Nothing at the Minimum: A Review Zak Smith’s Maximum Everything Always Art Opening

First off Zak did not ask, plead, beg, threaten, coerce, bribe, beat, or blackmail me in anyway to do this review.  Now that is out of the way, let us move on.  Second I have never done an art review, so if I fuck this up, make some weird faux pas, or whatever..  then fuck all and forgive me….  Anyways…

ON TO THE REVIEW- The Epic Scale of Awesome.

Many in the RPG community (and outside it, for obvious reasons), know that Zak S. is a kick ass artist.  I have enjoyed his art since I discovered his blog and his awesome RPG book, Vornheim.  So it was with no small amount of excitement that I went to his art opening yesterday at Fredericks & Freiser in NYC.

My girlfriend and I arrived at the gallery at 6 and was greeted by Zak and Mandy.  Both were immediately friendly and welcoming (and also very busy greeting and mingling with everyone who was milling around).  That was a bonus to them, as there was no pretentiousness or “too cool for school” attitude that can sometimes permeate these type of events.

Oh yeah… You can see this there… You just have to get off your ass and go.

After meeting them briefly I dove right in and started looking around the room taking in Zak’s art.  And let me tell you, there is SO MUCH to take in.  A common phrase with art is “pictures don’t do it justice.  It loses something when you can’t see it right in front of you.”  That is no less true with Zak’s work.  The amount of detail in his art is staggering.  Zak goes from minute detail in one frame of a piece, to an effortless simplicity in the next- but that isn’t to say that it is diminished.  On the contrary Zak’s use of colors or framing in those places only set to enhance the rest of the work, and in some ways give a side of whimsy (which I’m sure Zak will hate me for using such a word and associating it with his work).

Zak’s choice of colors and how he manipulates them in contrast to the the black and white portions of his art is impressive.  The way he saturates his colors and makes them vibrate is very enjoyable and really makes his pieces pop and come to life.  The picture below is a perfect example of his use of colors (I love the ashtray in the lower right corner).

A piece that I have enjoyed since he first posted it on his tumblr (because the sheer detail in it is mind-fucking-boggling) was at the gallery (see the piece below).  Seeing this piece in person was really amazing.  You can appreciate the detail of his art from a computer, but you can’t take in all the little nuances of it.  Angie and I must have stared at this piece for a good 10-15 minutes, come back to it, stare again, and find something new.

On to Nerdalacious Things

As I was yaking with Zak, he took me over to a piece in a corner and proudly pointed out that it was the art that would be in his upcoming Alice in Wonderland module: Eat Me.  I really enjoyed seeing Zak’s interpretations of one of my favorite stories of all time which at that point I had to prove my street cred and show Zak my Jabberwocky and Alice at the Trail of Cards tattoos.

So on that front I am really curious and excited to see what Zak does with the adventure (especially because Zak tends to view modules like I do, unusable blocks of text and exposition).

Will you, won’t you… join the dance.

At the End of the Journey

While looking at the art two gorgeous women in appreciatively tight dresses were walking amongst the views offering them tasty glazed donuts!  What is NOT to like about that!

I had a great time view some truly awesome art and getting to finally meet Zak in person.

Zak’s art show will be going on for a month.  Do yourself a favor and get your ass to Mars (or Fredericks and Freiser) and see his awesome art!

People SH!T Be Pimped! Come Take a Look!

We all be Pimpin!

I did a post asking for people to submit links to posts they are proud of or that have been buried due to the passage of time or other posts!  People have stepped up and delivered!

If you want your shit to be pimped just post the links in the comments below and I’ll add them.

These are arranged in no particular order.

Logan Knight (G+ page)

Do Not Take Me For a Turner of Cheap Tricks

I Gotta Have Faith

Full of Clerical Errors

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Trey Causey (G+ Page)

Release of Weird Adventures (G+ Page)

Weird Adventures is Here!

Star Trek Science Fiction Adventure

The Devastated City Crawl

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Christopher Wood (G+ page)

Carapace Crafting

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Ian Johnson (G+ page)

Muscle Wizard

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Ben Djarum (G+ page)

Hobgoblin Queen’s Birthday (3 parts)

Xygalia and Rauina (two demonesses)

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Zzarchov Kowolski (G+ page)

Gnomes of Levnec Adventure

Adventure Convert-o-tronica 9000 (for converting adventures when lazy)

Generating Random Encounters

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R.J. Thompson (G+ page)

Musings on an Old School Sorcerer Class

Musings on an Old School Sorcerer Class 2: The Castles and Crusades Factor

Musings on an Old School Sorcerer Class 3: The Castles and Crusades Prototype

OSR/Castles and Crusades Sorcerer Spell List

The Old School Sorcerer, Swords and Wizardry Style

Back to the Appendices, or Revisiting my Fantasy Appendix N

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Paolo Greco (G+ page)

Campaign/Sandbox Creation

Conceptual Isometic Map

One Page Monster Generator

Game Mechanics for Rogues

5more System: Lightweight resolution system for Adventure Fantasy Game

Burgs and Bailiffs

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Heron Prior (G+ page)

Trolls Will Be Trolls One Page Dungeon

Cry of the Gravegod One Page Dungeon

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Dak Ultimak (G+ page)

Magical Calendar Date Generator

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Reynaldo Mandrinan (G+ page)

Classes

Barovania Locales: Sasha’s Tower

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Joey Lindsey (G+ page)

Halls of Wrath

Blood Tree Tunnels of the Swamp Witch

The Bastard Class for OSR D&D games

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Alex Schroeder (G+ page)

Swiss Referee Style Manual

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Christian Kolbe (G+ page)

Task Resolutions

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Jack Shear (G+ page)

Flesh Golems

Igors

Mummy Lords

Lycanthropes

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Mike Evans (wrathofzombie) (G+ page)

Savage Worlds of Shadowrun

Complete Firefly and Scifi Toolkit- Hack of Vornheim

Firefly: Hurtlin’ Through the ‘Verse RPG

Wrathofzombie Strange and Gritty Sword and Sorcery Frankenhack RPG 

Wrath of Zombie Survival Horror RPG

Google + RPG Directory

Forestcrawling Kit

So You Decided to Make Camp, eh?

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Joseph Teller (G+ page)

Fantasy Library- Links to older downloadable RPGs

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Anthony Brotherton (G+ page)

Free Mapping Resources

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Venger Satanis (G+ page)

GM Bootcamp!

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Jeff and Jen (Tabletop Talk Shop)

Short Adventure Challenges

What Makes an Impromptu RPG

Fairy-tale Themed FATE Adventure

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Darcy Perry (Hits to Kill)

A Dozen Tharks- Awesomely painted minis!

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Wilhelm (Wilper’s Blog)

Playing with (Adult) Beginners

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Stuart Robertson (G+ page)

Fighting Groups in Dungeons and Dragons

Combat Fatigue, Weakness and Wounds in OSR D&D

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Richard G (G+ page)

Tartary Primer

Formless Spawn of Azoth

Coelomia: Island of Secrets.  For the Sea of O’sr

On CHA, WIS, and POW-based Magics

Architects of Mars

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Joshua Macy (G+ page)

Fear in RPGs

Scary Scary Monsters

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Humza Kazmi (G+ page)

Nature Isn’t Red, it’s Kinda Tan

Dungeons and Dominion

D&D and the Roadside Picnic

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Kirin Robinson (G+ page)

So You Wanna Hire a Henchmen?

Hireling Names

Mid-Level Starting Character Random Quirk Table

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Roger GS (Roles, Rules, and Rolls)

Awesome Chase System

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Courtney Campbell (G+ page)

Psionics

Adventure Design

RPG Theory

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Ian McDougall (The Benign Brown Beast)

Snake Oil

The Plane of Shadow

The Crooked Baths

The Grinning Devil and Why He Grinned That Night

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Rob Lang (G+ page)

How to Write a Free RPG

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Brett Slocum (G+ page)

When You Get Lost in a Dungeon

Testing Eyes to Determine Their Nature

Stop Wringing Your Hands and Start Playing

Delving into the Underworld

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Edward Wilson (G+ page)

Righteous Cloud Temple- Campaign Idea

Keepers of the Divine Flame

Granatus VI- Warhammer 40k scenario

Rise of the Lich Lord- Campaign Idea

Urban Crawl Rules for Slacker DM

How about WWI Dungeon Crawling

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Terje Nordin (G+ page)

Psychedelic Sorcery

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Paul Thornton (G+ page)

A Big Milestone has Passed, so You Can All Have a Free NPC Each

A Historical Look at Crossbows in RPGs

To be an Archer

The Murder Strike, and Other Historical Ways to Get More Use of a Long Sword

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Simon Forster (G+ page)

Goblin Kiss

Simple Rules for Knocking People Out

Variant Classes

Halfling Callings

I Declare it Pimp Yo SH!T Week!

Time to Pimp That Shit

I love reading blogs and seeing all the cool ideas that people come up with.  Charts, tables, encounters, settings, adventures, etc.

There’s only one problem…  A) that shit gets buried under other awesome ideas and random posts, never to be seen or heard from again.

That’s why it’s  Pimp Yo Shit Week!

Dig through your blog, find the posts that you have done that you are proud of or want to see the light of day again and either comment on this post or on my Google+ page (if you’re in my circles) WITH THE LINK TO THE POST (this is the important part).  On 5/29/13 I will compile a page of all these wonderful ideas as a full post and then put a link to it on my blog toolbar.

Warforged DCCified

Warforged

You were originally a mindless machine, built to be nothing more than an expendable soldier of war.  You fought in the front lines of battle, never feeling exhilaration, remorse, or horror for the hundreds you’ve left dead at your feet.

Two years ago, whether by some grand design or by alchemical flaw, all the Warforged throughout the world suddenly became sentient.  As a newly awakened race you have to deal with prejudice, bitterness, and misunderstanding pouring in around you from all sides.

You have trouble grasping simple concepts and the customs of those around you, as they are so foreign and make little sense.  Slowly though you are beginning to understand and are growing accustomed to these weird emotional fleshy creatures around you.

While you attempt to grow and learn in this new world, one thing is for certain; you were built for war.  Nothing excites you like the pounding of the drums, the screams of the dying, and blood dripping down your face.

Hit Points: A Warforged gains 1d10 HP per level.

 

Weapon Training: Warforged are trained in all manner of weaponry.  They cannot wear any armor (see below).

 

Alignment: Neutral

Attack Modifier: Warforged do not receive a fixed attack modifier at each level.  Instead they receive a deed die, like the Warrior.  The deed die is rolled each round to generate the attack modifier.  See the chart below to see the deed die advancement.  The bonus of the deed die is also a modifier for damage.

 

Mighty Deeds: You were constructed for battle.  A Warforged can perform Mighty Deeds as a Warrior.

 

Construct: As a living construct a Warforged does not require sleep, food, or air.  They are also immune to diseases and poisons.  Due to being a construct normal magical means of healing are not as effective on you, only giving you half the amount (minimum of 1HP back).

Natural Armor: The body of a Warforged is made of tough metal and wood and gives natural armor protection.  Treat the armor class of a Warforged as being equipped with scale mail (+4).  Due to this natural construction a Warforged suffers no check penalties skill checks. The construction of a Warforged body makes it so they cannot wear any other armor.  Your body is so heavy that you cannot swim, but sink to the bottom and must walk along the sea floor.

 

Punch Them in the Face: A Warforged fist is hard metal and wood and does 1d4 damage.

Tinkering: Choose one at level 1

• Retractable Arm Blade- Pops out of hand.  Treat as short sword damage (1d6).
• Electric Blast- The gem in the center of the Warforged chest can deliver an electric blast that deals 1d6 damage with a successful ranged attack.
• Thick Plating- The natural armor of the Warforged is increased to +2, as though they are wearing banded mail.
• Shrapnel Explosion- You were designed to do as much damage as possible should you be deactivated.  When you fall unconscious bits of metal and pellet burst from you in a 10ft radius.  All in that zone take 2d6 damage (Ref Save DC 12 for half damage).

Outsider:  Social interactions are difficult for you to grasp.  Any personality check you make is reduced one step on the die ladder.

Nuts and Bolts: You are able to create a salve that you can apply to your damaged body, healing you for 1d6+1HP.  The parts cost 250gp and take 2 hours to create.

Languages: A Warforged knows common.

Warforged
Level	Attack (Deed Die)	Crit Die/Table	Action Die	Ref	Fort	Will
1	+d3*	1d10/III	1d20	+0	+1	+1
2	+d4*	1d12/III	1d20	+1	+1	+1
3	+d4*	1d14/III	1d20	+1	+2	+1
4	+d5*	1d16/IV	1d20	+1	+2	+2
5	+d6*	1d20/IV	1d20	+2	+3	+2
6	+d6*	1d24/IV	1d20+1d8	+2	+3	+3
7	+d8*	1d30/IV	1d20+1d12	+3	+4	+3
8	+d10*	1d30/IV	1d20+1d16	+3	+4	+4
9	+d10+1*	2d20/IV	1d20+1d20	+3	+5	+4
10	+d10+2*	2d20/IV	1d20+1d20+1d10	+3	+5	+5

Warforged Titles
Level
1	Walking Clock
2	Automaton
3	Trooper
4	Juggernaut
5	War Machine

Quick Mass Combat Rules and Even Quicker Mass Combat Rules (at the bottom)

I have yet to fully test these rules and see if they work or, in fact, suck a big donkey dong…  Feel free to give feedback.

Mass Combat Rules

Macro Level

 

Players can communally control the units (or rolls), or just take turns.

Units are in measures of 5, 10, 20.   This is abstract, and just to illustrate how big the army is.

Units represent HP.  (IE- if you have two units, you have 2 HP).

Each unit equals +1 to attack roll.  As units are lost, so is the modifier to attack.

Each unit is represented by die: d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 (see below).

Units

D4

Goblins, skeletons, peasants, zombies, small animals, etc.

D6

Trained solders, orcs, medium animals, etc.

D8

Elite knights, ogres, sorcerers, lycanthropes, etc

D10

Trolls, large animals, vampires, etc.

D12

Tide Turners (see below)

Being cool and creating awesome ideas gives +1 or +2 to roll.  This can be rallying the troops with Saint Crispin’s Day speeches and promises of amazing beer or something else that is clever.

Being lame and boring gives -2 (steeper penalty for being a putz).

Shit like ballistas, ground soaked in tar to light on fire, traps, etc.  That gives +1 each.

Roll each and add/subtract modifiers.  Higher roll wins.  Subtract 1 unit/HP.  Ties mean nothing happens.

Each round is measured in time equal to amount representing each unit- IE 5 min for 5 per unit, 10 min for 10 per unit, etc.

Tide Turners are shit like dragons, bad ass knights riding wyverns, or Goblins riding on Trolls are a d12.  They count as 1 for 1 unit, have 5 HP and +5 to attack (initially).  These are rolled separately.

There is no initiative order.  When fighting each unit rolls against the other.  See example below.

Complications

Every round shit can go crazy and awry with magic, beasts, arrows, etc flying all over the place.

Roll a d6

1-4- Battle progresses normally.

5-6- Incident!

Incident!  (Roll 1d8)

1) Spell explosion rips through the battlefield!  Roll 1d6 1-2) -1 from your army!; 3-4) -1 from enemy troops!; 5-6) -1 from both groups!

2) The horror of battle begins to take a toll on moral! Roll 1d4) Even: -2 to your next roll; Odd) -2 to the enemies next roll.

3) Someone makes a great speech or engages in a truly heroic act and bolsters the units!  Roll 1d4) Even: +2 to your next roll; Odd) +2 to the enemies next roll.

4) Misfire!  A trap goes off damaging some of the troops!  Roll 1d4) Even: -1 from your army!; Odd) -1 from enemy troops!

5) The battle presents too good a target for these opportunists!  Some nasty creature joins the fray as a Tide Turner fighting both sides!

6) A cleric is able to give much needed aid to units!  Roll 1d4) Even: +1 to your army!; Odd: +1 to enemy troops!

7) Reinforcements arrive just in the knick of time!  Roll 1d4) Even: +1d3 units to your army!; Odd: +1d3 units to enemy troops!

8) Clusterfuck!  Roll twice on this table!

Microlevel- players can opt to go “into” combat and control things minutely as their individual characters.  This is resolved per normal combat rules.  Fighting and killing leaders should be handled on the micro level.

Combat Example

A human garrison of 25 troops have fallen under attack by 20 goblin raiders and a goblin riding a troll.  The humans have five units (5HP and an attack of +5).  The goblins have 4 units (4HP and +4 attack).  The Tide Turner has 5 HP and +5 attack.

The human fort has a ballista and several fire traps spread out in the field (this gives +1 each to the humans).

First round: Humans roll 1d6 and get a 5 for a total of 12 (+5 for attack, +1 for the ballista, and +1 for the fire traps).  The goblins rolled a 2 for a total of 4 (+4 for attack).  The humans had the higher roll, effectively killing one unit of the goblin troops.  Now the goblins will have +3 to attack.

Now the Tide Breaker wades in and gets a 6 for a total of 11 (+5 to attack).  The humans roll a 5 for a total of 12 (as before).  The humans win again, and take 1 HP off of the Goblin riding a Troll.

Before Second round: Rolls a 3 on a d6 for complication, no incident.

Second Round: Player suggests throwing rocks over the side of the walls- decent idea, gets +1 for the round.

Humans roll a 6 for a total of 13 (+5 for attack, +1 for the ballista, +1 for the fire traps, and +1 for the throwing rock idea).  The goblins roll a 4 for a total of 7.  The humans kill another unit of the invading goblins.

The troll riding goblin rolls a 12 for a total of 16 and the humans roll a 4 for a total of 12.  The tide turner kills a unit of humans in a bloody, messy rage.

The players decide to go into combat as normal and take control of their characters and deal with the troll riding goblin.

And so on and so on…

Even Quicker Mass Combat Rules

This will require up to nine dice of a particular type that represents the chosen unit (IE- d4 for goblins, d8 for trained knights, etc.).

Each die represents 5, 10, 15, 20 units.

The army with the least amount is the max amount of dice rolled (IE- Goblins have 10 troops, for 2 dice.  The humans have 15, for 3 dice).  For every unit amount above the lesser army, gain +1 to roll.  Roll each and calculate modifiers.  Each high cuts a lesser.  Ties mean no one is lost.

Example: Goblins roll 2d4 and get a 4 and a 2.  Humans roll 2d6 and get a 4 and a 1 equaling a 5 and a 2 (+1 to each roll for having one unit over).  The Goblins lose one die.

Next round the goblin rolls 1d4 and the human rolls 1d6 (+2 for having two additional units).  Keep resolving.

The HUGE List of Random Tables I Use in My Games…. So Good it Makes You Wanna….

Extreme Fapping for Extreme Linkage!

First off here are three pages with a HUGE amount of links that are awesome (but I’m not using all of these).

Telecanter’s Receding Rules

Hack & Slash

Playing D&D With Porn Stars

I’ve broken the charts and tables I use into sections for easy reference.  If you have any suggestions, by all means share a link in the comments!

Hexcrawling

Forestcrawling Kit

Wavecrawling Kit

Random Island Generator

Secret Santicore 2012- d24 Wilderness Encounters

Cannibalization Chart

Strange and Nasty Disease Table

So You Decided to Make Camp, eh?

Strange and Interesting Herbs

Instaregion

Dungeons, Castles, Keeps, and Ruins

Fortress and Castle Generator

 Spicing up Stairways

Dungeon Walls, Ceilings, Floors, and Other Features

Secret Santicore 2012- Traps

Instadungeon

Towns, Inns, Etc

One Hundred Rare Wonders for a Fantasy City

City District Generator

Village Die Drop Generator

Secret Santicore 2012- Remote Gothic Noble Houses

Tavern and Inn Generator

Instatown

You’ll Always Have a Home Here

Adventures

Adventure Location- Loneliest Man 

Adventure Location- Swamp Town of Blatherblab

Secret Santicore 2012- Adventure Location- Tsvari III Penal ship

Items

What’s in the Urn

Weird Treasure Containers

Oddy Bodden’s Stupendously Amazing Magical Dice of Treasures Unimagined and Horrors Rather Left Undiscovered

Oh God What’s in the Bag

Instatreasure

d100 Potions

Social Interactions

Carousing Table

Awesome Table for Philanthropy, Carousing, Research, and Gourmandising

NPCS

Things About Villains

Things About Villains… again

Soup to Nuts Random Villain Generator

Memorable Hirelings

Animals

Killer Dog Selection

Animals Animals Animals

Various

Various things from Santicore

Awesome D30 Tables of Awesomeness

Occupation List for Dungeon Crawl Classics

Faction Rules Using Cards

Ray Harryhausen Tribute d100 list

Thanks for the List TSR

Shit Just Got Religious

Instareligion

Books

Dungeon Alphabet

Vornheim

 

Hubris Campaign Setting- The Twisted and Corrupted Kingdom of Fairweather

Yesterday I did a post boasting about the awesome piece of art I won by the awesome Dave!  I also mentioned that I would give more info on the Fairweather Kingdom, so here it is with a plethora of pictures!  This is for a campaign setting I hope to publish in the near future using the awesome Dungeon Crawl Classic rules!

Here’s the category page of all the Hubris stuff on the blog thus far.

Fairweather

The Kingdom of Fairweather

Fairweather was once considered the jewel of Hubis, but has slipped into the grips of madness, plague, decadence, and debauchery in the two hundred years since The Twisted One first appeared before King Maldran, promising the way to power and knowledge through the purity of blood.  The Reign of the Mad Kings dawned when Maldran and the nobles of Fairweather quickly agreed, and began practicing the Ways of the Flesh.  As the royal family continues to follow the teaching of the Twisted One and engage in inbreeding for the sake of purity of blood, each generation becomes more grotesquely deformed and unstable.  While the nobility is allowed to partake in the pleasures of the flesh of kin, only the royal family is allowed to produce heirs.  Any who are not of noble birth are denied to practice the Ways of the Flesh, and if caught doing so are executed in the most brutal fashion  As the Twisted Ones teachings have become law, the rift between the nobility and the common citizens has grown wider.  The nobility wear extravagant avant-garde fashion, while the poor wear rags in varying shades of brown.

All hail Ithis the Bulge!!

The current king, Ithis the Bulge, is extremely deformed and prone to terrible, violent mood swings.  Ithis is hailed as the God-King, as many believe he is the Twisted One made flesh.  The Fairweather palace rests atop the back of a gigantic dog that is driven by a blind giant who sees through the creatures glistening ruby eyes.

The royal palace of Fairweather

Metalphage attacking Fairweather guards

Three years ago the terrible plague, The Corrupting, began ripping through Fairweather, causing people to mutate into terrible creature called Metalphages.  Jagged metallic shards, wires, and tubing burst from the flesh of the infected, either driving them mad or killing them.  The touch of Metalphages, infects others and also corrupts metal, rusting it.  Entire districts of the cityhave been quarantined and sealed in an attempt to halt contamination.  The Plague Doctors of the Scarlet Veil conducts terrible experiments on the infected from their heavily guarded Red Monastery, in an attempt to harness this curse.

The Fashion of the Fairweather Nobility

 

All of these pieces are from Alexander McQueen’s design, except for the weird, but awesome, painting.

A Piece of Awesome Commission Art I Won!… Hubris is Coming…

So the amazingly awesome and talented Dave over at Iron Image Industries has been hosting a contest the past few months where, if you win, he does a FREE KICK ASS ART COMMISSION for you!  That’s right..  FREE…

And I won the April submission!  Huzzah!  I finally won something!

Aside: Dave already was awesome a few months ago and did a kick ass piece for me for my hack of Shadowrun using the Savage Worlds ruleset.  Scope it here!

I’ve had my eye on Dave doing art for my Hubris setting (for what I’ve put up on the blog about Hubris, click here) that I plan on publishing in the (hopefully near) future!  So it was a double kick of awesome that I won.

A Guard being corrupted by a Metalphage

I’ll do a post with more details on Fairweather tomorrow, but today I just wanted to share this slice of awesome!

Hubris Sessions Recap- Starting With a Hack- Using a Ravenloft Module, Having a TPK, and Discovering Dungeon Crawl Classics (whew)….

A few months ago I decided that I would ATTEMPT to write a cohesive RPG setting done in ways I find useful (because I rarely find RPG setting books to be done in a way that are usable at the table).  I had already run a couple sessions in my Hubris world and had a bunch of shit written for it.

And you know what…  It was good for running a homebrew game or even a Con game, but not as a published product.  I felt it was too ho-hum and run of the mill. I’m really into weird/horror fantasy and I like that brutality and threat of PC death that is steeped in OSR tradition.  So I set about re-writing Hubris to fit that mold even further.

So far it is going well.

My map of Hubris (I’ll pay someone with more skills to draw a better one)

When I had a ROUGH outline of the continent I gave my players a few choices as to where to start.  Eisenbar, the Gothic area full of Hellboy shit, and vampires, and fae, and Scandinavian style people; the swamp that is inspired by Cajun tropes; Fairweather, which is ruled by an inbred king who worships a god who preaches purity of blood, or an unsettled expanse where they would be basically mapping it out and foraging.   They chose Eisenbar.  Cool.

Only problem is I haven’t run a REAL Gothic style campaign in a really long time.  I skimmed through my campaign setting books of Ravenloft and turned to that expert of Gothic Horror, Jack Shear (his awesome blog), and ask what Ravenloft module would be to use and run to get me back into that feeling.  He suggested Night of the Walking Dead.  I found it and was excited to see I ran this way back when I first got into RPGing.  Jack was also a gentleman and provided me a link to his blog where he gave his thoughts on it and how he ran it.

Aside: It was cool to reread this and have flashes of gaming memories I forgot.  Not to mention I was excited to see how these players handled the scenario VS the original group I ran it for.

I will just highlight how this module went, and unlike Jack, mine took three sessions (with quite a bit of bullshitting).  During the first three sessions, we were using my OSR hack rules.

Session 1- INTO THE MODULE

Players:

• Fletch- Kenku
• Liam- Mutant (with batwings)
• Nate- Kenku

Group is going through the Weeping Forest of Forgotten Memories.  They come across an alter (I used my instaregligion generator).  Fletch touches the alter, develops a giant tumor on his back (-2 to his Dexterity).

Two humans wander out of the underbrush and, al la Aliens, beg for help and tentacles burst from their stomach and they bend over backwards and start attacking.  I used a monster from the awesome Teratic Tome.

Aside: I had warned them that this was going to be a brutal style of play and only the smartest would survive.  This introduction proved just that.  Nate went down in the first round, unconscious and bleeding out.  Fletch went down two rounds later.  Liam flew into the air and took pot shots with his bow, eventually downing them, but not before he accidentally hit Nate, taking him further towards death.

 

Like Jack I cut out the encounters of the swamp.  I had my alter encounter and left it up to chance for them to encounter the group of gypsies, which they did not.

They encountered Luc, and I upped the banjo playing as jack did.  My players got creeped out and kept trying to fiddle with him to figure out what was up.

Eventually they went to the town and saw the funeral.  I played up the preacher as a sort of Puritan style dude who is mad with grief at his failings.

Left off there

Session 2

Players:

• Fletch- Kenku
• Liam- Mutant (with batwings)
• Nate- Kenku
• Stephen- Mutant

Group learns of the villages plight.  Met the crazy Mordu, who is my favorite character in the module (aside from Luc- he’s just pure fucking gold).  For Mordu I took inspiration from Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys and had him be a 1st level Sorcerer and wearing a tinfoil hat.

Group sees murder- does investigating- no one dies.  When people drop dead in inn everyone flees.  Stephen rushes back in and tries to fight.  Group follows, sets fire to inn..  Puts it out.

Session Three

Players:

• Fletch- Kenku
• Liam- Mutant (with batwings)
• Nate- Kenku
• Stephen- Mutant

Players do more investigating.  Fight mad murder who is killing people for his brother to eat (since he’s a zombie lord).  They fight him and figure out that he was going to the old cemetery so they went to investigate and died a horrible fucking death…  all of them.

Aside:  Several things went wrong in this fight.  One the Ju-Ju zombie is fucking lame…  He doesn’t do ANYTHING that warrants the name Ju-Ju..  At all.  End of story..  

Second my players RUSHED to the cemetery.  I think this was a reaction to Pathfinder/3.x, to which they were used to.  That “we are able to beat whatever with our powers and our saves and our good looks…”  Which is NOT the case with OSR style gaming (in my opinion).  They knew that they were fighting undead and that they didn’t have a cleric in the party.  They didn’t go to the temple and ask for holy water, scrolls, or even to BEG the cleric to come with them. 

Now that they have been taught this valuable lesson they have been MUCH more cautious and smart.

Third they rolled terrible.  Quite a few critical failures.

When they first walked into the crypt with the zombie lord, 2 of them failed the save vs his aura and developed bad things.  Liam crit failed and died instantly.  

The group fought valiantly, but Nate when down fighting the Ju-Ju zombie.  The NPC constable went down like a bitch to the zombie lord.  Fletch attempted to summon a demon from the Hells to fight with them, critically failed on the summon and died instantly as the demon came through the portal and merged with him to form a giant half-rat/half-kenku like creature.  Which promptly went into the fray, killed the ju-ju zombie, then Stephen, and then the zombie lord…  

And that ended session three.

Dungeon Crawl Classics and Session Four

I had read DCC right before I ran session three and KNEW it would be a perfect fit for Hubris and what I was going for.  So that is what I will be using when I attempt to publish this bitch (whenever that is).

I had each player roll up a level 1 DCC character (yes yes I skipped the funnel this time).  Here’s the roster.

Players:

• Fletch- Cleric
• Liam- Wizard
• Nate- Mutant
• Stephen- Fighter

This time I started the group off in Shadowfall and decided it would be fun to allow the group a little meta-payback.  They were hired to go to the town they all just died in and find out why there hasn’t been any contact in over a month and to locate a merchant who was to deliver an important item to Genieva the Deranged, the vampire queen of Shadowfall.

The group planned for undead this time and THOUGHT they were ready for anything…  Which shows I’m a prick and am not kind, because if your players aren’t terrified, you’re not doing your job.

Highlights

Party gets to town- only 30 people of 300 survive.  All holed up in the temple to god of the Terrible Whisper.

Priest has asked for his gods aid, which he gives.  One day of safety per one year of life he takes from the priest.  Priest does this until he is dead.  He lost 55 years of life.

Zombies have been corrupted by something.  All have green throbbing pustules on them that burst when hit.

Find out its the rat-kenku demon.  It has kidnapped most of the town before they could make it to the church.  Players say they will fight it.

Go outside and find it on a throne of humans that have been merged together (Human centipede style).  The throne and demon, after some threatening, charge at group.

Behind it are eight people standing on one another’s  shoulders- making an arch.  The top two people are facing one another holding hands- their faces and hands melded together.   The intestines of each is hanging out of their rectums and into the mouth of the other.  Swirling black smoke is in the arch.

The demon is attempting to get his true body back and summon his minions.

Group fights valiantly, all almost die again, but Liam takes a gamble, spellburns a shitton of Attributes, and casts Color Spray.  Kills all the level 0 chars with them and knocks everyone else out.

Stephen makes his luck roll to not die.  Rolls a 20.  No permanent injuries.  Huzzah.

Group finds the shit that Genieva wants and heads back to Shadowfall.

They are now getting ready to head to the Bogwood swamp because they heard of a magic relic that helps fight corruption when using magic (Liam’s already suffered a few corruptions).

Totally throwing Challenge of the Frog Idol in here and my town of Blatherblab that I created for Hexenbraken.

That is the recap for the last four sessions.  I’ll be better about recapping and not letting it build up so long.

Blatherblab- The Dingy Swamp Village in Hexenbraken (or just a little adventure to be used anywhere you damn well want)

Hex 02.02- Hexenbracken (more info).

The rickety village of Blatherblab

Blatherblab is a small and decrepit village that once used to be a small fishing community.  The entire village is built on planks that are stuck deep in the mud and muck of the swamp.

A few years back something caused most of the fish to die from a terrible rotting disease.  Many of the villagers moved or died from starvation.  When the town seemed to be on the brink of collapse a blind woman dressed in rags, calling herself Piodana,  stated she was a prophet who would deliver them from desperation.

Piodana, the Blind Prophet of Flibbon

The townsfolk were quick to follow her instructions and soon the Cult of Flibbon, the Magnanimous Fish God, was formed.  True to Piodana’s predictions, fish started to return and the village was saved.

Flibbon, the Magnanimous Fish God

Slowly, however, the people began to change into terrible fish-like creatures, completely devout to their blind prophet and Flibbon.

The fate of the villagers of Blatherblab

A fate worse than death

The children of the village were mutated into workers that one day will morph into the adult horrors.

Mutated Children of Blatherblab

No fish is traded to surrounding communities.  No traveler that has ventured to Blatherblab has ever returned.

Map of Blatherblab

This town was generated using Zak S. Vornheim and an instatown mapping hack I based on it (Part One and Part Two).

GMs can fill in the map as they see fit with traps, horrors, and bubblegum.  

The lovely town of Blatherblab

ENEMIES!!!

Mutated Fish Village Folk

Init +1; Atk- +1, jagged blades or mace (1d6)+1; AC 13; HD 1d8; HP 5; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP Amphibious; SV Fort +1, Ref +2, Will -2; AL C.  Gear: jagged blade, mace, mushrooms (25% chance poisonous).  1d3 SP and 1d6 CP.

Mutated Fish Children

Init 0; Atk- +0, bite (1d4); AC 12; HD 1d6; HP 5; MV 40’; Act 1d20; SP Amphibious; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will -2; AL C.  Gear: NA.

Piodana, the Blind Prophet of Flibbon

Init 3; Atk- +4, Black spiked Mace (1d8)+4; AC 15; HD 3d8; HP 22; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP Level 3 cleric, casts appropriate spells; SV Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +4; AL C.  Gear: Black spiked mace (+1 attack), 1 potion of water breathing, 4d20 gold, chainmail armor, Necklace of Flibbon (commune with and command fish).

Crocodile (near Boathouse)

Init +1; Atk +4, Bite (1d8) +4; AC 14; HD 3d8; HP 18; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP can hold breath for 20 rounds while underwater; SV Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +1; AL C.  Gear: Teeth, hide, gut it and find a hand with a ring of +1 AC and a pouch with 2d6+1 GP.