The Revenant

The world is grim and unforgiving. Humans built their civilization on the ruins of the Old Races. First Cities are slowly dying, ridden by corruption, decadence and forbidden arts. Consortium of the northern city-states is starting to invade the midlands. King of the city of Lythia went insane and started to sacrifice humans on the strange altar made of black stone.

Magic is dark and powerful. It require lengthy preparations and lots of sacrifices. Sometimes, human sacrifices. Mages are living on the edge of society - they are feared because of their capabilities - and because of their deeds. Magic is dangerous, both for its user and the potential target.

Gods can walk the earth. They say that most - if not all of them were once human beings. Or some of them belonged to the Old Races. And because gods can emerge out of the Dark, because they can manifest in the physical dimension, they can be killed.

The Dark. Twisted, psychotic reflection of the reality. Source of some forms of magic, home to numerous beings, sometimes (mostly in the First Cities) called demons. Realm of the dead. And you've been there. But you can't recall most of it. Luckily for you.

You were once dead person. You have died, most likely in very violent fashion. But something broke the bonds of Death and bring you back to this world. Reasons may vary - revenge, retribution, desperate need to finish your Magnum Opus. Or maybe you're just a mere tool in the hands of much more powerful entities...

I promised you in my "comeback post" that I will post more things about "some game", that was in developement for several years, probably from 2007 to 2012. This is a Part One, the rough sketch of some basic ideas about the game world - and the main role of the PCs.

Stat-based dungeoncrawl (Part One)

Pic slightly unrelated but I just love this game!

As you probably noticed, I have tendencies to create lots of strange and twisted rulesets. Not particularily useful but still - I just love to do it! And maybe they are not as useless as I think ;) This time I think about yet another set of rules:

• Stat checks as the most important aspect of the game. Stats used as base to hit, to defend (I still think about active defense during the combat - not very old school but reason is simple - my players want it so why not?), maybe even stats used as saving throws - or rather as a base for saving throws;
• I'm not sure if the D&D-derived stats will be used. Maybe I will need more attributes to properly describe characters' abilities (or lack of). Remember lots of strange stats from Encounter Critical? Maybe it was a good idea, especially if stats will remain devoid any description (more ways to interprete things is always good);
• This means that stat levels need to be increased during the character's level progression. Most likely initial stat levels will be determined randomly and their progression will be determined by character's class;
• I don't know what about Hit Dice, Hit Points etc. Maybe this system will require total rework of the damage system. Just Save vs. Death sounds really nasty but may actually work... Must check it once I create some basic sketch of the rules;
• What about the basic dice used for tests? I think I'll stick with d20. It's good, big and round :D

Will it work? I'm not sure. It will require lots of brainstorming but I just love to create such things. And even if not very useful, I will use it. Or die trying :D

Tell me what do you think about it. Maybe you have some ideas / advice?

Diamond Diceless on one sheet!

Nothing really new since I mentioned this mechanics for the first (and only) time, except some additional traits. Still, I do believe it should work! I hope that I'll test it soon.

Most likely I'll add some additional information in the future but right now I'm not sure what else can be done. Traits are pretty obvious but the interpretation of exact functions of things such as Low Magic, High Magic or Spirit-bound is up to you. Of course I have my own vision of these things but I'll explain it a bit later ;)

Full-size preview is required :)

I have a special offer for you...

As you probably noticed, I released the third volume of the Underworld Kingdom. It was the last volume before the ones containing setting. And all of them are now available on Lulu in both printed and PDF format. And now we'll talk about the PDFs.

I have a special offer for y'all. Or rather, three special offers.

If you want to grab Underworld Kingdom Volumes I-III, send me $5 via PayPal (preferably as family gift) and I'll send you the zipped PDF bundle to your PayPal email.

If you want to grab Underworld Kingdom Volumes I-III plus Towers of Krshal, send me $7,50 via PayPal (preferably as family gift) and I'll send you the zipped PDF bundle to your PayPal email.

If you want to receive Underworld Kingdom Volumes I-III plus Towers of Krshal plus Bandits and Battlecruisers, send me ten bucks via PayPal (preferably as family gift) and I'll send you the zipped PDF bundle to your PayPal email.

My PayPal email is necro_cyber[at]o2[dot]pl

Perilous Ages progress report

It's been a while. But it's really good to be writing again. And it's really good to still remember what must be done, despite the fact that so many monts had passed since I touched this project for last time! Without further ado, here's what I managed to do:

• Stat blocks for the NPCs are finally done. I removed two of them, namely the Caravan Guard and Caravan Master, as any soldiers / mercenaries may carry these functions. I've also added the Plague Doctor. Creating these stats was a real pain in the ass and I thought I'll never complete it. But today I sat down and just did it. It took me over three hours of continuous work to finish remaining 25+ blocks;
• Started to work on some loot lists. Nothing really fascinating about this part but it's not as tedious as the previous one;
• I've done some formatting of the text, as usually I do it during the writing process, not after it. I know it's not very good idea but I realized that it's the only way I can do it.

What is left to do, what bothers me now and what will be ignored:

• 25 random tables? 25 pretty complicated random tables? I think it may be another wall on my way to complete the game;
• Castle generator. I just noticed that entry at the end of the random tables file. Fuck, I have no idea how to make a random castle generator! But it's rather neat idea and I'll try to create it;
• Despite the fact it's rather medieval setting, probably there will be no rules about the mass combat, such as huge battles, sieges etc. I don't have any idea how to create such rules. In my games, all big battles were played almost without any dice rolls. Just decisions of players and lots of thinking about all variables;
• Booklet size. Initially I started to prepare the files to fit the A5 format (damn me, fucking European! ;) ) but probably I'll reformat it to fit the bigger A4. Why? It's really simple - it will be much easier for me to print it, bind and use during playtesting. Which is my last concern right now...
• Yes, playtesting. I'm not sure if I'll find anyone to test this game. My gaming circle is totally shattered right now - I've run only one game this year and lost contact (or interest to contact) with most of my players. But probably I should be able to get at least two people to test the game with them. And it should be enough.

Pretty big wall of text about the potentially dull and unplayable game :D

Further reading: #1 #2

Underworld Kingdom Volume Three is out now!

Untold Monstrosities and Eldritch Artifacts. Over 30 monsters, shitloads of magic items, several item-oriented random tables. It took me some time to do it but it's finally out. 

BUY VOLUME THREE PRINT on Lulu.com

BUY VOLUME THREE PDF on Lulu.com

Here you can find link to Volume Two and here to Volume One (which is available for free).

EDIT 2017.06.20 - NOW ALSO AVAILABLE ON RPGNOW/DTRPG

Coming Soon...

Today I realized that Volume Three is ready since Jan 2014. I have no idea how I managed to forget about it...

I'll try to re-read the contents of the booklet this week, tweak it, correct the grammar (of course within my limits) and release it via Lulu. Unfortunately, I still don't have tools to prepare my releases to fit the RPGNow requirements (unless something changed within the last year), so - for now - only BandB will be available via DTRPG / RPGNow.

Once again, Volume Three will contain:

• 29 new monsters;
• Prehistoric beasts stat blocks;
• Info about the Lovecrafrian monsters inhabiting the Underworld Kingdom;
• 6 nasty demons;
• Options for Giant Slugs;
• 26 new magic items;
• Useless items;
• Disturbing standards.

Moreover - I'm more than sure that I haven't included all items that were posted on this blog, so I'll try to add them as well.

Melanda - first impression

According to the amount of information available in the internet, it's one of the most obscure and hard to get role-playing games, from the past. I bought it over one year ago and yeah, had no time to even read it. Now I finally managed to sit down and skim through the rulebook. Here are the very first impressions about it:

• Character creation rules are really simple and pretty intuitive. Direct inspiration for Fudge is obvious;
• Playable races are divided into two sub-groups - old races and new breeds. Older ones are: Baladel (virtually dwarves), Lyradel (wood elves), Gisadel (umm, jungle elves? they say that they are similar to Lyradel so I guess so) and Wandel (amphibian race). New breeds are humans (Omenwedur) and halflings (Uridos). In fact, it's written that old races are more related to each other than to the younger races;
• Booklet has 64 pages. Bestiary consists of 30 pages. Many generic mythical creatures, many animals and many unique thingies. Had no time to read though the list. No generic "fantasy" races such as orcs, goblins and shit;
• There is a player guide, added to the rulebook. In fact, it's just a sheet of crappy cardboard-ish paper, printed on both sides. Or maybe not that crappy, considering the fact that rulebook, along with the guide, survived 35 years...
• Combat system looks atrocious. It seems that is really easy to die or be horribly mutilated. Probably nearly unplayable without major tweaks.

And some pictures of definitely crappy quality:

Player's guide. Pink cardboard. Fuck yeah!

Hit location chart. Looks like shit.

Runes. I have no idea how to use them...

Tits.