Ostensible Cat

Mythmere Games has released the Old School Renaissance Art Book Surge of the Wine-Dark Sea . I've been looking through my artists copy and it is fantastic! No, not because my work is in it - trust me, I'm the bottom feeder of the lot - I'm just glad they let me in the same book as these guys. I mean Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag, Michael Cote, Paul Jaquays?!?! What's not to like. My link is to the Hard Cover (which even though I've got the PDF I'm going to go out and buy a copy) but it is also available in Softcover and PDF. It has some great art and artist bios. So if you're a fan of OSR art, I highly reccommend going out and buying a copy. It's even better than pie!

Mythmere has announced a great idea for Japan relief . He's released the Last Priest of Sobek as a free adventure as long as you donate at least a dollar to disaster relief in Japan. The module is an Egyptian themed affair written by Alphonso Warden and art by me and maps by Matt Mythmere Finch. I'm happy to be involved with this worthy effort even on a small scale. So, why not drop by and read Matt's post, donate what you can, and pick up a great adventure to use in your old school games!

You read that right! Hot elf chicks seek gamer guys for good times and great adventures! YOU can live out your wildest fantasies! YOU can storm the mad wizard’s tower and win the girl! YOU can slay the dragon and take the gold! YOU can become a king among men and be the envy of the peasantry! How?!?! Hehehe, a little bit of tongue in cheek there. In all seriousness, for those tuning in, welcome to Ostensible Cat, a blog associated with the OSR (for my regular readers bear with me – or blame it on James at the Underdark Gazette for giving me the idea). What is the OSR you ask? Well, it is a loosely affiliated or group of self identified gamers that choose to play role playing games in the Old School manner. OSR has a few different meanings for the acronym (Old School Renaissance, Old School Revival, Old School Revolution, etc). Essentially it all boils down to the same thing: a bunch of gamers that are enthusiasts of older editions of pen and paper role playing games (

I've been a fan of James Raggi's work for quite sometime. I think he has taken the OSR in some interesting directions. Love or hate his work (or him), you have to admit that he has had an impact on the OSR and Hobbyist Game Development. For my part, I like the fact that he is bringing us to strange new vistas. Lamentations of the Flame Princess RPG and modules such as Death, Frost, Doom are incredibly flavorful and evocative. I've secretly wanted to contribute to the LotFP canon for quite some (although I thought it'd be for artwork - but I bungled that one - much to my dismay). So, it was quite on a lark that I decided to contribute to the Magic Item contest. You can read my contribution here . So in the end, my secret desire has come true and I'm happy that I get to contribute in some way to Mr. Raggi's work.

James over at Grognardia has posted the cover art for his upcoming Petty Gods release . I'm pretty stoked about that cover. I'm even more honored to have three of my petty gods included (writeup and art). This should be a VERY cool addition to the body of work being put out by folks out there in the gaming community. My, we are a creative bunch aren't we? I do have several more Petty Gods that I with held from submission because they are going to be part of the campaign setting I'm working on (and yes, I picking away at it bits at a time - all the various things like the Sea of O'sr Maps, Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow, Warrens of Polstrus Lev, alternate magic systems, weekly creature feature, etc. are part of that picture).

Joe Browning posted a blog article about a scholarly analysis that was done on the Advanced Adventures Line and how it relates to nostalgia.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to read the article since my at home Internet connection is not working.  However, I think it is incredibly cool that something I contributed to in a small way was part of such an academic undertaking.  Hopefully, I'll be able to read the paper soon and see what was said.  Ah well, at any rate, I've got several pictures I'm illustrating for the Advanced Adventures line still on my drawing board so the fun continues! 

It looks like there is a pretty good effort underway to create a “sand box” style adventure path for the OSR being worked concurrently by several different folks. This is a pretty exciting development and for me really embraces everything I love about the hobbyist game developers out there that are embracing the OSR. Go have a look at the Lands of Ara blog , Quickly, Quietly, Carefully , Telecanter’s Receding Rules , and the Grumpy Old Troll . Good stuff indeed! As for me, I’ve had an island map that I did up about a year ago and have not done anything with it. This gives me the perfect excuse to dust it off and get to work. Of course that just adds to the growing list of projects I’m working on (or wanting to at any rate). I think I qualify for the definition of Creative Compulsive that my wife came up with.

Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games just posted that John Adams of Brave Halfling is working to make Delving Deeper cross compatible with Labyrinth Lord. This so called Rosetta Clone should go a long way to keeping the hobbyist developers out there from fragmenting and stabilizing the releases for multiple platforms. I'm really excited about this as it makes my work on my campaign system much easier since it will have a basis in Labyrinth Lord. Good news for the OSR for sure!