A Pipeful Of Trouble out now!

All is not well in Brierfield. The idyllic halfling village has fallen prey to unknown bandits and marauders. These peaceful victims of shattered loves and broken dreams need a band of heroes to save them. Are you willing to help them in their time of needs?

A Pipeful Of Trouble is a Classic Edition Adventures module for player characters levels 1-3. It features a nice mix of social interaction, a dab of wilderness travel, caves, and a traditional dungeon complex. There are strong role-playing elements, inlcuding potential ethical quandaries, though these can be toned down or dispensed with altogether should the group prefer a more martial approach.

A Pipeful Trouble includes:

• Interesting NPCs
• Difficult opponents
• Dangerous locales
• Harrowing situations
• A brand new monster
• Maps for Brierfield, Merrywood route to the caves, a cave and dungeon maps

A Pipeful Of Trouble is written for Labyrinth Lord* but can easily be used with any OSR or d20 fantasy system, or with the original fantasy game.

*Labyrinth LordTM is copyright 2007 – 2011, Daniel Proctor. Labyrinth LordTM and Advanced Labyrinth LordTM are trademarks of Daniel Proctor. These trademarks are used under the Labyrinth LordTM Trademark License 1.2, available at www.goblinoidgames.com.

PDF: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/208342/A-Pipeful-Of-Trouble

[Labyrinth Lord] Berserker character class by Kookko Jaskinen

BERSERKER

by: +Kookko Jaskinen, created for his campaign

"In the core of Black Iron Imperium's civil war a band of warriors was born, which battled against the King's army. They were called Berserkers, and they were known as warriors who didn't compete with skill but with tremendous rage. Nowadays they are mercenaries or guerillas opposing the King".

Requirements: None

Prime Requisite: CON

Hit Points: 1d10

Experience table:

Level | HD | Experience points
1 | 1 | 0 exp
2 | 2 | 2,060 exp
3 | 3 | 4,120 exp
4 | 4 | 8,240 exp
5 | 5 | 16,480 exp
6 | 6 | 32,960 exp
7 | 7 | 65,920 exp
8 | 8 | 128,750 exp
9 | 9 | 257,500 exp
10 | 9 +2 HP | 386,250
11 | 9 +4 HP | 590,000
12 | 9 +6 HP | 737,500

Weapons and armor: Only Axes and Leather armor, no shields

Attacking: As Fighter

Magic items: Unable to use any magic items

Saves: As Dwarf

Rage: Damage bonus and resistance (halve incoming damage) until next turn.

Level | Uses per day | Dmg bonus
1 | 1 use | +2
2 | 1 use | +2
3 | 1 use | +2
4 | 2 uses | +4
5 | 2 uses | +4
6 | 2 uses | +4
7 | 3 uses | +6
8 | 3 uses | +6
9 | 3 uses | +6
10 | 4 uses | +8
11 | 4 uses | +8
12 | 4 uses | +8

The Wizard's Spellbook from Barrel Rider Games now available, for which I made print-on-demand cover layout

Barrel Rider Games needed help to make their new release's covers print-on-demand ready, and I decided to take the challenge. I've done few print-on-demands myself and thought, it would be quite easy for me. Well, as easy as it can, because OnebookShelf's POD preparations can be tricky! And they were, two times the file I sent was refused, because of a tiny mistake, where the front and back covers didn't meet. But third time I made it, and now it is available for everyone to buy and enjoy, both in PDF and glorious print-on-demand!

Here is a short video of the process where I check the template borders and bleed areas:

Arcane Incantations at Your Fingertips!

The Wizard's Spellbook compiles all the magic-user spells from Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion into a single digest-sized tome so you won't have to waste valuable game time searching for just the right incantation. Compact, complete, and with a minimalist design, The Wizard's Spellbook is a practical products that will help take the hassle out of playing a magic-user in Labyrinth Lord - or any other B/X fantasy game!

Inside you'll find:

• A complete spell list organized by level, with each level of spells broken down alphabetically for easy reference. Included in the spell list are notes on whether a spell is reversible and check boxes so you can mark whether your character knows a given spell or has it memorized that day. In addition, the spell list notes whether the spell is Basic, making it equally useful for players who are not using the Advanced Edition Companion.
• The complete spell description of every single spell found in the Labyrinth Lord Revised core rulebook and the Advanced Edition Companion.
• Optional rules for introducing Cantrips into your Labyrinth Lord or B/X fantasy campaign!
• Print on Demand product is in an easy to transport, easy to reference 6x9 softcover digest.

Buy it here, available in both PDF and Print-On-Demand!

[LotFP] Witchfinders, Demonhunters and Inquisitors

In the world where weird monsters and horrors are reality lurking behind the veils of everyday life, some brave and determined men and women have dedicated their lives to seek out and destroy these things. They are marked with a sacred brand on their forehead to grand special powers against the infernal and cosmic forces of evil.

Any new character from any class from the beginning of the campaign can be branded to gain a special power, which you determine rolling 1d6 from the table. Also roll for a disadvantage of the devotion. A character might later on a campaign become one going through a sacred ritual of branding. They must devote their adventuring life for the cause they have chosen.

WITCHFINDER

They are professionals that seek out those who have powers beyond the man for selling their soul to the forces of evil. They know how to deal with witches and protect themselves against their malicious spells.

Advantages

1. Immune to any charm or mind affecting powers of witches.

2. Can make a special balsam against witches powers. The balsam costs 100 GP of protection per level of witch's HD. The balsam, when applied to the skin, protects against one direct spell of the witch except charm and mind affecting spells.

3. Can sense a presence of a witch within 100 feet per their level.

4. When making a finishing blow against a witch, they can absorb one random power of her if they will. They must success a save versus Magic or be corrupted of the witchtanic power and lose their special ability for 1d6 levels.

5. Specialist in long-distance murder and take advantage on technology. +2 using gunpowder weapons. Also all maintenance work for gunpowder weapons are halved.

6. Resistant to poisons, but must drink a dose of poison daily or die, if doesn't save versus poison.

Disadvantages

1. Every witch she kills reminds her of her own mother for a reason or another. She must save against paralyze or be depressed the next adventure suffering a -1 penalty to any roll.

2. She is hypersensitive for witch's body. Any time witch inflicts unarmed damage, she suffer extra 1d4 damage per witch's HD.

3. Her ancestor was a witch, and in her blood thin witchtanic trace. If she comes in touch with witch's blood, there is 1-in-6 chance that the witch within is invoked. Her alignment changes to chaotic and as she loses her advantage, she gains witchtanic powers.

4. All potions and alchemical fluids have double effect on her. Both helpful and harmful.

5. Has saved someone from witch's claws and now her responsibility is to protect him.

6. Is permanently ill, thanks to witch's curse. Needs medicine once every 2d4 days. Ingredients for one dose costs 10 GP per level and needs one special incredient to produce. With a successful Intelligence roll (under), can produce the medicine herself. Even though she doesn't success, the GP used for the ingredients is lost. If she buys the medicine prepared, one dose costs 25 GP per her level.

DEMONHUNTER

Infernal, demonic, monstrous and otherworldly beings are their enemies. Their mind is strong against the temptations and body resistant of their corruption. Their blade cuts precise and deep.

Advantages

1. Against demonic creatures they deal extra 1d6 damage.

2. Can roll two dices to save against demonic powers and corruption.

3. Can learn from the demons they destroy, giving them +1 to attack rolls, damage rolls and saves against same types.

4. Has 5% chance per their level to learn a spell cast against them. They can use it once, until learned again.

5. Has one special weapon you have used to kill your first monster. With this weapon you get +2 to damage, to-hit and armor class. Without that weapon you suffer severe effects of fright and self-esteem problems causing you to be extremely insecure and undetermined also suffering -1 to all actions you take.

6. Can brand others. In exchange of permanent bonus of 1 to saves versus demonic and monstrous powers they suffer 1d4 permanent damage to HP.

Disadvantages

1. The lure of demonic powers is strong against her. Every time she encounters a demon she must success in save against magic. If she fails six times in her life, her soul is lost and possessed by a demon (roll summon spell chart to see what abomination she will become).

2. There is a 1-in-6 chance a day that she will mistake something ordinary (a peon, a goat, a windmill) for a demon and she will try to destroy. It is possible to stop her and talk sense to her, but it is not an easy task.

3. She is like a magnet for the demons. Demons can sense her from a distance and from beyond the curtains of dimensions. Every week there is a 1-in-6 chance that a demon finds her and tries to destroy her.

4. All the evil she has seen and conquered has tainted her soul, and no clerical magic works on her.

5. Has had a taste of blood of her enemies and must drink demonic or monstrous blood at least once per week or die if doesn't save against poison.

6. Has hunted creatures of darkness so long, that suffers from sunlight. It burns her skin and she cannot see well. -2 to all eyesight related tasks and 1 HP damage per hour when exposed to direct sunlight.

INQUISITOR

Not necessarily the forces of evil are always witches or demons. Also ordinary people are capable of horrible things and crimes against humanity. You are the one who weeds the evil from the hoi polloi. Your actions might be horrible or brutal, but it is for the good of the humanity.

Advantages

1. Knows how to torture and get information or confessions out of anyone. It takes one hour and 1d4 damage per HD of the victim to squeeze out whatever the inquisitor wants to know. Unfortunately, there is a 50% chance that the victim just says what inquisitor wants to hear, so he can get a release from the pains and horrors of torture.

2. Knows how to hurt people. When your attack roll is 19 or 20, you can aim your opponent and cause him severe pain with extra 1d4 +1 per level damage.

3. Gets +2 bonus to your Charisma every time you intimidate someone.

4. No pain, no gain. They have caused so much suffering, they almost live out of it. As a bonus action inquisitor can wound himself to gain half of that damage to next attack as a to-hit bonus.

5. Harsh training has made her tougher. She needs half the amount of rations and can resist harsh weather effects with doubled efficiency.

6. Can prevent evil spells from harming her and her group if will sacrifice as many people as the spell level in 12 hours. If doesn't, all the spell effects will fire on her with double effect.

Disadvantages

1. Has seen so much blood and suffering you have inflicted, that you cannot feel empathy anymore. Every action you take is aggressive against normal people and you can only see the worst in them.

2. Is scarred from the burning firebrands and self-inflicted wounds and need to hide your monstrous skin under a hood not to scare people. You look like a monster yourself.

3. Is haunted by ghosts of innocent people she has killed in torture. In the beginning of game there are 1d4 souls to haunt her, and every time an innocent person is dead by her hands she must save against magic or suffer of another haunt. Naturally, there are psychological effects to this every day there is 2% chance per haunting soul that her conscience is making her question her cause and her advantage doesn't work that day.

4. Is twisted and bloodlusty and will always kill if there is a chance. No enemy or victim of her should remain alive.

5. Must daily repent her own sins or lose her advantage for a day. Repenting sins demands two hours of prayer and self whipping.

6. There is something holy in her, god knows what twisted god thinks so. She has stigmata that bleeds constantly. Lose 1d2 HP daily from bleeding palms. Also handling weapons is harder without gloves or straps as blood soaked hands are slick.

You can download the pdf, with slightly revised text, from my Patreon page!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/witchfinder-and-6535360

The Black Hack + Roll20 + The Overrun Mines

I and +Kookko Jaskinen  continued the game we started in public at eat-all-you-can pizzeria Rax via Roll20. One major change was, that we ditched Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox and decided to use The Black Hack instead. Converting the character was easy, because all that matters is attributes.

Mad real time mapping skills, looks exactly like the original map!

We continued the adventure of Jarod, who gained epithet "Unlucky" because he did not only lose a finger, but also half of his face in Temple Of Greed. After this Fighter's master died at the temple, Jarod had no future in the religious order. So he started traveling and ended up to this remote mining town. Drinking was what he started to do...

There he met new party members, Thurnsted the Rogue, who made home of this towns tavern avoiding the law for a reason he called "a misunderstanding". The second addition to the party was Ivan Slick, the Cleric, who was sent to a pilgrimage, where he was supposed to see a holy sign that would grand him his praying ability (read: second level). That never happened and he got frustrated ending to the very same mining town drinking.

They had jolly time drinking and eating and sleeping, but the day came when they ran out of money. Lucky for them, the mines had some trouble. I rolled random rumors from The Overrun Mines adventure and got:

• "Here have been cave-ins, something rustles the stone in the deep and I barely escaped with my life."
• "There is a dungeon holding cell deep within the mine; I have no idea what it was used for."
• "The mine used to be a goblin hideout, we cleared it of those foul creatures years ago."

They left Thurnsted to the tavern, because his Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma were low, so he wouldn't say anything stupid or haggle like an idiot, and went to meet minemaster. They got the mission to go check these rumors so employees would get back to work. From 100 SP (I use silver standard) reward they managed to haggle to 200 SP! Great! That's plenty of money to continue easy life!

In a fantasy setting full of monsters, who of a right mind would work in a
place like this?!

Inside the dungeon in the common room where ore is loaded and supplies unpacked they took some pick axes and rope with them and continued deeper. Ivan the Cleric scouted the first intersection a little and they decided to go forward where seemed to be a big cave.

The cave is where the ore is dug. In the middle of this large cave was a cave in, and deep down a wounded grey worm. They figured out, maybe this grey worm was the reason for cave-ins and rustling noises, and decided to kill it. They started pushing rocks down trying to squash it!

Thurnsted is a weak fellow, so I decided every rock they drop (dealing 3d6 damage) on the work, Thurnsted should roll STR starting from advantage, then normal, and the rest disadvantages. If he failed, he would refuse to push down any more rocks because he has hurt himself. The second rock down and whining starts! The worm had 9 HP left and Thurnsted tried to deal more damage with his crossbow, but didn't deal near enough to kill it. They were thinking, they must kill it to claim it their work so no one can deny their reward.

I ruled, that Thurnsted could try to roll one extra rock with a disadvantageous STR roll, but if he failed, he'd suffer 1d3 damage for hurting his muscles more. Luckily there was a melting oven with liquid hot iron in it. They poured it in the cave-in killing the worm. When it's skin bursted and boiled, it made exactly the same noises as cheese sausage on a grill. Shizzle shizzle crack pop. The worm was dead.

Dead gray worm. It was 30 meters long!

The opening to the south-east had many killed miners and they figured out the worm came that way and managed to grab and kill few. As the miners flew around the cave-in the blind worm fell in following them. There must be more of these worms, maybe, but they didn't care. One was dead and that's enough! But there's still those three other rumors to take care of...

They follow the passage and take the intersection north, where there is a barred door. Thurnsted opens the door and jumps back like a coward and Ivan steps in like a hero. Nothing inside, except remains of a fire and blackened goblin bones, which naturally reanimate and attack. The combat was not tough, but they decided to spend a hour fixing their armor after it (to restore their Armor Points).

There is no random encounters table in The Overrun Mines, so I decided to use Underworld Day Rules table. Once a day underground you roll it to see the effect on the party. I wanted to use it, because this party wouldn't be underground for a day (necessarily). Die tells, that Thurnsted the Rogue suffers 1 (5%) penalty to every action until he gets some fresh air. He starts to get frustrated because there are no treasures, goblin bones where empty.

Forward they venture and take a junction to the left to barracks. No treasures, just junk. Player Jaakko wanted to roll again the Underworld Day Rules table, because he thought that Thurnsted got more frustrated for the lack of  treasures and it effects the whole group. Everyone's morale suffers and they lose 2 permanent HP until they get out.

Back and forward to an ancient goblin throne room. On the throne there is a shackled, very living dead goblin king. On the floor four goblin skeletons lay. What makes Thurnsted run to the room yelling "FINALLY TREASURE", was a partially open fake wall.

Image from http://3drt.com

And the goblin king breaks it's straps and the skeletons reanimate. Combat started quite well, but soon turned into murder - of adventurers. Ivan was first to be KO'd and Jarod decided to both hit a skeleton and chuck some healing potion in his system (second level Fighter has two attacks, I ruled he can attack with a disadvantage and use a potion on his friend). Ivan is back in game, but suffering broken bones and -2 to physical attributes.

Thrunsted, even though he is weak and a dick, was lucky both in hitting and avoiding to be hit. Their second level Warrior, Jarod was soon downed and not too long, and Ivan followed him to oblivion. Thurnsted managed to kill the undead goblin king with cunning (running and shooting) and force (stabbing like mad). With the band's last potion of health, he revived Jarod. They decided to flee, but Jarod insisted they take the corpse of Ivan Slick with them to find someone to resurrect him - or at least offer him proper funeral.

They also decided they should tell they have dealt with the problems, get the reward and get outta there as soon as possible, before they figure out that not all problems are dealt with. Good luck with that! Next time... A new dungeon to explore and to die in!

DM notes, NPC stats and info, initiative counter, combat tracker. All well organized. I didn't actually use Death & Dismemberment table, because The Black Hack's Out of Action (OofA) works fine! That red d20 on the picture was a bomb! It gave crits for adventurers (natural 1) and crits for enemies (natural 20)!

Big thanks for Jaakko for a fun game, and for helping me out writing the final combat. There was lots of things going all with one-shot-kill goblin skeletons, and falling party members.

Jaakko is also a great player for 1-on-1 games, because he is Dungeon Master in his own games. It's fun to create some scenes and details together. I can throw him a ball for a moment to ask him for some details on something, and it is fun! Also the background story for this adventure (basically downtime between Temple Of Greed and The Overrun Mines) we developed together, which was great fun! I really enjoy gaming 1-on-1 with Jaakko, we are good together... arrright now it starts to sound inappropriate!

Well, until next time!

And hey, if you want to, you can suggest a dungeon for one level characters. Preferably one you can run in one session (two dungeons down and like 1/4 explored in both!!!) IF you don't have any greater ideas, they will travel to... No Country For Weak Men by +Anders Hedenbjörk Lager. And when the party (or anyone) hits 3rd level, there will be an extra episode of The Flayed King by +Tim Shorts where a new character of a new character class will be introduced to the game... well, only if he survives!

Gaming in public: Swords & Wizardry and Fantasy AGE

I live 45 or so kilometers away from next decent sized town. I haven't visited it that much earlier, because I haven't needed to. But now that I have gaming buddies there, I've been there more often. Me and +Kookko Jaskinen (Jaakko) decided we should do some gaming because he has a summer vacation. So we did!

ROUND 1: Swords & Wizardry at Rax

My long time dream has been to play roleplaying games at all-what-you-can-eat pizza joint Rax, because that's what we did when we were younger gamers and it was a blast! Gaming, pizza, infinite amount of soda... that's fantastic! I wanted to run my dungeon Temple Of Greed (available HERE) and chose Swords & Wizardry so Jaakko could try out some old-school rules based on '74 Dungeons & Dragons.

We created two characters for him. Brother Colt, the Cleric and Jared, his Fighter guard. Backstory was simple. This religion of one-and-only-truth had discovered an ancient, forgotten temple. They wanted to loot it because religion is greedy. They sent Brother Colt to investigate and get all the treasures he could!

Spoilers of the temple ahead!

They got the key to the temple from their supervisors and ventured to the temple. Door opened easily, and inside they went. On the inner door there were pushable panels with letters V, R, C, A, A, E and I and plate reading:

To enter, one must know greed.

They weighted the puzzle for a good amount of time, and Brother Colt tried to push them to form a pseudo ancient word of greed. C-R-A-E... you got the point. But there were two buttons left that didn't stick to the bottom when pushed, so he ordered Jared to push them. Bad for him, as Jared pushed the last plate down, he lost two fingers to a razor sharp blade, and the buttons reseted. Oh the pain and DEX lost! But they were on a mission, so they had to try to open the door to not to return empty handed!

Here I helped a bit. The right answer is "avarice", synonym of "greed". Neither of us are native English speakers, so I asked Jaakko has he got any ideas what the answer would be and I let him roll INT checks for both of the characacters. They succeeded to solve the puzzle.

Inside was a room with two doors, one on the right wall, other to the left wall. On northern wall there was a plate:

Greed is everything. Greed is RIGHT. Greed is a DOOR to success. Greed we worship. Greed saves.

HA, this is obvious thought Brother Colt but was quite certain this was a trick of some sort. Too obvious. He ordered Jared to the right door, the obvious answer and went to the left door himself. On a "go!" they opened the doors simultaneously. Jared discovered a hallway, Borther Colt poison and death.

Jared ran to his master's corpse only to find an old skeleton next it. He took adventuring equipment from his deceased partner and looted the skeleton for some gold, a ring and golden teeth. Onwards.

The corridors behind the door joined together in the end, behind the north wall of the previous room. There was a door, from which another hallway opened - to the left, and to the right. He went right discovering a room and a dead end with a door with some plates. Jared had bad memories of plates, so he checked the room first.

Inside the room there was an empty altar room, except of the altar with a plate:

He who gives everything for the gold-lusty god of greed shall receive.

Okay, he did nothing but went to observe the door. He took a risk and started to push the door panels. When a right panel was pushed, it made a mechanical noise behind the door and stayed pushed. But if you pushed a wrong tile after it, all reseted. It took some time he took pushing the tiles and finding the right order (disclaimer: you can discover the right order... somewhere) and got into a small room with a squirrel statue and a peek hole on the other wall. The squirrel statue was holding a stone nut.

Jared took the nut, nothing happens. Put it right back, nothing happens. Tried replace it with sling stones - nothing. Tried to stick the nut into a peek hole and put stones on the squirrel's palms. Nothing. Hmmm. Then he gave the ring he looted from the skeleton for the squirrel statue, and something happened somewhere within the dungeon. Then he went back and took the other hallway.

Walking down the hallway he discovered a secret door. Inside was an altar and lots of gold pieces (1,300 in total). He made some calculations and bagged everything and dragged them back to the door that led to this hallway. He was lucky to take everything at once... He returned and continued the hallway to discover a statue. And he immediately knew what to do with it! But there was a problem. To get to the statue you had to walk down a short hallway where obviously was a wall wide pressure plate! He grinned and jumped and discovered later, that the pressure plate on the floor was a diversion. The real trap was a scythe that cut him bad when he jumped the pressure plate! He started with 1 HP, and lost it. Also he lost 25% of permanent HD. And two points of CHA for missing half of his face! Bleeding, almost dead (at 0 HP I decided he is barely alive and could only crawl and not take any kind of actions) he crawled back where he left the gold sacks he bagged earlier.

Hugging the treasure he found he fainted only hoping someone would find him before he bled to death...

If he survives he will be called Jared The Unlucky. It would be fun to run this 1 HP Fighter with Dexterity penalty and Charisma lost to charring and -25% to HD through all kinds of death trap dungeons! But for now his time was over. Temple Of Greed won, no treasure was dragged outside.

ROUND 2: FANTASY AGE AT FLGS

Belly full of pizza and one adventure done we headed to our FLGS (Porin Pelikauppa). We met there earlier before we ventured to Rax. There was only this new Star Wars RPG and four WH40k roleplaying game supplements available. No other roleplaying games and their dice variation sucked too. They are focused on video games, Warhammer, Magic: the Gathering and other tabletop and board games. Good thing is they have tables there you can use for gaming! We were lucky to get a table because there also was a X-Wing tournament starting!

When we played D&D 5E last time Jaakko showed me his copy of Fantasy AGE. It looked interesting. He had already played it but I wanted to try it too! Character creation was quite simple and quick with some fun options. I created a lizard-man Cleric (homebrew stuff) because it felt most interesting compared to your usual fighter-mage-dwarf-elf-human and so on D&D stuff. And I wanted to be an adventurer!

Gods were forgotten, and only us lizardmen had Clerics and religion. Well, there were few from other races that believed, but not that many. I was sent to find all kinds of ancient religious artifacts and other god-things to the big main continent-island. To the icy wastes my travel took me, where a tower acted weird. This tower was used to rapture style soul ascension in the old times, but now there was disturbance. The disturbance was zombies!

When traveling I found this ragged guy who led me to his camp. I discovered that the camp was actually a prison camp and he was a prisoner. The staff wanted to challenge me (enter combat rules test) and I had to fight this huge warrior! But with spells I could do it damaging him and eventually teleporting him to a cart full of zombie corpses. That'll show him!

I decided I need some backup to my journey to this tower and had the ragged guy, a warrior and an elf lady with me. Only because they thought I am someone else they were excepting! Well, nothing wrong with that, because I'd be long gone in frozen wastes when, and if, they discovered I am a wrong guy. We started our journey and found some zombies at a distance. I decided I want to kill them to try combat rules once more. Easy targets, eh? Thanks to my spells I could keep distance from them, but the others took some damage. Most damage suffered was that warrior I already had beaten. What a waste!

CONCLUSION

SWORDS & WIZARDRY: TEMPLE OF GREED

1. Temple Of Greed is a challenging module that can kill a campaign, because the casualties can get high. But hey, you don't have to go there. You don't have to be greedy!
2. I should use The Black Hack for one-shots. Even though I love Swords & Wizardry there was unnecessary things (attribute derived bonuses for example) that didn't improve gameplay.
3. I am looking forward to Jared The Unlucky's next adventure(s)!

FANTASY AGE

1. Quick character creation but variation in characters.
2. It felt old-schoolish even though the system uses 3d6.
3. We had a rules misunderstanding of how stunt dice trigger. I thought that the damage system was weak (roll vs ac and damage reduction. Most things did 1d6 damage and my weakling had over 20 hit points). The trick is, that even though basic damage against hit points is weak, stunts are when you hit hard and kill stuff!
4. Can't wait to check out the tower! Seriously, it's been a long time I've encountered zombies in a roleplaying game and I am currently watching Z Nation.

Random encounter and events table for capitals and cities

You can download the file of 3 pages and 48 encounters and events from my Patreon page. It's free!

This table includes things like:

• Runaway horse pulling a cart and wrecking havoc! It smelt zombies with some intelligence and brain function left masquerading as beggars. The zombies wanted to eat the horse and its driver alive. the driver is just about to be eaten by the zombies cornering him...
• A building is aflame. All nearby are requested to help extinguish it.
• Around 50 rats from normal size to a size of a dog run down the streets biting everyone and -thing they ram.
• Mother of twelve, who is struggling with her flock. No one knows that these children are demon seed waiting to grow up to start mayhem and devastation. Their smile is empty but sweet.
• A couple is selling weird small beasts and critters from the Purple Forest to be exotic pets for the rich. Few of these beasts and critters are extremely dangerous, but the couple don't care for the sake of profit. They have not captured the beasts themselves and don't know what they are, which one are dangerous nor how they behave. They have cooked up the descriptions themselves.
• A hot air balloon is floating above the city. Out of arrow's reach. Dwarves are observing the city streets and making notes. They try to track the ley lines to pwer their new invention.
• And 42 more!

Image from: http://openwalls.com/image?id=1524

New Cleric variant, Martyr

Instead of "Turn Undead" these Clerics have an unique power they invoke when they suffer. When someone purposely hurts them (monster attack, no. Friend whipping, yes) or they wound themselves, they immediately regain one spell and can cast it as memorized. By suffer they might even memorize more spells than they normally could!

One Hit-die (1d6) worth of damage allows them to chose one spell level. If the martyr whips himself dealing 3d6 damage, he can chose three one level spells, one first and one second or one third level spell to memorize immediately.

Martyrs are willing to suffer for their cause, and by suffering they gain great power.

They are not restricted to blunt weapons, but can also use daggers and knives to harm themselves.

The Scifi Hack update + updated cover

For first, the cover is now updated with proper usage of The Black Hack, including official TBH logo.

Second, the format is now 6x9 print-on-demand in mind.

Third, this will be bigger than I thought! I cannot stop adding extra material to make it not just a re-dressed version of The Black Hack's fantasy aspect, but also a complete set of rules to include all kinds of little scifi stuff.

D-oom will release The Scifi Hack

I am working hard to publish my first stand-alone roleplaying game based on THE BLACK HACK by David Black. The game will include:

• Full rules
• Science fiction character classes and races-as-classes
• Equipments
• Alien creatures
• Random generators for adventuring sites both in space and on planets
• Psionics and nanotech
• Spaceships and space combat

Release date will be very soon.

My response to Facebook post "I am a horrid DM"

In Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition group at Facebook Douglass Tanner posted this:

"I am a horrid DM.

1. I use a screen.
2. I fudge dice rolls (both in favor and against the characters, to promote more strategy)
3. I don't give them details they did not look for.
4. I use encounters that are under them, over them and in range of them.
5. I give few magic items out, and when I do its random.
6. I give out lots of $ and allow them to try and find an item or buy one. With % roll that it even exists in the city/town they are in.
7. i do not use modules, I use a home made world every time.

Here's what I do, based on those seven points:

1. I use a screen to cover things that players are not supposed to see, like my notes, modules, and things like that. I do not use screen as a wall between me and my players. We all play the same time, it's just that I got information players shouldn't see to keep things interesting for all of us.
2. I do not fudge die rolls. I roll open always except when player characters don't know the outcome (surprises and such things). I keep things fair, players play by the rules with their characters and they don't fudge, so I don't fudge. There is extra danger and flavor in decisions to make, when they see how hard the enemy hits them, for example. And if the damage kills the character, they know that dice decided it, I did not.
3. I give them details they did not look for, if their character for a reason or another should reasonably find those details. I do understand, that players cannot know everything their character knows. Dwarves have natural sense for certain things, like elevations of a dungeon, so I do give them that information. They don't have to ask it every 10 feet they explore. Also the player might not always know what his character is capable of, so I give them information, because their character know it for sure. This also in many cases helps the game not to be stuck when players don't "find" something they need to advance. Naturally, sometimes they don't find it, but if it is logical for their character to "find" it, I'll give them the information.
4. I too give them encounters from easy to extremely challenging. The world around them doesn't revolve around them. There are things they are not meant to conquer. Sometimes they just need to know when to run fast, or try diplomacy. If they knew that every encounter I presented was in range of their characters and they knew that 1/4 of their resources would be used in every encounter, the game would be dull. No surprises, no awe, no fear.
5. I give what magic items are in a module I run, as I have chosen to run that module. I do give other magic items also, but they fit the campaign most of the times. Sometimes, if someone's character sucks a lot and she doesn't find the game fun because of that, I might give a magic item that helps her enjoy the game a bit more. These occasions are rare. Magic items are not a resource you are supposed to collect to match the campaign world. Magic items are special.
6. I prevent to give lots of $ to keep the game interesting and challenging. Also I want them to have at least one motivation, if nothing else: wealth. Sure, if the campaign I run is around building a stronghold or a kingdom, that is a different story. Also money is not an automatic power boost, wealth has consequences.
7. I run my games usually in homebrew settings, because I am lazy to learn the setting someone else wrote. I also don't want player's meta data be greater than mine ("that's not how it was in sixth book chapter eight!"). I love world building, and what's better way (for me) than build the world during the actual play! I write necessary details, otherwise I am scarce. I let players join the world building ("you asked about this village what it's like if your character is from there, you tell me what the village is like. What kind of religion would your Cleric want to be a devotee of?"). I do use modules, I just pick those which fit my campaign the best, or I modify them to fit it. It is great fun for me as a Game Master to use something someone else wrote, and make it my game. I also make adventures myself, and also go with the flow without preparations to make things interesting and surprising. Random tables are always a fun addition to make something new and unexpected easily! Keeps Game Master's mind sharp.

I found this picture from http://meeplesgames.com with Google picture search.

There!

Now it is your turn to answer these questions based on that Facebook post. How do you run games? You can write your answer in the comments, or make a blog post of this topic. Remember to link your response, wherever you write it, to the comments, so I and my readers can find your answers.