This Kickstarter is for two (2) Hex Flower Game Engine based RPG adventures.
Zines The first, Carapace, offers the horrors of procedurally exploring a labyrinthine giant ant colony in search of the giant ant Queen. The second, In the Heart of the Oz is more of a gonzo sandbox setting, based in the Land of the Wizard of Oz.
Artists The art in these match the setting material. Marcin s‘s dark fantasy style is a perfect match for Carapace, and Nate Treme‘s charming, almost whimsical style matches the Wizard of Oz setting.
Why two zines? Well, both are great and by combining these we save you postage costs in sending these out separately. I hope you can stop buy and take a look.
This is just a little preview of all 180 concept sketches for the ‘Face Folio‘ Kickstarter (100 PC/NPC portraits for your RPG game), which funded last year as part of Zine Quest 2:
This set of sketches has now been narrowed to 100 portraits (a difficult job), and Marcin is working on the full art version.
Our priority is the KS backers, but the longer term plan is to have this product available as a PDF and in hard copy form (perhaps a limited print run).
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast.
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’, so here is Part III.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
The message is for a fantasy dungeon
Each message is 1 minute or shorter
It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast.
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’, so here is Part II.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
The message is for a fantasy dungeon
Each message is 1 minute or shorter
It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
Very soon this Kickstarter for Zine Quest2 is going to go live.
UPDATE: Now live !!
About the Kickstarter:
This is a simple project with a simple goal: to provide 100 fantasy portraits for use in your tabletop role-playing games. Referees are always on the lookout for NPC faces to show their players and players are always looking for portraits for their character sheets. This project aims to meet that need.
The portraits will be organized into the following sets:
Human NPCs/PCs
Dragon-blood
Dwarf
Elf
Gnome
Halfling
Orc-blood
Demon-blood
Human nobles
Human peasants and towns folk
Each set will contain ten portraits, half male and half female. With the exception of the human nobles and peasants, the portraits will be a spread of adventuring classes.
The Zine will have a simple elegant layout with 10 portraits per two-page spread, and organized in the above groups. There will be no blocks of text and no fluff to get in the way. That way this book can be used right at the table, as and when needed, for example when the referee suddenly needs an NPC to drop into the game.
The idea is also to provide initiative trackers like these which can be printed out for each portrait:
Tracker folded and hung from a DM screen
Tracker prior to folding
Tracker folded into a peak shape and placed on the table
Well that’s the crux of it.
Hopefully, if you like this blog, this idea might be of interest to you.
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast (that doesn’t count as Blogging right?).
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
The message is for a fantasy dungeon
Each message is 1 minute or shorter
It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
:: East wall – holds a man-sized circular plate. The top half of the plate is polished brass and the bottom half has been coated in black enamel. In the middle of the plate is a rotatable arm. At the end of the arm is a small brass Sun sculpture that has a small pivoting cup behind it. The cup has traces of wax in it. The arm can be rotated 360 degrees, such that the Sun can be positioned anywhere around the circumference of the plate.
:: West wall – is painted black showing the stellar constellations. In the middle of the wall is a perfect sphere about a foot in diameter. Half of the sphere is inside the wall and the other half protrudes into the corridor. The sphere can be spun, and if spun it can be seen that half the sphere is white and the rest black.
:: Solution (spoilers!!) – a small lit candle must be place in the cup of the Sun arm and the ‘dial’ moved to the correct time of day (straight up is noon and straight down is midnight). The Moon sculpture must be rotated to show the present phase of the Moon (e.g. if the Moon is presently a Full Moon, the half sphere in the corridor must be rotated to show all white). The secret door will then open. The door will lock again when any of the above conditions cease to apply, e.g. the candle goes out or the time of day changes. The door has no opening mechanism on the inside.
When a psychic dies, sometimes there are enough malign thoughts to coalesce into a being of sorts. The entity resembles an impossibly dark fluid-like mass, with slit eyes and massive maw.
Aadercaps want thoughts, it needs them to grow. Its name in the corrupted form (i.e. Headercap) comes from its tendency to wear its victims’ heads on its body, like a macabre meat cap. This because, direct contact with the brain stem leads to visceral memory adsorption.
Stats They have the same stats as a goblin, except:
Hit dice – Each time it consumes an intelligent creature’s thoughts, it gains one hit dice. However, the new HD total cannot be more than +2 of the victim’s HD/level. So, devouring endless Kobolds only leads to a 3 hit-dice Aadercap. Therefore, it needs to dine on more powerful creatures to become more powerful.
AC – as leather; gaining one class type/grade improvement per HD gained.
Attacks – 1 x bite (damage like a two-handed sword); 2 x claw (as dagger).
Special attack – for each HD it can do a special attack (the set regenerating after rest):
So, a 3HD creature can do any three special attacks per day.
Ascension At 10 HD the Aadercap either dies (see below) from the accumulation of its malign thoughts; or it manages to transcend into the ethereal plane to digest its accumulated memories; excreting what remains into the prime material plane as base and virulent prejudices.
Death If killed or dies, roll a die equal to its HD and subtract a D4. If the number is negative, the creature is dissipated and dead. If positive, the Aadercap regenerates later having that number of HD.
Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing. 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+.
Background I think anyone reading this blog post will probably remember MAD Magazine, and in particular the inside back cover, which often had a picture which would fold-in to form a new unexpected picture.
I wondered if a RPG map in this format would present some interesting gaming challenges. For example, the PCs trigger some event and suddenly the map literally expands. Perhaps an interesting trap for a heist type adventure. For example, it might be easy to get into the tomb, but a great deal harder to get out again. This idea might work well for a Cthulhu adventure where mind-bending antics are the norm.
Anyway, I had this idea because someone posted a vertical (cross-sectional map) on G+. Sadly, I can’t recall who did this now. I believe it was someone that I was following, but not someone I interacted with a lot. For some unknown reason this MAD idea immediately occurred to me when I saw their map. So, no random third-party G+ post, no MAD idea from me. This completely random cross-pollination of ideas will be one of the the thing I miss most about G+ when it is gone (in about a week).
In the wild
After posting this idea, at least one person (i.e. Eneko Menica on YouTube) put the idea into practice, with this nice map, i.e.:
More recently from me …
I saw this post by Skerples. for a new collaborative project about a sort of Twilight Zone locomotive. I decided to make a train carriage that makes use of this MAD concept.
The idea being the train carriage is about 2/3 normal size (top image). But, if the PC’s solve the puzzle an inter-dimensional portal opens between the carriage (bottom image). So, when triggered, the DM unfolds the map to reveal the portal. The PC’s may even be separated by the portal space when it is triggered causing some potential problems. You can read my submission here (along with the other submissions to date).
Skerples.’s idea is a fun one, please consider submitting your own entry to this collaborative project.
Well that’s it. If you ever make a MAD map, I’d be interested in seeing it!
:O)
Me on 
Goblin's Henchman 