Tabletop RPGs
Session 24 In Appleby the heroes bought time at a smithy and, after deciding melting it wasn’t going to work, set about smashing the basalt statuette: they succeeded in shattering it, but when it broke a spirit was let loose, whispering it was ‘free, free at last’ before disappearing into the sky, last seen heading NW towards where the ruins of Ravenscar lay. Oops. Then there was a knock at the door and a Wordsmith (the local priest, officially the
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Session 22 & 23 In Appleby, the heroes took some time to purchase goods, healing potions from a local herbalist, and some more history about the Raven King. They also learnt about an ancient ruined temple on the far side of the immense orchard that gave the large market town its name. That location corresponded to one of the marks on their map, showing where another of the raven statuettes could be found. Before setting off, Magnus took the quartz
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I’m a few sessions behind, so I’ll post this one to finish off the adventure in the outpost, and then another covering the rest of the sessions. Session 21 The giant statue came to life and immediately attacked, its heavy stone fist knocking Alf and Willow to the side, while it stamped on the floor and shook the room, causing the others to stagger and stumble. Magnus kept his footing and managed to let loose with a magic missile that
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But, what about the others? We know there are more! Well, yes, there are a few more, although none have sold well enough to be a best seller of anything. These, however, are the rest of my current work. I have my final book of lairs due out in the new year, currently creating it and posting it spread-by-spread on my Patreon site. There are three more, two books of lairs, and an adventure for The Black Hack that I
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This next adventure was a commissioned piece of work, for both the writing and the maps that come with it. It is currently a Best Silver Seller. Ruined City of Cyfandir From the site: From the imagination of designer and cartographer Simon Forster, creator of the Book of Lairs and the popular OSR blog Sky Full of Dust, comes a new adventure for characters levels 5-7. Two hundred years ago, the elven capital of Cyfandir fell to the savage assault of the Great Dragon Aisoth,
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My third adventure that has proven, sort of, a success is currently a Best Copper Seller, and received a mixed review; but one that I’ve taken as a challenge to improve, probably towards the end of the year, or to the start of 2020. Spire This is a setting/dungeon based around the Spire and the surrounding town. It is fairly large, 168 pages, and is my longest (both in page count and how long it took to complete) work yet.
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This next adventure is a Best Copper Seller and was my first one, I think, and I revised it with artwork and better maps after the first version that gained some ground. It has some lovely illustrations by Jim and Josefin Magnusson. Mischievous Monsters Mischievous Monsters is another adventure location, and was again a recipient of a review by Bryce . It is set around an attack against an inn, with a timeline of events, some NPCs, and a few
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Now I’ll move on to the various RPG adventures that I’ve published, those that have also hit the best seller categories. There have only been three of mine own so far that have gained such success, and one that was a piece of work for a different company that has sold reasonably well. First up, one of my first and one that I’ve revised twice (I think) after feedback and running it myself. The Curse of Ravenmere A short adventure,
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Continuing with the marketing of my books of lairs, with the final book that has made it as a Best Copper Seller; although there are others in the series (six so far, one to come). Book of Lairs: Abandoned Places My fourth book of lairs is the Book of Lairs: Abandoned Places, again following the now standard format of two-page spreads with the map on one side, text on the other (sometimes spilling over into multiple pages). This book had
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Session 20 Torches lit, carefully prodding the floor ahead of them, the party entered a large chamber with pillars supporting the vaulted ceiling. Ahead steps rose to a platform where a huge demonic statue sat squatting between two unlit braziers. Dust coated the floor, swirling and billowing as they moved into the room. Magnus, Jacob, and Alf ascended the steps, spotting a discoloured, smoother portion of the wall behind the statue: a secret door, but with no sign of how
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Continuing with a bit of self-promotion, this is the third part of my books of lairs. The next two in this series are both Best Copper Sellers, which is still not bad, and much better than I ever expected. Vale of the Iron God: The Third Book of Lairs My third book of lairs is the Vale of the Iron God: the Third Book of Lairs, which was a bit of an experiment. This proposed a small sandbox setting, in
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My second Silver Best Seller on DrivethruRPG is the follow-up to the original Book of Lairs, this time themed around urban settings. The Book of Lairs: Urban Encounters My second book of lairs is the urban-themed The Book of Lairs: Urban Encounters, which is again a series of lairs on A5-sized spreads, maps on one side, text on the other. This has 25 lairs, from a mixture of sources, following the alphabet listing as previously. I think this is my
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Session 19 In the aftermath of the battle the party explore the upper ruins, looting the bodies of the dead bandits as they piled them into the ruined watchtower. They then descended into the cellars below, torches lit, cautiously, leaving Old Man Willow and the two daoine hunters on guard above. In the cellars they started exploring, finding signs that the bandits slept there, rooms that were once used to hold wines and kegs, and a damp room with mould
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I was checking out my publisher’s account over at DriveThruRPG.com the other day, and realised that some of my products had reached the Best Silver and Best Copper Sellers lists. They may still only have sold a modest number, but I’m quietly proud that something that I wrote and mapped has been successful, albeit in small numbers. So, a bit of marketing: here are those books of mine that have achieved such acclaim, which I’ll post about every day this
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Session 12 In the ruins of the watchtower the wounded party settled down to rest and recover. They camped for most of the day, until Old Man Willow and Magnus had woken, and everyone else was feeling much better. Guards were set, with even Ratkin taking a shift, but nothing unexpected happened. With their wounds tended to and their bruises healing, they grabbed their gear and headed back down into the dank cellar and the tunnels leading off. Torches and
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Session 11 Around mid-morning the party arrived at the ruins of the Old Watchtower: a tower that sat along the remains of the Wall, looking out towards the Great Forest, and over a lake where the flooded ruins of some old settlement could just about be seen. The ruins looked empty, the field of grass and trees quiet. To the North and West the slopes of the hills began their climb to the distant mountains, where the sun was peeking
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I’ve just made my latest RPG adventure book live on DriveThruRPG.com . This is an adventure for The Black Hack 2E rules, for about 4-6 Level 4 characters. Here’s the cover of the printed copy I got the proof of this morning: And here are a couple of pics of the interior pages, and the maps at the back of the book (also inside, and the PDF download has a separate file with all the maps on it): Here’s the
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The Monday before last was our tenth session, concluding the foray to Ravenscar and embarking on a short journey to the old watchtower to the north. Skipped last week as people were away, but back to it this Monday. Session Ten The party descended the stairs into what turned out to be an old summoning room, complete with a summoning/protection circle engraved in the stone floor, inlaid with tarnished silver. They avoided crossing the circle, and explored the small room:
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Our ninth session mostly consisted of deals with a rat-goblin and a fight in the cellar of the ruins, against giant and monstrous centipedes. Session Nine The party continued to search the piles of rubble. Suddenly, a terrfying presence rose from the debris that Old Man Willow was checking out: a giant rat, fangs dripping with venom, bone-chilling. The sight of it sent Horace, Jacob and Magnus fleeing from the sight; whilst the others just saw Ratkin, the red-coated, top
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Our eighth session of the Children of the Raven BtW campaign was on Monday. The six-strong party (three PCs, three allies) ventured off to investigate the smoke seen by shepherds in the ruins to the West of their village. The Ruins of Ravenscar After a couple of days in Gallows Hill, resting and spending, the party (Alf, Callum and Magnus, with their allies Old Man Willow, Horace and Jacob) hefted their packs and headed off along an old path, overgrown
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Double report today, as I didn’t have time to throw up a report of the game. This covers parts 2 and 3 of the Curse of Ravenmere sessions, ending in the removal of the curse and a close-call that was but a throw away from a TPK. Part 2 In the morning, the tension between the party members was still strong. Alf, Callum and Magnus, together with Horace and Jacob headed back to the village, leaving Old Man Willow looking
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Played this Monday just gone, and we’re back to playing Monday nights now, although no game next week because of holidays. This session kicked off the Curse of Ravenmere adventure, which I wrote a lifetime ago and recently revised. It’s a small adventure, but we should get two (maybe three?) sessions out of it. What’s Up with Jacob? Upon their return to their village, which helpfully coincided with market day, they bid farewell to Barton, but hung on to Jacob
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Our fourth session concluded the first adventure, my old Mischievous Monsters adventure (lasted four sessions, that’s about 6-8 hours, not bad for a small adventure), and the PCs are on their way home to their village, escorting Barton the trader and the two caravan guards, Horace and Jacob (who may well become allies if the PCs ask them nicely). Hunting Rats After resting another day and night, in order for everyone to be fully rested and healed, the three friends
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The third session of our new Beyond the Wall campaign, Children of the Raven, was last week and the whole session was pretty much the PCs and their allies defending the inn of the Dancing Donkey. The Fir Darrig and the ogreish allies surrounded the inn, and the ratty creature with the top hat, who was obviously their leader, called out for them to surrender; Young Alf told him where to stick it, and when the red-coated goblin made some
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We played our second session last week, wherein the three PCs went off following the tracks of the rat-goblins. The tracks led the party of five (Callum, Young Alf, and Magnus, together with Horace and Jacob the mercenaries) across the fields and over some rolling hills, until the tracks split off in three different directions: one set, the lightest went North towards a forest in the distance. Another set lead to the curved arm of the same forest, to the
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