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The Haunted West
You know you want this in your Boot Hill Game...A few days ago I got to play a game of Boot Hill using the 2nd, 1979, edition (which are very similar to the 1975 1st edition in its little brown book)...
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The Oldest of Old School (part III) - G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
GYGAX RISES AGAING1 - Steading of the Hill Giant ChiefOriginal Cover ArtRecently I reviewed both Tomb of Horrors (Gary Gygax - 1975/1978) and Temple of the Frog (Dave Arneson - 1975) and found them...
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A Swords and Sorcery Setting - Part 1
I haven't ever really bothered with applying about Swords & Sorcery elements as setting building blocks. Here's an attempt. At some point the This is the World PDF may be followed by This is...
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Steel Leviathan
Sometimes I still mull over ASE and things like will it ever get more levels, and will I ever write anything more for the setting.Sometimes this musing goes as far as drawing some stuff for the...
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HMS Apollyon Viking Character Generation Rules
Below are some rules I wrote up to run Viking seafarers in the HMS Apollyon setting to run some one shots of a few new areas. A friend ran a game at NTRPG Con using these rules and related WWII...
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Heraldic Beasts
As regular readers of this blog may know, I don't love Monster Manuals, and rather enjoy designing my own monsters - usually via a quick re-skinning of something simple (A bear, giant rat or 1st level...
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Monster Archaeology - Magical Beasts
MYTHICAL BEASTS OF LEGENDIt's hard to know exactly where to start and stop the next set of monsters from Monsters and Treasure, bestial creatures that are (with one interesting exception) pulled...
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TOMB OF ANNIHILATION - A Review
WIZARDS CAN STILL SURPRISE ME - TOMB OF ANNIHILATION REVIEWAnother 203 page behemoth from Wizards of the Coast. I’ve read Out of the Abyss, Curse of Strahd, even Hoard of the Dragon Queen and more,...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight Part 1 - Intro and Rumors
In my recent review of Tomb of Annihilation I mentioned that I'd started work some time ago on a jungle adventure and included some bits of it. Some people seem to have enjoyed the small parts of the...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight Part 2 - Undefended Ib
Every wilderness adventure needs a starting point and the tradition for "Jungle Adventure" is to start in an exotic port - a polyglot and strange place filled with sailors, wanderers and mysteries that...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight Part 3 - Ibian NPCs
NPCS OF POWER IN UNDEFENDED IBBakesh, The - Liche (INT 18, WIS 18, CHR 16) HD11 (46 HP), AC 0/20*, ATK 1** freezing touch, ATK BONUS +12 to hit, DAM (2D6), MV 40’, SV MU 10, ML 10.* The Bakesh is...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight Part 4 - Jungle Introduction
THE JUNGLE OF MIDNIGHTDense foreboding jungle the color of a bone bruise, but vibrant with squalling life, spices and bursts of strange color. Its dangers leak from the body of a fallen god, decaying...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight - Part 5 Jungle Encounter Tables 1, Monsters.
BEAST OF THE JUNGLED10Dangers of the Jungle of Midnight1Autochthons (3D6) - A band of Autochthon hunters or gatherers, peaceably finding their sustenance. They may be fishing for glassy eels from a...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight Part 6 - Jungle Tables 2 and 3: Landmarks and Hints
The tables below continue the random encounter structure for Jungle travel - they represent Landmarks and Non-Combat/Indirect encounters with jungle inhabitants. With encounter checks three times a...
View ArticleThe Divine Wight - Part 7 Animals in the Jungle of Midnight
In addition to encounters with mythical beasts and dangerous inhabitants it seems important that a cursed jungle contain a large amount of wildlife. While it would be easy enough to include these...
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SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK - HMS Apollyon Room Design
Below are some sample rooms from areas of the HMS Apollyon that I have been writing up over the last year or so. These are partial and scattered selections from a much larger work, but I am happy to...
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SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK PART II - Grave of Giants Sample Rooms
GRAVE OF GIANTSTHE WHALE TOMB"The abyssal seas hold their secrets deep, and few living known more than a few of the terrible beasts that swim them, but the trawlers of the darkness know, they have seen...
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SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK - HMS Apollyon - Painted Ship on a Painted Sea -...
One of the three main potential adversaries/NPCs within the Duke Brimstone Yacht Club area is Murial Coranado a 'Revenant of Debauchery' who is not especially hostile, but capable of life draining...
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Gold for Experience in 5th Edition D&D
While I was writing this Hack & Slash published this great post about Megadungeon play and 5e that covers some of the same stuff and makes similar points. I'd also recommend Megadungeon #1 by Hack...
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A Map - but not the one you want
I jest, a reader asked for some maps related to my ongoing HMS APOLLYONproject - but I don't feel like publishing those, so here's a map of a twelve sided folded unnatural space.I am keying it up as a...
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Fighting Goblins in a Creative Wasteland
D&D's Goblins Started DullRecently Cecelia D'Anastasio of the relatively mainstream web publication Kotaku published a long piece on the subject of Fighting Goblins in Dungeons & Dragons, and...
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Balance, Challenge & Antagonism when Running Dungeons & Dragons
CHALLENGE RATING AND D&D AS A CONTESTD&D Cartoon Dungeon Master - pretty friendlyThe concept of Challenge Rating in D&D, a means of balancing encounters can detract from open world,...
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Goodbye and Good Luck
Well some of you may have noticed this blog has been down, restricting access for some time. For various reasons I've decided to step away from the OSR and the tabletop gaming web community - possibly...
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The Hinterlands of Empire
"Men make their own history, but not as they please, not out of the conditions he chooses, but under existing circumstances - transmitted from the past; the traditions of past generations weigh like a...
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Revised Prison of the Hated Pretender Release
A revised, updated, edited, illustrated and annotated version of my 2012 Prison of the Hated Pretender is now available for purchase and download at DriveThruRPG. The adventure is introductory, and...
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