Merry Christmas!

Readers, you have been a powerful positive motivator for me for the last four years.

This Holiday season, you gave me a fantastic gift.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and I hope I will be able to keep sharing the awesome for another four.

A Solo Play Report: Death in Space, 51 Ehlee

So, last night I wanted to break in the Zoom H5 I got for an early Christmas present and have fun with a solo RPG at the same time. I'd played Death in Space a couple of times, but I hadn't really managed to try everything the game had to offer, so I decided it was high time to really give it the shakedown it deserved. And its dark, apocalyptic setting seemed the perfect cure for the Holiday blahs. I coupled it with Mythic Game Master Emulator 2e, and dove in.

I recorded my entire 1 hour and 37 minute session, with the idea that maybe I could turn it into bonus content for Swords Against Madness; I would record me figuring out the game Extemporanneously, and then redo it as a story and cut them together in the style of one of my favourite RPG podcasts: P.J. Sack's A Wasteland Story.

That is a podcast well worth your time if you like the older Black Isle / Van Buren Fallout setting, by the way.

As it was, Death in Space lived up to its name, and I didn't make it more than five encouters into the game before my PC died horribly. And you know what? It was incredible fun, but I just don't have enough for a good podcast episode, so Instead I decided I would write it up as a short story to share with you all.

The story includes a couple of horrible torturous deaths, exsanguination, piracy, and inappropriate treatment of a corpse... but I don't think I need to sell it too hard.

Strange Ways is the Deal if the Day on DTRPG

 Strange Ways: Six Classes and Alternate Magical Systems for Any OSR Adventure Game is my Copper Bestseller set of alternative magic systems and classes that use them for OSR games. I'm very proud of my creation!

Red Tidings at Yule, How I Finally got the Never-ready Module Out!

I wanted to mention to anyone looking for some weird fun over the Holidays that my Holiday module, Red Tidings at Yule is PWYW!

Spreading some Holiday Cheer

Back in 2020 I wrote a 0-level funnel for DCC RPG. I ran a solo play-test myself and was very happy with my results, but I was having a hell of a time creating a good map for it, and I couldn't get together a group to play it that year, much to my disappointment. I really intended it as a way to keep some friends of mine who were going to be alone for Christmas thanks to the lock-downs close in spirit if not in person.

It's a fun piece that borrows from Christmas & Yule folklore from across Europe:

• The main villains are the Kallikantzaroi, Greek Christmas goblins.
• They are teamed up with Krampus, the well-known Norse Yule demon.
• They are collaborating with Belsnickle, a grumpy Christmas figure who hands out both presents and whippings from Germany.
• They are  able to meet Knecht Ruprecht a Swiss / German figure who rewards the faithful and punishes the faithless.
• They can receive a magic item related to Morozko, a Russian fairy-tale figure often related to Christmas.
• They can rescue the Scandinavian Christmas Gnome.
• They can free Risia a pagan winter goddess from Scandinavian / Slavic myth.
• It also contains some beats from classic DCC adventures like They Serverd Brandolyn Red. 

With no chance to play it, I took my notes and wrote them up as a module, with an eye to share them the next year.

Heroes & Homelands v.0.9

v.0.9 cover art by David Revoy (CC-BY)

 I just updated Heroes & Homelands on itch.io!

The big version changes I have uploaded include:

Version 0.6

• Added the illusionist class.
• Added an Illusions chapter for spells cast by the illusionist.
• Presented my unique Phantasmagoria rules for what happens when illusions go wrong.

Version 0.9

• Adds the Bard class, inspired by the AD&D2e version of the class.
• Adds the Carl class: a semi-skilled dabbler, perfect to use for Hirelings, henchmen, and recurring NPCs that need simple stats. Loosely inspired by the NPC class system of D&D3e.
  
• Adds the Monk class, based on the OD&D and AD&D versions of the monk, but with fewer powers to make it simpler to play.
• Adds a Warlock class based on the D&D3.5e version of the Warlock - a dark an thoroughly gothic class. My version has mechanics to determine what the warlock's patron demands od them, and why they might recruit a warlock in the first place.
• Adds a chapter on Incantations that gives a list of spells for bards that is mostly inspired by the role of Bards in Celtic society - a mix of Druid and Clerical magic with a few illusions mixed in.
• Adds an Invocations class that gives a list of spell-like powers a Warlock can earn from their patron.

You can download Heroes & Homelands v.0.9 in PDF from my Google Drive.

Or you can get it in .PDF, .HTML, .DOCX, and .ODT formats on itch.io.

I am also tinkering with POD options on Lulu right now, but before I would be willing to release it in something as permanent as print, I would want to see a copy for myself, which means waiting out the postal worker strike here in Canada. And I might want to both add a few more character options, and be started on a GMs Toolkit for H&H, too.

Revised Pact Magic for OSR games.

First off, let me say that spinal headaches suck. I have been out of commission for two weeks with the mother of all migraines after getting a lumbar puncture. 3.2/10. Would not recommend. 

Second, a big thanks to Johnny Price for alerting me to some link rot that has occurred on my early articles. My old version of my Pact Magic system for Ær is gone, and so I wanted to share a newer version.