Since 2013, Goodman Games, the publisher of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic has released a book especially for Gen Con, the largest tabletop hobby gaming event in the world. That book is the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book, a look back at the previous year, a preview of the year to come, staff biographies, and a whole lot more, including adventures and lots tidbits and silliness. The first was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book, but not being able to pick up a copy from Goodman Games when they first attended UK Games Expo in 2019, the first to be reviewed was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book. Fortunately, a little patience and a copy of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book was located and reviewed, so now in 2021, normal order is resumed with the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book.
The Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is a slimmer, more focused edition than in previous years, with a double combination of source material and scenarios, not once, but twice, another scenario, as well as the usual mix of Goodman Games community content. The first of the source material/scenario combinations is ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ and ‘The Return of Scravis’ both by Marc Bruner, adapts an earlier setting published by Goodman Games to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. This is Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex, the setting which Goodman Games published for the d20 System back in 2991. This is a Science Fiction setting in which mankind went to the stars in a timeline where the American Civil War ended in stalemate and two factions—the Federal Union of Planets and the Confederate States of America—are the leading powers. When dinosaurs are discovered on the Earth-like world of Cretasus, they rush to exploit it. Adventurers come for the wealth and glory; industrialists for the mineral wealth; colonists for the new world; and hunters for the biggest game of all—dinosaurs! Putting aside the fact that the setting draws from the American Civil War for some of its background, the obvious problem with ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ is that it is a Science Fiction setting and Dungeon Crawl Classics is not. ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ does not wholly address this as it is only a partial adaptation. What it suggests instead is using Cretasus and ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ as a ‘Lost World’ a made mage’s experiment that perhaps the adventurers from a Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign end up on. However, that is not the default set-up in ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’.
In ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’, the players take the role of Velociraptor tribesmen! Options are given for playing at Zero Level, perhaps in Character Funnel, but the primary focus is on the five new Classes. These are Velociraptor Warrior, Velociraptor Tactician, Velociraptor Shaman, Velociraptor Exile, and the Wild One. These are mini Classes, just five Levels each. The Velociraptor Warrior is like the Warrior Class of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game; the Velociraptor Tactician lays traps, uses stealth, and can co-ordinate others in battle with tactics; the Velociraptor Shaman knows alchemy, casts Clerical spells, and can often predict the actions of a creature with natural premonitions; the Velociraptor Exile live apart from any tribe and have a greater understanding of the wider world and human technology—both of which the Velociraptor Shaman does value them for; and the Wild One is a human who feels a tighter bond with nature than with technology, has a greater understanding of nature, and is uncomfortable around other humans. The Velociraptor Shaman also has ‘Ways’, reflecting how they bond with one particular type of dinosaur, like the ‘Way of the Tyrannosaur’, ‘Way of the Triceratops’, and ‘Way of the Pteranodon’, which grants them spells and other abilities. There are notes too on human technology and writeups of various dinosaurs.

‘The Return of Scravis’ is the accompanying scenario, written for use with Second Level Velociraptor Player Characters. The Player Characters are members of the L’dena tribe whose hunters have reported that their traditional hunting herds in the East Valley have been disrupted from their traditional hunting grounds. The scenario is quite short, a mini-sandbox, which shows off the potential of the ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ setting. Hopefully Goodman Games will find the time to revisit this entertaining update of a title deep out of its back catalogue.
The second of the source material/scenario combinations in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is ‘Lovecraftian Monsters for Dungeon Crawl Classics’ and the scenario ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’ both by Jon Hook. The author of course has history with Call of Cthulhu, in particular, the Age of Cthulhu line. With ‘Lovecraftian Monsters for Dungeon Crawl Classics’ provides stats and descriptions for twenty-two of the classic Lovecraftian creatures, from Byakhee and Colour Out of Space to Star Vampire and Yithian. In terms of fantasy, this is a good treatment of them, though of course it does lose some of the horror elements traditionally seen in their gaming versions. Nevertheless, this opens up options for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the Judge who wants to take her game into Cosmic Horror.
The scenario, ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’, is for Third Level Player Characters and sees them entering the Black Moss Woods and heading for a landmark known as the Screaming Ash to find out why local farmers were slaughtered and kidnapped. In the caverns below the Screaming Ash they discover the lair of a dread cult dedicated to the Great old One, Nyogtha. The cavern complex is relatively short and firmly steps into a territory that would normally be eschewed by roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror—the Cthuloid dungeon—because the result is invariably a Mythos mishmash. Here though, it works because of the format and the fact that the Player Characters are better equipped to handle monsters, whether of the Mythos variety or not. ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’ though, is a nasty and weird slice of pulp, fantasy horror.
The third and final scenario in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is ‘Sisters of the Moon Furnace’ by Marc Bishop. This is a classic Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. Here the Player Characters awake to find themselves atop a strange complex amidst the clouds, from which they must descend to find out where they are and what they are doing there. There is the sense that they are being gently manipulated and then rewarded and penalised for their choices, suggesting perhaps that the Player Characters have a special destiny. The Player Characters need not fulfil the destiny in the scenario, and the likelihood is that it will be interesting if they do not, especially if the scenario is being used as a campaign starter. ‘Sisters of the Moon Furnace’ is an excellent example of the Character Funnel.
Also included in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is more of ‘The Dungeon Alphabet’ by Michael Curtis, exploring particular aspects of dungeon delving and encounters and providing a table for each of ideas and encounter possibilities. Thus, we have ‘Q for Quests’ and ‘U for Underwater’ and simple tables for each that the Judge can pick and choose from. As expected, Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book very much focuses on the community aspect of being part of the Goodman Games family. ‘2016-2017 Mailing Labels’ by Stefan Poag and Brad McDevitt highlight the artwork which appeared on the mailing labels for anyone who ordered from Goodman Games; Doug Kovacs’ ‘A Visual History of the Band’ continues the history of the characters who continue to appear in Dungeon Crawl Classics scenarios, this time running from Dungeon Crawl Classics #68: People of the Pit to Dungeon Crawl Classics #93: Moon Slaves of the Cannibal Kingdom; and ‘Goodman Games Poster Contest’ by the Goodman Games Community collects all of the entries from the Road Crew Flyer Design Contest 2016.
Three entries in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book capture the energy Judges Crew and the Goodman Games community. ‘Real Life Adventures: The Alamo’ by Marc Bruner takes some inspiration from history and backs that up with several suggestions on using the Alamo—or situation like it—for the Judge, whilst Company owner Joseph Goodman recalls the ‘Real Life Adventures: The Goodman Games 2017 Creative Retreat’ and the ‘Con and Event Recap’ by the Goodman Games Community provide a fantastic range of photographs of both events. These bring the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book to a colourful close, with the ‘Con and Event Recap’ giving a great feel for what just a little bit of Gen Con can be like.
Physically, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is a slim softback book. It is decently laid out, easy to read, lavishly illustrated throughout, and a good-looking book both in black and white, and in colour.
On one level, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book, as with other entries in the annual series, is an anthology of magazine articles, but in this day and age of course—as well as 2016—there is no such thing as the roleplaying magazine. So what you have instead is the equivalent of a comic book’s Christmas annual—but published in the summer rather than in the winter—for fans of Goodman Games’ roleplaying games. The Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book differs from previous entries in the series, there being no gaming history or previews, instead focusing on solid gaming content, whether revisiting an old setting or taking fantasy in the direction of cosmic horror. The Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book is leaner and cleaner and all the better for it with some entertaining gaming content.

In the past, I would have focused on the adventure, the excitement and the interactivity of it all. Today I would still do that, but I would also focus on the things that mean more to me these days; playing with family and friends.

I'd also point out how it is a great creative effort.  Want to write an 11 backstory for your character? Sure! Go ahead. But keep in mind they might die at any point.  What to do then? New character and new backstory!

There are so many reasons people get into RPGs now and so many different kinds to choose from. Getting people into RPGs may not be the right question. Instead, how do we help people find the right RPG for their needs and wants?

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start is the release from Modiphius Entertainment for Free RPG Day 2022. It is the quick-start for Homeworld: Revelations, the roleplaying based on the real-time strategy video game series Homeworld, which includes Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, Homeworld 2, and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, as well as the forthcoming Homeworld 3. The series tells the story of the  Kushan, a people lost in space after the destruction of their home planet, Kharak, and their attempt to find Hiigara, a new homeworld, journeying in fleet lead by a massive mothership. In Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start, the players take the roles of members of The Dreamlands team, archaeologists brought together to gather historical records and artefacts from the wreckage of the great ship, the Khar-Toba, on the planet Kharak. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones interested the Khar-Toba. Others want to stop anyone from discovering the knowledge and technology which lies within the bowels of the great ship, and will do anything to prevent that from happening.
Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start is designed for play by five players and come with five pre-generated Player Characters, printed separately. It contains all the rules necessary to play, including skills, action, combat, and interaction, all the way up to ship-to-ship combat. The five pre-generated characters include a security officer, a researcher, a medical officer, a technological operations manager, and pilot. All five are simply and clearly laid out and easy to read and use. Each also comes with a good illustration as well as a little background.

A Player Character in Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start and thus Homeworld: Revelations is defined by Attributes, Disciplines, Focuses, Values, Traits, Talents, and Truths. The six Attributes—Agility, Brawn, Coordination, Insight, Reason, and Will—represent ways of or approaches to doing things as well as intrinsic capabilities. They are rated between seven and twelve. There are six skills—Combat, Command, Engineering, Exploration, Flight, and Medical—which are fairly broad and rated between one and five, whilst Focuses represent narrow areas of study or skill specialities, for example, Expert Pilot, Jury Rigging, Field Surgery, Unfamiliar Technology, and Chain of Command. Truths are single words or short phrases, which describe a significant fact or aspect about its subject, whether that is a scene, person, place, environment, or object. A Truth can make an action easier or more difficult, or even simply make it possible or impossible.To undertake an action in the 2d20 System in Homeworld: Revelations, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Skill. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a Player Character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Skill also count as two successes. In the main, because a typical difficulty will only be a Target Number of one, players will find themselves rolling excess Successes which becomes Momentum. This is a resource shared between all of the players which can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save some for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure.
Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Game Master can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.
Combat uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Damage in combat is rolled on the Challenge dice, the number of ‘Homeworld: Revelations’ symbols rolled determining how much damage is inflicted. A similar roll is made to resist the damage, and any leftover is deducted from a character’s Stress. If a character’s Stress is reduced to zero or five or more damage is inflicted, then a character is injured. Any ‘Homeworld: Revelations’ symbols rolled indicate an effect as well as the damage. In keeping with the tone of the various series, weapon damage can be deadly (and nearly every character—Player Character or NPC, is armed with a firearm of some kind), melee or hand-to-hand, less so.

Lastly, the Player Characters all begin play with several points of Fortune, which can be used to pull off extraordinary actions, perform exciting stunts, make one-in-a-million shots, or provide an edge during life-or-death situations. These can be spent to gain a Critical Success on any roll, reroll any dice, gain an additional action in a round, to avoid imminent defeat, and to add new element to the current scene. More can be earned through play, such as accepting a Complication, changing a Defining Aspect about a character, or good roleplaying.

The rules themselves in the Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start take up almost two thirds of its pages. The rest is taken up by the scenario. This starts in the outer desert region known as The Dreamlands where the wreck of the Khar-Toba can be found. The Player Characters are part of a team lead buy by the archaeologist Mevath Sagald, sent to investigate the wreck and glean what historical records and artefacts they can from it. However, the wreck is guarded by the Gaalsien, a kiith or clan religiously opposed to all thoughts of discovery and exploration, fearing that the Kushan took part in a great evil long ago and were punished by being exiled. The Player Characters will need to find a way into the wreck and avoid detection, exploring the ships and recover archaeological artefacts, and then escape both the ship and any attempts by the Gaalsien to stop them. Divided into five scenes, the scenario primarily involves stealth and exploration, although there is scope for combat and interaction depending upon what the players decide to do. There are moments throughout for each Player Character to shine and the scenario builds to an exciting climax chased by Gaalsien spacecraft. Overall, it is good adventure, and it should provide a good two sessions’ worth of play or so.
Physically, Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start is a good looking affair with excellent artwork and decent layout. Unfortunately, the whole affair does feel rushed and needs another good edit. On the plus side though, it is well written, and there are lots and lots of examples of play and sections of advice for the Game Master. There is no cartography and thus no deckplans of the Khar-Toba. The scenario is not difficult to run without them, but their inclusion would have helped.
Ultimately, Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start is let down by one factor and one factor alone. It has rules, it has pre-generated Player Characters, and it has a scenario. What it entirely lacks is background. There is no explanation of what Homeworld is or what the setting of Homeworld: Revelations is like, so leaves the Game Master to do her own research and prepare it for her players. This is disappointing as a quick-start is designed to both introduce a setting and a roleplaying game to players unaware of the setting and introduce a roleplaying game to those who know the setting. Homeworld: Revelations – A Tabletop Roleplaying Odyssey Quick-Start does a better job of doing the latter than the former and so does not fully succeed as a quick-start.

More Pathfinder material tonight.  

Full disclosure, I am friends with the author, Robert W. Thomson. Also, I will be following my rules for this to remain fair.

Witch Options (PFRPG)

PDF. 10 pages, 1 cover, 2.4 pages for OGL. 6.6 pages of content. $2.00

I like Purple Duck Games. They produce a lot of material so it is a good chance there is something out there that you will enjoy.  This book has a lot of different options for the witch class as the title says. 

There is a little bit of everything in this book too.

There are five new hexes. Five new Major hexes and four Grand hexes. Six New Patron Themes. Ten new feats.  I am rather fond of the Triple Moon Tattoo feat to be honest.

Ten new spells, including "Summon Hag."  Four new pieces of equipment.

There is the hagborn template to add to any monster for creatures born to hags.

There is not a lot of any one thing here, but a lot of different things. For $2.00 how could I say no?

A lot of weirdness converged this week, so as you’re reading this, the Triffid Ranch will be set up at Aquashella Dallas at Dallas Market Hall for a solid weekend of carnivorous plant fun. After that, it’s a matter of … Continue reading →

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Without a doubt, the slimmest of offerings for Free RPG Day 2022 is A Familiar Problem. There is good reason for that. It consists of a single sheet of light card, done in black and white on the one side and in full colour on the other. The full colour side consists of adverts for other releases from the publisher, Darrington Press, most notably, Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, the supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, based on the Critical Role YouTube campaign setting. Which is a bit strange. Strange because it is the adverts which get the colour and so take attention away from the roleplaying game on the other side. Strange because if Darrington Press had instead released a quick-start or a scenario for Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn for Free RPG Day 2022, then it might have got a whole lot more attention than A Familiar Problem is likely too. Putting that aside, what you get with A Familiar Problem is either a flyer with a mini-roleplaying game on the back or a mini-roleplaying game with a lot of advertising attached. Take your pick.
A Familiar Problem is a one-page roleplaying game in which the players take the roles of wizards’ familiars. Their masters and mistresses are away on an adventure and left them behind. Having been forgotten about them, they decide to have an adventure of their own and so prove to their owners that are useful and perhaps worth taking along on the next adventure. A Familiar might be a bat, a crab, an owl, a rat, a raven, and others. Each Familiar has four attributes—Clever, Fierce, Sly, and Quick, and a BREAK like Paranoia or Narcissism. The attributes range in value between zero and three, whilst the Break represents atypical behaviour if the Familiar acquires too much Stress. Each Familiar also knows three pieces of Pocket Magic, three spells such as Butterfingers, Door Magic, or Summon Horse. These are single use spells. To create a Familiar, a player rolls or chooses from the table of twelve and then does the same for his Familiar’s spells.
Lizzie the LizardClever +0, Fierce +1, Sly +2, Quick +2BREAK: CowardicePocket Magic: Limited Invisibility, Soak, Speak with Object
When a Familiar wants to undertake an action in A Familiar Problem, his player rolls a ten-sided die and adds the value of an appropriate Attribute to the result of the die roll. The aim is roll equal to or higher than a Difficulty Number, which ranges from five or Easy to Very Difficult or ten. If the roll is failed, the Familiar gains a point of Stress. Subsequently, each time a player rolls for a task and rolls under his Familiar’s Stress, his Familiar’s Break occurs. Then the player has to roleplay that behaviour until the other Familiars calm his Familiar down and rescue him from the situation which triggered it.
As to what the Familiars do, there is a set of three of tables, one for generating the mission and two the adventure location. For example, ‘Sabotage the villain’s scheme in the Opulent Castle’. And that is it… The rest of it is left up to the Game Master to make up, perhaps with some input from her players, for example, whatever the villain’s scheme might be, and then play out. Which should take no more than a single session—and probably a short session at that.
A Familiar Problem is plain and simple. Whether that is physically, conceptually, or playfully. One of the best features of the simplicity is that it is easy to teach, is suitable for some younger players (depending how far they can cope with the BREAK rules), and requires no preparation. The only thing that it really requires is the ten-sided die and a Game Master happy to make things up and help tell the story.

So this was posted earlier this week.

So I guess that makes it official. You can get Twilight Fables in 5e AND OSE/OSR flavors.

There are new OSR tiers to choose from. I just updated mine to include both the OSE and 5e versions of the book.

--

Twilight Fables

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1693797308/twilight-fables?ref=theotherside

Really looking forward to this one. It is for 5e and it looks AMAZING.  Rod was the mastermind behind Chromatic Dungeons, so you know the quality is good, but he has upped his game to the next level on this one. In addition to a Print on Demand version, there will be the ubiquitous PDF and Print-friendly PDF, and there will also be an accessible RTF file.  There is also an option for a glossy offset print if the stretch goal is made.

Additionally, you get a zip file containing tokens and markdown files of every creature, as well as dozens of printable images of the monsters. To be used at your table or virtual table. 

The book has a ton of monsters from myth and legend and more to the point the book is already done. That's correct, there might be some minor edits here and there, but the book is done, art is in place, and you will get your digital rewards (PDF, RTF, tokens) as soon as the funding is done.

That's the way to do it honestly.

And NOW an OSR option too!

I guess this is continuing on from Day 3's choice.

Why will they like this game? 

Well for Basic D&D you can get up and running really fast. Character creation is quick, you can be right into the action in under an hour.

I also use D&D Basic to sell people on the game by appealing to their sense of history, I talk about how many others have traveled the same paths they have. I appeal to their nostalgia.  With "Stranger Things" so prominent in the media now this is a good hook.

"So many heroes have walked this path, but so many more are now forgotten. Which one will you be?"

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

—oOo—
One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. For Free RPG Day 2022, the publisher again provides a title for each of these two roleplaying games, A Fistful of Flowers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, the other being Skitter Warp for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. In past years, the titles released for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have typically involved adventures with diminutive Player Characters, first Kobolds, then Goblins, and this year, Leshys, humanoid sapient plants of various species and Classes, typivally crafted by a druid as a minion or companion. Four pre-generated Player Characters are included, each of Third Level, each independent of their creator, and the scenario requires the Game Master have access to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Pathfinder Bestiary, Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide, and the recently released Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. The scenario can be played in one good session or two and offers a good mix of skill challenges, stealth, interaction, and combat.

A Fistful of Flowers begins in Verduran Forest, a large woodland in Avistan. There is a Wildwood Treaty in place between the forest and the nearby settled lands, affording the forest certain legal protections. However, the Player Characters have become aware that some of their numbers are missing and as the more powerful Leshys in the woods, it is their duty to investigate. The trail begins down at a river crossing and leads across first to a campsite and then beyond the limits of the forest canopy to a nearby village. Here the Leshys will find themselves readily accepted by the villagers and able to gather clues as who might be responsible. This will lead to the first of the two main scenes in scenario which are fully detailed and mapped and serve as its two climaxes. This first takes place in the wax laboratory of Crystals and Candlewax, owned by the alchemist who has been stealing into the forest and kidnapping Leshys! He though is not the true villain of the piece, his ambitions having got the better of him and found him serving a snooty, venal aristocrat, Lady Constance Meliosa, who wants the Leshys as showpieces to display at parties to her friends. The climax of the scenario will see the Player Characters crashing her afternoon tea party.
A Fistful of Flowers packs a lot into its sixteen pages and gives plenty for the Player Characters to do. There are problems to overcome and NPCs to interact with, the scenario providing multiple means for approaching either, and whilst the confrontation with the brute of an alchemist is likely to end in combat, the confrontation at the tea party need not do so. The Player Characters can sneak in, crash the party, persuade the guests that Lady Constance’s misdemeanours break the Wildwood treaty, and so on. Whilst the encounter in the alchemist’s shop is a traditional sneak and combat affair, the aristocrat’s fancy tea party deserves to be played out as a riotous assembly of flying skirts, scattered cakes, and soured sensibilities.
To accompany the adventure, A Fistful of Flowers includes four pre-generated Player Characters. These consist of a Gourd Leshy Druid, Leaf Leshy Bard, a Vine Leshy Barbarian, and a Fungus Leshy Rogue. Each is neatly arranged on their own individual pages and complete with background and clear, easy to read stats. Of course, the players do not have to use these, but could instead substitute their own characters, created using the rules in Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Otherwise though, these are a decently diverse range of characters. 
Physically, A Fistful of Flowers is as well presented as you would expect for a release from Paizo Inc. Everything is in full colour, the illustrations are excellent, and the maps attractive. The only issue is that the map of the alchemist’s laboratory is not numbered, though the locations are easy enough to work out. The Game Master might want to create stats for Lady Constance and her guests, but neither are absolutely necessary to run the adventure.
A Fistful of Flowers is an entertainingly likeable adventure. It provides a diverse range of Player Characters and has a pleasing different feel to its fantasy than that atypical of most roleplaying fantasy and packs a lot of adventure into what is just a handful of pages. Overall, A Fistful of Flowers is a fun showcase for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition. 

Making my way through various Pathfinder books this one caught my eye a while back. 

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Into The Breach: The Witch

PDF. 32 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 1 credits page, 1 table of contents, 1 OGL, for 27 pages of content.  $5.99.

This book has quite a bit of good content. 

There are new archetypes: Bailiwick Hermit, Bog Builder, Bulwark Theurgist, Dweomer Weaver, Foul Temptress, Gluttonous Crone, Marjara Bound, the Scorned Heart, and Voodoo Crafter.

Each archetype has a number of new associated powers. 

There is a new  Base Class related to the witch, the Sèvitè which is the worshiper of a lost creator god. Essentially this is a Voodoo practitioner in Pathfinder terms.  The interesting thing for me is their ability to Syncretize various gods. Very interesting to be sure. 

There are a couple of very interesting Prestige Classes presented as well. The Heathen and The Scarred Shaman. 

Like all good witch books for Pathfinder, this one has a number of Hexes, Major Hexes, and Grand Hexes.  There are also four new Patrons and quite a few new feats.

I rather like it to be honest. Lots of fun options here. The Voodoo-themed elements are nice and I would love to explore more with the syncretism of the gods. 

Typhon  Scylla  Dragon  Cerberus  Gremlin  Glaukos  Rukh  Backbeared  Zunuqua  Waiwai  Sea Serpent  Centaurs
Chon Chon  Leviathan  Tengu of China  Cholt  Melusine  Buer  Hippogriff  Harpy  Balor  Griffen  Garuda  The Death  Basilisk  Polyphemus  Salamander  Phorkys  Dragon  Giant Newt 
 "This is an artbook/encyclopedia that came included with a set of Tarot Cards centered around Shigeru Mizuki's artwork. There are 80 Yokai/Mythical Creatures in total, and each one comes with their own entry that gives a little more information about the creature. Shigeru Mizuki himself considered mythical monsters/beasts outside of Japan types of Yokai, so these entries contain creatures from all around the world." 
 The complete book, including many more of Mizuki's illustrations of Yokai and other various mythological creatures can be viewed at Archive.org 
 Previous Monster Brains posts sharing the work of Mizuki can be found below..   Shigeru Mizuki - Illustrated Guide To Yokai Monsters, 2004  Shigeru Mizuki - God of Pestilence   Shigeru Mizuki's Yokai, 1974   Shigeru Mizuki - Yokai Illustrations  And finally, the first post on Monster Brains sharing the work of Mizuki in 2006..

Well, it’s that time of the year: the beginnings of regional awards season. Between now and the end of November, Dallas newspapers both daily and weekly, magazines, and Web sites all rush to process nominations and awards finalists for their … Continue reading →

This one is easy.

If it is the first game for people I don't know well and I am teaching them the game then I usually want to do it at my Favorite Local Game Store, Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL.  This way if they want to buy the game in question everything they need is right there.  Plus it is a nice neutral environment.

If it is for people I know well then I prefer my game room here at my home.  I always wanted my own game room and now I have one.

I just need to convince my kids they need to clean up when they are done using it.

Halloween is coming...in a couple of months, but you are going to need to be ready and here is something to help with that.

Witches and Bats

These papercraft minis to print and cut out.  You get 6 wicked witches, 4 giant bats and 1 small bat swarm. There is a preview on the DriveThruRPG page.

I do not own a Silhouette/Craftrobo cutter, I just printed them out on a laser printer and made little stands for them.  I use them as part of a village of witches.  My kids have learned that "paper minis" are NPCs that don't interact much while "plastic minis" are main NPCs.  So of course they want to talk to all the paper minis!  At least these ones are interesting. 

One page at $2.95 but that is fine really, I don't think art has to follow the same rules I use for reviewing other materials.

Do I use these with my War of the Witch Queens?  Absolutely. I need a lot of witches to populate the Tredicim (the gathering of Witches) and these are great to fill out the ranks.

I mix them with Ghostly Spirits, Demons, Devils and Imps, Scarecrows and Jack-O-Lanterns (a favorite), Evil Cultists, and Gothic Statues for a full-on Halloween Village feel.

I believe I have shared this story before, but it never hurts to re-share.

For me, it was the Winter of 1979.  It was "quiet reading" time at school and I had already read everything in our school's small library on science and my new fascination, Mythology.  So instead of picking up "D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" for the 100th time, I borrowed a friend's book that also covered all the same monsters and creatures. 

The book was the AD&D Monster Manual.

The rest is history.  I tried to figure out to play on my own, made up a bunch of stuff, and then finally got a copy of the Holmes Basic book. A poorly Xeroxed copy to be exact. Until I got my hands on the Moldvay Basic set this was how I tried to play D&D.  

 Two different products from two different publishers that aim to do similar things. But combined?  Oh I may have found something rather amazing here.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

100 Witches

PDF. 19 pages. Color cover and pages. Black & white art.  $1.99.

This book has 100 different witches with names and a paragraph for their background.  Need a quick NPC witch? Roll a d100 and you will have one. There are no stat blocks, just the names and backgrounds.  But that is exactly what they adveritse, so we are in great shape really.

10,000 Witches

PDF, 1 page, no art. $1.50.

Another one of Lee's Lists products. This one features two d100 tables, one of names and the other of titles or honorifics.  So a roll of 23 and 85 produces "Isadora the Bald."

What it lacks in length it makes up for in versatility.  You can in fact create 10,000 different witches here. 

--

Now how can I get 1,000,000 witches? Take both products and run your generation methods; a 3d100. The first d100 gives you the name, the second d100 gives you the title honorific, and the last d100 you use to get the backstory.  100x100x100 or 1003 or 1,000,000 witches.

Combine this with a product like Build a Witch and you can create a nearly endless supply of witches.

It's Tuesday and that usually means new releases.  It is also Lughnasadh (well yesterday) and the first of the Pagan harvest festivals.

I thought some "new" releases were in order.  They are not new per se, but they are new bundles.

2022 Pagan Witch Bundle

This combines several "Pagan" witches into one set.  Five books for four different OSR rulesets (Old School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Blueholme, and Swords & Wizardry).  Plus the Witch/Warlock Character Folio. 333 pages.

It includes:

• The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition
• Daughters of Darkness: The Mara Witch for Basic Era Games
• The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch for Basic Era Games
• The Green Witch for Swords & Wizardry 
• The Witch: Aiséiligh Tradition for Swords & Wizardry
• Witch Character Sheet - Folio

The idea is to take whichever class you want, a Pagan Witch, or a Green Witch, and use the ruleset of your choice. Use all the spells, powers, and monsters from all the books.

And not to let the witches have all the fun, I have a warlock bundle as well.

2022 Warlock Bundle

Five books for four different OSR rulesets (Old School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Blueholme, and Swords & Wizardry).  Plus the Witch/Warlock Character Folio. 333 pages.

• The Warlock for Old-School Essentials
• The Warlock for Swords & Wizardry 
• The Winter Witch for Swords & Wizardry 
• Witch Character Sheet - Folio

If you purchased any of these books in the past then DriveThru will apply a discount. 

There are a lot of great choices out there, but I am still rather partial to the 1981 Moldvay Basic Set.  Starts you out simple and lets you build as you go on.  While the Mentzer Red Box Basic for the BECMI line gets a lot of kudos (and got the sales to be sure) I am still more in the camp of Moldvay.

I suppose it follows then that Old-School Essentials is also a good choice as is Basic Fantasy.

 

Been spending some time with various Pathfinder supplements. Tonight I want to look over the Knotty Works book Advancing the Class.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Advancing with Class: The Witch

PDF. 27 pages. 1 cover, title page, back cover, 1 ad, 2 pages of ogl. 22 pages of content.

This book has a bunch of new material for the Pathfinder 1st Ed. Witch class.

There are five new Patron themes (with patron spells listed); Arcane Patron, Courtly Fey Patron, Nature Fey Patron, Summer Patron, and Whimsy Patron.

There are 54 new hexes in four categories along with the general, major and grand hexes.

The 17 new feats are interesting since I do like to play with the idea that witches are almost a different type of human.  So there are lot of "blood" nature feats.

The witch Archetypes give you different roleplaying ideas, with some mechanical advantages. We have the Eldritch Witch, Fey Touched Witch, Harrowed Harlequin, Madness Matriarch, Mystic Astrologer, Occult Scholar, and Shadow Mistress. 

There are also three NPC witches using them material above.

There are certainly some great ideas here and some archetypes I'd love to try out.   

The layout is ok. The font is very readable, but the blue boarder seems unnecessary.  The art is a bit of a mixed bag.  But for just under $3.50 it's a good deal.

It is the year 2000. We don't have flying cars, but I have a brand new baby, and Wizards of the Coast, the brand new owners of Dungeons &  Dragons are putting out their new 3rd Edition material.  The Monster Manual was the last of the three core rule books.

For today I am going to consider the 3.0 and the 3.5 versions of the Monster Manuals.  I am also considering the Print and PDF versions from DriveThruRPG.

Monster Manual 3rd Edition

3.0 220 pages. 3.5 324 pages. 425 monsters.

More so than the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums or Manual this book felt like the Monster Manual of old.

It was the start of the new millennium (almost) and we all survived Y2K.  I had been moving away from D&D for some time by this point and this was the edition that brought me back.  I do sometimes still get the urge to play 3.x and this book is one of those reasons.

The art budget for D&D (no more "Advanced") was heavily increased. Art that would have been chosen for cover art for products in the 1990s now joins several more just like for interior art. Every monster in illustrated in full color now and the book itself is a work of art.

Inside are all the favorites and many new ones to boot.  Demons and Devils are back AS Demons and Devils, although they also retain their bowdlerized names of Tanar'ri and Baatezu respectively. This works out to Wizards of the Coast's advantage since now those names can be considered Product Identity under the newly formed OGL. Sure other publishers can, and do (and boy do they!), talk about demons, but Tanar'i are off-limits.

What is special about this book, and 3.x in general, is now monsters are built using the same rules as characters. They have the same abilities, a great wyrm blue dragon has a strength of 39, and built like characters are with the same skills and the new feat system.  So that same ancient blue dragon can have a fly-by attack feat.  I can't say everything is perfect, but it is certainly better than the catch as catch can abilities of AD&D where a Will-O-the-wisp can has ridiculous stats. 

The implication is here is that some monsters could even be characters. For a crazy example take the Skum (p.229). It has 2d8+2 HD. At the bottom of the stat block is a "Level Adjustment" of +3. Skum start out at 3rd level but still 0 XP. Once they gain enough to get to 4th level they can advance. Usually, there is a preferred class listed, but almost everything can advance as a fighter. 

Creatures also get a different hit die based on their type. Faeries get a d6 while undead gets a d12. Type is very important here. 

There are also templates which is a great idea. Have a 14th-level fighter who is changed into a vampire? Well in older forms of D&D he would have gone down to the HD of a vampire.  In 3.x he is now 14th level (yeah level drain is gone, more or less) and you add vampire abilities on top. It was something hinted at with Ravenloft, now it is part of the rules.

I mentioned the art, it is great though there are some changes between the 3.0 and 3.5 versions.

In fact, there are some monsters not illustrated in the 3.0 version that do get illustrations in the 3.5.

It is really a great resource.  My one complaint is that the one monster per page layout is gone.  This does conserve space and makes the book smaller, I just had gotten used to the format with 2nd Ed.  4th Ed would bring it back.

I have very fond memories of this book. My oldest son as a small child would spend hours flipping through it, just like I had done with the original Monster Manual. 

I should also point out that because of this book and the Open Gaming License I was able to get my first ever professional RPG writing gig working on Eden Studios' Liber Bestarius.