OSR Contributions

Guy Fullerton has come up with a really great listing of Old School Gaming releases since 2000.  It covers a lot of ground from Dragonsfoot to Retroclones and various adventures/supplements/campaign settings from a multitude of companies/individuals.  At 602 listed individuals contributions, that's some pretty impressive creativity from the Old School gaming community.  When I checked the list, I've contributed artwork for 32 of the listed works.  Not too shabby and there is more to come.  Currently I'm working on some pieces for Joe Browning at Expeditious Retreat Press followed by some work for Peter Spahn at Small Niche Games.  Then of course there is Delve! (man, what an undertaking, but yes, I'm still working it along with my other projects!).  A fun ride and I look forward to see more stuff come out from you crazy creative old schoolers/hobbyist gamers out there.  Keep em coming!

The Pustulent Lord

So, I've been having some Interwebz difficulties at home.  The Italians just don't seem to have the same sense of customer support urgency that those of us from the States might be familiar with.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but anywho...  So, for Delve! Zine I wanted to give a little bit of what to expect for my initial outing.  Right now, it'll mostly consist of an adventure designed for mid level characters.  The adventure takes place in a location that can easily be inserted into any campaign.  It'll tie into my Moinar Marches Campaign but no explicit references to that campaign in the adventure itself.  The adventure centers around an unscrupulous advisor to a local baron who plots to have the baron overthrown and himself put in the baron's place.  Ultimately, the Baron is indeed deposed, however, the advisor is himself betrayed and exiled.  The exiled advisor allies himself with a cabal of practioners of the black arts.  Through study, avarice, ambition, lust, and betrayal he soon overtakes the cabal to become the head of the calab.  With a thrist for revenge, he then plots to win the Barony that he believes rightfully his.  To this end he makes deals with the dark forces for more power.  He becomes a practioner of pestilence magic and seeks to gain his revenge on those who betrayed him. 

The site is small, consisting of 11 keyed areas.  There are a couple of special locations such as a library that are not easily accessed.  I've got a few  new monsters such as the contagion guards and plague wraiths.  The adventure can be played as a straight forward find the boss bad guy and get rid of him, but I've put some hooks in so a DM can make it more than that.  For instance, the main bad guy is in league with devils to get his revenge.  He did do the typical soul selling routine.  However, being the trecherous fellow that he is, he's been entreating with other, more alien beings from other dimensions to gain power and play them off the devils and gain his soul back.  There are ways to travel to other planes of existence, there are new spells for plague/pestilence magic, there are creatures that want their vengance upon the main bad guy, there are innocents to free, there are devils to fight or bargain with, etc.  All in one small adventure. 

So that constitutes the bulk of the first issue of Delve and probably a little background article on the Moinar Marches, my own campaign that combines weird fantasy, mythos style beings, plot and intrigue, politics, mythic fantasy, coercion and subversion and more into one "fantasy Balkans" type setting.  It's getting there so more to follow soon.

Interwebz Problems

My internet connection at home is not functional.  The Italian phone company is upgrading the lines in my area and of course that means loss of all landline phone and Internet for the time being.  I'm not quite sure when it will come back up but I can garuntee that it won't be until tomorrow at the earliest since today is an ITalian Holiday.  I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Delve! Update: I'm Learning a few things here

OK, so, I'm still working on Delve!  and it is going a lot slower than I had anticipated.  There are several reasons for this, but I think most of it stems from the fact that I'm learning a lot as I go.  Crafting the dungeon for Delve! has been an experience.  Even though it is only 11 keyed areas, it has still been a lot of work.  I think one of the biggest lightbulb moments for me has been that writing an adventure for me is very different from how I actually DM an adventure.  I tend to be a lot more off the cuff and wing my adventures when I actually play (as I'm sure quite a bit of you old school GMs tend to do).  However, when I write and adventure down for others, the tendancy is to swing too far the other way and micromanage detail.  That's not really what anyone one wants.  So, I've been spending far more time trying to find the happy medium and I think I'm getting there.  I want to convey flavor while still giving the DM flexibility (no railroading).  So, getting closer, but still a bit to do.  I'd say I'm at the 70% stage.  The maps done and rooms are keyed at a basic level with encounters.  I still need to do some statistics for creatures and treasures as well as the art.  I am still moving in a positive direction though.  I'm thinking about doing a free pdf version.  Since this is a creative exercise for me and an avenue to try out some of the crazy ideas I have, I am not really crazy about the idea of charging for my efforts at this point.  Ultimately, I'll just be happy to create and share something with the rest of the OSR.  Stay tuned, more to follow!