Showing posts with label The Metal Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Metal Earth. Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Stoned Dinosaurs and Mountaintop Prehuman Cities
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Some Cool Stuff Forthcoming; Working On Introductory Algol Adventure; & Red Box Vancouver
Holy freaking crap, Geoffrey McKinney, the genius responsible for Supplement V: CARCOSA, is working on another awesome sounding campaign setting booklet that is supposed to be "...an outre mingling of D&D and Clark Ashton Smith."
As well, Aos of The Metal Earth has stated "...eventually in an explosion of hubristic abandon, I'll release a digest sized book for The Metal Earth." Man, that book is going to have some killer illustrations!
CAN'T.FREAKING.WAIT
Now if only Gabor Lux/Melan would translate the rest of the Kard & Magica/Fomalhaut material into English. From what I could figure out via an online translator, there's a hell of a lot of very cool monsters and items in that Hungarian text!
Anyways, I've been working on writing & playtesting an introductory Planet Algol adventure, "The Autarch's Voluptuary:"
Fuck. No. It's something absolutely different..although it is a "dungeon." I have several goals with this thing:
Half of the time I'm thinking it's coming together; the other half of the time I feel like it's a sloppy, inelegant, contrived trainwreck-abortion of a mess. Which is good, hating my creation motivates me to hammer and burn the impurities and weakness out of this thing!
This past Monday I also DMed a Planet Algol session with the Red Box Vancouver crew trying out the LOTFPWFRPG rules (which are quite elegant!); I really dig this local Red Box thing! A year ago I would have sworn that there would be no way in hell that I would ever play or DM in a public place like a coffee shop; now I'm DMing in a neighborhood coffee shop, not even knowing who is going to show up, and my only concern is that the radio is on the godawful new-country station instead of the oldies channel!
As always with Red Box Vancouver I had a great timekilling two PCs, and I wholeheartedly recommend others to:
As I said before, if we want old-school D&D style gaming to survive, we've got to do our part to help the hobby and community grow and flourish.
Now who am I going to rope into "trying out D&D" next?
As well, Aos of The Metal Earth has stated "...eventually in an explosion of hubristic abandon, I'll release a digest sized book for The Metal Earth." Man, that book is going to have some killer illustrations!
CAN'T.FREAKING.WAIT
Now if only Gabor Lux/Melan would translate the rest of the Kard & Magica/Fomalhaut material into English. From what I could figure out via an online translator, there's a hell of a lot of very cool monsters and items in that Hungarian text!
Anyways, I've been working on writing & playtesting an introductory Planet Algol adventure, "The Autarch's Voluptuary:"
"A remote, small, agricultural dome inhabited by virtuous plebeians; terrorized by small humanoids...but is there something sinister behind these raids? Their caves are but a short distance from the virtuous outpost..."
Fuck. No. It's something absolutely different..although it is a "dungeon." I have several goals with this thing:
- Presenting an atmosphere of "baroque decrepitude" and insight into the nature of the civilization of Algol.
- An attempt at avoiding traditional D&D adventure cliches.
- Emulating classic genre greedy fortune seekers bringing their doom down upon themselves.
Ripping offPaying tribute to Gene Wolfe's post-historical literature.- And Weird-Fucking-Shit.
Half of the time I'm thinking it's coming together; the other half of the time I feel like it's a sloppy, inelegant, contrived trainwreck-abortion of a mess. Which is good, hating my creation motivates me to hammer and burn the impurities and weakness out of this thing!
This past Monday I also DMed a Planet Algol session with the Red Box Vancouver crew trying out the LOTFPWFRPG rules (which are quite elegant!); I really dig this local Red Box thing! A year ago I would have sworn that there would be no way in hell that I would ever play or DM in a public place like a coffee shop; now I'm DMing in a neighborhood coffee shop, not even knowing who is going to show up, and my only concern is that the radio is on the godawful new-country station instead of the oldies channel!
As always with Red Box Vancouver I had a great time
- Drop in if they're in the Vancouver area
- Check out their own community's equivalent if they're not in the Vancouver area
- Or start their own local, open, Red Box group equivalent.
As I said before, if we want old-school D&D style gaming to survive, we've got to do our part to help the hobby and community grow and flourish.
Now who am I going to rope into "trying out D&D" next?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
War Chimps, The Tower of the Changer, Talislanta Monsters, Destiers and The Wasplingier Guild
New official Planet Algol monster War Chimps! courtesy of Green Skeleton Gaming Guild!
Planet Algol related dungeon The Tower of the Changer! of The Metal Earth! Can you guess where the gates to Carcosa and Athanor are?
So a bunch of free, legitimate PDFs are up on the Talislanta Site. Including the Monster Books, and although one could ad-lib the D&D stats from the Talislanta stats, you can also easily eyeball/convert D&D stats from the 3rd edition statblocks in this version!
So this means that there's a boat-load of great, free, weird D&D monsters from a classic weird fantasy setting available for all of our crazy weird science planet fantasy campaigns!
Destier
At first glance those that utilize a Destier could easily be mistaken for a centaur with the equine portion of their anatomy clad in advanced, heavy, articulated plate armor. Closer examination would reveal that the horse part of the body is actually robotic, which may lead one to the misapprehension that they are observing some variety of cyborg.
In actuality the quadrupedal robot section is a specialized mode of conveyance, consisting of a heavily armored mechanism in the form of a heavy war horse, but instead of there being a neck or head there is instead a cavity designed to accommodate the legs and below-waist body of a human-like being. The legs of the user operate as a set of waldoes that maneuver the legs of the Destier, allowing one to, with sufficient practice, "drive" the Destier about as if it were a mount.
Destiers have the capabilities of a heavy war mount, with the speed and agility of a light mount, and are powered by Radiation Crystals. They are a creation of the Ancients, and are quite rare, with all known examples being valued heirlooms of certain Armiger houses (especially those of the highest standings). Such Armigers use their Destiers in important battles, usually to devastating effect.
The Wasplingier Guild
A mercenary guild of extreme specialization, the Wasplingiers breed a cornucopia of especially venomous and aggressive wasps (with rare eccentrics instead utilizing bees!). From these wasps they extract and refine certain pheromones.
Wasplingiers are distinct by their unusual weapon, the Wasp Rifle. This gun has a long, thin barrel and the stock consists of a brass air chamber, with an attached pump, and there is also an under-barrel device that consists of a pointed, finned canister mounted on a heavy, compressed spring.
The air rifle is used to fire a small pellet, which is breech loaded, that contains concentrated wasp attack pheromones. The under-barrel aerodynamic canister is than launched, propelled by the heavy spring, and shatters upon impact with any moderately firm surface releasing it's tightly packed payload of especially venomous wasps, which have been conditioned to attack those bearing the attack pheromones.
Wasplingiers have also been known to utilize catapults to launch missiles containing pheromones, wasps, or both. There are rumors that their guild also the knowledge to manufacture a compound that will, if introduced into water or food, "mark" the consumer of such water or food with wasp attack pheromones.
Planet Algol related dungeon The Tower of the Changer! of The Metal Earth! Can you guess where the gates to Carcosa and Athanor are?
So a bunch of free, legitimate PDFs are up on the Talislanta Site. Including the Monster Books, and although one could ad-lib the D&D stats from the Talislanta stats, you can also easily eyeball/convert D&D stats from the 3rd edition statblocks in this version!
So this means that there's a boat-load of great, free, weird D&D monsters from a classic weird fantasy setting available for all of our crazy weird science planet fantasy campaigns!
Destier
At first glance those that utilize a Destier could easily be mistaken for a centaur with the equine portion of their anatomy clad in advanced, heavy, articulated plate armor. Closer examination would reveal that the horse part of the body is actually robotic, which may lead one to the misapprehension that they are observing some variety of cyborg.
In actuality the quadrupedal robot section is a specialized mode of conveyance, consisting of a heavily armored mechanism in the form of a heavy war horse, but instead of there being a neck or head there is instead a cavity designed to accommodate the legs and below-waist body of a human-like being. The legs of the user operate as a set of waldoes that maneuver the legs of the Destier, allowing one to, with sufficient practice, "drive" the Destier about as if it were a mount.
Destiers have the capabilities of a heavy war mount, with the speed and agility of a light mount, and are powered by Radiation Crystals. They are a creation of the Ancients, and are quite rare, with all known examples being valued heirlooms of certain Armiger houses (especially those of the highest standings). Such Armigers use their Destiers in important battles, usually to devastating effect.
The Wasplingier Guild
A mercenary guild of extreme specialization, the Wasplingiers breed a cornucopia of especially venomous and aggressive wasps (with rare eccentrics instead utilizing bees!). From these wasps they extract and refine certain pheromones.
Wasplingiers are distinct by their unusual weapon, the Wasp Rifle. This gun has a long, thin barrel and the stock consists of a brass air chamber, with an attached pump, and there is also an under-barrel device that consists of a pointed, finned canister mounted on a heavy, compressed spring.
The air rifle is used to fire a small pellet, which is breech loaded, that contains concentrated wasp attack pheromones. The under-barrel aerodynamic canister is than launched, propelled by the heavy spring, and shatters upon impact with any moderately firm surface releasing it's tightly packed payload of especially venomous wasps, which have been conditioned to attack those bearing the attack pheromones.
Wasplingiers have also been known to utilize catapults to launch missiles containing pheromones, wasps, or both. There are rumors that their guild also the knowledge to manufacture a compound that will, if introduced into water or food, "mark" the consumer of such water or food with wasp attack pheromones.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Dilvashti the Carrion Sculptor
Dilvashti the Carrion Sculptor
A centuries-old Angallan Sorcerer, Dilvashti looks like a handsome young Angallan Man and dresses in simple brown or dark red robes. He is charming and personable, and is also a master of reworking creatures, both with mechanical components and the limbs, organs and sundry other body parts of other living things. He does a brisk trade in gladiators; concubines to suit the most twisted desires; guardian and war beasts; and any other variation of repurposed creature there is a demand for. Rumors speak of him having contacts across the continent in all strata of society as well as distant spheres worlds such as The Changers of The Metal Earth, Vog-Mur The Necromancer Of Athanor, and possibly others? Dilvashti has a workshop and laboratory complex located in the subterranean regions of Pit, guarded both by his own creations and the community itself, which depends upon him to provide specialized mining labourers.
A centuries-old Angallan Sorcerer, Dilvashti looks like a handsome young Angallan Man and dresses in simple brown or dark red robes. He is charming and personable, and is also a master of reworking creatures, both with mechanical components and the limbs, organs and sundry other body parts of other living things. He does a brisk trade in gladiators; concubines to suit the most twisted desires; guardian and war beasts; and any other variation of repurposed creature there is a demand for. Rumors speak of him having contacts across the continent in all strata of society as well as distant spheres worlds such as The Changers of The Metal Earth, Vog-Mur The Necromancer Of Athanor, and possibly others? Dilvashti has a workshop and laboratory complex located in the subterranean regions of Pit, guarded both by his own creations and the community itself, which depends upon him to provide specialized mining labourers.
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