What If ..... Paizo released old-tyme versions of their products?

By that I mean what if Paizo released some of their Pathfinder material, such as adventures and bestiaries, in a Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord or OSRIC version?

I think I'd buy some of their adventures to use as sandbox material, and I'd definitely get the bestiaries. I guess the layout would be an issue, the artwork to text ratio would be considerable, and I'd prefer it they had less intense graphic design and layout, although that's even more unlikely than Paizo Swords & Wizardry material.

You could probably fit all three bestiaries in one S&W book.

One issue I have with their adventures, from looking at them, is that they contain soooo muuuuuch exposition, etc. that I find it hard to find the what I consider the juicy "meat" of the adventures. What & Where. Imagine one of their adventure path installments trimmed down to a slim TSR eighties-tween module, that I would buy.

Dear PDF Publishers: Please DON'T Do This...

So when I download a freebie or purchase a D&D/OSR/RPG PDF, I generally take it to my friendly local small independant print shop where the absolute dear of an owner uses an Acrobat plug-in to output the PDF in booklet format (although lately I've been handling the mouse-clicks) which is than printed, folded, and stapled into assembled booklet form by the absolute behemoth of a printer in the back.

However, whenever I've tried that with a purchased or free watermarked PDF, the plug-in is denied permission to output in booklet format. Which kind of defeats the purpose of exporting the file into an easy to read, store and use format (with the amount of reality TV that The Warden watches on MY computer, referencing the file on the computer is not a practical option, nevermind that I HATE using a computer while DMing).

So yeah, watermarking PDFs, please don't waste my time with that jive...and I seriously doubt it is going to help you make a living with your hobby publishing venture. Considering that EDIT 95%+ of purchased PDFs I own don't have watermarks, it really makes you look like a worried dork.

My Watermark is integrity and dedication to supporting the publishers that produce material that I use, there's no way that I'm going to be part of cash-blocking any of the awesome dudes out there in OSR publishing land!

[Mailorder Related] Hail to Finland!

I'm not sure why, but every time I order a print product from Lamentations of the Flame Princess not only does it consistently arrive sooner than orders I make from vendors located in the United States, but the shipping charges do not leave me feeling like I have been gang-violated with broken glass (*cough* Lulu... *cough*); chalk one up for socialism? ;)

Obviously James needs to start stocking a larger variety of dead tree OSR products, as the combination of convenience (as in it's convenient to get the damn book in my hand AS SOON AS POSSIBLE) and reasonable shipping costs makes ordering from an frozen boondock on the opposite side of the world a no-brainer.

So here's a tribute to Finland & Metal:

Jewel Throne Update-ish Post and d10 Random Aristrocrat Possessions Table

I'm currently waiting on a couple of articles and pieces of art (all of which sound like they'll be great!) and than I'll commence with the layout. The quality and quantity of submitted material is considerable, including two adventures that are pretty much the equivalents of old-tyme TSR 16-page modules; it'll be at least 70 pages. It will be a free PDF, and I'll make sure and format a version meant to easily print out and assemble into a booklet.

This post is pretty boring, albeit possibly of some interest to some folks, so I really should include a random table.

d10 Random Aristocrat Possessions Table
1 - Ivory and platinum snuff box (contents d4: 1 - candy, 2- cigarillos, 3 - cocaine, 4 - cranberries)
2 - d20 x 1,000 gp worth of gamblings markers from other Aristocrats.
3 - +3 Stiletto, silver and sapphire hilt
4 - Folding mirror (minor magic item)
5 - Scandalous diary with many compromising details regarding both the author and associates.
6 - Outlawed Chaos-Demon Cult Unholy Symbol! (d4: 1 - Arioch, 2 - Belial, 3 - Cthulhu, 4 - Demogorgon)
7 - Either a fake mustache or fancy ladies undergarments (dependent upon gender of said aristocrat...)
8 - High tech communicator!?!?
9 - Vial of especially puissant poison
10 - A writ of "Get Out of Jail Free" from King/Emperor/Senate, negotiable by the bearer!

Every Monster Book Should Include Encounter Tables

By terrain type and dungeon level, utilizing all of and only the monsters contained in the book, and not those 2-20 tables - which are great for specialized tables, but the failure of the AD&D Monster Manual II is that it doesn't have the comprehensive d% encounter tables in the back like the Fiend Folio.

With the caveat that monsters books containing only a few monsters would be exempt.

With such a protocol in place a DM could easily make up encounter tables like:

d% --- Monster Book Encounter Table
01-24  Human - use Swords & Wizardry City Encounters or other resource
25-49  AD&D Fiend Folio
50       Random Esoteric Creature Generator
51-60  Arduin Trilogy
61-70  OSRIC Monsters of Myth
71-80  OSRIC Malevolent and Benign
81-90  Swords & Wizardry Monster Book
91-00  Tome of Horrors Complete

With the number of monsters listed in each book, an obsessive DM could easily assign d% probabilities according to monster book content quantities.

I think it's great that so many OSR monster books contain indexes with monster listings by dungeon level, terrain type, and so forth, I just wish that they'd take that extra step and tack some sort of arbitrary random table function onto these listings, just for "instant functionality."

A Clarification re. the "OSR Adventure Path" and Other Flights of Fancy

Usually when I make a blog post along the lines of "Wouldn't it be cool if someone made a book of hexmap sandboxes" or "Someone should make a quality, non-railroady OSR Adventure Path," it is not a case of me coyly saying "I'm thinking about making the aforementioned product..hint...hint.." it's pretty much me saying "I wish someone would make this so I could buy and use it," or, to be pithy, "I hope someone takes this idea and Petty Gods it..."

I'm just pointing this, because with the comments left in some of my wishful thinking posts, some folks seem to be operating under the misapprehension that I am considering writing said wishful thinking products. When I win the lottery (which will never happen...) I'd love to ditch my day job and become a gentleman hobbyist publisher that throws money at fine folks to make my dream RPG products, but in the meantime, it's just a hobby :)

Kudos to Noble Knight Games & Jewel Throne Update

Firstly I just wanted to heap accolades upon Noble Knight Games. They support the OSR, have a great selection of RPG material, and have developed a reputation for being reliable and fast.

I recently ordered a copy of Holmes Basic (in Fair condition) from Noble Knight Games, and after receiving it I was dismayed to find that it was missing the first and last pages, which includes the awesome Sutherland illustration of a wizard and two knights battling a horde of pig-faced orcs!

After emailing Noble Knight Games regarding this predicament, I receive this response:

"We’re very sorry about that. That was cataloged Fair because of some loose pages but apparently they vanished somewhere along the way. We’re mailing out those missing pages asap."

Today I received an envelope from Noble Knight Games. Imagine my surprise when I opened it, and instead of it containing the missing pages there was another, complete, copy of Holmes Basic!

That was very awesome of Noble Knight Games, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you Aaron Leeder & co.!

Anyways,  here's a quick update regarding The Jewel Throne. Below is a tentative table of contents for it's inaugural issue:

Ancient Tombs - A dungeon that is an ancient tomb.

The Barbarian Character Class (By JOESKYTHEDUNGEONBRAWLER!) - Face Stabbings ahoy!

Cave & Lair Geomorphs - 36 of them, usable for everything from a bear den to a sprawling cave complex.

The Complete Earth Man (By Lester/B. Portly) - Means for randomly generating time & universe displaced Earthling characters and their belongings for use with fantasy RPGs.

Grammaree - Over 20 spells; mostly weird spells in the vein of Eldritch Weirdness and Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets.

On Account of the Flies (By Patrick of Henchmen Abuse)- An awesome scenario.

The Robot Fighter Character Class (By Netherwerks) - Trained to smash robots! I can see this guy just wreaking havoc in Carcosa, Mutants & Mazes or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks!

Serpent Men - The Serpent Men of RE Howard's Kull & Conan stories, and nothing else, a scalable monster/NPC option.

D20 Sorcerers - No, not some D20-system sorcerer rules, but a D20 table of twenty fully detailed sorcerers for use as adversarial, allied, or indifferent NPCs.

War...War Never Changes - Fallout and Wasteland influenced firearms for use with Mutant Future or other, similar, post-apocalypse RPGs with the initials G & W.

In addition to the credited authors above, a couple of the articles include material by Netherwerks & C'nor (Outermost_toe), in addition to what is looking to be some awesome illustration by some terrific artists!

I have to gush a bit regarding "On Account Of The Flies." I've been a big fan of Henchmen Abuse since I came across it, and the early draft I received it just full of the same sardonic grotesqueness...and it strikes me an very Vancian. A snippet from the introduction:

"The village of Louisburgh (commonly known as Stinkborough) is renowned for two things: the horrible stench of rotting meat that permeates the place, and its fabulous Succulent Yellow Spinefruit. This variety of spinefruit has the amazing property of overcoming impotence in elderly men, and thus is in high demand amongst the well-off gentlemen of the great city of Denethix."

You can keep your Dragonlances and Ringbearers guys, this, to me, is the stuff of High Adventure!

Anyways, I'm horribly sleep deprived right now, so I'm going to take a nap, cook supper, and than try to write up a summary of last Sunday's Planet Algol game.

Jewel Throne Update

Regarding The Jewel Throne, I'd like to thank everyone for both their kind encouragement, as well as those who have generously offered to contribute in any fashion to the project.

In true Gamer-ADD fashion, I've been shuttling between several different articles for first issue of the Jewel Throne, and here are some of the contents:

- "War...War Never Changes:" Wasteland & Fallout inspired equipment for Gamma World & Mutant Future.

- Cave/Lair Geomorphs: A set of 36 geomorphs for quickly assembling caves and lairs; they conform roughly to the Dyson Logos format, but not entirely...they don't always "play nice with others."

- Snake Men: Statistics for strictly Robert E. Howard style Snake Men of varying levels.

- Twenty Sorcerers, with statistics, details, backgrounds, personalities and spellbooks; their spellbook selection ties into the following.

- "Grammaree:" Twenty-odd Magic-User spells, inspired by Eldritch Weirdness (one of my favorite OSR products) and Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets. Incantations to become an iron colossus; raise a sunken ship for 1 day; know all of your target's shameful secrets; possess telescopic vision particle beams; curse a victim to slowly transform into an ape; summon a polyp of the upper vapors to serve as a flying carpet; and so forth. Some of these are inspired by my own Magic-User PC going "Fricking heck, why isn't there a spell for X so I can do Y!", others by the events of current and past campaigns, as well as fantastic literature. EDIT: Here is a list of the spells I am working on:

Become the Form of the Mog-Molarch
The Black Lasher
Black Vapours of Anthrophagic Fever
Call Servitor Polyp of the Upper Vapours
Crystal Armor
Curse of Lunar Possession
Exhale Cloud of Stinging Flies
The Eyes of Far Death
The Golden Spheres
Luminous Purple Mist
Mass of Serpents
Psychic Reaping
Raise Drowned Vessel
Ray of the Ape Curse
Returning Missiles to Their Sources
Shaft to the Underworld
Shroud of Shining Shards
Speak With Cats
Swarming Leaves of Death
Uproot by Black Storm

The focus for this issue will be "material that can be immediately useful for GMs in a wide variety of campaigns." For possible future issues some of the ideas I'm considering include D&D-compatible Fighting Fantasy/Tunnels & Trolls style solo adventures and  mini-rpgs such as "Action Movie D&D" (with random fire-escape determination tables and explicit rules for jumping from rooftop to rooftop ;D).

Also, JDJarvis has posted some great one-hour dungeon maps Here, Here and Here.

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"

- 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.

Stoned Dinosaurs and Mountaintop Prehuman Cities

True Scientific Realism courtesy of a real scientist! A stoned-looking mutant gorgosaur by Aos of The Metal Earth.

Mountaintop riddled with a prehuman city by Chris Huth. Why isn't everyone using this guy to illustrate their publications?

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:"  

"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 killing two PCs, and I wholeheartedly recommend others to:

• 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?

Planet Algol is my Insect Shrine of Goblin Hill, Digest-ive Aids, and Public Planet Algol Game

Recently I've received a few emails inquiring when/if/already has? the Planet Algol project has been published; in that regard, although I've horrendously slacked over the summer, I've been obsessively banging away, with the goal of providing both a toolkit of weird science fantasy resources and a campaign setting usable "out of the box" so to speak.

I want this think to be as useful and awesome as I can practically make it. So, much like the aforementioned ISOGH, I've been taking my own sweet, damn time with it. Currently I'm reorganizing/editing  the core material while continuing on cranking out dungeons.

I know I've been repeating platitudes in the above fashion for a while....and before that there was some "Coming Soon In Early 2010!" hot talk. But please bear with me; I want this thing to be the ultimate, ready to use, sandbox campaign setting where you just need to add players. Need a dungeon? There'll be plenty. Need a NPC? There'll be a bunch premade...as well as the tables for rolling them up.

In that regard, I'm ready to take the playtesting to the next level...the public, open-house level. I'm going to try and coordinate a second, weekly or bi-weekly, Planet Algol game with the Vancouver Red Box crew.

So if you're interested and are in the Vancouver area, drop me a line (planetalgolATgmailDOTcom); even if you're in town for a couple of days, drop in for a session.

Enough with this bafflegab, let's get back to the gamer-porn; behold, my collection of digest-sized awesomeness:

What I really like about this is that I could just grab a few of these booklets and have a campaign, I could randomly generate a campaign by blindly selecting a couple of these guys! Of course, I still need digest-sized copies of Gamma World, Empire of the Petal Throne, Terminal Space, The LOTFPWFRG booklets, The Arduin trilogy, The Otus Necronomicon, Metamorphosis Alpha, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventure, Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion, etc, etc, etc!

R. Ruddock's Depiction of a Talos

R. Ruddock has been really knocking them out of the park lately, and I've been sorely negligent in updating this blog with examples of his artistry. A Talos does what it does best.

Chris Huth's depiction of a Cactogre; stay tuned for his depictions of some of the Iridium Plateau hex descriptions.

Algolian Artwork - a Dinosaur-Harvesting Tripod, a Draala and The Maggot People

Just a little preview/sample of the artwork from the upcoming Planet Algol booklet:

Fat Cotton
Chris Huth
The Draala (courtesy of the Scroll of Gnom-Bientus)

R. Ruddock's Art Blog & A Boat-Load of Algol Artwork

Presented below are several illustrations by the talented R. Ruddock for the forthcoming Planet Algol booklet; please check out his blog Fantasy Obscure for higher resolution versions as well as more artwork. As an aside, I'm very pleased to be close to finalizing an arrangement with another very talented and appropriate artist for Planet Algol 1.

The Planet Algol playtest team approaches The Fane of St. Toad

A Khoolvi Fighting-Woman with her quident.

A Mhoght Fighting-Man.

Fighting-Woman wearing a Destier.

Agogi Man couple, perhaps a husband-and-wife adventuring team?

A Vlesh Man couple. They definitely would not be down with punk rock.

The albino bird-things of the Bornite Mountains. I particularly dig the old-tymey vibe of this illo!

Wasplingier Mercenaries wasplinging.

An Absolutely Beautiful Panoply of Raw, Enthusiastic, DIY Creativity

I don't like New-Metal. I don't like slick, polished production. I don't like fancy clutter. I don't like all-over print hoodies covered with rhinestones and gold crowns silkscreens. I'll take the artwork and presentation of the AD&D Fiend Folio over any contemporary lush rpg book presentation. I dig raw, noisy hardcore/metal seven-inches with black and white photocopied sleeves and home-recording quality. I still buy digest-sized metal zines with atrocious grade-school style artwork

So when I saw This Post on Cyclopeatron (further linking to this) I was fucking stoked! In my youth I owned some of the pictured indie-press digest sized booklets, and I found the contents far more compelling and inspirational that a lot of "big deal" modern rpg publications. Those shoddy little digest booklets with the amateurish, raw artwork intrigue me...I want to know what's inside...I've got a feeling that a lot of the content would be right up my alley.

To each their own, and I'm well aware that my tastes and aesthetics are way out of step with what most folks dig, but holy shit do I ever want to dive into those pictured piles of booklets, smell the old paper, and pour through the old, clunky, amateurish, inspiring, creative content!

The Devil is in 160 Details...Planet Algol Style NPC Traits

I've been busy lately with family, band practice, videogames (Metro 2033!) and other nonsense, with the end result being unconscionable neglect of both working on the Planet Algol booklet and this blog. As an act of contrition please enjoy the below NPC Trait generation system, a rough draft of the material I'm working on for the NPC Generation section of the Planet Algol booklet.

As a related aside, I've been hearing muttering that a certain deranged savant is planning on releasing a generic free(?) Science Fantasy supplement for Swords & Wizardry, and that some of the planned content may render some of the inchoate Planet Algol material redundant...which has me pretty jazzed as it may mean less work on my end.! Hopefully this project materializes soon and dovetails nicely with the Planet Algol project!

Anyways, I'm getting pumped for doing some more "Dungeon Jamming" with D&D bros Lester & Cameron tonight, who know what madness will emerge from our demented imaginations...

This NPC Trait Generation system was developed as a component of my Planet Algol NPC Generation system. It's a rough first draft, expect something wider, deeper, weirder and meaner in the future...

d6 - # of Traits
1 One
2-4 Two
5 Three
6 Four

d6 Trait Table to Roll On
1-5 General NPC Traits Table
6 Class-specific Trait Table

d%	General NPC Traits
01	Wears strings of pierced coins.
02	Wears a knife on an arm sheath.
03	Always has bare arms.
04	Wears old hoop earrings.
05	Wears red leather headband.
06	Wears a high-collared cloak or coat which conceals lower portion of face.
07	Clad in striking black and white garments and gear.
08	Wears a bubble-like helmet.
09	Wears a metal helmet which completely covers head and face.
10	Wears a stylized metal mask in the form of an animal's face.
11	Wears a simple domino style mask.
12	Wears a crested helmet.
13	Wears bracers of precious metal.
14	Wears a foil jumpsuit.
15	Wears a tight-fitting bodysuit.
16	Garments are constructed of small, light metal scales.
17	Wears a hooded, poncho-like garment.
18	Wears a monocle.
19	Wears a metal skullcap.
20	Wears an Earth Man flying helmet.
21	Wears sleek, elbow-length gloves.
22	Very elderly.
23	Wears a skull-face mask.
24	Wears bone jewelry.
25	Wears an amulet composed of a fragment of an ancient technology.
26	Wears an amulet of a tiny stone idol.
27	Wears a metal amulet of an abstract symbol.
28	Has a harsh, grating voice.
29	Mute.
30	Sings instead of talking.
31	Speaks in Haiku-like statements.
32	Has small, suspicious eyes.
33	Wears a wide-brimmed hat.
34	Wears a very tall hat.
35	Wears gauzy, flowing robes.
36	Wears thin circlet of bronze.
37	Short and small, often mistaken for child if young.
38	Is very, very tall.
39	Wears a metal gorget.
40	Nose was once broken.
41	Wears dinosaur hide bracers.
42	Wears a turban.
43	Wears a simple undyed robe.
44	Terrible facial scars, one eye.
45	One limb is mechanical.
46	Bears the scars of a whipping or torture.
47	Shaves head aside for a single braided lock.
48	Constantly wears a cowl and veil.
49	Wears metallic cloth tunic.
50	Wears high-strapped metallic sandals.
51	Is always shirtless.
52	Carries a whip, very skilled with it.
53	Scout for a band of robbers.
54	Indebted to slavers.
55	Pursued by an vengeful former lover.
56	Obsessed with maintaining protections from evil spirits.
57	Obsessively hates mutants.
58	Secretly a mutant.
59	Servitor of a powerful supernatural being.
60	Will never lie.
61	Expert, habitual liar.
62	Secretly a descendant of Royalty with inherited birthmark, may be hunted.
63	Secretly a lawful vigilante.
64	Really into shopping for gear and supplies.
65	Can calm down agitated animals.
66	Can predict dangerous weather conditions.
67	Is convinced supernatural forces interfere in their affairs.
68	Knows the location of a hidden treasure.
69	Can run very fast.
70	Keeps a journal with sketches and maps.
71	Asks a lot of questions which quickly becomes tiresome.
72	Will conceal tears when a companion dies.
73	Can convincingly pretend to know strangers.
74	Is a recent parent, found it to be a life-changing experience.
75	Has a perfect singing voice.
76	Often loses important objects.
77	Plays with campfires way too much.
78	Throws up when a friend dies.
79	Laughs at very inappropriate moments.
80	Cannot lie without giggling.
81	Mercilessly ogles those they find attractive.
82	Is convinced they will die soon.
83	Is obsessive in checking campsites, bedding, books and the like for poisonous vermin.
84	Will always try shooting inoffensive wildlife.
85	Collects interesting rocks.
86	Always wants to gamble.
87	Is a really good cook but is insufferably smug about it.
88	Is really lazy but always has an excuse.
89	Sometimes get too excited and acts like a child.
90	Will not travel at night due to fear of nightgaunts.
91	Secretly has a crush on a PC.
92	Will never betray or abandon an ally.
93	Claims to be a great swimmer but isn't.
94	Claims that vegetation gives them a rash.
95	Illiterate but tries to pretend otherwise.
96	Very cheap, has lots of copper pieces.
97	Always sharpening blades.
98	Cannot eat without complaining about food.
99	Dislikes bright light in the morning.
100	Afraid of dinosaurs and large reptiles.

d20	Fighting-Man Traits
01	Hero of a famous or infamous battle.
02	Current or former gladiatorial slave.
03	Missing several teeth.
04	Facial scar from sword wound.
05	Always telling dirty stories and jokes.
06	Meticulous about maintaining and repairing equipment.
07	Exercises a lot, prefers to do so naked.
08	Practices an unusual, digusting diet in order to "maintain conditioning."
09	Collects medals and odd bits of armor.
10	Wants to die in single combat against a worthy opponent.
11	Unafraid to knifefight or wrestle beats or monsters, actually quite effective at it.
12	Never complains, always pitches in if there's work to do.
13	Can make a deadly weapon out of almost anything, also a ruthless brawler.
14	Was raised by ferocious, savage nonhumans.
15	Doesn't trusts sorcerers, mind wizards and their ilk.
16	Has burn-scars from energy weapons.
17	Frequently checks that weapons are secured in sheaths and holsters, reminds others to do the same.
18	Knowledgeable in artillery and explosives.
19	Has a secret cache of military equipment.
20	Has strong connections with a mercenary band.

d20	Sorcerer Traits
01	Was an apprentice to a master of considerable repute.
02	Meditates at every available opportunity.
03	Abstains from all physical labor, claims that it weakens internal concentration.
04	Supplements diet with disgusting invertebrates.
05	Only drinks water and certain bitter teas.
06	Is drunk all of the time, does not impair spellcasting.
07	Claims that others cannot comprehend their mystical secrets.
08	Insanely jealous of other sorcerers.
09	Will stop at nothing to attain greater sorcerous power.
10	Frequently sniffs a dusty grey power, the remains of corpses reduced to certain essential salts.
11	Carried an unwieldy, baroque staff with several secret compartments.
12	Wears a ring with a retractable poison needle.
13	Has an incorporeal servitor, requires regular rituals and sacrifices to placate.
14	Is from another plane and has an especially unusual appearance.
15	Gaunt, skeletal appearance.
16	Waxy, unhealthy complexion with cancerous dark eyes.
17	Has dark, protuberant veins.
18	Has no eyes but sees via unnatural means.
19	Head was severed at one time and crudely stitched back on.
20	Unwholesome odor either of sickly sweet incense and decay, or of pungent chemicals.

d20	Thief Traits
01	Bears the facial brand of a criminal.
02	Carries a lot of daggers and throwing knives.
03	Carries a small pistol in a concealed holster.
04	Expert con artist.
05	Skilled forger.
06	Can accurately estimate the value of items.
07	Does a lot of intoxicants.
08	Always conceals identity via mask, cowl or the like and uses a title in lie of name.
09	Has a huge bounty on their head.
10	Has several lovers in high places.
11	Can always spot the best escape route, knows a million tricks to evade pursuit.
12	Will slink away from companions if the situation appears especially dire.
13	Knows how to conceal the signs of violence and effectively dispose of bodies.
14	Was subjected to a botched execution in the past and feigned death to escape.
15	Hates all authority figures.
16	Wears gaudy, cheap jewelry. Will try to claim flashy jewels.
17	Once was part of a legendary heist but only played a small role.
18	Always getting in trouble for the way they "look at people."
19	Acts in an obvious suspicious manner all the time.
20	Resents the mildest slights and will mutter about violent retribution afterwards.

So What's Going On With The Planet Algol Booklet Anyways?

I know I let loose with a bunch of balloon juice a while back about the upcoming Planet Algol 1 The Iridium Plateau booklet and come mid-February 2010 and there's no word of sign of it. So what's going on?

I could pretty much publish this thing right now. But I'm holding back in order for it to be as awesome and useful as possible.

Several very talented artists have graciously contributed to this project and I honestly believe that the artwork as a whole will be varied and pleasing. Some of the artists have some ideas that they want to work on and I'm cool with holding off in order to accommodate these genteel artistes and furthermore present the best illustrated booklet I can.

On to utility. One of my design goals is to make this booklet be something I will use as a reference while running a Planet Algol game. This means including all of the funky house rules I use; all the reference information for the players in my game; the sorts of random tables that I use; encounter tables; and so forth. Stuff I need handy when running my game.

One thing that I want to do in order to enhance utility is to include several lairs/mini-dungeons. Although there are several hexcrawl sandbox settings and resources available I don't know of any that include a plethora of somewhat detailed dungeons, ruins, caves and the like. I believe that Necromancer Games Wilderlands box set was to include the like at one point?

So in conclusion, the Planet Algol booklet is coming out and will be coming out "soon" but in the meantime awesome artwork is being produced; I'm improving the hex descriptions; random tables are being compiled; and mini-dungeons are being imaginated. All in order for it to be as awesome and useful as I can make it without taking forever, although a large proportion of the awesome will be due to the great artists involved.

And it might include a detailed city with associated dungeon and mini-dungeons.

Planet Algol 1 : The Iridium Plateau - Update & RPG PDF Vendor Inquiry

I've been hashing out the Planet Algol 1 manuscript and working out the publishing matters and some plans have changed, so here is an update.

Planet Algol 1 : The Iridium Plateau will most likely be published via Comixpress. I went with Comixpress as they seemed far more flexible than Lulu and that they also can produce the booklets at a better price than local services. It will be a 52-page saddle stitch booklet, digest-sized at 5.5" wide and 8.5" tall.

I would like to make the PDF available for those who prefer the format but I don't have much experience with RPG PDF vendors, do any of you have recommendations in that regard?

Planet Algol 1 will be around 52 pages long. I was planning on including a detailed city (Kharhem) but with the 52-page limit imposed by Comixpress there is insufficient room and so it will be part of the next Planet Algol booklet.

As well I believe that you will pleased with both the quantity and the quality of the illustrations gracing the booklet's pages.

Here is a brief overview of it's contents:

The Players Section
- Introduction
- Planet Algol and it's Solar System, History and Inhabitants
- Earth Men and the alternate Planet Algol Earth History
- Map & Gazetteer of the Geography, Settlements and Ruins of the Iridium Plateau Region
- Suggested Houserules for Planet Algol Campaigns
- New Races: Cactoid & mutant
- New Classes: Cactoid, Mind Wizard and Sage
- Mounts & Equipment
- "Appendix N"

The Referees Section
- Referees Introduction & Other Books/Rules Suggested for Use With Planet Algol
- Hexmap & Hex Locations of the Iridium Plateau Region
- Encounter Tables for the Iridium Plateau Region
- Monsters
- Sorcerous and Technological Items
- Intoxicants
- Airships/Skyvessels

I don't have a firm deadline for publication, although it should be sometime in the next month or so. I've been working with some very talented artists and I don't want to rush them and also I certainly don't want to rush this product to the press without taking the time and attention to detail that a "labour of love" warrants.

It will be available soon and it should be beautiful!

"...Make It Count...Make it Count...By Thrazar Make it Count!!!..."

...Coming Soon...

...In 2010...

Special thanks to Steve Zieser of Curmudgeons and Dragons for the amazing artwork!