Three year anniversary extravaganza and Sinister Sweatshop conditions exposed at Ostensible Cat HQ!

So today marks the thrird birthday of the Blog Ostensible Cat.  It is sure a fun ride and great to connect with you fine folks out there.  I don have to come clean on something though.  Folks have asked how we accomplish all of our creative endavours around here.  Well, this horrific scene reveals the truth behind the conditions here at Team Bingham HQ:

In all seriousness (well, OK in partial seriousness) I went to the Post Office today to find out what shipping on Delve! would be.  I think the final price for you folks Stateside is gonna be $5 with shipping.  That's 35 pages of game content and art (actual 44 pages but there are 9 pages of non-game stuff like cover and OGL, etc).  For you folks in the UK and elsewhere, I still need to swing by the Italian Post Office and check the prices.  I still am working on the PDF so I can sell Delve! on RPGNow.  That should be forthcoming.  So what's left then?  I'm going to get myself a new laser printer in the next couple of days.  After that, I begin to make print copies and I'll announce the sale of Delve! has gone live.  So, very, very soon now!

In other news, Strange and Sinister Shores is live as an IndieGoGo crowd funded event.  I implore you to help fund it so I don't have to continually resort to scenes like the swat shop labor above.  Yeah, that way I'll be rolling in the dough and can afford to actually pay my kids for their work ;).  Really though, I think there is some fun stuff going on and I do hope you folks check it out.  I'm working on an adventure that I think will be fun to play through, is open ended, and provides different satisfactory conclusions.  I'm more geared towards suspenseful horror rather than in your face slasher porn type stuff.  I like the gritty, low power, magic has consequences approach that Lamentations of the Flame Princess  brings to the gaming table.  There are a ton of possibilities with the system and it's lite enough to really cover a lot of ground.  Best of all, I like that there are no monsters in the rule set.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE monsters.  But I like crazy ass, OMG WHAT IS THAT THING!!1!!!one!!eleven!!111! kinda monsters and situation rather than "oh look, kobolds and orcs!  Let's go get some easy XP gang!"  So yeah, expect some weird stuff in Strange and Sinister Shores with lead ins and warnings and all of the usual horror type stuff.  Different factions will entice the PC's into visiting the site of a large, unexplained disaster.  There will be chances for gold, glory, but most of all the reward should just be getting there and getting out alive.  More about Strange and Sinister Shores to come over the next several days.

Also, go check out Expeditious Retreat Press's Kickstarter campaign for an Old School Gaming Calendar.  Lots of good artistic talent on had to provide some images.  Plus depending on your Kickstarter contribution level, you can add personalized dates to the calendar.  Yeah, I'm adding my birthday so folks out there will know when to start shopping for my birthday and when to shower me with tributes of pie!  But I digress.  Go over here and check it out!

Well, enough bloviating.  Man, I haven't posted like this for a while, but it is a three year anniversary post after all.  So, I guess I'll leave you with one more preview from Delve!  Enjoy and Happy Gaming!

the following is open gaming content 

Pustulent Beetle

Frequency:  Very Rare

No. Encountered:  2d10

Size:  Small

Move:  120 ft.  

Armor Class: 4

Hit Dice:  1-2hp

Attacks:  1

Damage: 1 hp + Disease 

Special Attacks:  Disease

Special Damage:  nil

Magic Resistance:  Standard

Lair Probability:  90%

Intelligence:  Non

Alignment:  Neutral

Level/XP:1/5 + 1/hp

Sickly pale yellow in color, these 3” long beetles are redolent with the scent of putrefaction.  The initial bite only inflicts 1 point of damage, but the victim must make a successful save versus poison or be affected by a necrotic flesh eating disease.  This disease causes the flesh around the bite to putrefy causing 1-2 points of damage each round for 4 rounds.  During this time, the beetle feeds upon the pustulent flesh. 

These vermin also lay their eggs in the necrotic flesh resulting from their putrefying bite.  There is a 10% chance that anyone bitten will harbor 1d10 eggs.  The eggs incubate over the course of 48 hours and will hatch, causing further 1d2 points of damage each round as the larvae feed.  They will move to the surface of the skin in 2d4 rounds where they erupt from pus filled boils.

Cure disease kills the larvae and eggs on one victim.  The lesions caused by the necrotic flesh will be itchy and painful and slowly heal over the course of 1d4 days.