Thanks to Goblin's Henchman & Age Of Dusk for turning my Monday around.

I'm currently working on my last recording project, and it's already taking a toll on me.  Friday we went to about 12:30 am, and as usual I need to "come down" after a session.  I ended up going to bed at 1:30 am.  Last night was the exact same thing.  I have 2 more night to go and then I'll probably curl up and die thursday/friday.  I have to admit, it's a bit of a melon collie situation.  It is also very freeing.  

Onto cool RPG stuff.  

First off, I got home yesterday after what can only be described as "monday!" hahaha.  I was feeling a bit bagged, and down.  I opened the mail and VIOLA! I got a super cool thing from Goblin's Henchman in the mail.  (If I'm not mistaken he lives in the UK).  The fact that I'm friends with and talk to people all over the world because of the OSR astounds me on a daily basis.  It's so much fun! 

What I received was "Carapace" a procedural dungeon based around a giant ant colony!  Super cool.  I can't wait to read it. I'm thinking that combining this and my Antoomuns thing (which I should really finish) would make for a cool campaign.  

An adventure into a Giant Ant colony with 3 different procedural methods to make/navigate the labyrinth like maze. 

The procedural methods have been applied to the exploration of a maze-like giant insect colony. That said, these methods could easily be retrofitted to any maze-like setup, e.g. patchwork of islets in the Bonesuck Swamp, glades in an impenetrable wood, goblins caves, an overland trade route, an archipelago of mysterious islands in a pirate romp, or rooms in an abandoned space station.

I also got a really excellent review from Age Of Dusk, that totally made my evening! You can read the review here. 

In the review he mentions that there are a few spelling errors, which I was curious about.  When I write, I use the "Queen's English", so things like "flavor" vs "flavour" might come up.  I was curious if that was the issue, or if I had used the improper use of "Their, There, They're" etc.  As I've been known to do that.  Upon reflection, the troll in the dungeon is pretty deadly (which is mentioned in the review).  In my comment I talked about the troll, but instead of writing troll my tablet auto corrected to "trolley", which lead to a hillarious idea.  Of course this makes me want to write an adventure with a trolley like Gringots in Harry Potter.  That would be a fun map to draw! 

(See screenshot)

Quoting Age of Dusk: 

There is a random table with atmospheric effects.

8) Wallowing Moan.

It is good stuff. The demonic elements remind me of Deadly Power, like a haunted house or a campy horror flick. That’s what Dnd needs more of. Quick and easy dungeons and campy Satan.

Shane Ward. Consider yourself redeemed. Thank you for sending this to me. 6.5 out of 10.

WOO! This was great, and a well thought out review.  You can also read the review of "Mad God's Jest" right here. 

Just a quick note.  Reading any kind of review will usually give you a bit of fire to keep going.  Reading a positive review even more so!  I feel asleep last night thinking about settings, and this idea I've had rolling around in my head for awhile.  The last thing I watched on youtube was this, which also helped cement a few things.  Can't wait till lunch so I can start doing some writing. 

Thanks Goblins Henchman & Age Of Dusk! 

Fun Stuff!

A whole bunch of fun stuff has been happening the last few days, I've been sharing it on my "Shane's RPG Musings" collection.  However I figured I'd do a blog about it as well.

BLUE BARON NEWS: 

First up, we are really friggin close to completing the writing of the "return of the blue baron".  I got excited on my way home yesterday and decided to make a video.   Note: The first part has a funny argument, wherein my Dog wins.

At this point I think we have about 11 rooms to go! I'm hoping I can write a few more rooms this weekend, as it's a long weekend for me.

When you get a chance check out this post about "pace in RPG design" by Scott Charlton (who is one of the writers on the baron's project).




DUSTY DOOR NEWS:
I received an excellent review from tenfootpole, you can read it here.

Dusty Door is currently version 2, however I am going to be adding one more revision, the wonderful +Denis McCarthy drew up a awesome demon image that I'm going to add! (Orenumm).  The fun thing about the demon was I created him using the random demon tables in the 1e DMG.  To my surprise Denis went ahead and drew him.  Super cool!

+Goblins Henchman went and created this super neat version of Dusty Door, that has pop ups for room descriptions and monster stats! You can download it here.  Below are some screen shots.  If you are running this game online or with a laptop at your table it would be very handy! This would also be really fun if you were doing a solo play. 

ITS PARTY TIME!
This isn't really RPG related, but our kitchen renovation is sooooo close to being done.  Tonight we are having an epic party.  Hopefully next week the finishing touches are going to happen.  Last night my wife was working hard at getting food ready, and I sorta helped where I could.  Since I couldn't sleep much last night, I created a playlist for tonight.  It's basically a social playlist, a little bit of everything.  LINK TO THE PLAYLIST.

Note: a social is a Manitoba thing, basically when a couple is going to get married they throw this big party in hopes of raising some money for the wedding.  It's a bash with booze, silent auction, DJ etc. Always fun.  If you live in Manitoba, at some point you will get invited to one. 

Excellent evening of gaming!

First time playing online last night, and it was a fucking blast!  +God Emperor Leto II messaged me about possibly running my new adventure "Dusty Door" and I honestly jumped at the chance to play! After we get thru this dungeon, I'm going to do a bit of tweaking to the final adventure adding in Jeff's two cents and hopefully getting all the stats for the other players (so I can add them as pre gens!).   Obviously of course I'll be adding the names of the other players to the adventure as playtesters.

Alright onto the evening.  First off not to toot Jeff's ego, but he's a fucking amazing DM.  He's very engaging as you can see.  I am unaware how much prep work he does, or if its off the cuff but that gnomish NPC was a fucking riot.

Mechanically Blueholme is a lot of fun to play online, and OSR games for that matter.  Less fumbling with modifiers, dice rolls etc.  Specifically I think DEX based initiative makes the game run so much more smoothly.  As a DM once you write down everyone's numbers (barring any changes from terrible potions), you only really have to worrry about the monsters DEX after that.  I'm putting that little note in my head for whenever I run a game online.

I gotta say playing with the other two guys was a lot of fun.  They really know their old school games. It makes it a lot easy to play a game.  We had a really good conversation about OSR games after we were done. For probably about an hour! haha.  I also found it interesting what their backgrounds were.  Some of the guys had played 2,3,4 editions.  One in particular found old school gaming thru lotfp which is awesome! Just made me realize how much I enjoy playing old school games.

What was very weird, was that my wife was watching the live feed on youtube downstairs while we were playing.  At one point we went out for a quick smoke and she was saying that I was being a bit of a "role play hog", ie talking too much.  I think I was honestly just excited, not because it was an adventure I wrote but because of just playing.  At some point I think she would like to jump in on a game.
I should also note that using the Journeymann rules one of the players ran a flesh golem! So cool.

I have now officially caught the bug to play online! I will have to do a few upgrades around my house to be successful at it.  First off no wifi, run a line.  Secondly I'll need to get a better headset.

Here's the video from last night! 

Dusty door download

New adventure for BLUEHOLME
Download
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qfCBL5MELSDQo31lRho-enXbYG7XJj8T/view?usp=drivesdk


Introduction
Halfway between here and there is a small roadside Inn. A weather worn wooden sign stands outside of the door “Adventurers wanted, apply within”. Weary from the road, you stand outside the Inn, smoke rises from the chimney promising a warm evening. The inside of the Inn is small and cozy, a set of stairs lead up to much needed beds. The small bar is decorated with old suits of rusted armour, a bookshelf with musty tomes and a large map of the countryside. The bar is empty save for a small gnome who is fast asleep at a table, smoke curls from his pipe.