Adventures Dark and Deep™ Kickstarter Almost There!

The cover image for the bookWell here we are halfway through the kickstarter campaign for Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, and we're at 84% of the goal. I can't thank you all enough for your support of this project, and am deeply humbled by the results so far.But we still have 16% to go. Help push this project over the goal line!Adventures Dark and Deep™ is an attempt to explore what the game might have looked like if...

Read More

Memphis, Capital of Mighty Erypt

"Surrounded by gigantic walls, mighty Memphis stood before us; no other city in Erypt was so beautiful, so great, so richly decorated. I could not believe my eyes."The above image comes from François Marcela-Froideval's masterful series of graphic novels Chroniques de la Lune Noire. Specifically, Methraton 02 - Le Crâne (2003), written by Froideval and illustrated by Fabrice Druet. I don't speak a word of French, and only the first four books have...

Read More

Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Low Khanate and Central Suhfang

Admittedly, this was an easier map to do, since Telchuria is mostly empty, as are the Low and High Khanates, but I've got to say these are coming easier and easier to me. Still, I never thought I'd belt it out in a day!I also made a couple of changes to the map of the Orcreich and eastern Suhfang, in response to a bit of feedback I received on a mountain range name (thanks!) and as expected the result of seeing the two maps side-by-side. The revised...

Read More

Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Eastern Suhfang and Orcreich, Gulf of Ghayar

I'm on a roll!Behold another effort in my Mapping Beyond the Flanaess series. This map covers the eastern portion of the Celestial Imperium of Suhfang, the eastern half of the humanoid empire known as Orcreich, the the Gulf of Ghayar region which marks the westernmost edge of the Baklunish lands. I'm including the map of the Golden Jungle region so you can see how they fit together.I had to take a liberty with the Ataphad islands in the northeast...

Read More

A Truly Awesome Greyhawk Calendar

Done by Russell Akred, posted over at the Flanaess Geographical Society on Facebook. I only wish there was a larger version out there (click to embigge...

Read More

Gonduria, Aquaria, and Oerth's Four Continents

"Leda! Please don't quarrel with our friend. You are allowing the archfiend his way when you do that," Gord said gently. "His question was deserved. It was also practical." The three had been chivvied and chased across the whole of the world. From the distant south, through the Moving islands, up and across Gonduria's vast continent, and thence across the Agitoric Ocean to western Oerik's shore. No fastness or barren or mountain chain had served...

Read More

DCC RPG Pre-Order Ends April 1st

The pre-order period for Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG ends on April 1st. By taking advantage of the special pre-order offer, you get:A special edition hardcover of the game, featuring a black cover with gold foil in a 1970's styleA pdf copy of the book, which will be sent out when the book is sent to the printerA special edition adventure module, Doom of the Savage Kings, only available if you pre-order the rulesI've been quite looking...

Read More

Banknotes in Greyhawk

"Sums are borrowed and lent between certain dealers in jewels, money changers, bankers, and the like. They have devised a means to transfer large amounts by means of written notes. Naturally, these notes are carefully done, and heavily magicked, but once executed are as good as gold!"This amazed the young thief, for he had imagined that he knew just about all there was to know about wealth.Gellor then explained to him that such instruments had a way of taking on a sort of mystical value themselves, becoming as dear as-- or even dearer than-- the...

Read More

On Canon

When I published the latest of my "Mapping Beyond the Flanaess" maps, a very strange phenomenon occurred. A few people, rather than discussing the maps themselves (aside from an occasional perfunctory "they look nice, but...") proceeded to rip into them not for their own substance, but because they are based, in large part, on the map that appeared in Dragon Annual #1 back in 1996.I confess I was somewhat taken aback by this, since it didn't seem...

Read More

Beyond the Flanaess: Zindia and the Golden Jungle

As promised, I'm continuing to undertake my mapping project, doing the lands beyond the Flanaess in the Darlene style (nowhere near as cool as the original, of course, but a close enough approximation). Today I present the lands to the southwest of the Sea of Dust; the many kingdoms of Zindia, the Ryuujin Dominion, and the southeastern reaches of the lands of the Celestial Imperium.I've also redone the first map in the series, making some corrections...

Read More

Inspirational Reading - What Lies Beneath the City

The pair started to follow the passage that had been concealed behind the secret door, Evaleigh carrying the lantern and Gord with dagger in hand.After a short distance the narrow corridor dead-ended at a broader one that led both left and right. Gord opted for the left, saying that they could try the other direction if this one failed to offer something positive soon.Before long they entered a larger place, pillared and arched, that was the nexus of many tunnels. In addition to the one they had entered from, there were four other passages leading...

Read More

Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter Update

I wanted to thank everyone who has pledged to help fund A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore. We just hit the 50% mark, and are well on our way to getting fully funded. If you think any of your friends might be interested, please spread the word. And if you haven't pledged to the project, I invite you to check out the Kickstarter campaign page and make a pledge.Also, in honor of this special occasion, I'd like to share the cover art piece for the...

Read More

John Carter Visits Pluto Nash on Cuthroat Island

Bad news for those who were hoping for a sequel to John Carter. Looks like Disney is going to take a $200 million bath on the film. Ouch....

Read More

The Straitjacket of "The Adventure"

One of the design features of later editions of D&D that really bugs me is the idea that there should be some formula for determining how difficult an adventure is, based on the total levels of the player characters. That is, if the player characters have a total of X levels, that means that "the adventure" should have Y total hit dice of monsters (or CRs of traps, etc.), and a concomitant amount of treasure. I bring this up because of something Mike Mearls said in today's Legend and Lore column, talking about the upcoming 5E:The DM needs rules...

Read More

One Page Dungeon Contest 2012

Get your submissions in by April 30, kiddies! All the juicy details can be found:---> here <---____________________Also, please take a minute to check out the Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter campaign. Help make the ADD rules supplement, suitable for use with all 1E-compatible games, a reality!...

Read More

A Leaked Review of 5E (v1.0)

By its own admission, this is a review of some of the features of the v1.0 of the 5Erules (aka D&D Next), and there's already a v1.5 out there. The people talking seem to be fans of 4E, but there are a number of interesting observations. I'll reserve any further comment for the moment, but take a read:---> HERE <---____________________Also, please take a minute to check out the Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter campaign. Help make the ADD rules supplement, suitable for use with all 1E-compatible games, a reality!...

Read More

Beyond the Flanaess: Sea of the Dragon King

Inspired by my success with the map of the southern Amedio Jungle, I thought I might expand the project a tad. As I mentioned previously, the lands south and west of the Flanaess have been tackled by a few people before me even though canonical references, beyond the map in Dragon Annual #1, which is good for little more than a few names and major geography, and the Sundered Empire setting from the D20 Chainmail game, are few and far between.So,...

Read More

Adventures Dark and Deep™ Kickstarter Now Live!

I am pleased to report that the Kickstarter campaign for Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore has now begun!--> CLICK HERE <--This is not the full set of three rulebooks (that's coming next year), but a rules supplement containing the new stuff; new classes, spells, combat system, some new monsters, etc. It's designed to be fully compatible with all RPGs that are themselves compatible with 1E, completely modular, and ready-to-use as soon as you open it up.The goal is to raise $2,500 to pay for kick-ass artwork and...

Read More

A Little Ambition is a Good Thing

Q: How many Darlene-sized maps would it take to cover the Oerik map from Dragon Annual #1?A: Sevent...

Read More

Film Review: John Carter

I came into this film from the perspective of someone who has never read any of the Barsoom books. I was vaguely aware that the hero, John Carter, is somehow transported to Mars, and there finds different sorts of martians, but other than that, I was completely ignorant of the plot, characters, and setting. I will strive to make this as spoiler-free as possible; a few spoilers are given in inviso-text (highlight to read). If I could sum up this film...

Read More

The Southern Amedio Jungle

There's been a lot of talk over at Canonfire! about the lands beyond the Flanaess; the fabled lands of Zindia, The Celestial Imperium of Suhfang, Erypt, the Empire of Lhynn, etc. Issue 26 of the Oerth Journal focused on this very topic, providing some fan-created speculation (in many cases based on careful research of the few scraps of information we have) and fan-produced maps of the lands of western Oerik.Purely as a matter of personal preference,...

Read More

NPCs in Premade Settings

In the comments of my previous post on "advancing the timeline" in Greyhawk, commenter scottz made a very interesting point:"Characters/NPC's are canon 'mountpoints' as much as maps or gazetteers are, IMHO."I take this to mean that, if one is running a campaign in a premade setting such as Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, one expects to interact with, or at least hear about third-hand, some of the notable non-player-characters that have become associated...

Read More

The Great Greyhawk Campaign

A perennial complaint of quite a number of Greyhawk fans is the way that the World of Greyhawk setting was altered through products such as Greyhawk Wars and From the Ashes. "Don't advance the timeline!" is a clarion call for those who thought that the changes wrought to the setting detracted from, rather than added to, it. I used to be one of those people myself, and quite a vociferous one at that.However, I've had something of a conversion on this...

Read More

Congratulations to James Maliszewski for Dwimmermount Kickstarter

Two days ago, James Maliszewski started his Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for his Dwimmermount megadungeon to see print. Here we are, only slightly more than 48 hours later, and he has already met that goal, and even got one $250 backer! The campaign still has more than a month to go, and there's no telling how much he'll raise before it's over. This is an enormous testament not only to the worthiness of Dwimmermount itself (which is immense), but also to the vibrancy of the OSR as a whole. Granted, James is a "big fish" in the OSR, but...

Read More

New Versions of Adventures Dark and Deep™ Open Playtest Rules Now Available

I am pleased to announce that the v1.2 versions of the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual, Game Masters Toolkit, and Bestiary are now available from the web store at RPGNow.com.This will likely be the last major revision to the rulebooks for the open playtest. Changes and new material include:New spells, not only for the new classes, but original classes as well.Changes to the player character races (gnomes and halflings especially)New and changed magic itemsAnd hundreds of new monsters, rounding out the creatures from all three of the original...

Read More

2E Clone Myth & Magic Coming March 16

Some news about New Haven Games about their upcoming 2E retro-clone, Myth & Magic. From their announcement:Myth & Magic: The Player's Starter Guide and the Game Master's Starter Guide will be available for download on March 16, 2012. They are free and will be accessible on newhavengames.com, RPGNow.com, DriveThruRPG.com and Paizo.com. A separate email will go out on that day.This marks the first public release of the rules, which is very exciting. We should see a wave of new Myth & Magic players that have since alluded us.The PSG allows...

Read More