http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fanzine&action=display&thread=5755
&
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/fight-on-compiled-compilation-+4/15671664
Use coupon code MAYBOOK for a 20% discount.
Hopefully the issues 5-8 compilation becomes available again; I'm still hating myself for missing out on these compilations when they were available last year!
EDIT: Another AWESOME detail is that there's now a $4.99 shipping option for Canadians, which is preferable to paying $8 per book!
Showing posts with label zines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zines. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Grammaree (Jewel Throne) Preview
The Eyes of Far Death
Level: Magic-User 5
Range: 7 miles
Duration: Ten minutes or until discharged
The caster gains the ability of telescopic vision, being able to zoom in on anything within both their line of sight and the range of seven miles, magnifying it at will until it looks like its is directly before the caster. The caster may choose to discharge the spell at one target within their vision, which will manifest as an invisible particle beam from the caster's eyes that will inflict 1D6 points of damage per level of the caster upon the target, with a saving throw versus spells allowed for half damage. If a man-sized or smaller target is slain by the spell it's body will explode into a mass of superheated chunks. If the caster attempts to focus on a target within 200 feet they must make a saving throw versus paralysis or suffer such extreme vertigo and disorientation that they fall in a faint for 1D20 rounds, with a 50% chance of the spell discharging and inflicting damage upon the target.
Mass of Serpents
Level: Magic-user 4
Range: Caster
Duration: Ten minutes per caster level
The caster becomes a 10' diameter mass of venomous serpents, with an Armor Class of 9, a Movement Rate of 90' (60' while swimming or climbing), and the ability to attack all within it's area. On a successful attack the target will suffer 1-3 points of damage and will have to make a saving throw versus poison or die in 1-6 turns.
Psychic Reaping
Level: Magic-User 4
Range: 1 Sentient creature within 30 feet
Duration: Permanent
The caster sends a probe into the target's mind and gains knowledge of all of the target's shameful secrets and perceived weaknesses. The target will be aware of this occurring as well as who is responsible, and will forever suffer a -1 penalty to all die rolls directly involving the caster, such as attack rolls, saving throws, damage rolls and so forth, with the caster gaining a +1 bonus on all such equivalent rolls involving the victim. The target is allowed a saving throw versus spells, and if they roll a 20 on their saving throw the effect of the spell is reversed, with the target instead gaining knowledge of the caster's shameful secrets and perceived weaknesses, with the attendant bonuses and penalties.
Raise Drowned Vessel
Level: Magic-User 5
Range: 1 mile per caster level
Duration: 24 hours
This spell will raise one sunken ship from the bottom of a body of fresh or salt water to temporarily float at the surface level; while casting this spell the caster may choose to specify the name of the vessel, if so only the aforementioned vessel will be raised (if it is within range), otherwise the nearest sunken vessel will be raised.
Speak With Cats
Level: Magic-User 1
Range: Caster
Duration: 24 hours
For the duration of this spell the caster's speech will be understood by cats and other felines. If the caster is able to see a feline's body language and can hear it's utterances, the spell will translate the aforementioned feline's communication into eloquent speech heard inside the caster's head.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Jewel Throne Zine
"... to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet...."
- Robert E. Howard
"Once prayed to my gods, searching for the whistled memories
Empty eyes are staring now, to my feet a land of sorrow
I'm the king, sitting in the dark hiding from the shadows of the wind
Wafts of might, wine of fire, I was called to taste
Silver horses brought us here, to the edge of the universe
We left the falling walls as the stars' collapse began
Now I rest on the highest steps, revealed the eternal frontier
As I gaze from the Jewel Throne to the portal of infinity
Fallen have the "chosen ones", debris remain in the dust
Far behind, beyond the sands, the wind sings to those who fell
Forever now, my hands laid down the poisoned weapons
I will pray to my gods, searching for the mysteries"
Empty eyes are staring now, to my feet a land of sorrow
I'm the king, sitting in the dark hiding from the shadows of the wind
Wafts of might, wine of fire, I was called to taste
Silver horses brought us here, to the edge of the universe
We left the falling walls as the stars' collapse began
Now I rest on the highest steps, revealed the eternal frontier
As I gaze from the Jewel Throne to the portal of infinity
Fallen have the "chosen ones", debris remain in the dust
Far behind, beyond the sands, the wind sings to those who fell
Forever now, my hands laid down the poisoned weapons
I will pray to my gods, searching for the mysteries"
- Thomas G. Warrior
As I've previously mentioned, I've been mulling over doing a RPG zine as a means of getting past the stress related burnout that's been plaguing me recently (speaking of stress, as I was writing this my boss phoned me to talk about possibly being laid off, good grief!), and with the positive reaction it has elicited (and the possibility of having a buttload of free time soon) I've decided to do so.
I presented a selection of names for the zine I had been considering, and "Jewel Throne" won by a considerable landslide with two votes. Although I'm sure Netherwerks will be gratified to see that I managed to work a Black Ziggurat into the logo.
This zine will be digest sized, done in a underground metal/punk style, with dodgy illustartion by myself, and will focus of sword & sorcery, weird fantasy, science fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction gaming. The intention is to present a selection of D&D-compatible resources in those genres...one-page sandboxes, mini-dungeons, monsters, spells, technological artifacts, random tables, and so forth. Although I would like to include material compatible with Runquest, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, and other great RPGs, both old and new.
My original intent was to do this as a free-to-download present to the community. Now, with the potential of impending financial hardship, I'm reconsidering this solely as a means of mitigating the aforementioned scenario.
Several of you expressed interest in contributing; originally I was wildly enthusiastic about that, but with the possibility of this being a for-(meager)profit venture I can certainly understand any that would wish to rescind their offer; however, anyone who did contribute would, if it ends up not being a free-to-download production, receive fair compensation for their effort.
My plan is to begin working on material, with a two-week deadline before commencing with layout and than publishing in some form or other. If I end up printing this myself I have some ideas regarding pull-out maps that could be quite nice.
I'd love to hear any feedback regarding this project. Suggestion, criticisms, it is all welcome.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Burned Out!!! (and possible solutions)
I suspect this is a condition that affects all DMs eventually, and I've wrestled with it in the past, but for the past couple of months I've felt Burned Out as a DM. Interestingly enough, this burnout seems to be the result of non-RPG-related factors.
I'm not going to go on a "woe is me!" jag here....I know I have it better off than the majority of the folks in this world and that you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. But brooding about crap has a way of impairing one's enthusiasm and creativity, and I haven't been working on Algol material (and another "secret" project) nearly as much as I'd like.
I'm not about to 86 this blog or give up on DMing (although I've been considering a brief sabbatical), but I do feel a need to re-charge my RPG creativity, and have been considering several projects in order to take a break from Algol/alternate with Algol/do some one-shot's (or micro-campaigns) and get Stoked! again.
Some of the projects that I've been mulling over include:
- A small, digest-sized, free to download, Sword & Sorcery/Weird Fantasy/Science Fantasy D&D zine; crudely illustrated by myself and done in a punk rock/underground comic style. Something in the 8-16 page range, done for fun. I've considered the following names: Cyclopean; The Jewel Throne (..of the Earth), IIIrd Gatekeeper; and Voronya...I was going to go with "The Black Ziggurat"...but the Black Ziggurat belongs to everyone. Let me know if any of these names tickle your fancy!
- A Vancouver Old-School Micro-con: Certainly not an original idea, but it would be great to set up a weekend for some awesome old-tyme rpg antics, especially if some of our neighbors from BC, Alberta and the USA were able to make it (yes, I am talking about you! If you are 10% as awesome in person as you are on the internet you could help make the best weekend ever!). Rent some cheap hall or meeting facility, set up a schedule, and play a butt-load of D&D, Gamma World/Metamorphosis Alpha, Traveller, Boot Hill, Tunnels and Trolls, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Star Trek, Car Wars, et al...
- "The Vance Sector:" interstellar sci-fi adventure campaign heavily, heavily inspired by Jack Vance. I'm waffling between Traveller, Terminal Space, X-Plorers and Stars Without Number for this.
- Dune D&D: A houseruled D&D game in the universe of Frank Herbert's Dune, although probably quite a while before the events in the book. Space Feudalism!
- Fallout!: I'm not sure if I'd use Gamma World or Mutant Future's Mazes & Mutants as the base, and I'd probably incorporate a 3E style skill system, but it would involve the post-apocalyptic Canadian prairie, vault-dweller PCs, Canadian Tire money, way too many kinds of firearms and ammo, Mad Max-esque vehicular warfare, and using soft drinks instead of booze for the "heal 1d6 hp once a day" houserule.
- Gene Wolfe tribute campaign: Either set on a post-historical Earth or in an O'Neil cylinder; although it would definitely not be a railroad, there would be a "central campaign quest" in the vein of The Book of the New Sun and The Book of the Long Sun. Would every PC be unaware that they are a Cleric? ;)
- "The Lemurian Age", a Sword & Sorcery campaign set in the Lost Prehistory of the Indian Ocean: The Kerguelen microcontinent, Kamari Kamdan, Africa, Mesopotamia, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, & Prehistoric Marsupial Megafauna. Inspired by Conan and Atlantis: The Second Age.
- Empire of the Petal Throne: Using the original OD&D variant rules...but set on Mars! With additional Barsoom, HG Welles and The Dictionary of Mu influences.
- 80s Action! Movie campaign: Something in the vein of Commando and Miami Vice. Mini-Uzis, sinister Eurotrash in turtlenecks, crazed coke dealers, and rescuing The President's Daughter!
- Carcosa: Although Algol is heavily influenced by Carcosa, Geoffrey's creation is an entirely different beast, far more grim and far less "Jack Vancian" than my Algol game. OD&D and crazy dice conventions!
- OD&D: Of course this could be combined with several of the above ideas, but I want to try out pre-Greyhawk style LBB OD&D; d6s and d20s only!
Man, just thinking about the above options gets me fired up, just the thing to get me out of this rut...I gotta run these ideas past the gaming group.
I'm not going to go on a "woe is me!" jag here....I know I have it better off than the majority of the folks in this world and that you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. But brooding about crap has a way of impairing one's enthusiasm and creativity, and I haven't been working on Algol material (and another "secret" project) nearly as much as I'd like.
I'm not about to 86 this blog or give up on DMing (although I've been considering a brief sabbatical), but I do feel a need to re-charge my RPG creativity, and have been considering several projects in order to take a break from Algol/alternate with Algol/do some one-shot's (or micro-campaigns) and get Stoked! again.
Some of the projects that I've been mulling over include:
- A small, digest-sized, free to download, Sword & Sorcery/Weird Fantasy/Science Fantasy D&D zine; crudely illustrated by myself and done in a punk rock/underground comic style. Something in the 8-16 page range, done for fun. I've considered the following names: Cyclopean; The Jewel Throne (..of the Earth), IIIrd Gatekeeper; and Voronya...I was going to go with "The Black Ziggurat"...but the Black Ziggurat belongs to everyone. Let me know if any of these names tickle your fancy!
- A Vancouver Old-School Micro-con: Certainly not an original idea, but it would be great to set up a weekend for some awesome old-tyme rpg antics, especially if some of our neighbors from BC, Alberta and the USA were able to make it (yes, I am talking about you! If you are 10% as awesome in person as you are on the internet you could help make the best weekend ever!). Rent some cheap hall or meeting facility, set up a schedule, and play a butt-load of D&D, Gamma World/Metamorphosis Alpha, Traveller, Boot Hill, Tunnels and Trolls, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Star Trek, Car Wars, et al...
- "The Vance Sector:" interstellar sci-fi adventure campaign heavily, heavily inspired by Jack Vance. I'm waffling between Traveller, Terminal Space, X-Plorers and Stars Without Number for this.
- Dune D&D: A houseruled D&D game in the universe of Frank Herbert's Dune, although probably quite a while before the events in the book. Space Feudalism!
- Fallout!: I'm not sure if I'd use Gamma World or Mutant Future's Mazes & Mutants as the base, and I'd probably incorporate a 3E style skill system, but it would involve the post-apocalyptic Canadian prairie, vault-dweller PCs, Canadian Tire money, way too many kinds of firearms and ammo, Mad Max-esque vehicular warfare, and using soft drinks instead of booze for the "heal 1d6 hp once a day" houserule.
- Gene Wolfe tribute campaign: Either set on a post-historical Earth or in an O'Neil cylinder; although it would definitely not be a railroad, there would be a "central campaign quest" in the vein of The Book of the New Sun and The Book of the Long Sun. Would every PC be unaware that they are a Cleric? ;)
- "The Lemurian Age", a Sword & Sorcery campaign set in the Lost Prehistory of the Indian Ocean: The Kerguelen microcontinent, Kamari Kamdan, Africa, Mesopotamia, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, & Prehistoric Marsupial Megafauna. Inspired by Conan and Atlantis: The Second Age.
- Empire of the Petal Throne: Using the original OD&D variant rules...but set on Mars! With additional Barsoom, HG Welles and The Dictionary of Mu influences.
- 80s Action! Movie campaign: Something in the vein of Commando and Miami Vice. Mini-Uzis, sinister Eurotrash in turtlenecks, crazed coke dealers, and rescuing The President's Daughter!
- Carcosa: Although Algol is heavily influenced by Carcosa, Geoffrey's creation is an entirely different beast, far more grim and far less "Jack Vancian" than my Algol game. OD&D and crazy dice conventions!
- OD&D: Of course this could be combined with several of the above ideas, but I want to try out pre-Greyhawk style LBB OD&D; d6s and d20s only!
Man, just thinking about the above options gets me fired up, just the thing to get me out of this rut...I gotta run these ideas past the gaming group.
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