Alpha Blue Opening Crawl

Yep, there it is!  Now, Alpha Blue is just like Star Wars - probably the single biggest influence on Alpha Blue, and a personal favorite of mine.

I appreciate all your support, everyone.  Thanks for running, playing, buying, mentioning, reviewing, crowd-sourcing content for, blogging about, and jerking off to the sleaziest sci-fi RPG in the universe!

Battle Star: Trek Wars is coming out in June, and I can't wait to whip it out and show it to you.  ;) 

Preview some of the fantastic random tables of futuristic fornication on Draconic Magazine.

VS

Miscellanious stuff

There's a spirited  review of my very first OSR adventure - Liberation of the Demon Slayer.  It was a lot of fun to read as it allowed me to revisit that world, albeit briefly.

There's an awesome actual play report from the guys who took part in a session of Alpha Blue on Roll20 a couple weeks ago.  And here's another one with kids(!) that's totally PG-13 (for space drug references).

This was a nice review of Crimson Dragon Slayer edition 1.11.

I've also managed to write a few more things on Draconic Magazine.  Please check them out and let me know what you think.

Trinity of Awesome will be available soon.  First it goes to Kickstarter backers and then everyone else on DriveThruRPG / RPGnow.  If you're an RPG blogger and/or reviewer and want to be put on the list, send me an email at:  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Thanks,

VS

Draconic Magazine Article Roundup

This might be Draconic Magazine issue # 4.5555667 and 2/5ths or so, but it's here.

Now, that writing on Universal Exploits and Crimson Dragon Slayer 1.11 is finished, I've had time to post a few more articles.

There's stuff for Alpha Blue, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and my interview with Zak Sabbath where he talks about Maze of the Blue Medusa.

Please check it out and keep coming back, y'all!

VS

Fourth Issue of Draconic Magazine

It's been about six weeks since the last one because I was working on my upcoming adventure, Revelry in Torth.  I think you'll be pleased with all the content over at Draconic Magazine.  Below is a summary of what's in store for you...

• Tweaking adventures for conventions
• The importance of 1 (or even 2) in 6
• In-game lies that GMs tell
• PC autonomy
• Bag on a stick
• Image of Aryd's End
• Silk of a Thousand Spiders (new spell)
• A Demilich and his lion
• Kodarr's Kommandments
• Pumpkin Giant
• Adventure hooks that make you yawn
• The terrible, terrible fan-fiction of Edgar Phillips Reitman
• O5R Advantage/Disadvantage
• 100 reasons that characters are together
• WEG d6 Star Wars RPG revised, expanded, and updated
• Witch Shackles (new magic item)
• Lizardmen of Kilkutch (PC regional race)

Thanks goes out to all the many contributors who wrote articles for this issue.  Much appreciated, guys!

VS

Third Wave of Draconic Magazine

Alright, I think I've got enough articles to call this wave #3.  Let's see what I've got for you...      

• Kodarr the barbarian speaking his mind in the weekly column Kodarr's Kommandments
• A super-quick zero-level character generation method for 5th edition D&D
• My review of Delving Deeper RPG
• An article by Chris Bell on why Vampire: the Masquerade Storytellers should always make use of the prelude
• My review of Fantastic Heroes & Witchery retro-RPG along with an interview with the author
• Hidden benefits of a high charisma.  Go ahead, be a dick.
• An article on GMing better, focusing on missed opportunities
• Benoist Poire's rebuttal to John Wick's blog post regarding chess, RPGs, game balance, and other topics
• Lastly, a brand new column by the fan-fiction crossover king: Edgar Phillips Reitman!

Please check it all out here.

VS

p.s.  Only 3 days left to fund the Revelry in Torth kickstarter.  FYI, just added a $3,000 stretch goal and posted an update yesterday showing off another piece of artwork.  Please back this project if you're interested in old school sword & sorcery adventures in a strange desert world of endless darkness.  And share the link!

The Second Wave of Draconic Magazine

Even though there aren't "issues" per se, I think readers will see a pattern.  A flurry of activity followed by a lull week so that new content can be properly digested; crests and troughs.

That means wave #2 is crashing upon the rocks of tabletop fantasy roleplaying!  Below is a list of recent articles...

• Q&A about noticing secret doors and skill checks.
• A new spell called Singing Spheres of Yogsoggoth.
• Trade-offs for investigative scenarios.
• A video review of The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.
• A new character class for ex-paladins who fall into a really, really bad crowd.
• A new monster called the Verge Fungoid.
• The 1st weekly advice column from Kodarr the barbarian!
• An article on becoming a better GM.
• A new magic item called the rainbow shadow cloak.
• An article on looking back at plain old failure.
• An amusing vignette about a chaotic halfling.
• And a suggestion about what to do with those expired character sheets.

Whew, that's quite a bit of new stuff in the last couple weeks.  Thanks to +Shane Ward, +Shawn Hartnell, Savage GM, and +Grand DM for their help.  The second wave wouldn't have been as strong without you guys.

If anyone else wants to submit an article or some artwork, please let me know.  More content coming next week!

VS

Danger Dice

Earlier today, +Michael Prescott and I were chatting about my latest article over at Draconic Magazine.  Long story short, his description of another game's mechanic (some RPG called Ghost/Echo) collided with something I've read about but never used (the wild die from later editions of the old school Star Wars RPG) inspired a crazy idea... the danger die.

Here's the gist: whenever a character attempts to tackle a problem, there's always a chance an unrelated problem will rear its ugly head, either in that exact moment or soon after.

For example, the party's thief attempts to rig a guillotine so that it won't cut his friend's head off tomorrow at the execution.  He rolls the standard die or dice roll and... succeeds.  Yay!  However, he also rolled a danger die which came up a 1.  Little does the thief know that someone is lurking in the shadows, watching him.

So, this separate die roll is the wild card of a situation.  And I could see this idea going in a lot of different directions.  Below are a variety of ways to use the danger die concept.

• Roll a d4 (along with the normal dice rolled) whenever a skill check or non-combat maneuver is being attempted.  If the d4 comes up a 1, then a new but extraneous problem occurs.
• Roll a d4 after a standard d20 combat roll comes up a natural 1.  If the d4 is also a 1, then either describe a critical failure (assuming that doesn't automatically happen on a natural 1) or describe some fresh horror unconnected to that swing and a miss.
• Roll a different die than a d4 to determine danger.  If you want it to happen less likely, then maybe a d6 or d8 is more your speed.
• Use the d4 but a roll of 1 allows the GM to roll on a special "bad stuff" d30 table... you know, just because.
• Benevolent GMs might want to offset the danger with something favorable.  So, if you rolled a d12 danger die, the 1 could be bad and the result of a 12 could be good.
• Every +1 a character asks for means that another danger die is added to the pool.  Want a +3 bonus to hiding in the fireplace?  Sure, but then you'll have to roll 3d4 to see if you jump from the frying pan into the fire (lame pun intended, unfortunately).
• Want to attempt something with a relatively low risk?  Roll a d12 danger die; average difficulty gets a d8 or d6.  Super-duper challenging maneuvers get a d4 or perhaps even a d3! 

I'm sure there are more awesome possibilities out there but for now that's sufficient.  So, what do you think?  Is this something you might try out in your next game?  Want to tweak it?  Go right ahead.  Comment away!  

VS

p.s.  Dice image by JihCe

Draconic Magazine launch!

I'm pleased to finally announce that Draconic Magazine is live (be sure to bookmark it or whatever those tech-savvy kids are doing these days).  It's my way of celebrating 40 years of the world's original fantasy roleplaying game.

However, just because the site's up and running doesn't mean everything is in its place.  There are plenty of gaps in content, the subscription + bonus content / paypal thing isn't finished, and you might notice a glitch or two.  Hey, it's a brand new website.  With your input (and contributions, hopefully), Draconic Magazine will keep evolving.

Even though I'm calling it a "magazine", content won't come monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, or yearly, and there are no "issues".  Eventually, my goal is to have something new up on the site at least 3 times a week.  Speaking of content - Draconic is focused on tabletop fantasy RPGs, but that won't stop us from publishing articles about space opera, post-apocalyptic wastelands, and supernatural horror.  Want to see something in particular?  Tell us what you want!

Here's what we have for you at the moment (with more to come)...

• A review of the D&D Player's Handbook.
• A reaction table for when the party encounters humanoids.
• The Backbreaker - a new monster.
• A pre-campaign checklist of important questions to ask yourself and players.
• An article about last minute world creation.
• Weird plants of the Nether-Realms.
• An overview of Torth - a shared campaign setting for organized play
• And the obligatory poll about your favorite edition (go to war!).

Before I forget, I'd like to thank the following individuals who helped shape this project:  Tod Foley from As If Productions for website design, Caio Monteiro who did the main illustration for the site, Terry Pavlet for the logo and lettering, as well as, all the Draconians who've bounced ideas around, written articles, and provided valuable feedback.  Thanks, guys!


VS

p.s.  Promotional spots advertising my own RPG products on the right-hand sidebar are just placeholders until I've worked out deals with suitable RPG publishers.

Mysteries of Torth

For those who don't already know, I'm creating a free online tabletop fantasy RPG magazine called Draconic.  This will be a constantly updated resource for gamers all over the world.

One of the magazine's features will be its own setting for organized play, less restrictive than D&D Adventurers League and FLAILSNAILS.  We feel that commonality can go hand in hand with unique campaigns.  Some gamers want to feel connected to a world and those inhabiting it.  So, we're working on a shared campaign setting... Torth.

Torth is still in the early development stages but that's the perfect time to present the bare bones and ask for your input.  I'm sure you'll notice parallels to Dark Sun, Numenera, Anomalous Subsurface Environment, Terminator, Star Wars, and similar stories/settings.  We're fans of all that stuff.  What inspired those settings has also inspired us.  It's part of our geek DNA.  Where possible, we intend to make specific details of this world unique rather than a rehash or hodge-podge of the familiar.

We're keeping this shared campaign setting as fluffy and system neutral as possible; however, there will be plenty of crunchy suggestions sprinkled throughout.  Without further ado...


Torth

Years ago, a magically advanced civilization flourished across the land.  Life was easy for humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and the various humanoid races.  Sorcery was everywhere, paving the way for comfort, innovation, and decadence.  Magic was responsible for flesh-crafting, synthetic humanoid constructs, nano-mancy, dimensional gateways, and sentinels floating in Torth's atmosphere.

As the people got lazier, their magic-fueled creations were given more autonomy and power.  When the tipping point came, the created saw themselves as slaves and murdered their humanoid masters.  Unable to quell this revolution, a cabal of pyro-mancers unleashed a holocaust of nuclear fire, blasting the world's surface.  For the most part, the things created by sorcery were destroyed... and so was much of Torth.

Some areas were hit harder than others.  A handful of domed cities survived the inferno, as did subterranean habitats.  The shunned reptilian people living underground grew strong and bold in the aftermath.  Now they dominate the land, capturing humanoids found in the wasteland for slaves or worse!  A vocal minority believe peaceful coexistence is possible, if only the right envoys and ambassadors can be selected.

A few humanoid agents believe the synthetics, nano-magic, sentinels, and flesh-crafting should be implemented again, this time with greater fail-safe programming.  The prospect of quick and painless reconstruction must be weighed against the cost of another holocaust if something were to go wrong again.

There is talk of banning sorcery.  Certain zones forbid those ancient practices, enforcing their edict by sentinel disruptors; though crafty wizards work around such limitations by injecting a serum into their veins - a reagent teeming with sorcerous micro-organisms. With regular use, the serum is addictive and degenerative, but extremely potent.

Adventurers seek their fortune in the wasteland, between settlements and shielded cities, interacting with the genetically scarred remnants, magic-forged abominations, sentinel-created clones, extra-dimensional beasts crawling through holes in reality, hungry reptilian warlords, and dragons!  What role do dragons play?  I have no idea, but the Draconic Magazine staff will keep working on it.

You can help us, too!  Comment below.  And if you'd like to write articles for us on a regular or semi-regular basis, contact me (the publisher):  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com


VS