Carapace – A review on the Fear of a Black Dragon Podcast

Fear of a Black Dragon podcast review
Carapace was thoughtfully reviewed on the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast; please check it out if you want to find out more: http://foabd.libsyn.com/carapace

Play test report
A play test of Carapace (run by me as the DM) can be found here.

Download Carapace
Carapace can be downloaded here

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Tuesday Toot!! | Bottle of Misadventure

Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing gone. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.

The Master’s Hoard is a compilation of quirk-some magic items which I posted on my G+ page over a period of weeks. The compilation of magic items can be downloaded for free here: Link

:: Bottle of Misadventure ::

Summary
When players miss ‘game night’, what happens to their characters? Where do they go? Into this item of course!

Detail
In the real world, this item serves as a way to rationalize where characters “go” when their players fail to turn up for a gaming session.

In the characters’ world, the bottle is an accursed and capricious item, taking one or more characters into its confines without warning. It also returns the characters without warning.

The normal looking bottle is located randomly on one of the party members who are outside the item. Like many cursed items it cannot be thrown away.

The characters inside the bottle are housed in an inter-dimensional space, and can only dimly perceive the outside world through the item’s thick smoky walls. The trapped characters cannot be communicated with. Time-based effects ceases when inside the bottle. Therefore, no rest, HPs or spells are gained etc. when inside the bottle. If an item (e.g. a key) is needed from a character inside the bottle, it is “possible” that the character briefly appears, only to be taken again, but not before the needed item (e.g. the key) is transferred.

:O|

Looking from the outside in, the trapped characters look still and strangely blurred, as if time-lapsed.

When the characters return from the item (i.e. when the players return to the game), it is as if the characters had never left their world. What the characters perceived while in the item will be the same as that told to them by the GM or by the other players by the other players.

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

In the Heart of the Unknown | Procedural Hex Crawling Engine

In the Heart of the Unknown – A Procedural Hex Crawling Engine

‘In the Heart of the Unknown’ contains procedural Encounter, Terrain and Weather Engines for Wilderness Hex Crawling.

It is in a similar vein as ‘In the Heart of the Sea’, which is a procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’.

Basically, in In the Heart of the Unknown there are three ‘game engines’ in the form of Hex Flowers. One engine drives navigation and encounters. The other two are related to terrain and weather conditions.

Each time you enter a new HEX, you procedurally determine what is in the new HEX starting from the last HEX result. So, Hex Flowers are sort of like a random table but with a memory.

Please see below for a preview. A PDF version can be downloaded here:  ItHotU

More on Hex Flowers
You can read more about this Hex Flowers here

Some Hex Flower Examples here

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Draw an Icosahedron by Hand – simple and step-wise how to guide

I quite like drawing icosahedrons by hand. They are often a bit squiffy, but nonetheless, I still find it fun.

I can imagine this might be interesting to a *few* people out there … so here’s a simple pdf with step-wise instructions:

Link to download page

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Axe Beak … drawn in 10 lines or fewer

Background: Following on from my post the other day, for a while I’ve been interested in the idea of drawing things using 10 lines (or fewer), while still hopefully capturing the essence of the thing …

I rolled some dice, consulted MMI and ‘Axe Beak’ came up.  In truth an archdevil came up first, but I had already descried to skip dinos and devils. If I do Giants and/or dragons, I’ll do just the ‘class’ of the creature and not all the variants …

Axe Beak in 10 lines:

Ever feel like a worm being sized up for a meal …

Some more initial sketch(es)

On foot …

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Tuesday Toot!! | Flutter-by of Misdirection

Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing gone. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.

The Master’s Hoard is a compilation of quirk-some magic items which I posted on my G+ page over a period of weeks. The compilation of magic items can be downloaded for free here: Link

:: Flutter-by of Misdirection ::

Summary
This item is most often used to distract a sentry or guard

Detail
The item is an enamel broach in the shape of a small flying creature, such as a butterfly, bee, moth, glow-worm, hummingbird, etc.

If thrown, the item transforms into a living version of the creature, and flies towards the target.

The target becomes bewitched (similar to charm magic), and will follow the flying creature up to 300 yards in a random direction, and always away from the user.

When the enchantment wears off, the target is free to return to whatever they had originally been doing (e.g. a guard returns to her post). Other than feeling slightly uplifted by the experience, the target will not think anything unusual or untoward has occurred.

While the item has only a single use, it is often found in sets of five, e.g. five differently coloured butterflies; or five different kinds of flying critter etc.

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Orcs … drawn in 10 lines or fewer

Background: Following on from my post the other day, for a while I’ve been interested in the idea of drawing things using 10 lines (or fewer), while still hopefully capturing the essence of the thing …

I rolled some dice, consulted MMI and ‘orcs’ came up.  It’s such an iconic creature, that I nearly did a re-roll, but then thought I’d just go for it. This is it (I may or may not try to refine this some later):

Orc in 10 lines:

Thaogg gonna chop you up …

Another try … perhaps less ‘raw’ than above

Some more initial orcy sketches

Link to other 10 line drawings posted before

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Class Ideas 1e (Art Sketch Version)

Class Ideas 1e (Art Sketch Version)

With the talented artist MARCINs, I’ve made an art sketch version of my Class Ideas for AD&D 1e:

Cover image

Download:
The full document (PWYW .pdf) with new concept art can be downloaded from here.

Screen clip of pages 2 and 3

Concept sketches by MARCINs

Details
This document offers 8 new classes written for AD&D (each now with a concept sketch), and below is a summary of each:

Augur – beardless dwarves with an innate sense for metal detection. To use their abilities, they must be free of metal items.

Catabolyist – a non-Vancian magic-user who can use their body like an alchemical battery. They can gamble life-force for additional magic. But it’s a dangerous gamble that could irrevocably damage their health.

Gambler – open to the daring-do classes, fighters and thieves. Luck (or at least the belief in Luck) affects everything about them. Highly superstitious, these superstitions only proliferate as they progress.

Infiltrator – specializes in getting into secure locations without being noticed, and in obtaining sensitive information. They have a connection with an insidious and ruthless organization.

Shire Runner – a halfling woodsman, with two possible paths. One path is ranger-facing the other is druid-facing.

Shaman – a fighting wild-man/woman with woods magic. This class may absorb a race/species specific ability from a defeated foe. The Shaman can follow four possible paths, each with different spells.

Urchin – is a street kid that has learnt to survive. In reality, this is a proto-class before the PC dual classes to their ultimate adventuring profession. The Urchin is blessed with intuition, insight and pluck.

Wereman – when lycanthropes turn good. A person cured of lycanthropy can sometimes harbor the menace within them, albeit in a semi-benign form. This class is often destined to hunt for the lycanthrope that infected them (and their descendants and corrupt cousins), trying to rid the world of this terrible curse!

I’m sure the willing mind can concert these over to other fantasy based RPGs.

Link to download.

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

—

Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing closed. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.

The above classes were originally published on G+.

Tuesday Toot!! | Garb of Fast Changes and Filching

Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing gone. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.

The Master’s Hoard is a compilation of quirk-some magic items which I posted on my G+ page over a period of weeks. The compilation of magic items can be downloaded for free here: Link

:: Garb of Fast Changes and Filching ::

Summary
This item allows for a swift change in attire

Would look a bit like this:

Hussein Chalayan is a magician pic.twitter.com/kpTPGsUcn5

— Bliss Foster (@BlissFoster) October 14, 2019

Detail
The item resembles a shear bodysuit made of Phase Spider silk. The fabric is exceptionally fine allowing the item to fit in one hand when scrunched up.

Application – The bodysuit can be pulled over whatever the user is wearing, including fairly bulky armor. The only things not covered by the bodysuit are the hands, feet and head.

Whatever is covered by the suit is located in an impossibly thin inter-dimensional space under the bodysuit. No benefit is gained from the covered items.

The wearer is then free to put on a new set of attire over the bodysuit.

Use – When the user wishes to change their appearance (i.e. to don the attire hidden under the bodysuit) they simply need to yank on an exposed portion of the bodysuit.

In a split second the outer attire appears to be replaced by the attire under the bodysuit.

When yanked, the bodysuit transverses through the ethereal plane, flips inside-out and ends up in the user’s hand like a scrunched-up handkerchief. In the process, the (then) outer attire (e.g. the clothes and armor) is dragged into an inter-dimensional space located inside the inverted bodysuit, leaving the user wearing the previously hidden attire.

Items like swords, boots, hats, backpacks, rings etc. are not affected, and so are not dragged into the inter-dimensional space. In some ways, the process resembles pulling a tablecloth off a laid table, revealing a new table cloth below, while leaving all the dishes in place.

Typically only light, e.g. leather, armor can be worn over (or under) the bodysuit. Heavier armor risks getting the bodysuit jammed halfway on/off,” and the user being tangled/crushed/constricted between the two layers of apparel.

The item is favoured by thieves and diplomats. It can be used for an instant change of clothes (for disguise or to evade tracking); to change from black-clad night prowler to innocent bystander; or simply as a way for a character to wear armor without looking like they are.

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous