Today's Print Shop PDF Digest-Sized Booklet Blowout

Top Row: My Miscellaneous Equipment Reference; LL Advanced Edition Companion; S&W City Encounters; S&W Eldritch Weirdness Compilation; BTBG Monsterless Manual; OSRIC Monsters of Myth; Kellri's AD&D Old School Encounter Reference

Bottom Row: Pas Fortuna Basic; LL Realms of Crawling Chaos; Kellri's GW Scavenger's Field Guide; Melan's Sword & Magic; Swords & Wizardry Complete; OD&D Terminal Space; Courtney Campbell's Treasure.

My next print shop digest-sized booklet blowout will probably involve The Esoteric Creature Generator; Adventure's Dark & Deep Gamemaster's Toolkit; Swords & Wizardry Whitebox; XRP Malevolent & Benign; Kellri's AD&D Old School Spell Reference; AEG Toolbox; Gamm World 1st ed; Empire of the Petal Throne; Stars Without Number (how am I going to staple that one?!?!); etc. etc.

I'll probably start collecting digest sized adventures next as well, such as The Temple of the Toad, The Dreadful Island, Gabor Lux's output, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and so forth, so as to have a nice, deep selection of pregenerated adventure fodder.

The goal of all this silliness is to have all of my reference material in handy, portable digest-sized format, not only for dungeonmastering but also for quick, convenient reference while writing or working on dungeons. The idea that one "griefcase" could contain a wide, deep library of gaming material is one that appeals to me.

War....War Never Changes

One of the articles I'm working on for the first issue of The Jewel Throne is "War...War Never Changes," being a selection of Wasteland and Fallout inspired equipment, with a focus on firearms; a project I'm working on in preparation for running some Gamma World games.

My goals are twofold: as most of the players in our group are familiar with the Fallout series, this provides a certain "resonance" for the gameplay; secondly to provide a wider selection of firearms than that provided in Mutant Future including more lethal varieties. With Gamma World and Mutant Future PCs having significantly more hit points than beginning PCs, as well as the creatures in both games having, on average, more hit points than D&D monsters, I'm interested in gun having more "oomph" to them. With your average beginning Mutant Future Human PC having 47-48 hit points, it's going to take a fair amount of d12 damage assault fire rounds to take him down.

Anyways, here's some early drafts of some of the fictional firearms I'm working on for this article:

22-3 STRIKER
Effective Range: 400'
Maximum Range: 800'
Damage Inflicted: 3d6
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: .223
Capacity: 5 round integral magazine
Experience Point Value: 850
Based on a modified rifle design, the 22-3 Striker is a bolt-action pistol designed for hunting large game. Due to the weight and recoil a Physical Strength of 12 or higher is required to effectively use this weapon.

AK-57
Effective Range: 450'
Maximum Range: 900'
Damage Inflicted: 2d8
Shots per Round: 2
Ammunition Type: 7.62 mm
Capacity: 30 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 1300
The last descendant of the AK-47, featuring an integral folding stock, the AK-57 was manufactured by China but saw distribution throughout the globe. Thousands were smuggled into North America, many by fifth columnists.

M2049A1
Effective Range: 150'
Maximum Range: 300'
Damage Inflicted: 1d12
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: 10 mm
Capacity: 12 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 250
A durable, heavy frame autoloader resistant to harsh conditions, the M2049 was the standard US military sidearm as well as being used extensively by federal agents. A more reliable revolver variant, the M2050, holds 7 rounds in a side-loading cylinder.

M2039-ACR
Effective Range: 600'
Maximum Range: 1200'
Damage Inflicted: 2d8
Shots per Round: 2
Ammunition Type: 5.56 mm
Capacity: 40 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 1500
A descendant of the M16 featuring a gas-vent system and a integral optical sights, the M2039-ACR was the chief weapon of US marines.

VP41
Effective Range: 150'
Maximum Range: 300'
Damage Inflicted: 1d10
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: 9mm
Capacity: 18 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 150
A reliable West German pistol that was popular with survivalists due to it's high ammunition capacity.

 Also, here's a first draft of the first Jewel Throne cover:

Gamma Monstrosies of the Irradiated Lands

Converted from 1st-edition Gamma World creatures.


BLIGHT WORM
# Encountered: 1-4
Armor Class: 9
Movement: 3", fly 9"
HIt Dice: 3+1
Attacks: bite for 1-4 and constrict for 1-6
Special: invisibility; blinding flash; immune to radiation
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (9', 30' wingspan)
This jawed, carnivorous worm is a sickly pus-yellow color, with six iridescent blue-green dragonfly-like wings. They are able to become invisible at will, as the spell, and  when they become visible from their wings emit a blinding flash of blue-green light that blinds all looking in it's direction for 1-4 rounds, unless they make a saving throw vs. paralysis.

DEATH MOTH
# Encountered: 1-10
Armor Class: 8
Movement: 6", fly 15"
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: bite for 1-6 plus radiation
Special: emits intensity 10(18) radiation when attacking in a 15-foot radius; immune to radaiation
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M (3' long, 6' wingspan)
These fearless, voracious carnivores are a variety of mutant moth-things, and emit glowing radiation from their abdomens when they attack.

UBBUTH
# Encountered: 1
Armor Class: 10 on ground, 5 while flying
Movement: 1", fly 15"
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 2 claws for 1-4 or radiation blast
Special: immune to radiation, lasers, light and heat attacks
Intelligence: Sentient but completely alien and inhuman
Alignment: Unknown (neutral?)
Size: S (3' long)
These shaggy, black fungus-things resemble bats in their general form, with clawed appendages and a single large, gleaming black eye from which they can fire a radiation blast with an intensity of 8(16) and a range of 30-feet every 4 rounds. They will devour half of the body of their prey before implanting spores in the carcass; one day later 1-6 young Ubbuths (with minimum hit points) will emerge and fly away. They have been known to cooperate with other beings, but they are inscrutable with completely alien though processes.

Mutant Future Friday - Android Illness

Android Illness as in This and This (btw see also This...which I'm going to use as another Plane for my campaign).

Critical Update Overload

The android enters an area subject to broadband wireless networking from surviving pre-holocaust cybernetic installations. Every day there is a 50% chance that the android will be shut-down for 1d6 hours while "downloading a crucial software update." This condition will persist until the android exists the wi-fi area or gets a cybertechnician to diable automatic updates.

Monday Mutant Future "Artwork"

While looking through one of my tattered RPG-notebooks I found this depiction of a moment from my old Gamma World/Where The Wild Things Are crossover game. That guy's companions are really after him to start wearing pants...

Encounter Critical/Mutant Future/D&D "Artwork"

These are some doodles I did over a year ago during the wait for a D&D session to start. I was also thinking about post-apoc & science fantasy, the line of thinking that eventually led to Planet Algol. Wes/Fat Cotton stole my Psychic Bear! I dig how happy missile dog looks, I think he'd be a good sidekick.

Doctor Scale Mail always packs heat and wears his armor vest and rubber boots while working in his lab just in case. Dual-wielding a shotgun and spiked bat does no good against Viper Plaskin slitting your throat. Too bad rat-man didn't smell his cigarette before the attack.

Robotcop PUNCHING THE FUCK OUT of a Martian Tripod?

The text says "Gargantuan Shrimp" in my pathetic scrawl. That saucer-clam looks smug!

Pete: "The guy on roller-skates (actually rocket-skates) looks like a dad!"

There's more than one way to fry a chicken...

One of my (former?)players was not happy when attacked by sand-sharks, "This is stupid!"


Oh no...not the baby!

He looks determined..but inept.

I would not fuck with these two without good reason!

During my 4E Weird Western D&D game, I made a point of describing Dwarves as looking like muppets and walking like Alf...

That's one happy looking giant snake! During the first AD&D Planet Algol game I used this picture to illustrate the fate of a PC...save vs. poison is a real mother at 1st level...

EDIT: The below video fits the theme and is awesome, dig those elbow nail-spikes!

"Cacotopic Stain" Weather Generation Table

I can't believe I missed this the first time... (disclaimer: not actually related to the Cacotophic Stain)

Also, here's some suitably weird radiations.

A Simple System for Firearms and Rayguns versus Armor Class

This is the kind of sidearm I imagine Earth Man explorers packing for Planet Algol.

Often in discussions about firearms and futuristic weaponry in Dungeons & Dragons, the "armor question" often comes up. How does armor class interact with these weapons?

The system I use is based off of the laser weapon vs. armor class values in 1st. edition Gamma World, and an inaccurate interpretation of the armor class vs. firearm rules in the sixguns and sorcery section of the 1st. edition Dungeon Masters Guide. It's a one-size-fits-all solution that I find elegant and workable.

When calculating attacks with firearms or laser weapons, the benefits of armor class are effectively halved, discounting magical protection but including dexterity modifiers (it's hard to dodge a beam of photons or a bullet, but nimble characters are probably somewhat better at not getting shot).

You can either use this as a weapon vs. armor type modifier like the system in the Players Handbook, or just use an alternate Armor Class value against these attacks, as in the below table. This can be further modified by giving exceptional weapons modifiers to attack and damage rolls similar to those of magic weapons, such as a pair of +3 sixshooters forged from the blade of Excalibur. For simple firearms such as muskets and blunderbusses I would not use these modifiers. Weapons such as death rays, lightning emitters, disintegrators, etc. I would either roll attacks vs. AC 10 or involve the target making an appropriate saving throw instead of using any attack rolls.

Armor Class	Attack Modifier or	Adjusted Armor Class value
10	0	10
9	+1	10
8	+1	9
7	+2	9
6	+2	8
5	+3	8
4	+3	7
3	+4	7
2	+4	6
1	+5	6
0	+5	5
-1	+6	5
-2	+6	4
-3	+7	4
-4	+7	3
-5	+8	3
-6	+8	2
-7	+9	2
-8	+9	1
-9	+10	1
-10	+10	0