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.

30% discount on my Lulu prints

For some time, all my prints on Lulu, will be available 30% cheaper. Just to celebrate my comeback ;)

LINK

Back from the... ummm...

I... Live again...

It's been a while.

Can't promise anything but I'll try to be at least bit more active than during past, well, forever.

Lots of things happened, some good, some very very bad for me. But it's irrelevant. I must admit it - I'm just a lazy bastard :D Haven't played more than one game session during 2015. I think I lost my dedication to it. But some friends of mine are getting really annoying now - they want to game and I think it may be a good moment to get back to the hobby...

What is more important, there is one thing I must tell you. There is one project I never mentioned neither on this blog nor on Geeplus. We (me and my ex-girlfriend, who is a co-author) haven't touched it for years (I guess it was gathering dust since 2010) but the game was almost complete. We never created any coherent rulebook but we have literally hundreds of pages containing virtually every aspect of the game. And lately we came to a conclusion that it may be a good moment to revive the project. We've been playing three long campaigns in it and almost all players were enjoying the game, in terms of both game mechanics and game world.

Of course, as it wasn't my personal work, all things are written in Polish so it will take fuckloads of time to translate it. Also, we want to rewrite some things, probably even everything. And still it's not sure that we will succeed. But we will try.

It won't be an Old School game. It will be pretty modern, both in terms of gameplay model and game mechanics. But probably I'll post something about it here.

What about other projects? For example, Krshal? Underworld Kingdom? I have no fucking idea. Once again - can't promise anything. But I guess that one day I'll release some new shit. Or maybe even force myself to release my stuff other than BandB via RPGNow...

I'm not dead. At least, not yet ;)

[Repost] Perilous Ages: Men at Arms and Ordinary Folks

Here's the list of all NPCs that will be included in the Perilous Ages book. Writing their stat blocks is really, really boring and I'm unable to make more than 3-4 of them per day, so it will take a while to complete the game.

Alchemist / astrologer
Archer, common
Archer, elite
Assassin
Bandit, brigand
Bandit, common
Bandit, leader
Beggar
Caravan guard
Caravan master
Cat burglar
Craftsman
Crossbowman
Entertainer
Executioner
Flagellant
Grave digger
Guardsman, city guard
Guardsman, gatekeeper
Guardsman, jailor
Guardsman, lookout
Hermit
Innkeeper
Knight, mercenary
Knight, Raubritter
Knight, templar
Knight, typical
Laborer
Merchant, major
Merchant, peddler
Monk, ordinary
Monk, prior
Noble, petty
Noble, prince or duke
Noble, royalty
Peasant, ordinary
Peasant, rebel / enlisted
Pickpocket
Priest, bishop
Priest, ordinary
Priest, village
Prostitute
Sailor
Seer
Servant
Slave
Slaver
Soldier, captain
Soldier, common
Soldier, spearman
Soldier, veteran
Student
Tax collector
Teacher
Thug
Wench

Well, contents of this list caused the huge delay with completing the game. Creating stat blocks is a really tedious task... Now I'm forcing myself to finish it but there are still about 40 entries to make...

[Repost] Example of a random table from the Perilous Ages

Another repost from the past. This time - a random table, one from many tables I want to include in the Perilous Ages booklet. Of course this table may be useful in many different games, so feel free to steal it if you want!

One of the random tables from the Perilous Ages - nature of the holy relics. Roll d100:

01- evil / blasphemous relic
02-05 - pagan / cursed relic
06-13 - desecrated relic
14-37 - false relic
38-97 - "ordinary" relic
98-00 - one of the holiest, most important relics known

[Repost] List of random tables for Perilous Ages

With some help (thanks, guys!) I managed to expand the list of random tables that will appear in the Perilous Ages rulebook. The list is not final - actually, I hope that I'll be able to add even more tables. In alphabetical order:

• Assassination attempts
• Bandits
• Bizarre deaths
• Bribery complications
• Brothel "adventures" and mishaps
• Carousing (will try to not steal ideas from Jeff's version!)
• City scum
• Effects of the "magical" potions and elixirs
• Embezzlement complications
• Epidemics, plagues and disasters
• Execution methods
• Execution mishaps
• Heretical thoughts
• Mercenary complications
• Mutilations
• Peddlers
• Prisons
• Relics
• Relics - their nature
• Religious visions
• Strange ideas
• Veterans
• Why they abandoned it?

Plus - of course - several tables of rumors and random encounters (I love making them so expect lots of entries!).

[Repost] Introducing Perilous Ages

This post was originally posted on August 8 2013 on nuked Perilous Path blog. I decided to repost it to give you more info about my Medieval Fantasy Non-D&D Simulacrum.

Well, this time everything started with a... cover image! Last week I saw this amazing piece of art in the art gallery in Cracow and immediately I thought "damn, I need to make a new game, just to use this on the cover!" So I decided to mix the ideas from the Perilous Path (game mechanics) with the form of my Towers of Krshal (almost pure content, lots of random tables, no bullshit). Also, I'll try to add some commentaries about using this or that but I'm not sure if it's good idea (I love when people interpret things in many different ways and such commentaries can ruin that "open end" of the game).

Things I want to add to the game:

• Rough sketch of medieval-ish setting (or maybe only a map, without any background);
• Lots of rumors, helpful in creating an adventure / world backgrounds. Probably they will be divided into several groups;
• Almost no magic nor mythical creatures;
• Lots of random tables (mercenary creation, mutilation, random treasures, assassination attempts, false relics, execution mishaps and much more);
• Social Status as an important factor during both character creation and the game;
• Only three main character classes but lots and lots of occupations;
• Rules for oppressing the peasants!

I don't know how long will it take me to complete the work (I can't tell anything about it, as time needed to complete my already done projects varies from 3 days to ten or more years) but if you're interested I will post here any updates.