Monster Monday: Manacondas for Shadowdark

The subjects of the Nagarajah of Sssirabad are guarded and weary because many cultures view them with fear and suspicion. Twenty years ago the City-State of Thoda attempted to annex much of Sssirabad’s eastern border along the Rapi River before failing spectacularly. After their defeat Thoda began an intense propaganda campaign with the Nagarajah’s neighbors and trade partners. Recently, the Nagarajah has opened diplomatic talks with Thoda for some much needed economic relief. 

    Manacondas are lithe and graceful with scales of white, red, brown, yellow, or green in myriad patterns.

You can download a PDF copy here.

 

A RuneQuest Playtest

Last week, Chaosium revealed they were working on a new RuneQuest Project. The way Mike Mearls explained it is that it was like Pulp Cthulhu in relation to Call of Cthulhu. Soon after they opened up playtesting for those interested in it.

Here is the link for the announcement.

Here is the link to sign up for the playtest.

I'm very excited for this development.

State of the Planes February 2025

Art by Andrea Ardinghi

I've worked very hard at limiting my Gaming ADD over the past 12 months and I'm finally finding success with it. I'd like to impart some secret to it but I've just been focused on story over rules and being very intentional with my focus.

The upside is that my DnD 5.5 game is cruising along. Since being honest with myself about disliking the resource management aspect of combat encounters most of our sessions are filled with roleplaying with a combat every 2-3 sessions.  The plot is player driven with a fairly light outline in place but player goals are prioritized.

The game is set on Greyhawk and the group has just recently visited the sprawling metropolis to lie low from several agents of Iuz the Old.

I have come to except, to some degree, that 5E and its derivatives are what my group is most comfortable playing and honestly, while I do have a strong interest in Savage Worlds, Shadow of the Demon Lord/Weird Wizard, and Basic Role Playing, I do like the current version of DnD quite a bit and the 2024 update is an excellent product.

There are three plot threads in play right now: Finding a ritual called the Ebon Maw that can break a pact made by one of their allies; Acquiring a spelljammer to tool around in; And a mission into the sewers of Greyhawk to locate an asset of the Violet Spiral Thieves' Guild.

We finished up last night with the group entering the Black Ziggurat looking for the Ebon Maw. They encountered some skeletons, bypassed some traps, and are on the verge of meeting its primary resident.

The Ebon Maw ritual was created by a lich named Ikabod Langstrüm and is believed to be hidden within the Ziggurat which he used as a sanctum for many decades. There has been a lot of negotiating in this game and that is fine by me. At one point the players were really skirting the line of villainy but they pulled themselves back from the edge by putting some distance between themselves and those agents. I'm really leaning into the high fantasy aspects of DnD with a Greyhawk lens. All of my past successful 5E campaigns have formed a setting I call the Polyverse which feature Ashardolon as the God of Chromatic Dragons and Saint Cuthbert being imprisoned within Ravenloft. My intention is to allow them to rub elbows with the big players and I am prepared for them to make permanent changes to the mythology of DnD. 

The Future Starts Today!

Or some such thing. 

Happy 2025.

My blog is 12 years old and I didn't manage to post once a month on here. I don't know what 2025 holds but I'm trying to get back into the habit of expressing myself creatively on here.

I really struggled with my interests in RPGs this year. I've been with my Friday group 9 years now and our goals weren't always aligned this year. As a game retailer I'm often angry at whatever antics Wizrds of the Coast is up to and when it comes to my own personal money I often don't want to give it to them. Which means I have resented our DnD Beyond sub and really wasn't sure I wanted to even play DnD.

However, while WotC is often spot on in how it targets its customers. My store's Magic players, good people who are essential to my business' success, are often very happy with what they are doing. Even within my group there are people who are heavily critical but give them their hard earned sheckles with every new release.

Lets be frank: I'm lucky to have spent 25 years selling comics and games to our customers. I love my job and my customers. Its not my job to tell them what to play. Its also not my job to tell my group they shouldn't support WotC. I am the only member of my group that wants to move from DnD though.

It led me to realize that I don't enjoy the power level of 5th Edition. I like many of the mechanics but I'm drawn to the OSR due to its DM and player empowerment but most of my players were introduced to DnD with 3rd, 4th, or even 5th edition and they don't share that preference and that is okay. I struggled with just stepping back and moving on.

I didn't move on and instead started a 5.5 game.

Yeah...

I expected 5.5 to be a dumpster fire and it is a really well laid out and organized core book. The 2014 PHB had a small team and DnD was very much in danger of possibly fading away if its launch hadn't gone well by Hasbro's standards. The 2024 PHB takes into account the millions of new players we now have and the 2024 DMG is a significant upgrade over its earlier counterpart.

And like it or not DnD Beyond is a really good resource for a lazy player like myself. In looking at games like Savage Worlds or Basic Role Playing or Shadow of the Weird Wizard and their biggest miss is not having a tool like DnD Beyond. I get why they don't but it sure makes things much, much easier on everyone.

My 5.5 game is set in a version of Greyhawk and I'm about to finish my first adventure. Combat has been minimal because I'm often disappointed with it. Maybe its because I came from ADnD 2E but I don't like that encounters as resources to be managed and I'm a lot happier as a GM with exploration and interaction so we will see how it goes.

With all of that being said about DnD I'm a member of Mike Mearls' Patreon where he is building a fusion of 5E and BX (who isn't amiright?) that I'm finding delightful. Each preview really, really hits a sweet spot for me and while I really dig Shadowdark I think I'm going to like this better.

He's previewed the Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Rogue, an Ape & Mountain Dwarf ancestry, and a Miner & soldier background. I urge you to join it.

Monster Monday: Obstrevoi for Shadowdark

 

You can download a PDF here.

#RPGaDay 2024: Days 13 thru 25

Day 13: Evocative Environments - I really work on this but too often when a fight starts that goes out the window.

Day 14: Compelling Characters - I try to come up with good backgrounds and goals with my characters, but I've found it can take a couple of months to really nail who the character is.

Day 15: Great Character Gear - We mostly play 5E so we usually have some cool stuff. My current character, Hadrian Bluehawk (Human Level 18 Fighter Champion) has some amazing stuff that boosts his Saves, gives me an AC of 25, and I have a damn cool long sword too.

Day 16: Quick to Learn - I learn game systems pretty quickly and I've always loved getting new RPGs. I remember getting the Champions 4E rulebook and finding a Magic of Palldium Books 'zine and immediately wanting to get Heroes Unlimited...I just love RPGs.

Day 17: An engaging RPG Community - My current fave is the Shadowdark FB Group.

Day 18: Memorable Moment in Play - Through shenanigans are group volunteered to take on a whole fortress of sahaguin and one of the players was invisible and scouting underwater on a flying broomstick. I had found a Deck of Many Things and while we waited in safety offered the caster a draw from the deck. Her sorcerer blinked out of existence and the scout became fully visible and had to high tail it out. Because of his haste he wasn't able to free a fish person being tortured and we all gave him heck about it even though he had no real ability to help without dying.

Day 19: Sensational Session - The session before the one above had us meeting with a town to figure out how to deal with the sahaguin who had taken over an old fortress nearby. I volunteered us, as the only character that went to the meeting, to storm the fortress all by our lonesome.

Day 20: Amazing Adventure - For me it was the second adventure of a Deadlands game we were playing about 2 years ago. I really felt that the players were doing a great job of fighting evil in the Weird West.

Day 21: Classic Campaign - I've always wanted to run Horror on the Orient Express. Maybe one day.

Day 22: Notable Non-Player Character - There was a charlatan and PC foil, a tiefling named Krent D'Midnite that I always enjoyed bringing on screen.

Day 23: Peerless Player - My buddy AJ, he always has great characters with fully detailed back stories and he always stays in character.

Day 24: Acclaimed Advice - No gaming is better than bad gaming.

Day 25: Desirable Dice - several companies make d4s that aren't those lousy caltrops. I love them. 

#RPGaDay 2024: Days 6-12

 

RPG that is easy to use - Dragonbane by Free League. Its easy to learn, it uses a roll under mechanic, and easy to make characters.

RPG with 'good form' - I'm not 100% sure what this represents but I'm going to go with Shadowdark because it is a great blend of modern and old school mechanics and very accessible.

An accessory you appreciate - The DnD 5E battle board which is made like the board of a board game and has stone squares on one side and grass scares on the other.

An accessory you'd like to see - This is more of a book, but I'd like a Forgotten Realms setting book for DnD 5.5.

RPG you'd like to see on TV - I'd like to see a series featuring Drizzt and his companions.

RPG with well supported one shots - Shadow of the Demon Lord.

RPG with well supported campaign - Pathfinder 1 and 2.