The Complete B/X Adventurer

Now available from Running Beagle Games:

The Complete B/X Adventurer is a gaming supplement for use with your B/X (and B/X compatible retro-clones) fantasy adventure game. It contains new material for use with your B/X game...material designed to inspire and add to your existing fantasy campaign, almost all of it for the player character (PC)...though certainly there is good fodder for any Dragon Masters worthy of the name "DM."

The book is 62 pages, most of which is content: new classes, new spells, new character options, rules for fleshing out beginning characters. Long-time readers of the blog will recognize some of this material...part of what prompted me to write it was input from readers asking me to collect some of this material into a single volume. This I have done (with some tweaks), as well as adding a bunch of other material.

The bulk of the book is new B/X classes, including five new spell-casting classes. Nearly half of the book is devoted to spell lists and and there are more than 110 new spells (not counting reverse spells). To put that in perspective, the original B/X books contained only 106 spells...and each of the new spell-casting classes has a unique method of using magic, not simply being limited to "divine" or "arcane" spell-casting types.

Other than the spell-casters, there are a dozen other classes for a total of 17. Most of these are human adventurer-types; three are demihumans. They represent adventuring archetypes found in fantasy fiction that are not already represented in B/X (nor are they found in the Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord published by Goblinoid Games). All have information for including them at Basic, Expert, or even Companion level adventurers, so you can use them "right out of the box." However, if playing classes above 14th level, one will want to invest in a copy of my B/X Companion or a similar fantasy game detailing high level adventures. Indeed, some of the higher level spells available make reference to material found in the B/X Companion; if you don't already own a copy of that book, you can download a PDF (for half price!) from RPGNow.com.

To purchase a copy of The Complete B/X Adventurer, simply click on the PayPal button to the right. The price includes shipping & handling, and now that I'm going to be a legitimate Washington State business, I'll worry about the sales tax for Washington residents. You'll notice the price per book has gone up from (by $1) from the cost of the last book...that's because shipping costs have increased. As before, Canadian buyers get a break on the deal and, yes, you're all very welcome.

Cover art is by Brian DeClercq, just to head off any questions on that score. Interior art is done by a number of local artists, plus Kelvin Green. They all have my very great thanks (and copies of the book).

: )

Riding a Hot Streak

Okay, I haven't mentioned this here yet, because...well, because it's embarrassing. But I have told a couple people, including a fellow blogger or two with whom I've been in contact via email.

I'm starting to get a super severe Dungeons & Dragons itch.

I, of course, blame the stupid A-Z blogging challenge which has got me thinking about the game for my "April theme." However, it's also got a bit to do with the stuff I've been reading on other folks' blogs lately, especially some of the "new guys/gals" out there. Fresh perspective being a real shot in the arm and all that rot...

So I'm totally thinking of ditching the B/X Shadowrun game for awhile...at least, once the current "adventure" is concluded. I really think I need to get back to my pseudo-medieval-fantasy-RPG roots. It's time to do a real dungeon crawl again...not this driving-around-Pierce-County-in-a-gunship-sniping-at-elven-gang-bangers-thing.

[cue Wagnerian soundtrack]

Of course, that's not all (when would it ever be?). A looooong while back...or so it feels...I started planning a new B/X Supplement to which (lo and behold) B/X Companion cover artist Brian DeClercq is even (as we speak) contributing his artistic chops. Again, in full color. Rather than write-off a cool, talented guy I pulled out the "notes" such as they were this last weekend and tried to make heads and tails of 'em. A lot of stuff pulled directly from the blog needed to be re-vamped and updated and a lot of stuff that looked good before, needed to be edited down to a tasty bite-size level.

So that's what I've been doing since Monday (um, today's Tuesday? Yeah). And what do you know...I've got nearly 20 pages done. Now, that's 20 withOUT proper formatting and illustrations, so it's actually amounts to most of the book (I'm shooting for 36 pages or so, total). SO...I'm going to try to plough this mother under while the iron is still hot (please forgive my mixed metaphors) and hopefully get this thing done before the weekend begins.

I know, I know...good luck and all that. But I'm serious when I say I'm close on this one...and like the B/X Companion, there's a lot of fun stuff and "goodies" here, so hopefully there'll be some interest in it. I just thought I'd let you all know that I AM being productive outside this silly A-Z thang.

; )

Lamentations of the Flame Princess

I find it difficult to believe that anyone that reads this blog does NOT know who James Edward Raggi IV is (at least within the OSR community/blog-o-sphere)...but on the off-chance you don't, allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite pieces of RPG art of all time:

Truly, at this very moment I can't think of a single piece of color art I admire as much. Well...other than Brian DeClercq's beautiful cover for my B/X Companion, of course.

; )

If anything can convince someone to buy one more game or game supplement, the cover art of a book must be at least as important as a well written review by a well-respected critic. After all, one of the draws of RPGs are their ability to fire and stretch the imagination...and good artwork (fantasy or not) is a great help in this regard.

It makes me slightly depressed. As I work on the new books, I can't help but think how damn fortunate I got with the B/X Companion and the talented artists willing to contribute to my work. Yes, yes...some of them have already emailed me their willingness to work with me again (thank you, folks) but still, until you see it, how do you know the art is going to turn out...well, good?

I think I got an amazing piece for my book, and Mr. Raggi certainly got a good one as well. I'm sure that a lot fewer of our books would have been sold with lesser pieces gracing their covers...regardless of how good the material inside is. I can only hope we're both as fortunate in the future.

Running Beagle Games Presents: The B/X Companion

Here's the cover folks:

All thanks to God, my wife, ALL my artists, and (of course) the running beagles. Now I just need to put it all together and print it up, get a few copies to the folks that have been promised 'em, and then I'll figure the price (including shipping and handling).

Start saving your pennies, folks.

; )

Cover art by Brian DeClercq.

Just So You Know

The B/X Companion is nearly ready for release.

Or to be more specific, the cover art is nearly finished. Just so everyone knows, the cover artist is Brian DeClercq. If that's a big surprise/spoiler for folks, um...sorry. If that's embarrassing for Mr. DeClercq, well, that I'm not sorry about as I DO plan on putting his name in the credits anyway (duh) and have half a mind to throw the cover art up on the blog right now, despite one or two tiny, little, itty-bitty minor editing requests I've made. Yeah, it's friggin' awesome, even incomplete.

However, selfish bastard that I am, I'm courteous enough to leave his art off the blog till it's absolutely finished. My impetuous nature might cause me to throw half-baked theories and less-than-spell-checked posts up on the internet for all to see, but MY reputation is already shot (at least with some folks). I won't do the same with Brian.

Still, he better have it ready soon 'cause I'm salivating to show off his masterful work.

; )