Ostensible Cat

Ok, so I've had some time, energy, clarity of thought, alignment of the stars and planets, or whatever that has allowed me to make some progress on my classless OSR system. I've pretty much been consulting a bunch of OSR games such as Swords and Wizardry (Whitebox/Core/Complete), Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (naturally :) ), Knave, the Black Hack, and even some 3.5 books and Palladium fantasy, and Arduin Grimoires amongst others for inspiration. So far, what I've decided is to lean heavily on Swords and Wizardry Core for the base system, particularly around attributes and bonuses. I love the Black Hack's take on saving throws. I mean, I really have always wanted to make the difference in say a 14 wisdom and a 15 wisdom quantitatively meaningful. Therefore saves are attribute checks, where the character rolls their attribute score or lower on a d20 with modifications for the type of challenge they may face. As for character creation, I'm still

I never had the chance to play in an Arduin campaign. I've heard quite a few things (good and bad) about it over the years. I think I'm going to try and make a point of finding out a bit more about is at GENCON. For whatever reason, I've been stuck on this wacked out 70's vibe listening to stuff like Hawkind and other space rock stuff and 70's US punk like the Dead Boys and Richard Hell and watching Flash Gordon and other campy 70's sci-fi and fantasy. I'm not sure how much of that is currently informing my decisions I'm making about my Maedsid adventure, but I suspect reading Lovecraft and Moorcock and listening to crazy ass 70's rock is going to have some effect. I really wanting to look over the Arduin Grimoires while I'm gone and see what I think. Ah, who the hell knows. But anyways, I'm working on another map for Maedsid for one of the dimensional sublevels. I'm having fun. Floating arboral islands with open aired temple

I think one of the greatest strengths of this whole nebulous OSR thing is the willingness of folks involved to share ideas and broaden their scope to encompass other ideas all the while still giving full credit and homage to the idea originators. I say that is hella cool. James Raggi is working on a compatability license that lets folks create compatable material with is Lamentations of the Flame Princess game. You can read the preliminaries here . I'm also really excited by the similar but complimentary domain game systems coming out from CKatulik at Hill Cantons ( Borderlands ) and the Adventurer Conqueror King system from Autarch. Also check out the sort of combine forces approach for the domain games over at Hill Cantons here . As for me, I'm looking forward to how I can incorporate these ideas into my Shdows of the Umbra Palace Adventure Path (which also overlaps with the Sea of O'Sr adventure path via my Maedsid adventure). Speaking of Maedsid, I'm not an

So, Maedsid has definitely grown beyond what I had originally envisioned. So far there is the island proper with adventure sites as well a two level funerary mound (with four other-dimensional sub levels). It's coming out to have something on the order of 100 keyed locations as well as every creature being being unique to this adventure. So far I've detailed most of the first two levels of the funerary mound and am getting ready to start in on the other-dimensional sub levels. I'm thinking that it will be an adventure for 6-8 characters level 6-8. We'll see. Oh yeah, I still intend to release it for free (at least some version of it). I might do a version with art and the like and put it up on Lulu or something for sale at some point.

I just noticed that I lost several followers today. I haven't been as active in the blogosphere lately due to the fact that I've been focusing all of my normal blog time to working on Isles of Maedsid. So, I'm hoping that I don't lose my entire following before I'm finished. Oh, did I mention that I intend for a free electronic release to include maps and illustrations. It's a Labyrinth Lord/Advanced Edition Companion release but it should fare well for adapting to most other Old School ruleset. Maedsid is also populateded by many entirely new (and open game content monsters) as well. I'm not going to say you won't be disappointed (because some folks just have strange tastes you know), but hell, if nothing else I hope you find some interesting nuggets in there. Besides, can't go wrong with free right? So bear with me, I intend on doing a sort of barebones release prior to me leaving for GENCON. I hope to meet and more importantly GAME with som

Wow, it's been a while since I last did the weekly creature feature! This time, I've got a new critter that will be making an appearance in my Sea of O'Sr Adventure the Isles of Maedsid. Maedsid will have a both very earthly Celtic/Dark Ages/IronAge/Bronze Age component to it and a more unearthly feel to it. The Isles of Maedsid were ages ago untethered from the fabric of the material plane. Over time, this has caused some dimensional degredation and the Isles have experienced ecroachment of entities from beyond the material plane. The Lethenex is one such creature. I plan on using many non-standard creatures in Isle of Maedsid. In fact, I'm going to try and use only monsters of my own devising so that the adventure has its own consistency and feel. Some of the critters that I expect to be making an appearance are the Alitae , the Arepyiai , the Six Mouthed Goo Monster , the Black Dog , and the Dead Man's Chest amongst others. As with all of my weekly crea

So, I've actually finished the maps for the burial mound (I'll post them later today hopefully). I've got them numbered and now writing up the room/encounter descriptions. I wanted to write a little of what I have in mind for the adventure. As I mentioned, this will essentially be part of two adventure paths. First, it'll be part of the Sea of O'SR adventure path as well as the Shadow of the Umbra Palace Saga. Maedsid is a grouping of three islets that have been used over the centuries buy a druidic sect as a ritualistic isle for the life of their "Summer King" - a temporal ritualistic leader that oversees the prosperity of the Moinar people (a bronze age/iron age like people loosely based on the ancient Celts/Picts/Brittons) and an earthly representative of the god Daegraed, the Lord of the Dawn. The main purpose of the isles over their history is for the members of the druidic heirarchy to elect, coronate, sanctify, sacrifice and inter into the ear

Slowly, ever so slowly am I working on Polstrus Lev and Basalt Keep. Part of the problem is I tend to get distracted by reading other people's stuff and it sparks more ideas and makes me revise what I'm working on to incorporate some cool ideas that have been sparked by the material I've been influenced by. Lately, I've been rather taken by the whole Eclipse Phase setting. I'll admit to not really keeping up with the Sci-Fi side of geekdom so Transhumanism and other such concepts were not really on my radar as I'm more of a fantasy guy. However, why limit myself by drinking from one well when there is a whole ocean of cool geekdom out there right? I've really been thinking of my projects in terms of a weird/dark fantasy with Cthulhueque overtones. I've been reading up on theoretical physics and non-Euclidian geometery to fuel some ideas. I'm also now thinking about incorporating some transhumanist themes as well. I was really struck by the i

Slow blogging week for me, but that doesn't mean I'm not actively enaged in OSR goodness! I've been doing several illustrations for Joe Browning at Expeditious Retreat Press and Peter Spahn of Small Niche Games. I'm putting the finishing touches on a couple of cover pieces. Daisey has once again outdone herself on the coloring. I'm trilled with how they came out. The Small Niche Games pics are turning out nicely as well. After that? Well, I've got a couple of pictures I need to get on for ckutalik at the Hill Cantons blog and a GENCON tournament module for XRP. Yeah, so I'm staying busy. I can't wait to share some of the color work. Man, it has been a busy year on the art front. You'd almost think I was a full time artist ;). As to my other projects? Well, they are delayed due to the extreme amount of artwork I've been doing but not forgotten. I've been reading up on Higher Spatial dimensions in Clifford A. Pickover's book

I've not posted much this week due to being busy with work and art commissions (yay!). I'll have quite a bit of new art hitting the streets this year and I'm extremely happy about that. I'm just about ready to wrap up some art for Peter Spahn at Small Niche Games and Joe & Suzi at Expeditious Retreat Press. After that I have a couple of more commissions and then I'll get back to work on my projects. I just picked up a cool book about explaining the higher dimensions and how creeatures from these dimensions would interact with our world. I fully plan on mining this stuff for Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow as well as my OSR "Adventure Path" that I've been pecking away at for quite some time. Well, time to get back to the drawing board!

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).

I've primarily been a contributor to other people's projects up to this point and I haven't reallye paid much attention to the minutae of product licensing. Whatever I have offered up to this point has been under the Open Game License and that has tended to suit my needs. However, I have a few ideas for game supplements that while I don't want to make the whole work open, I do want to make it availiable for derivative works. I'm aware of the Creative Commons Share and Share Alike and that really seems like it would suit my needs. However, what I have in mind is essentially a derivative of the Labyrinth Lord Rule Set which is itself under the Open Game License. So, for instance, if I wanted to come up with a fantastic location and release it as a common idea for people to create derivative works from but not directly take my work whole cloth and use it for their own commercial projects, what is the best way to proceed? I like how the Cthulhu mythos authors had

Here's some maps I'm doing for an introductory dungeon for my son Bear's character Lightning Bolt.  I've been battling a flu so I have not been nearly as active as I have wanted to be this past week.  I'm still in the process of keying the dungeon then I'll run Lightning Bolt and his party through the Warrens.  Feel free to use the maps if you so desire.  I'm designating then Open Game Content. Level 1 Level 2 Third Level

So, I actually managed to come up with a submission that I'm fairly pleased with for the Sea of O'sr old school adventure path. Here's a link to my Litenport Isle: Litenport. This is really my first time doing something other than an illustration for mass consumption so I think of it as a precursor to my other larger projects like Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow. I managed to be fairly productive despite being rather sick with the flu. I cranked out a few illustrations today that I'm pretty happy with. I'll do a post at some point detailing my creative process so you can see the steps I go through from inception to finished product. Let me know what you think of Litenport Isle.

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.

Fairly busy on the project front today. I actually penciled and inked a whole cover illustration commission. Now it is time to hand the reigns over to Daisey for the color work. A straight forward illustration but I'm pretty satisfied with the work. Bear and I are going to work together on a series of monsters. I'm actually pretty excited about this. I think as an adult who has been around gaming, comics, movies, etc his whole life, it is easy to get jaded when it comes to monsters, adventure, and just down right fantasy. I'm so excited to get to relive the childhood experience vicariously through Bear. I tell you, these monsters and stories that he comes up with are really quite something. I'm looking forward to statting up the six mouthed goo monster. I mean, does it really get much better than that? At any rate, I anticipate statting up a few of Bear's critters and adding them to the weekly creature feature. Complete with Bear's illustrations! Th

In line with my recent posts and along with some of my past posts, I really feel like I want to build some alternative magic systems for use with Old School Fantasy systems (read D&D and clones). I do not want to do away with Vancian magic. I think it does what it does pretty well. However, I don’t think Vancian magic is the end-all-be-all to capture fantasy tropes. This is especially interesting in light of the famous Appendix N and the sources of inspiration sighted there. I don’t feel like the Magic from Moorcock’s writing is well captured. Or Lieber, or Howard, or Lovecraft, or, well anyone outside Vance and a few others. Matt Finch’s Eldritch Weirdness is perhaps one of the most compelling RPG magic books I’ve ever read. No, I take that back. It is THE most compelling magic book I’ve ever read. In it, he exhorts folks in the RPG community to think beyond the spell lists and explore other types of magic systems. Note, he doesn’t advocate doing away with the tradition

In light of yesterday’s post concerning my intentions for my campaign setting, I just wanted to clarify that I really like the way D&D and the clones handle many things such as combat, stats, etc. What stifles me a bit are the classes. I actually find them to be somewhat restrictive and don’t allow for a lot of customization. Old School rule sets are like an old Volkswagon. They are infinitely customizable, hold up pretty well, can be somewhat clunky at times, have some sort of strange allure to them, etc. I do not want to throw out the entire D&D system. I’m also not trying to say that Gygax and Arneson got it wrong. I simply want to chop the system down to the core, and reassemble the parts to be able to create more flexible character types. That is what is so cool about the Old School systems, the rules are more like a kit and I can chop away a bit here, jack up the back end, add a blower and a spoiler, paint flames on the sides and put suicide doors on. Still is a

So, I’ve been thinking of my campaign world again and my magic system a lot lately. I’ve been reading a lot of Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga and the Hobbit (what a strange dichotomy!) and they have both influencing my thoughts on magic systems. I’m becoming more and more intrigued of having only a single “class” and everything else being a trapping of that. For my campaign world, I’m steering towards an everyman approach were you purchase “disciplines” as you advance to create different character types. I’m not really interested in creating a whole new retro-clone system per se, but building on top of either the Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry White box. For what I have in mind, the S&W Whitebox might make even more sense. So I’m thinking that the normal adventuring type guy would have a base d6 hit die. You’d have some starting amount of experience to spend on disciplines to start down the road of customizing your character. So for instance, if you wanted brawny fig

It runs in the family. I came home from work and found my wife colorizin' some of my art work. I gotta tell you, I think she nailed it too. Daisey is quite the artist in her own right. You can check out her web site here: Oxeyedaisey . Look for more collaborative work in the near future! Meanwhile, I've been working on some artwork for Blair over at Planet Algol and his Jewel Throne . As well as other miscellaneous stuff. I've got to head out to Indianapolis next week for a whirlwind business trip. I'd much rather stay here in Italy and draw, but oh well.