Sunday, April 19, 2015
Petty Gods Artists Index Question...
So I'm getting close to making the index for the artists, similar to the writers index you've already seen. So here's the question... For those instances where the artists name appears on one page, but his/her illustration appears on a different page, should the index list the page where the credit appears? Or the page where the actual illustration appears? [As an example, see the two pages below. The credit for the illustration for Mephassuros appears on page 107, but the illustration appears on page 108. Should the page number in the writers index show 107 or 108? Putting both is not an option.]
Friday, April 10, 2015
Creature Compendium Now Available!!!
Since I'm going to be deeply discounting the price of both the print and PDF versions of the book (plus the headache of trying to track Lulu orders), PDFs and print copies will need to be purchased separately. I will not be offering sales through the New Big Dragon storefront until after the NTRPGCon (mid-June).
The "retail" price for the print copy through Lulu.com is $10.65, but that's marked down by 25%, bringing the price to $7.99. On top of that, Lulu is giving 30% OFF with the code APRIL30.
The "retail" price of the PDF at RPGNow is $5.95, but is discounted 65% off bringing the price to $2!!!
PLEASE NOTE!!! Because I'm releasing this early, the PDF copy will not have digital bookmarks or internal hotlinks yet!!! I will provide an updated version on Monday with those features added.
That means you can get the print and PDF copies for less than 10 bucks total.
Seems like a helluva deal to me.
Buy the print copy at Lulu.com >>>
Buy the PDF copy at RPGNow.com >>>
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Post #3:
The Blinding of the Second-Born
DISCLAIMER/OVERVIEW: So, I'm kind of cheating for this year's A-to-Z blogging challenge, and I'm having others write it for me (minus a couple of days which I'll write myself). I'm having various writers from Expanded Petty Gods write feasts/holidays that celebrate/honor/involve a god penned by that person. Unfortunately, the posts will be sporadic and completely out of order; the idea came to me late, I've been really slammed with work lately, and I'm dealing with contributions (which is why this is actually post #3, on day #7, for letter #3). Whether I get caught up, get enough contributions and write enough entries to actually complete this challenge remains to be seen.
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post comes from Matthew Schmeer who, in deference to his hiatus from blogging, has penned this feast in honor of Curdle, the petty goddess of blind milk maids. I will reserve my judgement on the twisted things that Matthew has been writing lately, instead allowing others to comment for themselves.
The Blinding of the Second-Born
BY MATTHEW W. SCHMEER
God Honored: Curdle, the Petty Goddess of Blind Milk Maids
It is common practice in many villages that the oldest daughter is given in marriage but the second daughter is given to the gods. In isolated farms that still venerate Curdle, the petty goddess of blind milk maids, the second-born female is offered in oblation to the goddess.
Once the child is born and her sex revealed, the child is allowed to suck from its mother's breast just once before a midwife removes the child's eyes with a blessed jagged-edged spoon made from the bone of a mule mare. The midwife then chews a handful of swamp milkweed seeds into a paste and applies this salve to the child's wounds, where it must remain for three days until the flesh begins to heal. During this time, the child may not drink of its mother's milk but only that of a wet nurse.
The newborn's eyes are then added to fresh curd, pressed into a cheese, and the cheese allowed to set and age until a cow is with calf or a goat with kid. In the final weeks of the beast's gravidity, it is fed the eye-cheese so that the child's sight might pass to the calf or kid.
If the newborn calf or kid is female, the daughter will be given in service to Curdle herself; if the beast is male, the child will be pledged to Cowie, Curdle's symbiote.
After the beast has been allowed to live for three days, it is slaughtered in a solemn ceremony attended by the entire family. The animal is trussed in a white gunnysack with only its head unveiled and placed on a wooden altar built for ritual slaughter. Using a sharp dagger or short sword, the farmer quickly beheads the animal, catching as much blood from the body as possible. The farmer takes a wooden cup (hewn from the same timber as the altar) and drinks of the blood of the sacrifice; each member of the family drinks in turn. The remaining blood is taken to the family shrine and poured over or before an image of the goddess, sealing the blood oath of the family's pledge.
The animal is then disemboweled and its entrails removed. The altar is lit aflame and the sacrifice allowed to burn to ash while the family offers prayers and adulations.
The entrails are then cleaned in clear spring water and boiled to make broth that is feed to the newborn child for three days.
The animal's head is nailed above the home's doorway until nothing but the skull remains.
In this way, the second-born daughter is pledged to the Order of Amilken and will one day join the sisterhood in their home chapel. It is said that families that pledge a daughter to the goddess in this way will be blessed with fertile cows and goats which give the sweetest milk until the daughter meets her mortal end.
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post comes from Matthew Schmeer who, in deference to his hiatus from blogging, has penned this feast in honor of Curdle, the petty goddess of blind milk maids. I will reserve my judgement on the twisted things that Matthew has been writing lately, instead allowing others to comment for themselves.
The Blinding of the Second-Born
BY MATTHEW W. SCHMEER
God Honored: Curdle, the Petty Goddess of Blind Milk Maids
It is common practice in many villages that the oldest daughter is given in marriage but the second daughter is given to the gods. In isolated farms that still venerate Curdle, the petty goddess of blind milk maids, the second-born female is offered in oblation to the goddess.
Once the child is born and her sex revealed, the child is allowed to suck from its mother's breast just once before a midwife removes the child's eyes with a blessed jagged-edged spoon made from the bone of a mule mare. The midwife then chews a handful of swamp milkweed seeds into a paste and applies this salve to the child's wounds, where it must remain for three days until the flesh begins to heal. During this time, the child may not drink of its mother's milk but only that of a wet nurse.
The newborn's eyes are then added to fresh curd, pressed into a cheese, and the cheese allowed to set and age until a cow is with calf or a goat with kid. In the final weeks of the beast's gravidity, it is fed the eye-cheese so that the child's sight might pass to the calf or kid.
If the newborn calf or kid is female, the daughter will be given in service to Curdle herself; if the beast is male, the child will be pledged to Cowie, Curdle's symbiote.
After the beast has been allowed to live for three days, it is slaughtered in a solemn ceremony attended by the entire family. The animal is trussed in a white gunnysack with only its head unveiled and placed on a wooden altar built for ritual slaughter. Using a sharp dagger or short sword, the farmer quickly beheads the animal, catching as much blood from the body as possible. The farmer takes a wooden cup (hewn from the same timber as the altar) and drinks of the blood of the sacrifice; each member of the family drinks in turn. The remaining blood is taken to the family shrine and poured over or before an image of the goddess, sealing the blood oath of the family's pledge.
The animal is then disemboweled and its entrails removed. The altar is lit aflame and the sacrifice allowed to burn to ash while the family offers prayers and adulations.
The entrails are then cleaned in clear spring water and boiled to make broth that is feed to the newborn child for three days.
The animal's head is nailed above the home's doorway until nothing but the skull remains.
In this way, the second-born daughter is pledged to the Order of Amilken and will one day join the sisterhood in their home chapel. It is said that families that pledge a daughter to the goddess in this way will be blessed with fertile cows and goats which give the sweetest milk until the daughter meets her mortal end.
Friday, April 3, 2015
A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Day 6:
Feast of the Fallen
DISCLAIMER/OVERVIEW: So, I'm kind of cheating for this year's A-to-Z blogging challenge, and I'm having others write it for me (minus a couple of days which I'll write myself). I'm having various writers from Expanded Petty Gods write feasts/holidays that celebrate/honor/involve a god penned by that person. Unfortunately, the posts will be sporadic and completely out of order; the idea came to me late, and I'm dealing with things as they come in (which is why this is actually post #2, on day #3, for letter #6).
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post is for the feast of The Fallen One,
the petty god of fallen warriors and unsung heroes.
Feast of the Fallen
BY RICHARD J. LEBLANC, JR.
Association: The Fallen One
It is The Fallen One who roams the world’s battlefields, often while the smokes of war still hang over them, gathering the spirits of the fallen warriors and unsung heroes of the battle. He escorts them to his great banquet hall, and feasts with them before sending them on to their final destiny... to be forgotten by the histories of the mortal world.
The Feast of the Fallen is not an occasion observed by mortals, for if it were, the fallen warriors would not be forgotten, and The Fallen One would cease to exist. Rather, the Feast of the Fallen is a millennial celebration hosted by The Fallen One.
On the night of the feast, the banquet hall of The Fallen One grows magically longer so that every forgotten warrior (from the whole of history) has a seat at his table. The warriors gather together, coming far and wide from the forgotten places upon the planes where their souls reside, and The Fallen One toasts them. He then disperses their spirits to the Material Plane to roam the battlefields where each of them died.
Once on the battlefield, the spirit of a fallen warrior has the chance to make contact with a resident of the Material Plane, tell his or her story, and try to ensure that this or her name will be remembered (e.g., written down). Should the spirit of a fallen warrior do so successfully, The Fallen One will cry a single tear of simultaneous joy and sorrow for that warrior, and release the warrior from his ranks. That warrior may then take up a more proper residence (that is, a residence in a place of remembrance) in the upper or lower planes (depending on the warrior's alignment).
At dawn of the next day, those warriors who remain unremembered return to their forgotten places upon the planes, waiting 1,000 years for the next Feast of the Fallen.
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post is for the feast of The Fallen One,
the petty god of fallen warriors and unsung heroes.
Feast of the Fallen
BY RICHARD J. LEBLANC, JR.
Association: The Fallen One
It is The Fallen One who roams the world’s battlefields, often while the smokes of war still hang over them, gathering the spirits of the fallen warriors and unsung heroes of the battle. He escorts them to his great banquet hall, and feasts with them before sending them on to their final destiny... to be forgotten by the histories of the mortal world.
The Feast of the Fallen is not an occasion observed by mortals, for if it were, the fallen warriors would not be forgotten, and The Fallen One would cease to exist. Rather, the Feast of the Fallen is a millennial celebration hosted by The Fallen One.
On the night of the feast, the banquet hall of The Fallen One grows magically longer so that every forgotten warrior (from the whole of history) has a seat at his table. The warriors gather together, coming far and wide from the forgotten places upon the planes where their souls reside, and The Fallen One toasts them. He then disperses their spirits to the Material Plane to roam the battlefields where each of them died.
Once on the battlefield, the spirit of a fallen warrior has the chance to make contact with a resident of the Material Plane, tell his or her story, and try to ensure that this or her name will be remembered (e.g., written down). Should the spirit of a fallen warrior do so successfully, The Fallen One will cry a single tear of simultaneous joy and sorrow for that warrior, and release the warrior from his ranks. That warrior may then take up a more proper residence (that is, a residence in a place of remembrance) in the upper or lower planes (depending on the warrior's alignment).
At dawn of the next day, those warriors who remain unremembered return to their forgotten places upon the planes, waiting 1,000 years for the next Feast of the Fallen.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Day 1:
Atanuwe's Feast Day
DISCLAIMER/OVERVIEW: So, I'm kind of cheating for this year's A-to-Z blogging challenge, and I'm having others write it for me (minus a couple of days which I'll write myself). I'm having various writers from Expanded Petty Gods write feasts/holidays that celebrate/honor/involve a god penned by that person. Well, except today, because I goofed and asked Matthew Schmeer to write one for Atanuwe, which was penned by Greg Gorgonmilk (please forgive me guys; not sure how I did that, though I think it's because Matthew wrote so much Jale God stuff, including the atacorns, that I just blanked on the fact that Greg penned Atanuwe).
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post is for the feast of Atanuwe,
the nine-legged unicorn petty god of unicorns and death magic.
Feast of the Nine-legged Naglion
BY MATTHEW W. SCHMEER
God Honored: Atanuwe
In celebration of the Jale God's Unicorning victory, once every three years, the 17 atacorns and their ancient witch-mothers gather in a fell forest to proclaim the greatness of Atanuwe through an unspeakable incestuous orgy of unbridled foul and grotesque display. Unspeakable rituals and sacrifices are performed, including some whispered to be practiced beyond the sphere of men on the plains of dread Carcosa.
What is known of the true rites and rituals is only rumor. Yet there exists a small parchment from the library of the mage Ur-mu Ab'rkada that hints at the vile celebrations. He writes that many goats and lambs are rent asunder and their carcases made foul in orgiastic display; many a kestrel is slaughtered and its liver examined and prophesies made; many a slave is tortured for the pleasantness of his keening; many a freeman is pressed into services most debasing; and many a virgin is vivisectioned, their organs seasoned and baked into loaves of malted oat bread devoured at the nightly feasts.
For three days and three nights, he writes, cruelty reigns the forest floor. Sibling lay with each other and their witch-mothers as slaves salve their wounds. Horrified freeman are forced into deadly embraces and yet the celebrations do not cease, their corpses maligned by malignant coition until all are spent. All this is done in hope that Atanuwe may deign to arrive and cavort with his offspring once again.
When dawn rises on the fourth day, the slaves are blinded and their tongues cut from their mouths, the first knuckle of each finger, thumb, and toe removed with a silvered blade. These are then roasted over an open flame, and devoured by the witch-mothers in silence before they retreat back into their forest abodes and the atacorns once again take up their trades on the outskirts and underbellies of the cities of man.
Ab'rkada says that there are few mortal survivors of the festival, for only the offspring of Atanuwe and the atacorns may attend and their numbers are small and growing smaller, as the seed of the atacorns has not spread for several generations.
My goal at the end of the month is to collect these feast days into a free PDF that will supplement Expanded Petty Gods. If it's long enough, and if I can get some illustrations for them, I'll also consider putting out an "at cost" print edition as well.
Today's post is for the feast of Atanuwe,
the nine-legged unicorn petty god of unicorns and death magic.
Feast of the Nine-legged Naglion
BY MATTHEW W. SCHMEER
God Honored: Atanuwe
In celebration of the Jale God's Unicorning victory, once every three years, the 17 atacorns and their ancient witch-mothers gather in a fell forest to proclaim the greatness of Atanuwe through an unspeakable incestuous orgy of unbridled foul and grotesque display. Unspeakable rituals and sacrifices are performed, including some whispered to be practiced beyond the sphere of men on the plains of dread Carcosa.
What is known of the true rites and rituals is only rumor. Yet there exists a small parchment from the library of the mage Ur-mu Ab'rkada that hints at the vile celebrations. He writes that many goats and lambs are rent asunder and their carcases made foul in orgiastic display; many a kestrel is slaughtered and its liver examined and prophesies made; many a slave is tortured for the pleasantness of his keening; many a freeman is pressed into services most debasing; and many a virgin is vivisectioned, their organs seasoned and baked into loaves of malted oat bread devoured at the nightly feasts.
For three days and three nights, he writes, cruelty reigns the forest floor. Sibling lay with each other and their witch-mothers as slaves salve their wounds. Horrified freeman are forced into deadly embraces and yet the celebrations do not cease, their corpses maligned by malignant coition until all are spent. All this is done in hope that Atanuwe may deign to arrive and cavort with his offspring once again.
When dawn rises on the fourth day, the slaves are blinded and their tongues cut from their mouths, the first knuckle of each finger, thumb, and toe removed with a silvered blade. These are then roasted over an open flame, and devoured by the witch-mothers in silence before they retreat back into their forest abodes and the atacorns once again take up their trades on the outskirts and underbellies of the cities of man.
Ab'rkada says that there are few mortal survivors of the festival, for only the offspring of Atanuwe and the atacorns may attend and their numbers are small and growing smaller, as the seed of the atacorns has not spread for several generations.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Announcing Expanded Petty Gods VOLUME 2!!!
I know that Expanded Petty Gods hasn't even been released yet, but I'm announcing Expanded Petty Gods VOLUME 2!!! It will have 1000+ petty gods, over 500 minions, 72-1/2 cults, -453 spells, and 274° of divine items. There will also be a appendix item called "Suggestions for Additional Petty Gods," in which will be listed every topic included in the 1956 edition of Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia. Every odd-numbered page of the book will mimic the look of the AD&D hardbacks, every even-numbered page will mimic the look of the BX books, and the book will come in a box that mimics the 4e box that mimics the BECMI Basic box. Finally, the book will be three-hole-punched, the front cover will be saddle-stapled, and the back cover will be case-wrap hard-bound. (The cover image depicts the petty god Pagliacci, He Who Keeps His Sadness Hid... and his minion Jojo the boy-faced dog.)
Every petty god will be named after an actual OSR blogger, except for me.
My god will go by the name Turd Ferguson.
Finally... and this is the BIG news... the ghosts of Gygax and Arneson
have already agreed to reunite as the editors on this project.
I'm so giddy about this announcement, I literally just pissed my pants.
Every petty god will be named after an actual OSR blogger, except for me.
My god will go by the name Turd Ferguson.
Finally... and this is the BIG news... the ghosts of Gygax and Arneson
have already agreed to reunite as the editors on this project.
I'm so giddy about this announcement, I literally just pissed my pants.
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