Krshal - first map is ready!

I've posted it on G+ before but now I fixed the colors, or at least tried to do it. Now only eight (or eleven) more maps to go (and even then they will not cover the entire city!).

Blog of the Month - Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign

Two words - Rob Kuntz.

LINK

Bandits & Battlecruisers update

Proofreading should be done today, so next week I'll start making a PDF. Unfortunately publishing may be delayed due to huge problems with Polish tax system but I hope we can make it until February. Game will be available in both PDF and POD via Lulu.com and RPGnow/DTRPG and maybe as PDF via other sources (our own webshop would be cool!).

If we manage to hit RPGNow with Bandits & Battlecruisers, we'll try to add Terminal Space and Towers of Krshal as well :-)

Behold!

Click to enlarge (and sorry for blurry photo). Part of the city of Krshal, with the Old Cursed Castle, the Cathedral of Doom and the Palatial District located in the old fort. Not very awesome but remember that I'm no artist and I can't draw or paint (or sculpt, or whatever).

More info about Krshal... soon.

2. Gate of the Iron Skull

Here is the map.

1. Ninl Fnash, gate's supervisor, is a descendant of old and prominent lineage of sorcerers.
2. There was an exhibition of the Iron Skeleton in one of the gate chambers but it's closed since last winter.
3. No one worked in the tower for longer than seven months. Probably all lose their mind or commit suicide after that time.
4. They say that Ninl Fnash hates magic and fears the sorcerers.
5. Some people are saying that the famous Iron Skull was stolen by members of the thieves guild.
6. Duchess Ghildriss Enaran commited suicide by jumping from the top of the gate.
7. Remains of some kind of artificial life form are stored in the gate's vault.
8. Several years ago, beautiful noble woman was murdered on the top level of the gate tower.
9. Have you heard that overseer of the gate is some kind of energy vampire?
10. Each fullmoon, sect of mystics gathers under one of tower's balconies. No one knows what they do there.

Even More Weird Items!

1. Singing Toadstool of Nan-Mar.
2. Living Fingers of Saint Joshua
3. Floating Unholy Water Cube
4. Spiral Sickle of the Seventh Druid
5. Crown of the Fish Queen
6. An Empty Map of the Universe

The Last Wilderness Day With Swamps!

Are you happy? We're finally leaving these bogs behind!

400th post - changes in the OSR and BIG lulu discount

Clicky!

Four hundred posts - it was fast! Luckily, there will be much more :-) To celebrate it, for limited time all my prints on Lulu are 25% cheaper - now you can buy Towers of Krshal and Terminal Space at big discount. Hurry up because it won't last forever! :D

Second thing - yesterday two interesting posts appeared, both about the nature of OSR. In first one, Beedo presented interesting view of the old school games in general (and I agree with him). Most interesting thing about it is fact ignored by many OSR people - it's not about the D&D and its clones (and nothing more) - it's more about the way we play it.

But why I'm mentioning it? The reason is the second OSR-related post. It was published by the mighty Catacomb Librarian on his Mesmerized by Sirens blog. He noticed the very interesting thing - the republishing of old and almost forgotten games that almost disappeared in the shadow cast by TSR's flagship. Heroes, Starships & Spacemen, Wizard's World and now maybe Vikings & Valkyrs - the games that were almost dead and now are returning. Cool, but it's not enough for me!

We need that "OSR 2.0", but we need something more. We need more retro-clones and simulacra trying to emulate that kind of games - sometimes crude, sometimes overcomplicated but not based on D&D. It already started with a Runebearer but still we need more. Probably many of you will not agree with me ("it's pointless to create unplayable games or incompatible with most of OSR stuff") but let me to explain my point of view.

Reason One: stagnation and reduced creativity. We have FUCKLOADS of D&D retroclones. Even I am very close to release my clone (to close Terminal Space chapter of my life). It's cool and I like them alot. In most cases, they are a very good games and each of them adds something more. But you must admit if the process for d6+2 more years it may become a little weird. But still, it's not the point! As I mentioned, it's cool. But repeating the same methods over and over may result with significant quality drop. Games may simply stop to provide anything new and may become just boring and repetitive. But of course I may be wrong and honestly I hope that it will not become a truth

Reason Two: DIY gene pool. It's not my thought but it's 100% true. Lee Reynoldson wrote it in a comment for this post of mine: "I also think all these different simulacra, clones, and rules add to the DIY DNA. Even the most obscure and uplayed of DIY games will leave some sort of impact, or inspiration that spins off into another project and adds to the community's Rules gene pool." I think that there's no need to say anything more about it.

By the way, there's one more game (beside of abovementioned Runebearer) not directly based on D&D but definitely "Old School enough". It's Tsojcanth's Adventure Fantasy Game. Buy it now or your genitals will rot and fall off.

Spaceship Sunday

About game writing...

...because I can't describe it as a game design. At least not in my case.

Why? It's simple - during the last eight or nine years I've created TONS of "rpg design stuff". Hundreds of pages full of notes, loose thoughts, partially-filled random tables, lists and so on. And I thought "cool, I'm great at this!"

But I wasn't.

During all these years I started shitloads of projects. Complete games, campaign settings, supplements great and small. Really, really lots of them - I think that over twenty. And how many I managed to finish? Three. Fucking three. Terminal Space, Towers of Krshal and Bandits & Battlecruisers (I don't count Bandits & Basilisks because it took me about five hours to complete it). And you must know that they weren't complilation of my previous notes. I just sat down and wrote them. From scratch (or almost from scratch). And what is even more funny - all these hundreds of pages of notes were almost useless.

Quick summary:

• Towers of Krshal - three days of work, from beginning to end. Nothing more, nothing less. Released, one negative review, two ultra-positive (or maybe more? I don't remember).
• My Big Hard SF (not OSR-related) - six years of work. Status - about 0% of rulebook is done.
• Underworld Kingdom - I don't know - three years? Four? Status - 80% of rulebook is done but it took me about one month to write it*!
• Bandits & Battlecruisers - one year or more. Status - complete but it took me about one month to write it*!
• Terminal Space - three months of work? I sat down and wrote it within seven days (with two month-long gap between them :D). Status? Ask the guy behind the Stars Without Number :D

So, it's not about the game design. Apparently I suck at game design. But I'm not that bad about game writing. I guess I should sit down and fucking write rest of my stuff. Space Alphabet, mapbook, Charon Prime - but now I'm working on Project P. Instead of fucking around, I'm just writing the rulebook. That's what I can do.

______

*) excluding very long gaps between given time - I count only days of active work.

1. Raven's Gate

First part of details of this map. Unnamed city in the unnamed world. Ready to plug into your campaign. Prepare your d10.

1. Gate was named after the Vynth Raven, infamous Witch Hunter.
2. There's a secret torture room beneath the tower.
3. Members of Thieves Guild are calling the Raven's Gate the "mouse hole".
4. They say that the Crow Sword, a powerful artifact, is hidden somewhere in the tower.
5. Keznar Gormn, the current supervisor of the gate, is well-known drunkard and gambler.
6. Because of corrupted guards, many smugglers use this gate to bring something to the city.
7. Famous thief, Fralna the Feather-handed, was hung outside the Raven's Gate.
8. They say that gate is haunted by a ghost of some famous Witch Hunter.
9. The Emperor of Hsan was the one who funded the Raven's Gate.
10. People are saying that some Witch Hunter was imprisoned in the tower once he lost his mind.

Vaults of Madness (yet another five minute map)

Sorry for crappy pic, probably I'll try to replace it soon.

There are some minor flaws (if lack of connections may be considered as a minor one! :D) but I think it's not bad map.