My LotFP Holidays presents for myself [includes a coupon code]

No one else except myself would buy me Lamentations Of The Flame Princess presents! I got myself The Idea From Space for 4.40€ (including shipping within Finland!)

I also received a newsletter from LotFP with discounted download link for Weird New World pdf from RPGNow. Cost less than 1€ (that's $1 for US people). And naturally I am going to print a booklet of this to add to my physical collection. See my earlier post HERE for DIY booklets of Tales Of The Scarecrow and The Grinding Gear.

At LotFP store if you use coupon code YEAREND (ends 11:59pm Finnish time on December 29) you'll get -50% from the following books (I own all of them, except The Idea From Space I just bought):

• Forgive Us
• The God That Crawls
• The Idea From Space
• Isle Of The Unknown
• The Monolith From Beyond Space And Time
• Qelong
• Scenic Dunnsmouth
• Tower Of The Stargazer

+Lamentations of the Flame Princess writes:

"We need to make room for the new stuff that should be going to press in early 2016, so it's SALE TIME! --

-- This is also your last change to take advantage of 2015 shipping rates because of course the post office is raising them again as of January 1 (I'll be updating the store's rates on the 30th since anything ordered from then will ship in the new year)... even though fuel costs are dropping and Finland's official inflation rate is negative. Fuckers.

So fill out your collection with these discounted items, don't forget to browse through the regular-price items, and get a T-shirt, or two, and we'll all be set for next year and all the fun new stuff that will (finally) bring." 

And don't forget to check out other LotFP pdf's available at RPGNow!

...::Best weird horror stuff::...

 

Pamphlet 1: Fields of Forsaken, my newest publication now live!

The story is simple. Last night I dreamed of writing a rpg supplement called Paphlet: Fields of Forsaken. First thing this morning after I woke up, I started writing it. I had to do it straight in one sit, or I'd forget it.

Here it is, extempore publication, Pamphlet 1: Fields of Forsaken.

You can get a pay-what-you-want pdf at RPGNow, or you can order a basement print copy directly from me. It costs 4€ + postage. Scroll down this post to see postages to your location and order info.

Below you see sample images of the test print I approved.

<

________________________________________________________________

POSTAGES (in €):

• FINLAND (1st / 2nd class): 1.60 | 1.40
• EUROPE: 2.30 | 2.20
• REST OF THE WORLD: 5.50 | 2.60

HOW TO ORDER?

Simple, send me email to doomproducts@gmail.com titled PAMFLET and I know what you are up to! Payments either Paypal or bank transfer.

I got interviewed by Limun Ropellukset

You can find the original Finnish interview here:
http://iimu.kapsi.fi/limunropellukset/archives/4357

Google translate doesn't handle Finnish well, and translated version is missing all the pictures. Translated interview can be found here:
Longlink shortened

[Review] Monstrous Miscellany #01

4Monstrous Miscellany #01 is (currently) James Mishler Games' newest publication. You can get it from RPGNow for under a buck!

In this pdf of 7 pages after cover page, OGL and all that you'll get four new monsters for Labyrinth Lord. Each of the monsters is exactly one page (8,5x11 inch), so they are easy to print to use. There is no illustration of any kind. But the lack of images doesn't matter, as the written descriptions are clear and evocative to give you the picture of these monsters.

The monsters are quite different and very higher fantasy with a little darker or fairy-taleish tone. You'll get a demon, a giant, a pixie, and an angelic creature. The hit dice vary a lot and cover basic to expert level characters' levels 13 being the highest.

With each monster you get basic description, organization, ecology and the usual like treasure and special powers. Descriptions are clear, if not a bit wordy.

Even though the creatures are different and doesn't seem to have a theme, I'd like to use them all in one campaign and make a theme around them. They have something similar, and that's something from what a single author does. James' own style.

$0.99 and four monsters, that's $0.25 a pop. Not bad. But is four monsters enough in a product when there are so many completed monster manuals around? I'd say yes, because even though there are dozens of great monster manuals for all these different games and systems and settings, small products like these easily highlight the monsters written in, instead of those 100+ monsters in one product. Usually I can also focus better on few monsters (which also might have more text in smaller products).

How'd I use this? Print the monsters, put them in a campaign folder, and make them fit. Easy to get new monsters for players, easy to use, easy to choose.

Even though I like weirder and more amazing or unique or grotesque or gonzo monsters, it is still refreshing to see something more fantastic in nature. That's why I liked this a lot. And hey, you can never have too many monster resources around... even if I don't use them all, I enjoy reading them! Well written and evocative and interesting monster descriptions are like short stories.

Interview: Joni Heinonen RPG youtuber and illustrator from Finland

Joni Heinonen is a gamer from Finland who also hosts Finnish Youtube video series called Ropetupa (referred as RP Lodge in the interview) and illustrates comics and various roleplaying games (including Dragon Union).

What is your story? As a gamer and an illustrator?

Let me answer to the illustrator- half first: I drew the Moomin's Animated Series' Groke when I was four, into a cardboard box. So that was my first drawing I ever made. I also like to make comics, or graphic novels.
The story of Roleplaying gaming is a bit more complicated: At the turn of the millenia I was bored, so I read Pelit-magazine, where I noticed an interesting article about someone's first LARP.
Article was written by Nordic, I read all the other articles in brevious magazines. Slowly the world of RPGs opened to me, and I bought Cyberpunk 2020, and never looked back.

Joni Heinonen with his first RPG.

You are one of the few rpg youtubers in Finland. What pushes you to create videos instead of more traditional blog writing?

I first got the idea to do vlog, when I watched Lazy Game Reviews, it had a laid-back attitude which inspired me to do something similar. But I didn't want to make a channel about videogames because those are so common in YouTube.
So, I decided to make a channel dedicated to RPGs, because I knew much about the subject.
Other RPG styled videos that have inspired me have been TtheWriter's D&D Stories and Counter Monkey.

Is it hard to come up with topics for your videos, or do you have a big pile of "to-do's"?

Christmas episodes are really difficult to make, because there are very little Roleplaying games that has holiday-theme. Otherwise I have ideas for the next year at least. Subjects for videos comes to me mainly by looking at my bookshelf.

How hard is it to get feedback for your videos? What is the force that makes you continue? What is it that makes this "your thing"?

Feedback isn't that common, but when someone comments my work, I feel like the king of the world. That makes me want to continue.
I want to think RP Lodge as an channel for newbies, who are on the fence about the hobby, and as an RPG Chronicle for future generations. Maybe that is the my "thing" because it is unique, at least in Finnish language area.

Your channel is currently in Finnish. Have you got anly plans to break internationally?

I am currently planning to review the Age of Tempest as an "international" -episode. Depending on how well that goes, I may start to make English videos in addition to Finnish.
Of course Age of Tempest has to first come out.

I've noticed luring you that you're also some kind of a collector. How much you use the material that you acquire?

I have only collected for a couple of years now. Surprisingly, my collecting really started when I got a girlfriend (my wife nowadays). Other than Vampire: Requiem I have played everything that I have in my bookshelf. If I am not going to run the game, I won't buy it.
Furthemore I like to read every book I have, so I don't buy collector's items or something that I want to sell for a better price.

Do you prefer being Game Master or a player? What is your gaming style, what kinds of games do you like?

Definitely as a Gamemaster. I like to run story-based games, where players still have the power to affect to the story. I like games which have elegant rules and the possibility to do other than just hit an orc with a sword.

What is your favorite system and why? Is it something you've found later or been there from the beginning?

My previous favorite, Cyberpunk 2020 has been replaced by Pathfinder. I like in Pathfinder how much tools it gives to players and gamemasters.
I know Pathfinder at least from my second game I ever purchased: D&D 3rd edition.
D&D is apparently some kind of requirement for a roleplayer.

What tips you've got for beginner youtubers who would like to create gaming/geek videos?

Don't say and think should you do this, at least try, then hesitate.
I have to say also that the quality of audio is way more important than the quality of the video. Don't use the camera's mic if possible.
You shouldn't do what everyone else does, do what is important to you, find your own "thing". If nothing else, do reviews from obscure toys from 90's if you can't think anything.

Roolipelitupa's studio.

If someone wanted collaboration with you, get visibility in your video or get your illustration for his material, how should he proceed with you and what bribes you need?

You can contact me through my e-mail: ropetupa@gmail.com.
I have thought about making cross-overs with other Finnish 'Tubers. But for now, I am going to work alone. Best way to get your product reviewed is to send it in a physical form. PDFs are left at the bottom of the list.
At the moment, I will work for free for Finnish RPG makers, it will change if there is too much people who want to get my work, of course. But my prices aren't high, just some couple of tens.

Thank you for the interview! Your video channel is always a joy to watch. It's refreshingly cheery. What would you like to say for the readers of this article in the end of the interview?

Nerdness, favors the nerd!

Interview: Miska Fredman from Ironspine

Miska Fredman is Finnish rpg writer and publisher from Ironspine. Under his belt are games like science fiction rpg Heimot and family rpg of science and fantasy Astraterra. In works are English translation of Astraterra, post-apocalyptic Mythos game Chthonian Highways and re-imagined version of Heimot called Hyperstorm.

He has recently started Patreon focused on scifi maps.

I wanted to ask him few quick questions, and here they are, answered!



How did you start writing games? Who are your greatest influences?

I think I was 13 or so when I got my hands on Megatraveller. I bought it from my friend and it was all in English, but the little I understood at that time got me so excited about the game that I decided to read it with English-Finnish dictionary on one hand and Megatraveller on the other hand. I think it was during that process when I thought for the first time that one day, I want to write a roleplaying game. Back then I thought I would have to move to US to do that, but fortunately things have changed quite much since then :)

Its really hard for me to name certain designers as my influences, but I can name a few games. Megatraveller was my first scifi RPG I played and it influenced me a lot. Later I happened to try Mage from White Wolf and that really hit the sweet spot for me. I still think the skill and ability ratings as dots and dots as dice is one of the biggest innovations for the RPG "interface" design. Since then I have played a lot of different games, but there has not been any great revelations after the Storyteller system. But dont get me wrong, I think there are some really game changing new systems out there, but I'm kind of a visual person myself, and that's probably why I find the Storyteller system so pleasing for my taste.



You are extremely talented, creative and productive mapper and I don't understand how I just recently found out about that skill of yours. How long have you been mapping, and have your maps been published anywhere before your Patreon?

Thanks. My Finnish genes have difficulty to accept such compliments :) But to be honest, the inspiration I had for drawing maps was a bit of a surprise for me too. I have always liked drawing maps, but over the course of last ten or so years, my map drawing retarded to drawing a few quick scribbles on a paper while playing or just before that. I remember seeing some of +Dyson Logos' maps a year or two back and I really liked some of his more complex maps.

When making a map, I might start with a simple idea of the place or theme, but as I start drawing a story starts to take shape in my mind. I try to think of possible interesting scenarios that might take place on the map. I consider a map successful if they inspire others to come up with adventure ideas, and you can play the map from different starting points and with different objectives.

I have made some maps for a few of my games. For example Astraterra has a few maps published, including the world map, for Heimot I designed a fringe world port colony, called Port Dallas (it was controlled by the Bluewing family ;) ). Also, I did 30-something maps for the firstever #mapvember. These maps are available in my blog "Adventures Beyond Space-Time" for personal or commercial use under Creative Commons license.

How do you see Finnish rpg industry at the moment?

It's small. It's very small. But like Finns in general, it has a lot of sisu (guts or grit) ;) I mean you really can't do RPGs in Finnish for a living, but there are still new publications made at least yearly for the past few years now. And there are games translated in English or coming in English. I have myself a couple of projects going on, as you already mentioned in the introduction. Astraterra is "just" a translation project, but Hyperstorm is a bit more ambitious project. It's adventurous, but slightly gritty space opera with lost human colonies ruined by a devastating AI civil war, strange creatures lurking in the shadows and mysterious alien ruins of a long lost culture. We are talking about "dungeon crawling in space", even though the game is not an OSR game. It has a bit more modern rules, but a d20 roller will still feel instantly familiar with the system. It uses the same Ironcore rules as Chthonian Highways. It's still under development and we do not have any solid deadlines yet. One thing I'm quite sure about, there will be example maps of my design in the game :D

Who are your inspirations, what games or supplements have influenced you the most?

This is not an easy question to answer. Over the years I have played or gamemastered quite a few different game systems and settings. World of Darkness (the old one) games and Trinity are games I did spend a lot of time playing. But there are many other systems I have also enjoyed or regarded as well designed. Recently I have found Numenera, Fate, Apocalypse World, FFG's Star Wars and Mutant Year Zero quite interesting.

What do you think of OSR, and the DIY part of it?

The whole OSR phenomenon is quite intriguing; red box D&D was the game I started with and it's interesting to see that it still has its charm. I must admit that I have not played the new OSR games, but I got LotFP in my hands some time ago and its on my reading list. And I just yesterday ordered Dungeon Crawl Classic. I have found White Star also interesting - especially because it has Star Knights as a class, and my first RPG hack (scifi redbox D&D with percentile skills) from early 90's was called "Star Knights", and for nostalgia reasons Astraterra had Star Knights as a class too ;D

But I really like the DIY attitude surrounding the OSR community. I can relate to that very well, Star Knights was hand-written on blue covered note books and I used to photocopy self-made equipment supplements for Megatraveller at our local game store. And one of my more recent games, Kärpänen, where you play a party of different kinds of flies on an epic journey through a house, was done with a DIY attitude. I must say that things have changed quite a lot since the 90's, for example. Nowadays it's quite easy to do an RPG or a supplement yourself and distribute it through a POD or pdf store for example.

What would you like to say to my blog readers?

First of all, I would like to say that I admire your enthusiasm for roleplaying games and more specifically for OSR games. The DIY attitude that you radiate is amazing. So, what would I say to your blog readers is Thaumiel Nerub is one of those few people that I have come across in my life, who are hard-working and really honest about their passion. This is the invisible and intangible energy that has driven our hobby to the point where it is now. I know that Thaumiel has a webstore and a Patreon project as well,  the least that you can do besides offering your likes and shares on social media, is to order some of his products or support his Patreon. Otherwise, keep on looting and may the dice ever be in your favor!

Wait, before you go, who is Ragnar?

Oh, that guy. I don't know him personally, but I've heard that he's a swordmaster and a 3rd level fighter. Also, he must be really into roleplaying. According to him the only true purpose in life is to crawl in the dungeons, roll a natural twenty and crit the hell out of the critters. I've heard of rumors that he's making an OSR fantasy roleplaying game of his own called "Legend of the Heartbreaker".

Seriously: Ragnar is a character I came up for one of my Loot Crate unboxing videos, but since then Ragnar has made reoccurring appearances in various empowering RPG geek themed memes  and Finnish RPG cons and geek events. Don't hate him if he doesn't understand all the intricacies of Fate or Dungeon World. His Intelligence and Wisdom are not his strong stats ;)

DIY LotFP Booklets: Tales Of The Scarecrow & The Grinding Gear | WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOOKLET PRINTING

I didn't own Tales Of The Scarecrow or The Grinding Gear in print, but had purchased the pdfs. I wanted to get them where they belong, on my shelf with other LotFP products. So printing time it is!

Tools I Used

• PDF24 (free) software for easily arrange pdf pages.
• Usually I use 100g paper for the pages, but this time I was cheap and used normal 80g copy paper.
• A4 photo paper for Tales cover.
• 160g high quality paper for The Grinding cover.
• Canon MG3550 printer.
• Long-neck stapler I got cheap from eBay.

Basics For Booklet Printing

• Go through the pdf and see how covers are arranged. Should the cover insides be empty, or are the covers designed so both sides are printed?
• Where is the back cover? Second page in pdf file, or the last page of the pdf? Is there back cover at all?
• BONUS STEP: If there is no real back cover and you don't want the back of the file be empty, create one! See the pdf file dimensions, GIMP/Photoshop/Word/Libreoffice a cover. Slip it in the file using PDF24.
• Now that you've figured out the cover layout and order, print the pages. If covers are pages 1 and 32, print pages 2 and 31. If covers are Two first pages, start printing from third page to the end etc.
• I have duplex printer with booklet option, so I only need to hit "PRINT" and it spits the booklet out - only thing I need to do is fold, nothing else! To figure out how to print booklets with your printer without automatic options, Google it. There are plenty of answers around, I bet!
• Next, print covers! My printer gets jammed if I try to duplex print heavier paper, so I need to print covers a bit differently. I choose MULTIPLE PAGES. That way it prints two pages on one sheet, that's front and back cover! In the preview you see the order of the pages. The front cover should be on the right side, in my printer I choose VERTICAL (paper orientation) REVERSED (first page (cover) before the second (back cover)). If there are inner covers feed the paper back in when front covers are printed (your printer instructions should tell you which way the paper goes in to print the back of the sheet). PAGE ORDER SHOULD NOT BE REVERSED ANYMORE.
• Now that you have pages and cover sheet printed, fold them. Don't try to fold the whole pile at once. You'll get best results the less sheets you fold at a time. I usually fold 2-4 pages. There are tools built for folding, but I use something hard and round-ish I can find. Try out what you find the best thing for you to get sharp edges.
• Long-neck stapler is great, it can reach the fold! If you don't own one, use normal stapler. Just staple on something thicker than the staples and soft. I have used styrofoam pad. Just staple, turn it around (be careful removing the staple from the styrofoam so it doesn't get out of the booklet also) and push the staple heads inwards with a butter knife or something similar.
• If you want to, you might use carpet knife or something super sharp to trim the pages even.
• DONE!

The Grinding Gear

Tales was simple. I tweaked The Grinding Gear a bit. I replaced the maps with additional maps, because they were more printer friendly in color. I also added the cheat sheet in the end of the pdf, so it's included in the booklet.

Pictures Of Booklet Prints

Super glossy photo paper cover.

100g paper. When I printed this ages ago I was running low on ink. That's where the weird red tone came.
But I really, really like it! Gives character!

160g premium paper cover.

Normal 80g copy paper. Despite that images look really, really good.

Prepping first session with new S&W group

New group. Some of them have played 10+ years ago, some of them only computer roleplaying games. Tomorrow I'll start to run Swords & Wizardry Core for them. Tonight, was prepping night. What a delightful way to spend Friday evening.

The game will start when players will kill these guys. They are in militia (they'll start telling the reason
why) and they have tracked these orcs down. These are the orcs they need to sell to quit their service.

Some handy tables for a Game Master's screen. Cannot remember where I downloaded these.
I added AC conversion Ascending/Descending. Empty surface will host XP table I think...

This is what players will see. Needs pictures!

Books I'll use the first session. S&W Core rules is obvious, RC has lots of handy material.
Where Is Margesh Blackblood is damn awesome adventure! After they have learned how to fight with orc
encounter, they'll go thru Margesh adventure.

This is my Gamemaster map created from S&W setting map.
Players have printed a map from S&W Core book, where
I added hexes to match mine. They can make their own notes.

First town they will run around doing stuff. Can't remember where I downloaded the map. There is Game Master's
notes I wrote for the map. Players have scarce information of the village what came with the map. So their
characters already know the place somehow.

In the village there is a small temple of Balor, god of death. That's player handout map. From the picture above
you can see there is a secret door. Also there's a simple random table for donations.
Presence is from James Mishler Games' Ghosts sourcebook. In the village there is a burned down (farm) house,
and that presence ghosts spooks there!

You can get Where Is Margesh Blackblood? from RPGNow. It is very good, and worth every pay-what-you-want dollar. I can highly recommend it!

I haven't read Ghosts - The Incorporeal Undead yet, but from there I found exactly what I wanted for a ghastly encounter! I've enjoyed James Mishler Games' products this far, so I bet this is good too. Go check it out yourself!

Last time I ran a game was in Otamocon last summer. The report linked is in Finnish, so you might want to use Google Translate to understand it. I'll write a report of it in this blog too, when I got time.

Wish me luck!

S&W Characters' track sheet for GMs

Preparing for a game tomorrow, I created a characters' track sheet for GMs. It's a simple table, where you can write down most essential information of your players' characters, like HP, Save, Attributes, Class, Level, and so on.

It's not fancy looking but I hope it is functional (for me atleast).

Swords & Wizardry GM's track sheet for player characters. And/or for henchmen for players.

You can open it directly in Google Drive's Sheets HERE, or you can download the pdf.

Mapvember: Treasure map

First I crumbled the paper, then I drew the map using Artline 70.

Google Plus hashtag for all the cool mapvember maps people post:
https://plus.google.com/explore/mapvember

[Review] How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss

Image from Geeknative.

"As you've probably noticed, I'm not abbreviating the title as you would expect. And I won't for the vast majority of our journey together. That's because it's a high office that deserves the utmost respect. In fact, I want you to temporarily wipe "GM" from your vocabulary. From now on, you're going to refer to the generic running and refereeing of roleplaying games as Game Master, Game Mastering, and Game Mastery. Don't minimize your vocation with a two-letter abbreviation.

Why? Because what we do requires a strong belief in ourself."

Before I even start the review, I strongly advice you to buy the printed book version. The pdf is nice, sure, but this would be so much better as a book. Why? Personal notes. +Venger Satanis tells you how to be the best, or how to pursue to be the best Game Master (!!) in the world (or as good as you can be), so you should make this book your own. Read it, read it again. Learn from it. Adapt it. Get new ideas. Grow as a Game Master. I received this pdf for free, because I asked for it - even before the Kickstarter was done! I will buy the book for sure. PDF is nice, too, because you can print handy stuff easily... to that, later.

When I started reading this book (pdf) I was a little sceptical. The title is arrogant, but provocative. I thought, that this is a book where Venger will tell how much he is better than everyone else and how he will tell you what to do to be a better Game Master. Part of that is true.

The book is written damn well. It sucked me in. Venger writes, like this was a journal. He is telling what he does. And why. As this started as personal notes for self he thought to share, the writing style makes sense. But it is well written. It's like Venger is actually telling you his tricks of Game Mastery.

There are  several dozen short chapters of different topics. These chapters are short, easy to read, and easy to digest. The topics revolve around Swords, Science, and Sorcery genre, but the main instructions are easy to adapt into any genre or gaming experience. Every chapter is indexed, so they are easy to find.

What is awesome, that there are examples and inspiration everywhere. As you continue to read, from examples you can literally get awesome campaign and adventure ideas on the go. Venger has this own dark fantasy world (links to his other products in the end, worth to check out) what lives through the text. Literally you could use this book to create a setting, after you filter all the example and idea bits.

But when you've read this once to get a grip of it and the second time to actually make notes, is it used and easily forgotten? Well, it depends how often you come back to a book. And how much you want to use Venger's tactics. I think you could check out some chapters every now and then, especially when your game is going to a direction discussed in this, but there is also more.

The rest of the book is full of random tables (this is where pdf is handy - to print them). Naturally, these random tools reflect Venger's fantasy world. There are things like random monster creator, cults, simple Call Of Cthulhu type sanity check, new take on reaction table, tables for player characters, and more. In the end there is a fantasy language, you can use. And some empty maps, too!

The layout is good, and this pdf was a pleasure to read on my mobile phone's 5,2" screen. I used ezPDF Reader which awesomely fitted text to columns, so scrolling was easy. No flaws on the pdf at all! In not the best, font was pleasant to read. The annoying background logo is on every page what I didn't like in the Liberation Of The Demon Slayer either, but that's a matter of taste. Illustration is great and follows the feel of other Kort'thalis publications. If you like cults, tentacle monsters, slaves, and bosoms, you'll like this!

Thank you Venger for this great book. As a Game Master, I appreciate this. And I will buy the print-on-demand version to highlight best parts of the text. And I will print the tables for use.

Ten points, and a laughing skull.
_______________________

Buy How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss, available in print and pdf: RPGNow.

Also check out other products from Kort'thalis Publishing. They are awesome.

OSR Hit locations for Ascending AC

METHOD:

• Natural d20 die result, when successfully hit with to-hit bonus, also determines the hit location.
• Natural 1 die result is always a fumble (determined by DM or other optional rules).
• Natural 20 is a critical hit with other optional rules.
• Results 2 and 12 let the target hit to choose the hit location.

HP DISTRIBUTION (optional rule):

• Every damage from a successful hit is reduced from character's hp value.
• The damage is also reduced from a hit location.
• Hit locations have individual hp based on character's hp value (normal rounding rules, minimum 1).
• When a hit locations hp is reduced to zero, that body part is incapacitated. Healing takes one week per negative hp.
• A save versus death must be made every time a body part with negative hp suffers damage. A save is made in a penalty of negative hit points of that body part. If the save is unsuccessful, that body part is lost. If head, chest, or abdomen is lost - you die.

HP DISTRIBUTION EXAMPE:
Bermund, 3rd level Fighting Man has 13 hit points. His hit location hp would be:
Head: 3, Arms 7, Chest 9, Abdomen: 7, Legs: 4.

COMBAT DAMAGE EXAMPLE:
Orc swings his axe at Bermund with roll result 17, hitting him at chest. The damage is 4 points, so Bermund's total HP is reduced to 9 and chest's HP to 5. Next blow hits his right arm with die result 19 dealing 5 damage. His total hp is reduced to 4 and right arm's hp to 2. Third hit strikes the right arm again, dealing 3 damage. Total hp is at 1 now, and right arm at -1. Bermund rolls d20-1 to save, and fails. His right arm is chopped off.

COMBAT HEALING EXAMPLE:
Bermund's right arm doesn't heal, as he doesn't have got it any more. It takes one week though, to bring the stump from -1 back to 0. After one week, his stump of a right arm is healed.
His chest is healed in five day's rest and he is back to maximum 13 hp after 12 days of rest.

BONUS: ALTERNATIVE HIT LOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
+Joshua Fox at Google Plus suggested these hit locations saying:

I'm not an expert, but I recon the fighter works hardest to protect their head, followed by their body. Their arms are constantly exposed to danger by attempting to strike their opponents or ward off blows, and the legs are just a bit harder to protect given you're focusing on the head and body.

So I'd say something like

• 20: crit, attacker's choice
• 9, 12, 19: sword arm
• 8, 11, 18: offhand arm
• 2, 7, 17: leg on same side as sword
• 6, 16: other leg
• 5, 15: abdomen
• 4,14: chest
• 13: head
• 1: fumble, and defender's choice 

_______________________________________________

Disclaimer: I haven't playtested this. So I have no idea if it works or not! I suggest you only let player characters use this as counting hit location hp for all orcs and skeletons is a lot of work. Just describe how they suffer!

Classic Traveller character creation. Character sheet scan included!

Back in 2010 Classic Traveller was free at DriveThruRPG, so naturally I snatched it. I've heard it's a good game, so why not. Unfortunately I never read it, or played it. I've read some topics lately about the character creation and decided to give it a try! I will create this character as I read the character creation the first time ever, so there might be mistakes.

I have played Finnish translation of 2300 AD but some of the rules were confusing thanks to bad translation and editing. Still, loved that game!

Basics
All characters start untrained, inexperienced and 18 years old and from that point are generated with random die rolls. Sounds fun! Characteristics are 2d6, quite similar to D&D.
There also is an optional Universal Personality Profile (UPP) what basically shows the stats with numbers and alphabets (if I understand it right). For numbers are used for double digit numbers (10, 11, 12...) so UPP doesn't get confused. It could look like this 777B77. You need to memorize the stat order to read this, but I think it's quite easy.
Then the naming what is up to you, and social title what is determined by social standing.

Also, you'll need two books, book 1 and 2, to create the character. Character generation checklist (very handy) and all necessary charts are found in book 2.

Characteristics
There are six of them: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social standing. Other attributes are age, rank, money, skills and possessions.

I'll start roling my Characteristics, the results are: Strength: 8, Dexterity: 7, Endurance: 10, Intelligence: 4, Education: 7, Social Standing: 4

Or, as in UPP format: 87A474 (side note: stats in UPP format look very scifi)

Skills And Expertise
There are six services, and as I am not very intelligent and my social standing is low, I choose to be in the army. Just a number without a name.
First, I need to try to enlist for the army. I need to roll 5 or higher and could get bonuses from dexterity and endurance. My bonus total is +3 so I only need to roll 2 or better using 2d6. I'm in!

Now I must roll for survival... wait a second, can't find it. Ah, too easy. So, army's survival is 5+ and Education gives bonus for me. I roll 4 +2 so I survive first term of service (four years). If I didn't make this roll, my character would have died in service. Brutal.

Then commission roll. +1 from Endurance, trying to get 5+. Success! Now as I got commissioned, I try promotion. 6+, Education helps, result is 11. Igot promoted and am rank 1 now! That's Lieutenant!

Skills time! First I check my free automatic skills. Rifle-1 (skill_name-skill_level) from navy and SMG-1 from being promoted to Lieutenant in first four years. In the character sheet there are three places to write skills into. Primary Skill, Secondary Skill, and Additional skills. Didn't find an explanation, so I'll put my first automatic skills to primary and secondary and the rest in additional.

I (think I) get two skills from initial service, one from commission and one from promotion. That's four skills. There are four table to roll random skills I've learned during a term, but the fourth table needs 8+ education to access. Luckily, my education is A-10, so I'll roll once every table to get the following four skills:
+1 Endurance (that's not skill, but an improvement. Well, suits me.)
Blade Combat-1
Blade Combat-1 (that's probably Blade Combat-2 now)
Tactics

No aging effects, that's after fourth or later term of service. I do roll reenlist and if successful, return to survival and to next term. My survival rate is good, so I try to reenlist again. Even if I didn't want to reenlist, I still should roll 2d6. With a result of 12, I must reenlist, because they need my services. 5+ with bonuses, I basically can stay in army as long as I want to! Survival successful. Commission check, that's a new skill for me. Promotion successful, second skill for me. I am a captain now and my new skills are Gambling-1 and Gun Combat-1.

One year more, I am 30 years old, promoted to Major, my Dexterity is one better and I know Computers-1, and decide to leave the service. I get to roll five times (ranks, terms) and get +1 to Cash rolls from my Gambling skill.. There are two tables; Benefits and Cash. I can choose which table to roll, but only can roll Cash table for three times maximum. I had to ask Google Plus Classic Traveller community how to read the table, and the solution was really simple.

Two for cash, three for Benefits. From benefits I get +2 to Intelligence and a gun (I choose SMG). For cash I rolled two fives (+1) so I am damn rich! I get 40,000 credits! Wow!

My name is Remy Morre and I am ready to adventure and explore spaces! My character record would look like this in real Classic Traveller form:

Army Captain Remy Morre / 88A674
3 Terms / Cr 40,000
Skills: Rifle-1, SMG-1, Blade_cbt-2, Tactics-1, Gun_Cbt-1, Gambling-1, Computer-1

__________________________________________

This was fun. I think you'll get Classic Traveller characters created really quick when you've done it a couple of times. I like random character creation with different paths and careers like in this one. Character creation with mini-game is so much fun.
Sure, your character might die in the process, but there is an optional rule to cover that so you don't roll dead characters. It's very good, actually.

I liked this a lot! Also the rules system sounds simple enough so I could actually enjoy playing this game.

If you don't want to roll dice, you can download a character generator like this from RabSoft site. Googe gives several options to choose from, but this looked coolest to me. Haven't tried it though...
There is also this web based by +Paul Gorman found HERE.

You can download scanned character sheet from HERE (pdf).

Mapvember: Caves Of Zwibh, The Confused Worm-God

Download here: http://thaumielnerub.deviantart.com/art/Caves-Of-Zwibh-The-Confused-Worm-God-570771426

Inkwell Ideas Dungeonmorph Dice, Spellunker Set

I won a competition by Inkwell Ideas and received a set of Dungeonmorph Spellunker dice set.

This is a review slash product presentation.

First of all, I love both maps and dice. Combine them, and you have a winner!



The dice are big, what makes them feel good in your hand, before you roll them. They roll nicely, and sound great. When you handle them, they are like a stress toy. You just want to fumble them.

In one set, there are five of the dice. Each face of each die is a different map. The trick is, all maps have exits in same spots, so you can combine them how you like and it always works.

You can generate random dungeons by rolling these dice and arrange them together. And what's best, any set of dungeonmorph dice work together. So you can combine different sets to create unique and huge dungeons!

Each die has a number from 1-6 on each side too, so basically they could work as d6s too!

Awesome, right?

But nothing is perfect, ever. Here are things that catch my attention:
If I wanted to know what dice are from which sets, I'd need to keep them separated from each other, unless I memorize the dice sets. Also, I think the individual dice should have an extra mark, or color or something, so you could easily write down the layout of dungeons. like 5A (5 as number of side and A as the die) on top, 3B below it etc.

Minor, minor things, but could be great addition.

I do recommend these for both dice and map lovers. A great product!

Mapvember: Temple Of Pillars

5th day, my second map. My first map yesterday was a temple, I've done an OSR dungeon adventure module called Temple Of Greed, so I decided to continue with the temple theme here.

TEMPLE OF PILLARS

Inside the temple there are 64 pillars. Carved on each pillar is a spell. To copy the spell in Mage's spell book takes ten times longer, than copying from a scroll or another spell book.

The statues are guardians, who protect the pillars. No one can harm a pillar, or spell-enforced golems will attack.

There is a room, where pillarkeeper resides. He keeps the pillars clean and dusts the corners of the halls. He is also 13th level Mage.

From the gape into the guts of the Realm darklings and imps have carved their way into the temple. They have a magical secret door separating them from gaining all the spells for their dark masters. They are waiting for the right moment to raid the temple and steal the pillars.

At any time, there are 3d10 Mages studying and copying spells into their spell books. But it is not cheap, you must pay a fee of 10,000 GP to enter the Temple Of Pillars. As the price is so high, adding spell research costs, many live years inside the temple, camping in corners and hallways.

Original drawing on leftover paper.

Temple Of Idols, map and micro-dungeon information for mapvember

+Miska Fredman (Ironspine) decided, that this month is a mapvember. You draw map a day for other's amusement. Sounds neat? Well it is!

Unfortunately I've been busy, so this is my first map for mapvember.

Wanna see all the cool maps? Check out Google+ hashtag #mapvember

TEMPLE OF IDOLS

Inside these ancient caverns adventurers can find five idols of ancient gods. These idols alone don't do anything special, but when combined in a central room, they summon the ancient gods. The gods are:

• Myurrughah: God of snakes and secrets
• Himethos: God of salmons and hail
• Dut'rutho: God of hair loss and poverty
• Ling Mao: God of arts of war and roses
• Turroskoz: God of dark places and sunny days

Symbols:

• Star: A statue
• Whirl: A teleport to next whirl (and back)
• S: Secret door
• Dot: Pillars

Random Encounter Table (1d6):

1. Giant rats, that flee but attack if cornered
2. Bright red centipedes, size of a finger, extremely and deadly poisonous
3. A golem with amnesia
4. Ghosts of a previous adventurers' party
5. Invisible rabid bats
6. Intelligent fingernails

Random Traps:

Each room, door, corridor, has a 20% chance of a trap set. Use your favorite rules or twisted imagination for random traps.

Treasures:

You know how much you want to give treasures for your players. One statue might be worth 500 to 5,000 GP. But when combined, they are alive, and worth nothing. All other treasures, potions, magic items and scrolls are discretionary.
_____________________________

The original drawing:

5.6" x 4.1"

Swamp huts geomorph

Deep in the swamp is a village of gentle giants. They are great herbalists and frog shepherds. Their huge feet with webbed toes are perfect to navigate in the bog.
________________________________________________
For +Inkwell Ideas competition: http://inkwellideas.com/2015/10/geomorph-map-contest-winner-next-contest-announced/

[Map] Space Wizard's Fort

A map I drew for SL&VL zine issue 2. For +Mikael Tuominen's adventure.

[Review] Return Of The Mad Hermit

What Is It?

This adventure is for Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox and designed for a bunch of low lever characters with total level amount of 12 by +Pete Spahn from Small Niche Games.

The pdf is 26 pages with three pages of OGL and seven pages worth of maps. Two first pages are the title and cover pages.

Layout is one column, nothing special, but easy to read on computer or mobile phone screen. Dimensions are 6x9" what makes it a nice booklet print, too.

Only illustration in this pdf is +James V West's really nice cover picture.

This adventure is part of a WhiteBox One-Shots line of short wilderness side treks, dungeon delves, and other brief encounters. Sounds perfect line of products for those days when you are out of your Gamemaster juice or not all players could arrive to game.

The Adventure

The premise is good, dimension hopping romp with dungeon crawl elements with different monsters and challenges. Setting agnostic too, so you can use this in any campaign you are currently running!

The backround story is nice, but in my opinion adventures need more what is happening now and why are they going to get involved in it than what happened in the past no one can be involved in anymore. Basically the few last sentences in the background are what matter to begin the adventure, and rest is just for Gamemasters to enjoy. I don't call this a flaw, it is just something I am not into that much. Backgrounds are important to get Gamemaster into the mood, but also might contain nice details you can use to flesh out your own campaigns. I am a guy who likes short descriptions and bullet point type ideas to harvest. Sure the adventure history is something player characters might hear, but it's still a bit longish to explain to the players as it is. A shorter version would serve my gaming style way much better. But hey, this is not super long, only two pages.

The adventure is really easy to throw in any part of your campaign involving camping. You don't need to build the beginning, it just happens. Also it is quite easy to get the player characters to the next part(s) of the adventure, unless the players try to ignore anything going on around. If the players continue to ignore the adventure altogether, there are some suggestions how to make it work anyways.

The fun part begins in the wizard's tower (yes, this is one of those adventures where everything happens because of wizard(s)), where multiple items are actually portals to other dimensions. There are several places to end to, all different from each other. These are not tricks or puzzles to solve, just ordinary items to interact with. The party cannot be separated, as all the characters are transported to the dimension based on which item was interacted with.

It might be that after exploring and getting out of one of these pocket dimensions characters don't want to explore the others. I think that's okay, but the adventure has ways to force characters to check out the rest of the dimensions too - they might even be assassinated if they don't! Well, I am okay with this, because it is up to Gamemaster and the group should they explore every bit of it or not, so this is just a hook to keep player characters involved in the adventure. It's everyone's personal decision how much they force players to the right direction, or to complete (any) adventure.

The pocket dimensions are short, only with few encounter areas. But that is good for a short adventure. Each of the dimension is different from sewers to a forest.  My favorite of these pocket dimensions is either lost world type place (because dinosaurs) or the volcanic environment, because lava is just so damn cool - and dangerous! Also the special item in the volcanic cave is lots of fun.

These pocket dimensions are not something with a story, they small palaces you visit and explore. Perfect for one-shot but lots of variety in locations. The pocket dimensions can be really atmospheric if the Gamemaster has any effort to describe the places.

I really like them all!

The ending of the adventure is a little lame. Well, this is not world-saving adventure, but a side quest, so it is understandable. The exploration of this adventure is the reward, not the conclusion in my opinion.

There are new monsters in this adventure. They are not weird or special, quite ordinary, but very, very nice. I think all monsters of this adventure could make a great lost world random encounter table entries on their own!

Implementation

This is a short-ish adventure, but there are quite a few pages so a table of contents could have been cool addition. The adventure is pretty straightforward, but still. There are trap like enviromental tricks, monsters, and treasure. Everything needed!

Things in adventure text that refer to other pages of the pdf are in bold, what makes it easier to navigate and understand the structure and what might happen next.

I like some explanations why something is like it is: because old school. Because dinosaurs.

The maps are many and simple. I do like how there are some illustration on the first map to easily visualize the location. Other maps look computer made, really simple and traditional in layout. The maps are not special nor crappy. They serve their purpose very well and are easy and clear to read.

Conclusion

For little less than two bucks you'll get one night's worth of adventuring. Because the adventure is interesting in content and has lots of neat little places to visit, I do recommend this. Re-play value for the same group is not that high, but I think this can be an adventure you keep in your OSR folder to pick up when the game for some reason is not advancing in the campaign. Great adventure to keep around - just in case!
___________________________________

Buy the pdf at RPGNow, current price $1.99

A glance at the Monster Skeleton Creator

This is the illustration page for my next Patreon material. The second page will contain more information and details.

If you want to get the second page of this before Halloween, support me at Patreon (starting from $0.10 per creation). If you would rather wait, this will be published at Crypt of D-oom next month.
_______________________________________________________

In the comments, share your favorite Halloween RPG material!

[Maps] Tavern and Pub

Here are two generic maps for a project me and +Shane Ward are working on. A tavern, and a pub. There are not labels for these (yet), but I think these two are more or less self-explained.

A TAVERN

A PUB

Lost Caverns and Lord's Stronghold 5x5 geomorphs

I created these two 5x5 geomorph sets for Inkwell Ideas' competition. If you want the empty templates, you'll find them from the previous post HERE.

Lost Caverns

Lord's Stronghold

5x5 Geomorph templates x2

Here are two 5x5 Geomorph templates I created for a contest by Inkwell Ideas. 5x5 is a challenging format, because there is not that much space and I keep thinking, that one square equals 10 feet!

Feel free to use!

You can also download it here:

http://thaumielnerub.deviantart.com/art/5x5-Dungeonmorph-templates-x2-565946860