GaryCon 2019 (part 1)

What a weekend!

Yes, I got back from GaryCon in one piece.  Was there all Thursday and Friday, but had to leave about 1pm on Saturday, after my last game.

There's almost too much to say, so I'm going to keep this kind of brief and condense it all into one blog post.  Wish me luck!  [edit: Nope, just couldn't do it.  This is going to be in two parts.  First, Cha'alt, and then Alpha Blue.]

Session 4

The final session of Cha'alt concerned exploring and looting the frozen insides of the gargantuan purple demon-worm Kra'adumek.  My family and I pre-rolled nearly 100 ability scores (strength, dexterity, etc.), all 3d6 in order, ahead of time.  That's going to come in real handy in the years to come... and will appear in Cha'alt.

As that game was "D&D 5e," there were numerous expectations.  When I told everyone that I wanted to keep it standard races, only one racial ability per character, just the main 4 classes, and you roll a % and what your ability scores turn out to be is what they are, save vs. death... well, some jaws dropped. 

The players were more than a little dismayed (one player's suggestion of pre-gens was solid and I probably should have done that, but also wanted to use my d100 ability score table), but kept their composure (no table flipping), which I appreciated.  After all, if a PC died, he could simply roll up a new one and keep going.  With this method, it wouldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to come up with a whole new character.

We played it old school - distance, movement, and perception checks were all but hand-waved.  And sure enough, just as I told them, once the adventure got underway, how strong or wise their characters were didn't matter as much as thinking things through, tactics, diplomacy, knowing when to step on the gas and when to break, and, of course, luck.

I didn't open any D&D books the entire game... in fact, I neglected to bring any D&D books to the convention - aside from my own scenarios and guidebooks.  To me, that's a sign of a qualified old school GM who's comfortable with his rulings.

This being a con game, they came up with an overarching desire (kill the demon-worm), and I presented them with a way to achieve that... the unexploded photon torpedo.

Several party members almost died, but no one actually bit the big one.  Some nice treasure was had, NPCs interacted with, weirdness encountered, and juicy combat to get the blood pumping... as well as spilling out all over the demon-worm floor.

By the game's end, everyone thanked me for the experience.  I appreciated their indulgence of my old school ways, and a few of them said they were glad that I stuck to my guns.  Overall, I think everyone had been temporarily transported to another world.  That kind of immersion is all the thanks I'll ever need. 


Session 2

The second session of GaryCon was Beneath Kra'adumek.  Since I designated that particular game Swords & Wizardry, the occasional shitty ability scores didn't raise an eyebrow.  This crowd was primed for vintage D&D escapades. 

While I unfortunately forgot to bring my copy of How To Game Master like a Fucking Boss to session 4, I had it with me during session 2.  So, each player rolled % to see what past experience they had. 

The wildest result was a gnome (complete with ridiculous hat) trying to get the PC and others to invest in some financial scheme, offering a transparent cube as some sort of proof-of-concept. 

That could have just been a throw-away idea forgotten as soon as it was said, but no.  The player who rolled that proudly talked about his cube and attempted to seek investors in his uncanny enterprise.  After swapping realities with a nearly identical party, that player decided his cube was now a sphere... and the roleplaying began anew.  By the session's end, his business' tagline was "It never ends."  Appropriate.  ;)

As has usually been the case, the PCs decided to convince several of the purple priests to join a new faction - one instituted by the PCs themselves.  After killing the Ipsissimus and mid-wife-ing a newly hatched demon-worm spawn, it wasn't too difficult to persuade some drugged-out cultists to worship Kra'adumek in an entirely new way. 

They played around with the fissure in time and space, experimented with mutated xoth, ate 67 omelets, and foiled the priest's plans to sacrifice a trio of virgins. 

Due to the freewheeling nature of this dungeon, the loose rules of early D&D, and player personalities, a lot of jokes were told and the table erupted in laughter about a dozen times in those 3 hours of weird retro-escapism. 

There was even a woman among the players, so of course I had to make my own saving throw to avoid chanting, "Old enough to bleed; old enough to play a human barbarian!"  Thankfully, I just made it when the die ricocheted off my slimy green tentacle, and old school grognards were saved having to excuse my toxic masculine diversions. 

Some great and/or hilarious quotes from that session...

• The New God's name is "wormy"... it's a work in progress.
• "He who slithers through our minds.  Praise be!"
• Purple priest playboy mag stuck behind the library books.
• "Spicy sriracha worms."
• "May the violet be with you... always."
• "GnomeSphere... it never ends [TM]."
• "Obey the slither!"

All in all, both groups were fantastic!  I had a blast GMing for everyone, and I hope the memories of Cha'alt will live long and prosper in our collective imaginations.

Ok, part 2 should come tomorrow.

VS

p.s. I managed to move all 4 sessions to a less noisy, less distracting area of the hotel so we could all enjoy the game without shouting, wondering if we actually heard the other person correctly, or daydreaming about the guy at the next table dressed as Gandalf being bludgeoned into unconsciousness with his own Dwarven Forge terrain.

Battle For The Purple Islands

I've come full circle.  My very first Kickstarter campaign was for The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  I've covered a lot of ground since then, and now it's time to return to those dreaded islands purple.

This project wasn't on my mind at all.  I didn't plan for it.  In fact, I made quite a few plans going into 2018 that had nothing to do with the purple islands.  But inspiration struck when I noticed a new exhibit in an art museum near my work.

I went in, looked around, saw some cool stuff and then found this little room - an entrance covered with a black velvet curtain showing this weird art film.  Strange words, bizarre imagery, and dark ambient tones reverberating in the void.

But it was that first moment walking into the room, before I knew what was ahead.  For a couple seconds I was completely enveloped in blackness.  The fear and thrilling joy of anticipation awakened my senses.  What would I encounter beyond?

Upon leaving the art museum, I knew that I wasn't done with those islands - not by a long shot.

So, if you're down for some more purple action, back this project.  It's going to be fucking awesome!
And it will include stats for both conventional OSR/O5R and the OSR outsider 4th Wave type stuff that I've been doing with Crimson Dragon Slayer and Alpha Blue.

Got a question?  Please ask!

VS

The S'rulyan Vault II

It's here!  ;)

I had a lot of fun with this one.  It was nice having a template and then doing things a bit different to both add to and diverge from what Glynn and I did with the original S'rulyan Vault.

+MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) has done another amazing job!

Basically, the dungeon is bigger (there are more areas within the space) and the PDF has a lot of cool stuff in it.

My favorite is the d100 table for faction quirks.  This table alone makes it fast and easy to come up with a unique faction on the fly.  Just roll on the table 3 times and the results will inspire you to fill in the rest of the details.

Thanks for all the Kickstarter backing and support - and thanks to everyone who purchases this!

VS

The Midderlands

I'm keeping a close eye on The Midderlands Kickstarter because it looks to be quite awesome.  An OSR mini-setting and bestiary by Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) that should do for the color green what The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence did for purple.

I've worked closely with Glynn Seal for a couple years now, and there's nobody I trust more to fulfill a Kickstarter than him.  It's obvious that a lot of care and planning went into this project.  The Midderlands is his first solo Kickstarter project, so I can understand wanting to get it right.

Check out the sample pages, art, maps, and evocative descriptions!

VS

O5R Dwimmermount session #2

June is a busy month, so I lost two players from last session and gained a new player (with whom I've gamed a lot over the years).

The PCs:  Sir-Yut the human ranger (female), Iron Fist the dwarven fighter, George the human druid, and Bel-Vadren the elven magic-user.

So much stuff happened that I'm going to give the highlights (in no particular order)...

• Finally got to use The S'rulyan Vault map from last year's Kickstarter.  It really made the game come alive - without using a terrain map and miniatures that could disrupt our theater of the mind approach.
• Before returning to Dwimmermount, the party acquired a new hireling in town - a 1st level human thief named Barret.  He mostly keeps to himself, usually stays out of battle, and charges 5 gold pieces per day.
• I remembered to whip out the massive DCC tome in order to get the mercurial magic table for all spells cast.  There were a lot of interesting results!  The rat-like demons who crawl out of the wizard's sleeves to fight alongside him was possibly the best.
• The PCs discovered several steel cylinders containing azoth - a rare and potent sorcerous liquid that can be used to enhance magical properties.  Instead of black, as Dwimmermount describes it, I went with a luminous yellowish-green, like Predator blood... and Mountain Dew (seemed appropriate).
  
• I realize that more than ever, I should be rolling for the amount of noise being made in the next room, especially when characters are actively listening for it.  This is what I came up with.
• They fought gnolls, goblins, humanoids wearing dead spider parts, crab-men, a hollow-man from the DCC bestiary, and a gelatinous green troll based on a normal troll but given a little gin-sequoia via the Monster-Palooza random table in How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss. The only death was at the end with the green slime troll - Barret was hit, failed his save, and melted into a pool of slime.
• The PCs ransacked a forbidden library - all the books, save one, fell apart in their hands just like that scene in the original The Time Machine film.  The remaining book was magical and contained the spell Flaming Claw of the Demon!
• A wand was discovered hidden under a lip of some marble altar the crab-men were using to sacrifice one of the spider-worshiping dudes.  "Tastes like crab, talks like people."  Wands are interesting because they expend charges in order to make magic.  This particular wand had three spell-like abilities and each one used up a different amount of charges.  The wand was almost dry, but Bel-Vadren had the idea of soaking it in the azoth - turns out he was right!  The wand was fully charged again.
• One wooden door was carved with a triangle within a circle and that symbol had been glazed with azoth recently.  It was also trapped, as it happens.  Barret doesn't do so well with magical traps.  Luckily, George got in the habit of knocking on each door with his ten-foot pole after Barret's check.  It went from a ten-foot pole to a nine-foot and nine-inch pole as a sorcerous scythe swiped down and took three inches off it.
  
• I used a really old homebrew gemstone random table.  Wanted to use my translucent green Kort'thalis Publishing dice with the demon/dragon logo in pace of the "6."  First time I rolled the percentile dice, it came up "100," that made one of the found gemstones a star stone (aka sorcerer's crystal) which effectively doubled the potency of a wizard's spell once per day.
• Another time I rolled on the gem table one of the diamonds came up cursed.  To differentiate that diamond from the others, I had Harold roll on the color random table also from How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss.  The diamond had eggplant coloring with amethyst veins.  The cursed gem was simply bad luck.  Using the wand to remove its curse, the purple diamond became good luck, giving the owner a +1 to any roll he wished, once per day.
• They also picked up a magic weapon - a short sword +1, +3 vs. wizards; it detects the presence of undead with a sparkling black jewel in the hilt's crosspiece - it glows unnaturally when undead are within 30'.
• There was a dimly lit room where several robed cultists, chanting, sat around a feebly glowing shape set into a stone presentation area in the middle of the chamber.  It was faceted and semi-translucent, it's glow was faint because of all the caked-on dirt, grime, dust, and cobwebs covering it.  One of the cultists was about to pour a decanter of azoth upon the weird glass object.  The cultists were killed, with the pourer dying first.
• Bel-Vadren attempted the same trick as the cultist pouring azoth.  The azoth trickled upon an ordinary spider which turned it monstrously large and mutated.  It bit the magic-user's face which made him nauseous (with vomiting), but also gave him 4 arms.  After the spider was killed, George decided to smash one of the facets with his nine-foot and nine-inch pole.  I rolled a saving throw for the ancient vessel of magic and rolled a "1."  Bye bye, demon containment unit!  Luminous steam rose from the glass-like object and a malevolent presence entered George.  They now share possession of George's body and soul.
  
• In a circular chamber sat a large, hairy, corpulent demon upon a throne, attended by a variety of demonic humanoids.  There was wine and Iron Fist rolled a natural 20 to sneak up to the cask of wine and drink himself silly.  In exchange for a piece of jade found earlier, he let the adventurers pass through, after George negotiated with him in private, allowing them to head down the stairs to the next level of the dungeon, if they so wished (they did not).

If you're saying to yourself, "Hmm, this doesn't sound like the Dwimmermount I know," well... I've definitely made it my own.  There's a passing resemblance, but no other GM will mistake his Dwimmermount for mine.  It's been Vengerized!

We're all looking forward to next month's session #3.  Until then, I've got a bunch of exciting new content for this blog and Draconic Magazine.  Stay tuned.

VS

p.s.  Want your own (possibly) giant old school dungeon map?  The S'rulyan Vault II kickstarter is still happening.

Printed out the first S'rulyan Vault map

I shall be buried with this giant bastard of an old school dungeon map.  Let this blog post serve as my final will and testament.

For those curious, after my 25% off coupon from FedEx Office, this 46" x 36" color printed and laminated sheet cost me about $90.  Yeah, I didn't have to go that big (see that diminutive blue thing on the right - that's a full-size set of Chessex dice).  No, I didn't have to laminate it.  Sure, it's a pretty penny, but this is my "forever dungeon."

The thing I love most about it?  The little cracks drawn into the dungeon floor.

It'll take up the majority of damn near any gaming table you set it on.  The thing is beautiful!  +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) did an amazing job.  This Saturday afternoon, I finally get a chance to try it out.

You see, my lame hand-drawn map of Dwimmermount sucked and even though the rooms and corridors are different shapes and configurations, I'll make it work for the monthly old school D&D dungeoncrawl.

I'm putting the whip to Glynn in order to make The S'rulyan Vault II even more badass, so definitely swing on by and back this Kickstarter.

Thanks,

VS

The S'rulyan Vault II

It's not the Kickstarter project I planned on (Gamma Turquoise KS happening spring, 2018), but it's the one I'm doing right now.  I'll be moving sometime in December, and didn't want the time, energy, and stress of that to affect what I can do for my wonderful backers (Love you guys!).

Plus, it's just fucking time for more dungeoning, am I right?  Glynn's already got his dungeon thinking cap on and will get me some preliminary sketches next week.  I want this mega-map (each quadrant is like it's own dungeon - put them together and it becomes a mega-map) to be different - older, deeper, and stranger... also more dense.

And I've got some exciting ideas for the PDF of random tables and whatnot that will accompany the map files.  I want to help GMs quickly and easily make "normal" dungeons more exotic and special, allowing you to run an awesomely non-standard dungeoncrawl on the fly - without any more than a few minutes of preparation!

I set The S'rulyan Vault II Kickstarter for 15 days, so there's about 2 weeks left.  If this is something you might want, please help us make it a reality with your generous support!  Be sure to get the word out - share this news with your gaming friends.

Thanks,

VS

O5R Dwimmermount Campaign

I finally started a new fantasy RPG camapign - old school D&D; although, I'll be using modified Sword & Wizardry rules and the mercurial magic random table from Dungeon Crawl Classics.

One of the players was reading an extra S&W book on hand and was shocked to see that it was just like Dungeons & Dragons from the 80's.  How could they do that, he asked?  I told him about the open gaming license of WotC D&D, the OSR, etc.

Despite the hefty price tag $75, I've decided to run Dwimmermount based on everything I've read about it on Grognardia by +James Maliszewski.  But it will most assuredly be my Dwimmermount - I'm changing things up here and there.

My table had 5 players, all of them opting to begin play with 4 zero level characters.  That means 20 PCs began in Muntberg, chatted with some possible hirelings, one hedonistic cleric making plans for a debauched celebration upon his return, and then made their way - with "crank master" Karn, Muntberg's drawbridge operator, along for the ride.  One of the PCs actually convinced Karn to pay him 2 gold pieces in order to join the adventuring party.

They met some orcs with a metal detector, disabled a laser eye above the double iron door entrance to Dwimmermount, and many were burned in a second altercation with even more orcs who used alchemist's fire .  Oh yeah, one thief was dissolved from the inside by a green slime that fell from the ceiling.  And another's life was drained from him at the touch of a shrieking phantom coming through the wall.

Out of 20 PCs and 3 NPCs who set out on this journey, the party ended the session with 9 PCs and 2 NPCs.  So, pretty much 50%.  Here is the list of survivors...

1. Nopers, Fighter, Dwarf
2. Daycy, Fighter, Human
3. Iron Fist, Fighter, Dwarf
4. Cheye, Magic-User, Human
5. Mabnezer, Druid, Half-Elf
6. Dormud, Cleric, Dwarf
7. Sir-Yut, Ranger, Human
8. Kalbana, Cleric, Human
9. George, Druid, Human

_______

1. Sage, Magic-User, Human
2. Poncenbee, Figher, Human

It was fun to get back to old school D&D again and I enjoyed running something that I've never ran before.  I haven't used experience points to track levels in years, so that's a conscious decision I wanted to make.

I also wanted to keep advantage/disadvantage and inspiration (with modifications) from 5e.  Whenever a spell is cast for the first time, I have the player roll on Dungeon Crawl Classics' mercurial magic table to see how that spell will affect the world whenever it's cast by that particular magic-user.

Here's my favorite line of the session, in regards to interrogation:  "Nothing good in orc is ever said."

Someone picked up a magic sword that not only yielded a +1 bonus to hit and damage foes, but also protected its wielder from harm once per day (up to 5 points of non-magical damage). I intend all magic swords to be sentient with a personality all their own.  I'm rolling now (as I type this) on the tables in The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence... 

(22) Foreign Speaking and (5) A sorcerer named Zar'toro created the sword; he wove spells into its steel, making sure it would be able to face the coming war between Law and Chaos.  Which makes sense, because after the sword was picked up I rolled its alignment as Neutral.  Now, should it speak French, Latin, or something else...

I plan to follow-up with session #2 in June.  I honestly can't wait - wish like Hell I could swing a weekly game, but with a sleep-deprived wife and 5 kids... it just ain't in the cards.

VS

50 Shades of Vorpal review

"No one knows what offense the Taurian Empire gave to the Lich King, perhaps he was just being a dick."

I was not a part of the 50 sHAdes of VORpal kickstarter by Arthas Soulgazer (cool name), though I checked it after reading Tenkar's non-review last week.

Based on the kickstarter page and free preview on DriveThruRPG, I decided to give it a whirl.  Even if the whole thing is a pile of humorous excrement - at least it's funny!

Last night, I purchased the PDF for $5 and here is my impression...

Comparisons have been made with Encounter Critical.  While both games are comedic pranks on gamers, allowing readers to peek inside the fantasy heartbreaker minds of the authors, there are several differences.  Encounter Critical is a sophisticated, innovative, old school, labor of love by one or more slightly confused yet well-meaning amateurs.  It's meant to be a product of the mid-70's that reaches for the stars.

50 Shades of Vorpal comes from the mind of one or more contemporary dudes who purposefully set out to emulate something like old school Dungeons & Dragons, but way more juvenile, idiotic, and single-minded in its love of hack and slash.  It's like if HackMaster 4th edition were re-imagined by Beavis and Butthead.

While Encounter Critical and 50 Shades of Vorpal have similarities, they are completely different games with night and day approaches to the ultimate goal - making the awesomest parody game possible!  Although, this being 2016/2017, the latter not only wants to set down their idealized dreams of dark magic, deadly swords, and touching boobies in concrete, effectively cementing their glory in the halls of RPG fame and infamy - this is also clearly a way to make some cash.

Is there an actual system here, an actual RPG?  No, not really.  There's a bit of setting, a few monsters, loads of character classes and several races, but combat consists of adding a silly list of bonuses to a couple d30 rolls and comparing that with an opponent's ARMOR RANK.  If you hit, you do damage.  That's the core of the engine... pretty much the entire engine.  The rest is badly spelled window dressing like deth magic, preoccupation with loot, and sexism.

And that's part of the joke.  So many aspects of 50 Shades is phoned in that the game feels incomplete.  Various sections are blank, many earmarked with notations for adding future content - content that never actually made it into the book.  While that, too, is funny, after the first couple times, it loses something.

However, it is the attitude on display that provides the most humor.  Laser-focus on what makes an awesome character class and race shines a light on the worst gamer stereotypes.  But unlike the negative stereotypes which we, hopefully, don't embody, like living in our mom's basement well into our thirties and not showering regularly, 50 Shades brings up traits that are present, albeit in small quantities, in almost every gamer...

Awkward phrasing, typos, and combining tired fantasy cliches with not-well-thought-out flashes of inspiration all in the pursuit of that ever elusive awesomeness.  I've chased that particular crimson dragon myself on a thousand occasions.  The only difference is that my unsightly excretions get edited over and over again, or should I say flushed down the toilet of bad ideas implemented poorly.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading these 64 pages - including several blank pages - and got my money's worth.  Before I go, let me showcase a few of my favorite things from 50 Shades of Vorpal...

• It uses a d30 because that's 10 more than a d20, reminding me of the amp that goes all the way up to 11 in This is Spinal Tap.
• It has weapon coolness ratings based on how awesome someone looks when wielding a certain weapon.  
• The illustrations - right out of high school study hall.  Most are decent in a youthful amateur hand-made kind of way, though some are actually fairly badass!
• The never-solved divide between warriors and wizards.  Both sides feel they need to escalate the cold war and so each struggles to become even more ridiculously awesome.
• Going further than explaining the rules or giving helpful advice, the text pretty much tells you what to think and occasionally comes up with raw truthisms such as, "Bosses get to boss."
• Diving into the dark recesses of this male-dominated hobby with both feet.  Here's an over-the-top offering, "Female characters retire after making babies, so don't get pregnant.  This is a fantasy game, so you can't just go making stuff up that you didn't get pregnant when you really did."

Well, that's all for my review.  While neither version of Crimson Dragon Slayer goes anywhere near this level of awesome/awful, I was inspired to create a d30 random table for only the most "deth knight" kind of fantasy roleplaying!  Also, this!!!

VS

Purely a Throwback

This blog post is just a minor rant about the latest edition/printing of Swords & Wizardry kickstarter.  There's an undercurrent of what I'd call "anti-OSR agenda" which I think the Progressive Gaming Coalition should be made aware of.

We’re starting to run low on our stock of the 2nd printing, and it’s time to print some more. We didn’t just want to do an exact reprint, and the history of the changes here date back a while ago to when we were talking with designer Stacy Dellorfano about the fact that many OSR games have a physical appearance and presentation that really targets the 40 year old guys who’ve been gaming since forever, and doesn’t have nearly as much appeal to younger or female gamers of the generations following that first wave of players from the 1980s. In point of fact, old-school games, with their light-rules aspect and emphasis on a game master’s “common sense” interpretation of situations, are actually a really good tool for anyone who feels like rules-lawyers may be spoiling the game by trying to be over-authoritative or even overbearing with a GM. But if the appearance and presentation make the game look like it’s purely a throwback and not a modern tool for good gaming, then there’s a real obstacle to the game’s push into the mainstream gaming community.


Yeah, why target your actual demographic when you can try to appeal to a wide array of people who have very little interest in your product?

I'll let readers decide for themselves if a pure throwback cover depicts what's really involved with game play or if it's just expected window-dressing.  Truth in advertising is not my main point here.  No, my main point is where Swords & Wizardry equates old school gaming and the sword and sorcery genre itself as a kind of primordial relic for less evolved cavemen engaging in bad/wrong fun.
Furthermore, that we throwbacks might be an obstacle to "the mainstream gaming community."  A community that seems ready to leave us behind.


As a result of this analysis, we engaged Stacy as a designer to produce an edition that’s no less appealing to older male gamers, while being MORE appealing to younger and to female gamers. Stacy put together a team, all women, to address this dual objective. We think her team has done an awesome job, and when you see the design results, we think you’ll agree.


There's been more than a little outcry regarding the cover artwork alone.  It evidently is less appealing to older male gamers.  However, I've no idea if it's more appealing to younger or female gamers.

Again, why cater to your fanbase when you could go for an entirely different kind of fan - gamers who may only be mildly interested in old school fantasy roleplaying?  Why give your audience what it wants when you could alienate them instead?

I just can't understand why Frog God Games is bending their knee to a small but vocal sub-set of gamers who would love nothing more than taking excessive gore, demons and devils, sexuality and eroticism (especially of female flesh), "toxic masculinity," and adult situations out of the game - out of the RPG hobby, if they could!  And why not throw out "white male privilege" while we're at it?

Unfortunately, we think there may be some controversy about the fact that the design team here is made up entirely of women. We’ve already heard a couple of comments that generally turn on the idea of “Why restrict the project to women designers? Shouldn’t the objective be to pull the best talent whether male or female? What a gimmick.” We’d like to address that out front, rather than have it turn into a back-channel controversy in the halls of the internet. The missing piece of information is this: there are so many different directions that a project can take that there’s no such thing as “the best talent.” Given our goal of making the game more accessible, we hired – through Stacy – talent that coordinates with the goal. We asked Stacy to put together an all-woman team not as a societal goal, but because she had the chops to assemble the kind of team we wanted. This isn’t a “pink” edition of the rules. It’s the more-accessible next printing that we are targeting toward the mainstream market. It has always been our goal to get the open-ended rules of 1974-78 gaming into the mainstream, and this is our objective here. We think that Stacy’s team has hit this goal out of the ballpark, and we think you’ll agree.


I have no problem with a design team made up entirely of women, just as I don't have a problem with an all-female cast in a movie or clubs that only have women members.  But I do take issue with notions that this edition will be "more accessible" or "mainstream."  For an RPG book on adventuring in the lands of Georgia O'Keeffe?  Yeah, sure... maybe.  But an RPG like Swords & Wizardry?  Come on!

That cover and this attempt at making the decision less controversial have nothing to do with rules circa 1974 - 78.  Nothing to do with old school fantasy.  Nothing to do with the mainstream RPG community or market.

So what is it?  In my view, it's a sad attempt at divorcing S&W from the OSR niche and the gaming culture we all know and love.  If Frog God Games wanted S&W to be more "inclusive," they could have done an homage to Taarna from Heavy Metal or Red Sonja.  Of course, in the eyes of the outrage brigade, those icons of sword and sorcery females would have been too exploitative.

So, even though I'm a fan of the prior printings/editions of Swords & Wizardry, I've got to say shame on Frog God Games for coming out with this and not listening to their fans who're appalled by the results.  And I have to say that I'm also quite disappointed with +Erik Tenkar for not condemning this aesthetic repudiation of the OSR.

Thank the Gods there are old school sword and sorcery creators within and without the O5R who have not forgotten why we fight, why we bleed, and why we die!

Venger As'Nas Satanis
High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing

p.s.  If you're looking for no holds barred roleplaying, check out the right-hand sidebar.

"One Hour Game" for Crimson Dragon Slayer

I was inspired by the posts of +Erik Tenkar on his Tenkar's Tavern blog.  Here is the first post where his idea really takes off.  And that post was inspired by Free RPG Day and how it struggles to bring new people into the hobby.

Sometimes, it seems like we're re-inventing the wheel a thousand times over.  Yet, I believe there's value in what Erik is doing with his Swords & Wizardry: Light.

That's why I've been taking a little time off from Universal Exploits to create an even shorter, streamlined version of Crimson Dragon Slayer.  It will be a free PDF with professional layout and cartography by +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal).  This should be available by July 11th, which just so happens to be Crimson Dragon Slayer Day!

At this time, I'm not sure what the exact page number will be.  It's definitely going to be longer than 4 pages because the manuscript will also include a short scenario and artwork by +Craig Brasco.

Hopefully, this "One Hour Game" version of Crimson Dragon Slayer will attract new blood since demonstrations can be as short as 60 minutes.  A lighter than light version (CDS is already pretty damned "rules lite," just like S&W) usable by super noobs who don't know the first thing about fantasy roleplaying, except maybe they've heard of Dungeons & Dragons.  Perhaps, it could be popular at conventions...

In any case, I'd like to thank Erik and the RPG community he's built for inspiring me to re-invent the wheel one thousand and one times.  ;)

Thanks for reading,

Venger As'Nas Satanis
High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing

Crimson Dragon Slayer Day approaches!

Yep, every July 11th, (you can remember it by the convenience store 7/11) is Crimson Dragon Slayer Day!  It's coming up, so definitely prepare by doing one or more of the following...

• Talking about the Crimson Dragon Slayer RPG... on sale right freakin' now (CreateSpace version here)!
• Posting your Crimson Dragon Slayer related home-brewed gaming stuff somewhere on the internet.
• Send me your Crimson Dragon Slayer related stuff - I'd like to put out a short PDF containing community created content - this PDF will be free and your name will be included as a contributor.
• Running a Crimson Dragon Slayer game!
• Playing in a Crimson Dragon Slayer game!
• Creating some Crimson Dragon Slayer artwork that can be used in conjunction with the free PDF.
• Write a Crimson Dragon Slayer review for the RPG or an adventure.
• Submit a Crimson Dragon Slayer article or essay for inclusion in Draconic Magazine.

Though it's been a little while since I've written any Crimson Dragon Slayer adventures, available here and here, I have not forgotten about my quasi-OSR, sword, sorcery, and silliness RPG of biblical (because of all the sex and violence) proportions.  Bits and pieces shall be forthcoming!

Help me celebrate Crimson Dragon Slayer Day(!) on Monday, July 11th.  Game until awesome licks the blood from an evil sword!

Thanks,

Venger As'Nas Satanis

High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing

Vault's open - come on in!

The S'rulyan Vault is officially here.

As I was explaining to someone only an hour ago, this product is mostly about the maps.  It's big, it took a long time to make, and costs are what they are.  The dungeon even comes in two different colors - old school blue/white and a golden brown parchment hue.

The PDF is meant to be the icing on the cake.  That doesn't mean I'm not extremely proud of the PDF, though.  I am.  I think it turned out really well and I'm excited to hear feedback from gamers who use my guidelines and random tables in their dungeon.

But yeah, this isn't a fully formed mega-dungeon with fleshed out encounters.  The meat and potatoes of it is up to the GM.  I merely provided the salad, appetizer, bread, and dessert.  The actual entree itself is not included.

So, keep in mind that you're mostly paying for the large, high-resolution map files that can be blown up to 34" x 44" at a professional print shop.

The PDF is 20 pages of neat stuff that will add depth to the dungeoncrawl that YOU create, whether that's mostly on-the-fly or with a few hours of campaign prep depends on what kind of GM you are.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

VS

Dungeon Crawl like it's 1983!

Last night, whilst coming up with more random table fodder, Glynn Seal of +MonkeyBlood Design sent me some snapshots, or "oblique angle visuals" as he called them, to help promote The S'rulyan Vault.

Pretty damn cool, if I say so myself.  The blue and white old school look of this deluxe dungeon is classic.  Glynn is adding some of his personal touches like cracked tiles and a variety of little symbols for statues, altars, curtains, pools, stalagmites, fungi, tentacles, etc.  Plus, some of Glynn's custom icons for god-knows-what!  It's going to be a lot of fun to look at, let alone explore with your adventuring party.

Originally, the lighter parchment with black ink and darker parchment with black ink were going to be separate files.  I liked them both and asked Glynn if it was possible to do the lighter parchment for interior areas like rooms and corridors with the darker parchment hue for all exterior spaces.  Lo and behold, it's possible!

Also, the 5 - 7 (at minimum) page PDF will have a full color cover and interior black and white illustration by Kort'thalis Publishing's house artist Bojan Sucevic.  You can see a work-in-progress image of the cover on the right.

The PDF file will be updated periodically via DriveThruRPG when I come up with additional GM material for running a dungeon of this magnitude.  Who knows how extensive the final document will eventually become?

For those who haven't read the mega-dungeon's history, here it is.

Once The S'rulyan Vault kickstarter has reached its first stretch goal of $1,000, the parchment version of the mega-dungeon will be unlocked and available to all backers on June 1st.

That's it.  Have a great week!  Don't be shy about commenting, sharing, blogging, re-posting, and mentioning The S'rulyan Vault on social media.  That's how we'll get to 1K and beyond.  ;)

VS