Quizzing the Readership

Up to this point I have deliberately kept the blog free of advertising (aside from having the Zazzle store which gets almost zero traffic). My thinking on it was to make the site both less bothersome and easier to load. These days load times are pretty insignificant so the real question for the readers is would you be bothered if I activated AdSense and allowed advertising on this blog?

Please post your thoughts in the comments to this post. I will not be making the jump immediately, preferring to wait and bring this up again in a week or so to give readers time to discuss the idea.

A Red and Pleasant Land, and Death Frost Doom revised.

I have been looking forward to getting my greedy little DM fingers on these two books. They became my present to myself for the holiday season.

Death Frost Doom
I have read most of Death Frost Doom and have a solid grasp of just how good this adventure meets the horror criteria and easily functions as a pivotal event in a campaign. The book, and it is a book; hard bound; 6 by 9 format; new art; and updated material that puts a keener edge on every story element and encounter within; is a great example of how adventures should be written, even if they aren't apocalyptic. Everything within is tight and worthy of player attention, and it meets the definition of adventure - DANGEROUS!

DFD is the start of an undead apocalypse or close enough to one that as it says, the PCs that survive will have a lot of work ahead fixing or at least mitigating the damage caused. The smile on my face at several points in the reading of the adventure was that of a rat bastard DM loving the potential in the pages. If you have the kind of players that enjoy moral dilemmas, and love horror elements done right, then Death Frost Doom is worth the cost.

WARNING - Death Frost Doom is not suitable for crybabies unable to handle character death. In this adventure it is likely that some player or players, will lose their character if the group is not sharply aware, and/or take too many risks. Some things may be tough to avoid, but can still be mitigated by a party on their toes. Besides, what fun is there in being too cautious!

A Red and Pleasant Land
What if Lewis Carroll and Bram Stoker somehow mated and bore offspring, then made an RPG setting based on their wickedly strange family? This might be that outcome, channeled through the mind of Zak S. of Playing D&D With Porn Stars.

While I have not finished reading the beautiful book, my skimming of A Red and Pleasant Land convinced me that it is a work of art, even more-so than its predecessor Vornheim. It is full color, full of art, and full of wonderfully twisted ideas mixing Alice in Wonderland and Vampires to create a very playable campaign setting. The bits and pieces, all of them, easily lend themselves to cannibalization for use in other fantasy style campaigns.

The Alice character class is unlike any character class I have seen in decades of RPGs. In this setting, it fits perfectly with the whimsy and twisted reality of Voivodja, though outside the setting it would be incredibly out of place and possibly less effective. During the progression of the class, random rolls move development along peculiar paths, all useful for navigating the chaotic social and political structures of the vampire warped pocket of existence and all based on some aspect of Alice in Wonderland.

ARPL is another of those RPG books that is very worth having and reading even if you do not plan to play in the setting, or might make a brief detour through it during your regular campaign.

The first printing/first edition (3,000 copies) has sold through and a second printing has been ordered. The reviews that have come in so far include glowing praise from the likes of China Meiville, Ken Hite, Monte Cook, and others. Get it, quickly, do not hesitate, or you may regret not having a copy for your gaming book shelf.

I may have more to say when I finish reading this amazing book. The only drawback, if you can call it one, is the very tiny bits of gold glittery material that ends up on your hands and other objects while you handle this hard bound, cloth covered treasure.

Something Wicked Cool This Way Comes - clue 2

It is time for the second clue about what was commissioned for myself and the gaming group.

The first clue was Swing The Hammer. That resulted in some fun thanks to Stu Rat tossing in the comments about John Henry and Olympic Hammer Throwing.

Now let's see if the second clue provides for some more fun.

The second clue is: DARK WALNUT

The Hammers of August

The Hammers Of August

A Time Travel Scenario for the TimeWatch RPG

(Which ships to kickstarter backers in the future)

Berlin, 1933, August.

Hitler and his Nazi's are presenting the Summer Olympics.

At TimeWatch Headquarters a massive anomaly has been detected.

Someone managed to kill Hitler and change the course of

history with major negative consequences resulting in a 

global nuclear war in 1960.

Your team of Time Agents has to fix the problem before your

timeline is wiped from existence.

Your only clue, a newspaper from the day after stating that the

culprits were the German Gold and Silver medalists in the Hammer Throw

competition.

Find out why the Time Agents assigned to prevent such 

events failed, and swing the timeline back onto course.

(Any resemblance to any real or imagined time travel rpg scenarios is purely a manifestation of random time distortion and should be treated as deja vu. TimeWatch by Pelgrane Press will indeed ship to KickStarter backers in the future. And no, I am not writing this scenario. I have something else planned. Mwahahahahahaha!)

There you go Stu, something a bit different than I bet you were expecting.

TDAAL Quest - Burning Questions

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

JOHN HENRY! - The RPG

In response to Stu Rat's comment to the Something Wicked post.

JOHN HENRY!

The Role-Playing Game

The year is 1870 and your hearty band of railroad workers

is facing their toughest challenge yet. You've braved the 

elements, the freezing cold, the scorching heat, wind, rain,

storms. You've survived landslides, cave-ins, and accidents

of all kinds. But nothing prepared you for the horror you

now face. You and your crew are fighting for your very

jobs against the nightmare that is mechanization!

The mighty steam hammer has come to take yer jerbs!

In JOHN HENRY! - The Role-Playing Game players take

on the roles of railroad workers with special talents and

skills, working together to beat back the tides of progress.

Classes include Steel Drivers - the class of JOHN HENRY himself!

Montebancs, Thieves, Prospectors, Cooks, and others.

So pick up your copy today and SWING THE HAMMER.

Stu, your comment had me howling. Great response I could not resist posting about. Sorry to say, nope this wasn't what the clue is about, but keep going! If it helps me come up with more fun to write posts, all-the-better!

Something Wicked Cool This Way Comes

I have officially commissioned something special for me and my gaming group. Completion of the work and delivery will resolve with the unveiling toward the mid to later part of January 2015. I won't spill the beans yet, however I will drop some clues along the way.

Here is the first clue:    SWING THE HAMMER