Reaver and Website Update!

We are pleased to announce that we have a new website and, with it, a new blog. This blog will be retired but will remain up for posterity!

You can find our new site at www.ravengodgames.com !

Our Kickstarter for Reaver Sword & Sorcery Role-Playing Game is rapidly approaching! Please visit our launch page and give it a follow to be among the first to know when the project launches!

Current Progress & Projects

It's been a while since I offered a progress report for Reaver, so here goes.
Since the Quickstart release, I've made a number of changes largely due to playtesting efforts, but also due to my desire to distance the game from OGL-related things. I want to keep the game squarely in the "Bran Mak Morn" style of sword and sorcery, wherein the fantastic elements just overlap with historical adventure, and I've been working to maintain and improve that feel. We've tried some rules that made the PCs even more heroic, which I liked, but the sense of danger slackened so I've relegated them to the sidelines. Some of the rules we've tried may appear as "optional rules" at some point.
Some of the major changes include:

• Fortune/Misfortune were removed in favor of a focus on the die chain mechanic.
• Hit Dice removed; PC hit points are generated differently.
• Resolve has been changed—PCs have a lower base Resolve, but have more opportunities to get Resolve through gameplay.
• More focus on opposed die rolls—attacking and defending are still player-facing; otherwise, if your action is directly opposed an opposed roll is used.
• Related to the above, Adversary Rank, though simple and straightforward, wasn't delivering what I wanted, so it has been removed. PC attacks/defenses are modified by the Adversary's combat statistics. PCs are still very competent, but fighting feels a bit more challenging. Enemies might be good at attacking, but easy to hit due to their size, sluggishness, etc.

I'm currently updating the Quickstart to "version 2" to reflect the changes and have it released as soon as possible. The Kickstarter will follow in spring of 2024, later than desired, but you'll see a better game. I've also secured a cover artist, but have to keep that name under my hat for now---I'll just say that I am very excited!

Demimonde Update

Darkness of the Demimonde has received some minor typo corrections and one rules clarification—Scientist now governs first aid throughout. The PDF has been released and the POD version is also being updated; look for it to drop soon!
 
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Darkness of the Demimonde Released!

Big News!

Our Kickstarter campaign for Darkness of the Demimonde is complete! With the help of our glorious backers, we created a 37-page, rules-light game of Victorian pulp horror and two sets of Victorian-themed VTT character tokens totaling 14 individual characters and 70 tokens! We also created 12 pre-generated characters (that match the tokens!), three scenarios included in the book, and separate, high-detail scenario maps depicting different areas of London---all designed to help you jump right into the game!

These are all now available at DriveThruRPG!

Darkness of the Demimonde RPG

Victorian VTT Tokens Set 1

Victorian VTT Tokens Set 2

Reaver Quickstart Print Available!

What's this!?

The Print-on-Demand version of Reaver: Sword & Sorcery RPG Quickstart is now available from DriveThruRPG! Overall, I am very happy with the print version and everything looks as intended. The only thing to expect is that the colors are a bit muted and dark compared to your digital version. This is normal for the "Standard Print" version from DTRPG, and I wanted to keep costs low.

Also, don't forget to check out our ZineQuest offering, Darkness of the Demimonde on Kickstarter--funded and currently chasing stretch goals!

 

Darkness of the Demimonde Kickstarter Update!

Greetings!

We have reached the end of the first week of this project, and what a week! Quite unexpectedly, we funded on the second day, and over the next few days, backers helped us crush the three stretch goals we had planned! Every version of the book will have an additional scenario included in the book and every backer will receive a separate digital pack of twelve pregenerated characters with matching VTT tokens, each with custom art by me. This should be plenty of material to allow you to jump right in and start playing Darkness of the Demimonde!

I mentioned last week that I would be considering adding a few additional stretch goals to improve the product and I've chosen two that won't delay fulfillment nor hinder shipping of the Deluxe Edition.

First, we've again contacted Scott Malthouse who has agreed to pen another adventure! Upon reaching $2,000, we'll add that scenario directly to all versions of the book! You'll have three scenarios in the book, ready to be played!

Second, at $2,500, we have a special improvement to the limited edition print run! We will increase the weight of the cardstock cover from 110# to 130#. This will only affect Deluxe Limited Edition print version of the book, but will make the book more resilient to table wear and give it a nice tactile feel.

Thanks to all of you who have supported the project! If you haven't yet, please do visit the Kickstarter page and see if its for you!

Cheers!

 

Interview with The GMologist Presents!

This week, I was invited on and honored to be interviewed on The GMologist Presents! The host of the show, Karl Rodriguez, and I talked about a wide variety of topics, from our gaming history to current projects, the newly released Reaver RPG Quickstart and the upcoming Darkness of the Demimonde Kickstarter, and more. Direct link to the interview.

Karl is a regular in my Reaver playtest group and an all around great guy; if you haven't been following his show, you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Spotify!

And a quick reminder that you can sign up to be notified when the Demimonde Kickstarter goes live at the above link! The KS runs from Feb. 1--Feb. 28 2023, can we hit 100 followers before it starts!?

Darkness of the Demimonde Kickstarter Page!

Lots of things happening at Raven God Games this year! 

Not only is the Reaver Quickstart now available, we've just completed set-up of our first Kickstarter project, Darkness of the Demimonde, a rules-light, RPG of Victorian Pulp Horror. 

You can sign up on the Kickstarter page to be notified when the project launches on February 1st! 

 

Reaver Quickstart Released!

What ho, Reavers!?

I am happy to announce that today, Reaver: Sword & Sorcery Role-Playing Game Quickstart Rules and Scenario has been released! You can find it on DriveThruRPG or by simply clicking the previous link. The PDF is free, unless you'd like to offer a few dollars to support further development (which is GREATLY appreciated!). A softcover print-on-demand book will follow in the coming weeks!

What's in the book?

• 28 pages of game rules covering things like combat, healing, and travel.
• 13 pages of sorcery rules and spells.
• 10 pages of Adversaries.
• 18-page sandbox, The Slavers of Sebek and Other Tales, with two adventure hooks!
• You'll also receive 6 pregenerated 3rd-level characters ready for the adventures ahead.

This Quickstart is aimed at helping us finalize the game, so please offer feedback! We are officially opening out Discord to the public to offer a forum for comments, or you can leave comments here, or find @ravengodgames on Twitter and Instagram!

Enjoy! 

 

Announcing Darkness of the Demimonde!

What is Darkness of the Demimonde?

Coming to Kickstarter for Zinequest '23, Darkness of the Demimonde is a rules light RPG about vampires and psychics, occultists and investigators, and all things supernatural, set in the Victorian Age. Did you like Penny Dreadful, Hammer Horror, The Alienist, and Sherlock Holmes? That's what we're trying to bring to your table!

Based in Tunnel Goons (by Nate Treme) and The Midnight Chimes (by Scott Malthouse), Darkness of the Demimonde uses a simple 2d6 system with the majority of the rules on three pages. The game will let you play normal human PCs as well as a variety of supernatural characters, like vampires and werewolves.

Look for it in February!

 

Eldritch Tales 3rd-Party Products!

Greetings Investigators!

I'm happy to inform everyone that there are some fine, third-party products for Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing! Some of these have been out for a while now and have gone completely under my radar, so I'll apologize for the lateness of this!

Parts Per Million has released a handful of quick scenarios, available singly or in a nice Eldritch Tales Investigation Bundle, as well as OSR Cosmic Horror Solo Role-playing, a guide for running Eldritch Tales without a referee! PPM has a ton of products available on DTRPG, many of them solo-play-oriented.

Azukail Games has released a short scenario called Spawn of the Temple and an assortment of magic items gathered in A Baker's Dozen of Sorcerous Items. Azukail also publishes 3rd party products for a number of different games systems, as well as stock art and other publisher resources.

Be sure to slither over to DriveThruRPG and support these great creators!

Reaver Quickstart Coming Soon!

**Note: Reaver has greatly evolved since this post.**

Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since I posted an update and wanted to fill everyone in on the progress of Reaver Sword & Sorcery RPG. To say the least it's been quite a year. I attended Origins Game Fair in October of 2021 and ran several sessions of Reaver; at that time the original version of the Quickstart was complete and ready to be released. I was blessed with some excellent players who offered some very important feedback on the game mechanics and I took this to heart. Keeping their feedback in mind, I returned home and proceeded running my home play test group and it was then that I realized that the players in my group (who were familiar with the game) were having the same issues that the players at Origins were having—basically that having a non-unified system of rules was confusing. So, at about the end of October or maybe early November of 2021 I decided that I would rewrite the core mechanics and try to streamline the system.

This amounted to me eschewing one of my original goals—to make a familiar game—and also pushing the project way out of my initial release window. I was fine with that, I'm a one-person-show for the most part and didn't feel beholden to a schedule, and do believe that this was the correct decision. However, I also realize that many of you were hoping to see it sooner and all I can say is that I apologize for the lateness, but rest assured that you are getting a better game!

I spoke a bit about the Quickstart (and other projects) on Nerd's RPG Variety Cast, check it out!
Episode 444


 

What Has Changed?
Well, I went through several iterations of rules, testing constantly, but in the end most of the D&D-style combat mechanics have been stripped out (no more d20 attack rolls against a target AC) and everything operates off of a die chain system. Most rolls are made by the players—you roll Defense to avoid attacks and Adversary abilities modify your rolls. If you've played The Black Hack or the original Symbaroum, you'll have the idea. Otherwise, there've been any number of minor tweaks to the rules and text, things like renaming to Attributes to better reflect the genre, making conditions easier to use, and so on.

Where Does it Stand?
The 90-page Quickstart is being proofed now and I'll have to do some clean-up resulting from that and finalize the page numbers and hyperlinks in the PDF. Once those are completed, I'll be posting the PDF as PWYW, i.e. free, and getting a print option up soon afterwards (this will be softcover for a small price).

In the Quickstart, you'll be getting a hefty amount of the core rule system, spells, a sandbox-style adventure with two adventure hooks and months-worth of gaming possible (I personally ran the material for 4-5 months playing every other week). Of course, you can pick one of the hooks and run it as a one-shot without issue.

Setting?
The implied setting of Reaver is called The Sagas of Cennor and is more grit than gonzo, more dark fantasy than weird—its much more akin to a Bran Mak Morn-style world than an Elric world. It's the kind of Sword & Sorcery that is a simple side-step from historical adventure fiction, where protagonists can be big heroes, so long as their luck holds, but the Raven God always withdraws his favor eventually.

Watch this space!

RPGaDay 2022!

While I'm not personally participating in #RPGaDay2022, two of my excellent playtesters shared #REAVER character stories. Karl Rodriguez the @gmologist spoke of his shaman, Askold, while Jason Connerly of Nerd's RPG Variety Cast, covered Brutus the rogue. Always a pleasure gaming with these gents! My thanks, fellows!

The GMologist Episode RPGaDay Week 4

Nerd's RPG Variety Cast Episode #390

Happy Birthday to HPL!

H. P. Lovecraft was born on this day, August 20, in 1890, and to celebrate his birthday this year, I teamed with Jason Connerly of The Nerd's RPG Variety Cast to discuss some Lovecraftian films! 

Check out the episode here!

REAVER Session Recaps

Hello everyone!

Reaver has experienced a bit of a rough ride over the past months, but is definitely coalescing into a thing I'll be comfortable releasing. The Quickstart is in layout and will only need to be updated with a more finalized version of the combat rules (when they are ready) and edited. Rest assured, it is still on its way!

In the meantime, several podcasters have been helping me playtest the game as it has evolved since last September. If you are interested in hearing recaps of our sessions, or simply want some great gaming podcasts to listen too, check out Jason over at Nerd's RPG Variety Cast, Karl on The GMologist Presents, and Joe on Hindsightless. 

Thanks to those great fellows for their input and for their awesome session recaps!

REAVER Classes - The Fighter

**Note: Reaver has greatly evolved since this post!** 

This week we’re taking a look at the old staple of character classes, the sword-wielders, the shield-breakers, the slayers—The Fighter! Fighters are ubiquitous in RPGs, having first appeared in the original role-playing game, and they fill the important role of dealing damage, laying foes low, and protecting their fellow party members. In REAVER, Fighters have abilities that represent their masterful battle skills, they are technical warriors, well-versed with all weapons and able to employ all armors—an important ability, because in REAVER, armor grants Damage Reduction and can help keep a character alive.

To explore the Fighter class we are going to try something a bit more historically-oriented and experiment with the protagonist from Bernard Cornwell’s excellent series, The Saxon Tales. I highly recommend this series (and all of Cornwell’s work honestly) to anyone interested in historical fiction. The Saxon Tales take place in the time of Alfred the Great and follow the life and exploits of Uhtred, son of Uhtred, born a Saxon but raised a Dane, as he seeks to reclaim his lost birthright, the lands of Bebbanburg. I’m choosing to create a character from historical fiction to demonstrate that REAVER is malleable enough to handle such characters and their stories, one of the stated goals of the game.

In addition to Uhtred’s own prowess and experience, he gathers about him a number of loyal followers throughout the course of the books. In REAVER, these henchmen would be represented by Companions, sworn followers who have pledged their service to the PC at any time during their career—not just when they are higher level and no special abilities necessary. Instead, acquiring companions is entirely left to the PC’s actions, roleplaying, and the narrative.

 

 

What's Happening?!

 Hi All!

We've moved out of the year of Doom and its time to apprise you all of what's been going on at RGG! 

Regardless of 2020's troubles, I was able to work on Reaver regularly and have a number playtest sessions completed and ongoing. Those sessions revealed certain problems and inconsistencies that led to some moderate rewrites, which also let me clean the rules up quite a bit.

• The player's portion of Reaver is completely drafted and I have been tinkering with layout styles. From the Introduction, through character creation, and inclusive of the Sorcery chapter comes in around 70,000 words.
• Skills have been completely removed in favor of a narrative style of skills based on your class and careers.
• Except the attack roll, all die rolls in the game operate on the die chain. Why not the attack? Because I favor the familiarity of the old-school d20 roll.
• Sorcery has been the most difficult aspect to "get right"-- meaning supportive of the S&S genre and the feel of dark magic. Vancian magic is completely abandoned. Spellcasters must make checks to successfully cast spells, may suffer ill effects if they fumble the check, but can pull off unearthly feats of sorcery with success. They are not easy to play and require some careful use of their spells and abilities. More of that in another post.

What's Next for Reaver? 

• I'm currently working on the GM section--monsters, treasures, advice, special rules, and the like; as well as a basic setting to be included in the book.
• More playtesting! I'll continue running the game myself and plan to recruit some additional GMs to run it.
• I also plan to release a "Quickstart" this summer to get the game in people's hands and support the official playtest.
• Because I want this book to be high quality, I plan to take it to Kickstarter in spring of 2022.

Eldritch Tales has been on the back-burner since last year, but I do have issue #2 of The Eldritch Inquirer partially in layout and in the works. I plan to release this after the Reaver Quickstart. The issue will include support for pulp adventure games and an exciting, pulp scenario written by John Large of Red Dice Diaries!

All the best!

Eldritch Tales 10/1/20 Deal of the Day!

Just want to get the word out that, today 10/1/20 starting at 11 AM EST, Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing is the "Deal of the Day" over at DriveThruRPG!! If you are interested and haven't picked it up, you can get the PDF today for only $3.50 - a fraction of the retail price!!

Get it here!

Eldritch Tales on Spikepit!

Just wanted to share the news here - Colin "Spikepit" Green dropped an overview of Eldritch Tales today on his excellent podcast! 

I'm a fan of the Spikepit podcast and back Colin's Patreon. He's started hosting occassional one-shots as a Patreon benefit and I'll be running Eldritch Tales in early October for Colin and three other players!

Spikepit Eldritch Tales Episode

Visit Colin's Patreon here and drop him a buck or two if you're so inclined!

Spikepit Patreon

REAVER Classes - The Barbarian

In all of Sword & Sorcery fiction, one character stands out above all others and it only seems fitting to start with ... the Barbarian! The Barbarian's prominence and popularity stems from the creations of Robert E. Howard…Conan, Kull, and others… as well as Lieber’s Fafhrd and from the numerous pastiche characters based on them. Barbarians appeared early in the history of RPGs, as early as 1982, when Gary Gygax penned the Barbarian as a fighter sub-class in Dragon Magazine, but from those early origins, the class has evolved (within Dungeons and Dragons) from a wilderness warrior who detests magic to a raging damage dealer who might employ magical effects. 

In REAVER, the Barbarian not a rage-oriented character, that place is left for the Berserker, and certainly has no magical abilities. Instead, Barbarians are warrior tribesmen who live close to the wild. They are excellent combatants, but while a Fighter relies on skill and technique, Barbarians focus on delivering powerful blows and following through when they fell an enemy. They are skilled in survival, have an uncanny sense for danger, and are comfortable fighting unarmored. Designed in this manner, the Class might easily represent a Conan-like hero, a shirtless Celt striving against Roman legionaries, or a bloodthirsty savage in a dark fantasy setting.

Let's borrow a barbarian hero from fiction and recreate them as a REAVER character, and best to start with character everyone knows - Brule the Spear-Slayer! (Did you think is going to "Conan?)

Howard didn't tell us much about Brule's backstory, but we can extrapolate a few things. He is a Barbarian Pict from the Pictish Isles; by his own words, he is very stealthy; he is sometimes an emissary and sometimes a soldier; he is as skilled at mounted combat as he is afoot. What is presented below is a draft version of the Character Class and is subject to change.
(*updated 3/28/21)

*The author claims no rights on the Brule character and is only using it as an example.

Introducing REAVER RPG!

**Note: Reaver has greatly evolved since this post!**

Greetings!

Once again, I am returning after a hiatus away from the blog to drop a bit of an update! Back in January, I mentioned that I was putting together a new Role-Playing Game, and it has greatly progressed since then. I was off work during the coronavirus shutdown and was able to get quite a bit of work done and even ran a few early playtests. Concerning genre, it is heavy inspired by Sword & Sorcery, Dark Fantasy, and Historical Fiction... I literally don't know exactly how to describe it just yet but the title is ...

I cannot claim to have created something that is entirely new and groundbreaking for RPGs, and that is not my intention. Instead, I have drawn inspiration from a number of games, old and new, and attempted to make a game whose rules feel familiar and are flexible enough to support the various genres mentioned above. So, in this introductory post I want to describe the basics of REAVER (at least as the current draft stands).

ORIGINS: Origins replace "races" and represent a character's culture, place of origin, and nationality. In the core rules, all Origins are humans and are inspired by historical and mythological peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. I've chosen to do this so that they might easily be adapted to other settings, fit into historical fantasy campaigns and many Sword and Sorcery settings, like Hyboria, and be familiar to most readers. I have mentioned in the rules bits my own campaign setting, largely in describing the Origins, but have not decided if I'll include an overview of the world in the rules...I should say that I have striven to present the Origins in a respectful, and even historical manner, while making them suitably fantastic for the genre.

ATTRIBUTES: The familiar six common to many other fantasy games. What's different? The Attribute Feat system from Eldritch Tales has been modified to operate on a Die Chain, so that every Attribute has an assigned Feat Die, ranging from d3 to d10, and used as the basis for various tests. Dexterity modifies movement. Instead of a "reaction modifier," Charisma dictates a Base Loyalty Die (also a die chain) which is assigned to Hirelings and can be modified later. (As an aside, NPC Morale works the same way.)

CHARACTER CLASSES: I'll be discussing these in future posts, but the core book will include at least the Barbarian, Berserker, Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Scout, and Sorcerer. Priests are each defined by their Faith (Druidism, Shamanism, or Theism) while Sorcerers select a Tradition (Hermeticism, Mysticism, or Witchery). Classes grant the character all of their base abilities and have a format similar to early versions of the "world's first RPG."

CAREERS and SKILLS: Every character selects a Career at first level and two more at later levels. Careers mimic the fiction trope common to Sword & Sorcery where protagonists dabble in multiple occupations throughout their careers. The best example of course is Conan - he is a Barbarian (class), but was a Thief, Mercenary, and Pirate (among other things). These are all Careers in REAVER and allow a player to personalize their PCs. Mechanically, Careers grant the character a Skill and a Feature.

REAVER includes a fairly short and easy Skill system with 18 unique Skills. Most characters start with 3 Skills and have no more than 5 Skills at the maximum level. Skills operate on the Attribute Feat system and grant a +1d on the Die Chain.

RESOLVE and PERIL: The general rules and combat system should be fairly familiar to most, however all characters have Resolve, a measure of their luck, fate, and sheer will to survive. Resolve is based off of the character's Prime Attribute and increases as characters advance in level. Resolve allows characters to do things like heal during combat, increase their damage, gain Advantage on a roll, and cheat death. Resolve can also activate Class abilities, like the Berserker's fury, and is expended to cast magic spells. However, when characters spend Resolve they empower their enemies with Peril, which operates basically as Resolve for the Referee. 

SORCERY: Vancian magic is scrapped. Spellcasters use Resolve to cast spells and receive more Resolve than other classes. They must study or pray each day, but do not "prepare spells" and can rather cast any spell they know. Sorcery is dangerous, dark, and can lead to a character's ultimate downfall. I'll discuss Sorcery more in a later post. 

OTHER RULES: I've adopted the Usage Die for equipment, ammunition, and some other things. On a recent episode of The Purple Worm Podcast, I heard Dave Aldridge mention applying the Usage Die to spell durations and thought that was a very interesting idea and I plan to explore that a bit. There are rules for Hirelings and Companions and characters might gather followers at any level. Seafaring, Travel, and Downtime will all be covered for the referee. Advantage/Disadvantage is used.

Right, so that's a shortish overview. In the next post I'll talk about some Character Classes!