Sit, ubues. Sit.

If you're even moderately familiar with the history of D&D Module B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, then you're no doubt aware of the two versions of the module, and the questionable artwork from the first version.

While doing some digging/scouring yesterday for some public domain artwork, I came across the following Arthur Rackham illustration from the 1922/27 edition of Macmillan's English Fairy Tales. It's an illustration of the three-headed giant from the story Jack the Giant Killer and when I saw it, the first thing that popped in my head was Erol Otus's illustration of the ubues from B3.

Was Erol influenced by the Rackham illustration? Probably. But if I actually make it out the North Texas RPG Con this year, I'm going to ask him for myself!

Announcing Old School Adventures™ Module LC1 Assault Against the Menace on the Mountain

Honestly folks, I had not planned on officially releasing this until Wednesday, but somehow my intended release date on RPGNow didn't "stick," so it's available now. This is the adventure I designed for William's Roman-themed adventure design contest at his Ramblings of a Great Khan blog. It started out as a much smaller thing, and before I knew it, I'd completed a 12-page "one-shot" module (similar in vibe to a tournament-style module).

It's pulp-horror-style adventure based on a story by the master of pulp horror. It's designed for character levels 1-3; and designed to be used with 0e/1e/BX and compatible retro-clones.

It is the Terrible Season of the autumn, and the wild people in the mountains are preparing for the frightful ceremonies which only rumour tells of in the towns.

One seldom sees these wild people from the mountain; but a few times a year they send down little yellow, squint-eyed messengers to trade with the merchants by means of gestures, and every spring and autumn they hold the infamous rites on the peaks, their howlings and altar-fires throwing terror into the villages. Always the same—the night before the Kalends of Maius and the night before the Kalends of November. Townsfolk disappear just before these nights, and are never heard of again.

This year the dread is even greater, for the people know that the wrath of the very old folk is due upon the town of Pompelo. Three months ago, five of the little squint-eyed traders had come down from the hills, and in a market brawl three of them had been killed. The remaining two had gone back wordlessly to their mountains—and this autumn not a single villager has disappeared yet. There is menace in this immunity, for it is not like the very old folk to spare their victims at the Sabbath. It is too good to be normal, and the villagers are afraid.

A cohort has been assembled to end this menace once and for all, and there is always room for more heroes.

PDF Version: $2.00 - Available at RPGNow
Print Version: $5.95 - Available at Lulu.com
(12 pages + cover)

New Illustration/Old Technique: Buru

As I continue to rework some old illustrations as well as create new ones for the Creature Compendium, one of the things I try to do is look back to some old illustration techniques. For a while, I've been trying to get a decent mezzotint effect. I'm fairly happy with how this illustration (below) turned out. But just fairly. (Detail at bottom.)

d30 Feature of the Week Bonus Edition: Adventure Seed Generator Part II

Today is a bonus edition of the d30 Feature of the Week, and is Part II of yesterday's Part I post of my d30-based Adventure Seed Generator. As I mentioned yesterday, this was something I felt like was missing from the d30 Sandbox Companion, but is now slated as one of the lead-off items.

I KNOW THEY LOOK A LOT A LIKE, BUT EACH PAGE (PAGE I AND PAGE II) HAVE DIFFERENT TABLES. THIS IS THE SECOND PART OF A 2-PAGE GENERATOR!!!

Again, if you need an excuse to use them, try creating something for William's Roman-themed adventure design contest over at his Ramblings of a Great Khan blog! And maybe you'll win a copy of one of the book's that inspired Tolkien.

Click here to download a free PDF of Part II (of II) of the
d30 Adventure Seed Generator from MediaFire.

d30 Feature of the Week: Adventure Seed Generator Part I

I know I've been slacking on the d30 Feature posts around here lately, but considering the d30 Sandbox Companion is in more of a proofing stage than a "creation" stage, that's not so odd. But the book felt like it was missing something really important, and I finally figured out what it was...
AN ADVENTURE SEED GENERATOR!!! (Slap self in head and say, "I coulda had a V8!")

As I worked on it, I realized it it needed two pages. And guess how many "blank" pages I had left in the book. Yup! TWO! So today, I present Part I of the Adventure Seed Generator. Part II will be coming tomorrow, so be on the lookout. (Part II includes tables for: phenomena, villain goal/reason, artifact/relic, theme, and key NPC).

BTW, if you need an excuse to use them, try creating something for William's Roman-themed adventure design contest over at his Ramblings of a Great Khan blog! And maybe you'll win a copy of one of the book's that inspired Tolkien.

Click here to download a free PDF of Part I (of II) of the
d30 Adventure Seed Generator from MediaFire.

New Roman-themed Oe/BX/1E Monster: Cacus

I know I mentioned in Monday's post about Roman-themed adventure design ideas that today's post would be yesterday's post, but yesterday's post was precluded by my announcement of my prize contribution to William's Roman-themed adventure design contest at his Ramblings of a Great Khan blog. Today's Monster of the Week entry is actually one that's been slated for inclusion in the Creature Compendium for quite a while. The fact that it's Roman in origin is just serendipitous.

DESCRIPTION Cacuses are a race of fire-breathing giants that live in the caves of hilly or mountainous areas. They are thieves and robbers by nature, and will usually travel under the cover of night robbing travelers or stealing unguarded property (like cattle.) When attacking under the cover of night, cacuses surprise on a 1-3 (on 1d6.) Additionally, they are able to hurl rocks from 10’-30’ distances, causing 2-20 hit points of damage (on a successful “to hit” roll.) They are also able to catch similar rocks hurled against them 50% of the time. Though normally armed with clubs (doing 2-16 points of damage), cacuses are also able to breathe fire in a cone that is 20’ long and 5’ across at its widest point (doing 3-18 points of damage on failed saving throw.) Though bandits by nature, cacuses fancy themselves as shepherds, raising sheep both for their wool and their meat. When encountered in their lair, there is a 75% chance there will be a herd of 10-40 sheep nearby. If there are 6 or more cacuses are present in their lair, there is a 50% chance that one of them will be female. If there are 7 present, 1 of them will be female. If 8 are present, there will be at least one female, and there is a 50% chance there will be an additional female.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-6 ARMOR CLASS: 3 MOVE: 12” HIT DICE: 11 % IN LAIR: 20% TREASURE TYPE: B, C NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-16 or by weapon type SPECIAL ATTACKS: Breathe fire (3-18) SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Very ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral SIZE: L (12’ tall) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 3 HIT DICE: 11 MOVE: 120’ ATTACKS: 1 breath or 1 weapon DAMAGE: 3-18 (breath) or by weapon type (2-16) NO. APPEARING: 1-6 SAVE AS: Fighter: 11 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: B, C ALIGNMENT: Chaotic

The Father of Modern Fantasy that Inspired Tolkien (And a Chance to Win a Free Book!)

“The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

I've written before on this blog about William Morris, and how the industrial revolution inspired the original fantasy game, and I pointed you (at the bottom of that post) toward a couple of online editions of his books. One of the books I didn't mention at the time was The House of the Wolfings. And now's the perfect time for me to do just that.

Warriors, dwarves, gods, epic battles, magic armor, and a ring. If this all sounds a familiar, it’s for good reason. In The House of the Wolfings, the first of the author’s many great fantastic romances, William Morris weaves the traditional with the supernatural, and establishes a precursor to the modern epic fantasy genre. Based on a translation of an old Norse saga, Morris reconstructs a portrait of the lives of the Germanic Gothic Tribes galvanized into action againts the attacks of imperial Rome. Thiodolf, the leader of the Wolfings, is one of two men chosen as War-Dukes to lead the tribes against their enemies. Thiodolf may be supported by his lover the Wood-Sun and their daughter the Hall-Sun (both of whom are related to the gods), but he also possesses a dwarf-made mail-shirt that, unbeknownst to him, bears a curse.

Based on two different editions of the book (both over 100 years old), I've taken the text (which resides in the public domain) and put together an edition of the book perfect for the gamer's bookshelf (and at a better price than almost any other current print edition I've seen around).

SO WHAT'S THIS YOU SAY ABOUT A FREE COPY?
Well, William over at Ramblings of a Great Khan is doing a Roman-themed adventure design contest. And given the theme of the contest, and the subject of Morris's book, it seemed like the perfect prize for me to donate to the cause (in addition to all the other cool prizes William already has lined up, like PDF copies of the 43 AD RPG, roman numeral dice, and custom illustrations courtesy of his wife). But you've got to hurry, because the contest deadline is the end of this month.

Some free eCopies of the book can be found at these locations:
- an audio version at Archive.org
- the 1890 Roberts Brothers edition (various formats)
- text version of the 1910 1904 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition