbation in Poland consisting of Kalisz and Ostrow in 1990. Poland is the first country to depart from the Warsaw Pact and to dismantle the communist apparatus of state.

The total population in the real world for this Conurbation is slightly over 200,000 persons, but in the World of Darkness the population pushes 350,000 as there are less people living in the countryside and more in the cities.

https://goo.gl/maps/rG44EBvYuq92

The area between the two cities along Highway 25 is more built up in fictional Kalisz than it is on the maps given, so the highway doesn’t cut through any actual farmland, rather through a long region of light commercial, industrial and residential areas.

Friday, March 2nd, 1990

Andrei Sokolov is ambushed by a mysterious stranger, embraced, and begins his unlife as a vampire. Stumbling to his girlfriends from the chance encounter, he discovers his lust for blood during their lovemaking, but his freakout over the actual act of drinking it prevents him from drinking more than a point. Wandering around her apartment as she falls asleep around 1 am, he tries to drink a beer and winds up in the bathroom vomiting the beer and blood.

He leaves the house and explores his stomping grounds, enjoying the powerful vampiric senses as he stalks a new source of blood – the guitarist of the Old Shitz, another local rock band. With his honed senses, wits and skill, he keeps out of sight while luring the guitarist into a deadend alley used by the local junkies in order to feed.

Looking to get away from all this weirdness for a few days, instead of going home he heads out to the woods northwest of Ostrow. Parking his Lada in a farmer’s access lane into the woods, he travels in to the deeper woods and revels in his enhanced senses, then discovering his talent for Animalism when he notices the spoor of wolves and deer. He summons the deer to him and is surprised when he can communicate with them, but then feeds on them regardless. As he starts feeding on his second deer he senses SOMETHING coming for him from deeper in the woods. A complete panic overtakes him and he begins running for his Lada, but then finds himself in a truly blind fear, running for his unlife.

Regaining control some 40 minutes later in a ditch, covered in mud from the ditches and sticks and debris from the woods, Andrei heads back to find his Lada (or if his survival skill check was a failure, heading in the opposite direction back to Ostrow). Getting to his car he finds the passenger door has been torn off, and his guitar from the back seat gone. And then there’s his sire, holding his guitar and in no gentle way telling him he’s an idiot for coming out here and that shit outside the cities is bad news and if he doesn’t get somewhere dark soon, the sun is going to get him.

The unnamed and unpleasant sire is somehow irresistible while nearby, so Andrei drive the two of them to a tenement building in Kalisz where his sire sets him up in a boiler room in the basement, tells him to meet him again on Tuesday night at the theatre downtown, and then padlocks the door shut.

Saturday, March 3rd, 1990

Andrei wakes up in a panic, suffering from what can only be described as sleep paralysis. He’s conscious but cannot move, stiff as a dead body. It takes a concerted effort to push vitae through his dead corpse to get it moving again (spending a blood point to start the next night). Through this process he learns the basics of how vampires can spend blood to increase physical stats.

Breaking out of the basement boiler room with a few tools (instead of kicking down the locked door like his sire suggested), he hauls ass in the Lada back to Ostrow where his band is the pre-show act at “Laundromat” (an old speakeasy now turned into an actual bar), opening for ToasterOven and the Rocking Dolls. After their act, he wrangles his roadie to find someone who can fix his car since the only mechanic he knows (Jaskolki) didn’t make it out to the show. Sven brings him to Bieganscy where the Lada has a new door attached and Sven picks up a large stash of weed to sell for Bieganscy on the strip. They then head back to Laundromat, hook up with his girlfriend and “the groupies” and hang out partying most of the night until a couple of hours before sunrise when he remembers that he hasn’t sunproofed his apartment yet.

The last two hours are spent in a desperate attempt to sunproof the place, ending with the kitchen door taped shut, the bed propped against the bedroom window, and Andrei sleeping in the en-suite bathroom with clothes shoved around all the edges of the bathroom door.

Sunday & Monday

Spent dayproofing the apartment properly and then convincing his girlfriend Sara that he is still a “real revolutionary rocker” and this whole gothic lifestyle does not mean he’s now going to listen to and play music like the Cure and Depeche Mode.

Tuesday, March 6th, 1990

After finding out that the only listed event at the theatre that night is an opera running from 8pm to 11pm, Andrei aims to arrive fashionably late (8:30 ish). But he’s surprised at the remains of that day’s protests and strikes as people are heading home from pro-democracy parties and rallies and ends up finally getting there shortly after nine. His sire drags him off to explain that yes, he’s a vampire. Yes, vampires have rules. And if he breaks them, vampires much more powerful than him will kill him for it. He then explains the traditions, including the whole progeny thing and explains that he has the right to progeny, but only had it a year ago, so when introduced to the prince, Andrei had to agree that he was embraced a year ago and not last week.

Wandering in to the theatre at midnight, he is introduced to Sheriff Tarlow Rizewski, a ghoul in the service of the prince and one of many of the Rizewski crime family who are also the prince’s ghouls. He is then introduced to Prince Arleta Kotlinska, and then dumped as his sire (finally introduced as “Franz”) explains that he’s useless and wants nothing to do with him now that the tradition of introduction has been dealt with.

The prince aims him towards Karol, who claims domain over the area that Andrei lives in (the strip in Ostrow). Karol (who missed Andrei’s introduction because he was backstage feeding on a few performers) completely snubs him and brushes him off assuming he’s actually a ghoul and not a vampire because of both his blush of health and deceptive aura merits.

His next introduction is to Elizibieta who gives him the basic run-down of vampirism and the city. Seems the old prince of the city (the Voivode) ran the city solely for himself and his childer from 1432 until last year. Over a period of two nights, the prince, all his progeny, and all of his progeny’s progeny were destroyed without a trace, leaving only one of his grandchilder (Elizibieta) and the gangrel who lives on the outskirts of town (Franz, Andrei’s sire). Into the power vacuum swept the new prince and those who would support her. In exchange for their support, some of these vampires were rewarded with the right of progeny – including Franz. Except he was only given that right during the power change a year ago… and Elizibieta saw him embrace a young woman at that time, definitely not the young man that he introduced tonight.

And Elizibieta disappears into the night and Andrei returns home wondering if his sire has really set him up to die and if Elizibieta is a friend, or his greatest weakness with her knowledge of his false origin.

Well, it’s about time to ring in the new year, right? 2016 may have sucked large for a lot of people, but it did me alright. The Patreon Campaign broke new ground this year and we are releasing not just four new commercial maps each month, but we’re also digging through the back catalog of maps and re-releasing two old maps under the commercial license – and I’m maintaining a release schedule of 2 new maps a week.

But it wasn’t all maps – I got in a fair amount of RPG time this past year and my goal this coming year is to add a few more games to the played list.

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

This got a significant amount of play over the year as we took our “playtest” campaign from level 4 to level 9 in (mostly) bi-weekly play. Once again, however, it has reminded me that my fun zone for D&D is in the level 1 – 7 zone and that while 5e is a lot more fun for me to run than 3.x was (and a LOT less work), it still doesn’t scratch the D&D itch the same way that classic D&D does. Outside of the mechanics of the game, however, it has been a lot of fun – I ran a number of adventures from various editions and variations of the game during this campaign, with the big-ticket items being David McGrogan’s Yoon-Suin sitting nicely between the classic AD&D1e adventures of “Dwellers of the Forbidden City” and “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks”.

Empire of the Petal Throne

The game I’ve played the most of this year is the classic 1975 edition of Empire of the Petal Throne. I’m playing in a great online group that meets almost every week as I learn more and more about the setting through exploration and interaction in what has become almost a globetrotting adventure deeply enmeshed in the politics of the regions and clans.

Dungeon Crawl Classics

One of my groups has been working our way through the various official DCC adventures. We rotate DMing duties and dive from one module to the next – using flimsy excuses to explain the railroading between adventure sites and the constant changing nature of our group (each DM writes in the return of the previous DM’s characters and the removal of their own from the story). The system is a bit ridiculous and a lot swingy and if it were my main fantasy RPG it would probably drive me batty. But as our “blow off steam and see how many dire wolves I can summon this session” game, it has been a lot of fun.

Vampire: the Masquerade

Almost two years ago I finally got rid of ALL my World of Darkness books except for Wraith: the Oblivion and a copy of Montreal by Night. I knew there was no way a new Vampire chronicle would live up to the expectations I would put upon it after decades of incredible and deep games. Then a friend moved back to town and wanted to play again. I suggested he run an online game and he recruited a number of people and started prepping to run such a game. And kept prepping. And kept prepping. To play in the game, I had bought a copy of the 20th Anniversary edition, so I laid down an ultimatum – start in a week, or I’ll run one instead. We’ve played 6 to 8 sessions so far in a very limited-population game environment of Kalisz and Ostrow, Poland, in 1990.

I also played a number of games in one-shot or two-to-four session environments.

Star Wars: Edge of Empire

A team of a spiritual smuggler, a hired gun wookie, and the most annoying reprogrammed imperial combat droid in the galaxy managed to smuggle a general of the Rebellion against the Empire from the core systems to a minor moon of the gas giant Yavin in the outer rim. Not that it will make much difference, I’m sure… that rebellion thing has always just been politics – they’ve never taken any actual military action against the Galactic Empire.

1981 B/X Dungeons & Dragons

A group of adventurers from across the land came together in the town of Levnec to help with a minor gnome problem they were having. After killing Gargoyle Mel and nibbling on a few gnomes, they finished the adventure by feeding the gnomes to the townfolk and returning six months later to find the whole town of Levnec gone and replaced with small piles of boots, shoes, and toys.

Swords & Wizardry White Box

A collection of almost a half-dozen clerics with a single magic-user started digging through the ruins of an old temple, discovering the cursed megadungeon ruins beneath it. We were on a mission from god, but still dealt with 50% casualty rates per session over 3 sessions.

Risus

The Anything RPG. I played a great one-shot of Risus Trek where we explored two strange new worlds – one where we lost the emotional wellbeing of our science officer and we were then off to the next in warp-speed pursuit to get it back before the blue aliens of Acturion sold it off to the nearby Drevemish Empire where it would fuel the pain-drive of their battle dreadnaught.

Lacuna Part 1

A game I try to pull out as often as possible because I’ve played on the player side of the screen a number of times and really just want to turn more people on to it. A team of new agents dropped into Blue City, drove around, got confused by odd crosswords, managed to not play any golf or chess even though they spent a fair amount of time at a golf course and dealing with Agent Chessman, and finally ran down their Hostile Persona while he was waiting for his wife at the finish line of the Blue City Marathon.

Twilight:2000

I’ve been talking about playing this again on-and-off for at least five years, so I was quite excited to get tapped for a single-shot session where the survivors of the 5th Division discovered that Kalisz wasn’t actually overrun by a Soviet Tank Division, but by Baba Yaga.

Marvel SuperHeroes

Two years in a row I’ve played in a single on-line game of Marvel Super Heroes. Last year I played Morph (because his major plot point is that he dies…), this year I picked up the reins of the Amazing Spiderman himself in a low-end investigative game searching for someone who’s been disappearing newspaper reporters… who were investigating missing scientists… who were working on an invisibility serum. And we finished off the night by fighting an invisible Dr Octopus!

A pair of squat towers linked by low walls and a bridge, the Rathmore Manse sits on a stony outcrop in the woods just north of the ruined village of Hromustrom. With the foul green dragon living in the ruined village, the old manse has been quiet for years now – perfect for the workings of the foul sorcerer who made it his home.

Rathmore Manse

The old family manse itself is a cold stone structure, with few signs of inhabitation. The south tower has been completely abandoned, the windows boarded up and turned into a home for a few small animals that were able to break in. The north tower’s ground floor shows signs of having been swept up – leaves and dust have been collected and pushed out to the courtyard at some point. The upper levels however are cold and quiet, with wind blowing through the broken windows of the topmost level which has become home to a small swarm of stirges.

But a secret door on the ground level leads to levels below the manse itself – crypts, tunnels, and undercrypts used by the sorcerer and his magical assistants.

Rathmore Manse (no grid)

This map was originally drawn last summer for RPG Crate where it was paired with a short adventure. It is presented here free for your personal use and enjoyment.

The maps on Dyson’s Dodecahedron are released for free personal use thanks to the support of awesome patrons like you over on Patreon. Every month 400 patrons come together to make these releases possible. You can help too in order to keep the flow of maps coming and to improve their quality – and even get a map of your own!