Tramp Tuesday

Sea Wolf by Darlene

The Monster Cards published by TSR back in '82 seemed to be an idea way ahead of its time. A few minor changes to the format, like making them standard poker sized so they could fit card protector sheets and be organized in 3-ring binders, could have made them a real hit. As it is now they are fairly rare. I have a pretty good set of them, but since there is no numbering system on them it is hard to tell how complete the collection is.

You don't see enough art by Darlene from those days, so here is her Sea Wolf illustration for your viewing enjoyment.

LYCANTHROPE, SEA WOLF

FQ: Very rare
SA: Nil
#E: 3d6
SD: Nil
AC: 6 (7)
MR: Standard
MV: 30"/ /12"
IN: Average
HD: 2+2
AL: Neutral evil
%L: Nil
SZ: M (6'-7')
TT: Nil
PS: Nil
AT: 1 (3)
DM: 2d4 (1-2/ 1-2/1-4)
L/XP: II/50 + 3/hp

These savage lycanthropes have two forms. The first form is a furred mammal, porpoise-like in shape, with a wolf's head. In this form, sea wolf packs hunt the creatures of the sea, surrounding their prey and biting with their canine fangs. The second form is a wolf­ man, a man shape possessing the fur, claws, and teeth of a seawolf. (Statistics for the wolfman form are given in parentheses above.) Seawolves breathe air, and must surface periodically.

Unlike other  lycanthropes, seawolves can be hit by normal weapons. Humans taking 50% or more damage from sea wolves will contract this form of lycan­thropy. If humans are infected while on land, they will travel as fast as possible to the sea. At sea, they will disappear overboard on the next full moon.

If a sea wolf pack encounters a ship, the sea wolves will change to wolfman form and attempt to board it. Their only purpose is to slay all those aboard and sink the ship.

The Nightmare Realm of Baba Yaga - Endless Quest

Since the early 80's Endless Quest books have been helping DnD fans get their DnD fix when they've got no one to play with.

Last week I alluded to this book in my post about Interstellar, Baba Yaga, and Tesseracts. This is the first Endless Quest book I read that you actually have to play it like a game with dice and a character. The only reason I got this book was that I enjoyed the adventure as it was described in Dragon #83. But it turns out this book is actually based off the 2nd edition AD&D adventure The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga.

The character sheet is really pretty clever, it does double duty as a bookmark. The character, Jerrak the bland, is a plain vanilla fighter.

Your companion in the game is Mjolnir. Mjolnir the dwarf? Seriously. I never did get over being annoyed by that name each time I read it. That was one of the few negative marks I'd give the book.

Unlink previous Endless Quest books I've read, you don't just choose your path, you often have to roll to determine results. The system has very little to do with AD&D. I think I would have preferred if it stuck closer to AD&D, rather than some new system that really isn't any more clever or better suited for the genre.

Overall the writing is fine, and the adventure quite enjoyable. It rates on the higher end of the Endless Quest books. Though I'd say it errors on the easy side, I've yet to get killed or even close to 0 HP, and have beaten the adventure each time. The author Roger E. Moore was probably my favorite Dragon magazine editor (or a close tie with Kim Mohan), and I've really enjoyed some of his other stories I've read. Particularly "A stone's throw away" a short story in Dragon magazine featuring Tasslehoff Burrfoot and Demogorgon, which was my introduction to the Dragonlance universe (also reprinted in The Magic of Krynn).

A Fighting Man and a Princess of Mars

Last night I inked this drawing for Warriors of the Red Planet. It is 8.5" x 11" on bristol, inked with a Pentel brush pen. I keep meaning to draw more creatures for the monsters section, but it's just so much fun drawing princesses.

Tramp Tuesday

Locust Gods

"My name is swarm for we are innumerable."
Ok, that's a paraphrase of one of the creepiest quotes in the bible, and a fitting description of the locust gods. The original idea was for massive megadungeons, each the size of the great pyramid of Giza, that could fly and land in places they wanted to suck dry of resources. Terrifying citadels of doom. As the concept was developed the question came up of who made these things? This led to the development of evil gods who were locust like in their mentality. I'm not sure, but I don't recall if any deities have been designed before that were actually composite beings made up of multiple intelligences who all formed a singular creature-thing. Here follows a description in OD&D style:

Locust God, God of Swarms
AC: 20
Move: 15/24
Hit Points: 290
Magic Ability: 3rd
Fighter Ability: 18th
Psionic Ability: Class 3
Each locust god appears as a giant humanoid locust. They all share the same mind, though they are not exactly telepathic. It is more that they all make the same decisions. Each locust god is unique, it has its own subtle differences: irregularities, body markings and shapes. It is not known how many locust gods exist.
Each locust god has a flying citadel as it's throne. Each citadel has multiple levels and are populated by malignant creatures of all sorts. The citadels also contain untold riches. Once the locust god that rules a particular citadel is killed that citadel can no longer fly. It eventually decays, only an empty husk may remain, sometimes for centuries.
Clerics of a locust god gain the ability: summon locust swarm, once per day. A locust swarm does not inflict damage, but obscures vision in a 10' radius causing -1 to hit, and limiting the ability to cast spells for 2-5 (1d4+1) rounds.

Catacomb Saint

Catacomb Saints are skeletons of Christian martyrs buried under Rome that were unearthed back in 1578. They were distributed throughout Europe, mostly in Germany and used to replace the relics that had been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. Yes, Catacomb Saints are a real thing.

There is no shortage of evil aligned undead horrors to be found in DnD, but the good aligned ones are few and far between. Here are the stats of a Catacomb Saint in Swords & Wizardry terms, that could just as easily be converted to any non-4th edition version. In 1st edition or higher they will be of any Good alignment depending on the deity they serve (they will only serve Good-aligned deities).

Catacomb Saint

HD 7; AC 1[18]; Atk 1 smite (1d8); Move 12"; Save 8; CL/XP 11/1600; Special: Magic or silver to hit; magic resistance 51%; Call of Life; Immune to enchantments, sleep, charm; Cure Disease by touch, continual Turn Undead as 11th level cleric.

Catacomb Saints are often sent on missions to aid the cause of their deity. Sometimes this is to protect a group of adventurers, other times this might be to repel an undead horde, or to help a small town in need. They appear as ornately dressed skeletons, jewel encrusted, in rich robes with gems for eyes. They will have between 20-200gp worth of jewels on them. Anyone who attempts to steal the jewels from a Catacomb Saint will incur the wrath of their deity.

Call of Life: once per day a Catacomb Saint can call a deceased person's spirit back to its body, if the person has been deceased for less than 3 days. This person will be shaken and disoriented, but restored to full hit points.

Cure Disease: touching a Catacomb Saint instantly cures any disease the afflicted may have.

Catacomb Saints are immune to enchantments, sleep and charm spells.

Catacomb Saints exist to serve their deity. They are only servants of a Lawful aligned deity. Other Undead will avoid the presence of a Catacomb Saint, treat as continual Turn Undead by an 11th level cleric.

Interstellar and Baba Yaga's Hut

Over the weekend I watched Interstellar at the theater with my wife. As the story unfolded there was a scene that reminded me of Baba Yaga's Hut from my favorite issue of Dragon Magazine. What in the universe could Interstellar and Baba Yaga's Hut possibly have in common?
A tesseract.
Ok, for those of you who hate spoilers that is as close to a spoiler as I'll get. And I don't think it is much of one. Considering the movie deals with worm holes, black holes, and relativity, it should be no surprise that the concept of a tesseract makes an appearance in the movie. It also happens to be one of the more clever sci-fi aspects in the story. In case you're wondering yes we liked the movie very much and would recommend it. You should see it at the theater, Imax if you can. It's that kind of experience.

So, back to Baba Yaga's Hut. In Dragon Magazine #83 is an high level adventure featuring Baba Yaga written by Roger Moore. The layout of her hut's interior is a tesseract. This was not only the first issue of Dragon I had purchased, it was also the first time I'd learned about a tesseract. And my imagination was ignited by the potentials. There are so many strange possibilities in a 4th dimensional object and all the fascinating things you could do with it. It took a while to wrap my head around the concept, but once I grokked it, my mind was opened to dimensions I hadn't considered before.
There is a scene in Interstellar that is one of the best visual representations of a tesseract I've yet seen. And once you see it, the maps in Baba Yaga's Hut will make a lot more sense.

I never have had a chance to play through this adventure. However since reading this issue of Dragon, Baba Yaga has become one of my favorite fairy tale characters and I've read a lot about her over the years. I've gotten to do a few illustrations about her for various publishers. Like this one in Legend of Badass published by HarperCollins:

TSR revised the adventure and published it in a module called, the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga written by Lisa Smedman. I recently acquired this artifact, but haven't read all the way through it. Based on my skim through it looks like it is more inspired by Roger Moore's version than an actual rehash. It still looks pretty good. Though the few reviews I've read by those who have actually played it report that players quickly become frustrated by the layout and the various traps and puzzles in it. I can see how moving through a tesseract could be bewildering for 3-dimensional beings like ourselves.

There is another Baba Yaga product by TSR I have, one of those choose-your-adventure books. I have played through that one, and enjoyed it quite a bit. But that is worth a post of its own.

WotRP Update - The Lost Vault of K'Ral

Warriors of the Red Planet continues to gather momentum. Since it has been available on Lulu.com a lot of copies have been getting out there and into player's hands. The feedback has been universally positive, many are surprised that we're calling it a "beta" when it is more polished than much of the stuff that's being published out there.

I'm working on a few things in general, like fixing typos, making illustrations, and collecting feedback on where things need to be clarified and improved. This work cannot be done without your help, so please chime in on anything you've noticed that we can make better.

Specific things I am working on are a map and world guide of Barsoom, and an introductory adventure. I've chronicled the challenges of making a map of Barsoom here a few times, the biggest hurdle being that no two sources agree on locations of places according to the books. Every map I've looked at has contradictory information. So I'm distilling the best sources I can, and letting intuition be my guide to fleshing it out.

The world guide itself is just a matter of how much detail to go into, and how much additional material to make up for the sake of creating fun adventure locations and possibilities. This has been one of the most enjoyable parts of this endeavor. I'm looking forward to sharing more of that here. Also it is restricted to the first five books which are in public domain. But that is more than enough information for a world filled with adventure potential.

The adventure I have been writing, The Lost Vault of K'Ral, has gone through playtests and revisions (how many adventures actually get playtested?). I'm detailing out the various locations with essential information without getting too wordy. And of course making some very cool maps and illustrations.

Ok, that's a pretty good update for now. Here is a little sneak peek of one of the maps in The Lost Vault of K'Ral:

A few links that might be of interest:
A Google community has formed to talk about Warriors of the Red Planet: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108276475924117137694
I occasionally post on the Old D&D Forum: http://odd74.proboards.com/board/56/warriors-mars-1974
A thread on The RPG Site: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=25185

Transmogrify Tuesday - Giant Illustration

I had so much fun drawing the Beautiful Witch illustration for Halloween, I thought I'd continue with the theme of being inspired by some old RPG illustrations. Here is the giant from Underworld and Wilderness adventures. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be an early version of a fomorian giant, or a malformed hill giant. Anyways, he does have some personality and I wanted to capture something of the expression and attitude. And add a bit more storytelling. Here is the old one:

And here is a new drooling giant. Here he looks like he's about to squish a little fighter. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Citadels of the Locust Gods

Megadungeons. Those monolithic, massive, dense labyrinths of adventure that exist to tempt characters to find untold riches or an ill fate. They are filled with horrific creatures, treacherous traps, and epic quantities of treasure. This is a work in progress of an idea for megadungeons I've been playing around with: Citadels of the Locust Gods. They swarm like locusts, flying across the darkened skies and setting down on wealthy, bountiful lands. Once on the ground they unload swarms of beasts to plunder the region, strip it and leave it barren. When their cargo holds are full, the creatures return. The citadels launch, darkening the skies once more and they move on to some other doomed land.

This megadungeon has a lot of advantages for the game master, since she can place a citadel anywhere she likes in her game world and it has appeal to a wide variety of play groups. Those that just want to plunder dungeons for treasure can dare to enter, or those with a more heroic bent that want to save the land can attempt a more ambitious cleansing of the foul den.
It is very much a work in progress, and here is a first pass on a layout for one of the levels inside a citadel. I'm not sure how many levels it should have, maybe each one is different. This version has 3. The characters have to figure out how to get to the top where the entrance is, and work they way down to the heart of the citadel, perhaps one of the locust gods is awaiting them in the bowels of this dreadful and foreboding fortress of evil.

Next up I'll have some stats and an illustration for one of the locust gods. Just putting the finishing touches on it now.

Crypt of Galsharak

I was experimenting with some ways to hand draw a map and then digitally age it with parchment textures, and adding some finesse.

And here is a little drawing of Galsharak, whom's crypt this is.

Beautiful Witch

Happy Halloween!
As a fun little exercise I went through the Original D&D books to look for an Halloween themed illustration to revisit. Appropriately I found the Beautiful Witch on page 27 of Men & Magic.

Something I have been intending to do for some time is to use the old D&D illustrations as inspiration to create new 21st century versions. Just out of nostalgia, and also a good reason to force me to practice drawing. The danger in this, is of course, that nostalgia is a powerful thing and awful hard to compete with. There is a charm to that old art that you can't compete with, but to think of it as a jumping off point - something to inspire a new drawing is the intention.
Enjoy.

And here are some stats so you can use her as an NPC in your old-school game.

Beautiful Witch

Level 8 Chaotic Magic-User

23 hp

Fighting Capability: Hero

Spells

1: (4) Detect Magic, Read Magic, Charm Person, Sleep

2: (3) Detect Invisible, Levitate, Invisibility

3: (3) Fly, Hold Person, Clairvoyance

4: (2) Polymorph Others, Confusion, Charm Monster

Armor: ring of protection 5’ radius

Weapon: dagger +1, Staff of Commanding (25 charges)

Items: Potion of Invulnerability, 30 gold pieces

Str: 9, Int: 16, Wis: 12, Dex: 14, Con: 11, Chr: 17

Saving Throws

Poison: 11

Wands: 12

Stone: 11

Breath: 14

Spells: 12

Running WotRP at Big Bad Con - After Action Report

I wrote an adventure for Warriors of the Red Planet to run at Big Bad Con over the weekend. It was a good time, the players - as players tend to do - did unexpected and very clever things.

The adventure was designed "sandbox" style, not as a railroad. So it is more like an adventure location, than a linear adventure. Though it does have a series of events that happen roughly in order. There are some Lovecraftian influences, quite a bit of Gygax (Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun to be exact), and of course plenty of Burroughs.

The player's managed to avoid the final encounter and the big aerial battle at the end I was planning on, so it ended about a half hour earlier then intended. I collected the playtest notes and am in the process of incorporating them, and tightening up the adventure all around. I'm considering making it available for sale if there is any interest in it.

Spoilers ahead (mouse over to read)
Set on Barsoom, though designed to be placed on any alien world, an ancient vault has been discovered where a mad scientist is creating mechanical soldiers and building an army to conquer Helium and beyond. The mad scientist is trying to awaken an ancient evil that could make his army unstoppable. The mechanical army is actually made of captives who are processed using bicmechanical weird science. K'Ral is an ancient scientist who first discovered this biomechanical technology, but he was overcome by enemies and imprisoned in permanent stasis within the vault. Inside the vault is a huge complex with slave pens, a laboratory, a factory, an arboretum, and a fleet of airships in a hanger, including a powerful battleship that is designed to be K'Ral's flagship when he is awakened.

Chainmail Reformatted - Revisiting an Old Friend

I was recently rereading Chainmail and realizing my copy is getting a little battered. I thought it would be a good idea to type it into a text document and lay it out so I could print a copy and that way keep the original safe. In same ways its a little like a parody of what Wizards has been doing lately with all their reprints and special editions of old out of print products. Except this is more useful, since Chainmail has been increasingly difficult to get a hold of, and it wasn't like it had the best printing quality to begin with.
This is what the final result turned out like:

I've been posting the work in progress on the Original D&D discussion board here: http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/10407/reformatting-chainmail

Warriors of the Red Planet RPG now available

-Whew-! That was a fair bit of work, but Warriors of the Red Planet RPG is now online ready for purchase. I decided to go with Lulu for now.

Remember this is a Beta edition, it has gone through multiple edits, still you may find occasional typos, some unclear passages, and some areas that could use a little more fleshing out. But it is at the point where it needs to be viewed and played by more people so we can get that feedback. (and please, discuss your experience with WotRP on our forum here: Platemail Forum)

While it may not yet be absolutely perfect, it is a damn fun read and I think you'll have a blast.

Right now it is only available as a print-on-demand book, but I verified the quality is very good. You will be happy to have this in your library.

For information on where to get it please visit the Studio Denmark blog.

Warriors of the Red Planet update

Warriors of the Red Planet update here.

Post Kublacon Thoughts

Kublacon is my favorite gaming convention in the San Francisco bay area, and this year was no exception. The show, by all accounts, broke attendance records and there was a lot of activity at our booth all weekend.

Warriors of the Red Planet RPG did very well. For more details go to the Studio Denmark blog here.

Post Kublacon Thoughts

Kublacon is my favorite gaming convention in the San Francisco bay area, and this year was no exception. The show, by all accounts, broke attendance records and there was a lot of activity at our booth all weekend.

Dungeoneer did well. For more details on upcoming Dungeoneer games go here: Studio Denmark

Warriors of the Red Planet at last

I'll be at Kublacon Game Convention in Burlingame CA this weekend. I have Warriors of the Red Planet RPG (beta edition) available at my table, along with a limited edition portfolio of 5 paintings inspired by Princess of Mars and used in the WotRP RPG.
If you plan to attend or are in the area stop by and say hi.

Cheers.

This blog has moved

To here: Studio Denmark Blog

For a few years now I have been maintaining 3 blogs:

OEF: (this one) a general game design blog that talks mostly about classic games from the 70's and early 80's from a modern POV.

Dungeoneer: a game design blog dedicated to my first published game Dungeoneer which was published in 2003 and is still going strong.

Art Blog: a blog devoted to my sketches, work in progress, thoughts about art, illustration, and conceptual design and occasional finished art work. Not really a portfolio site (for that go to thomasdenmark.com), but you could get some insight into my work and process.

Well, I've decided to merge those 3 blogs into this one. Studio Denmark is my imprint from which I publish art books, games, and various other products mostly for trade shows, some for publishers, and hopefully some soon for retail. So it might seem eclectic as I talk about art in one post, game design in another, and who knows what in the next. But it will reflect my interests and hopefully be of some value to professionals, or aspiring artists and designers, interested in illustration, concept art, or game design.

RIP David Trampier 1954-2014

I've written here a few times how much I admired Dave Trampier. His passing drives home the fact we'll never see a new piece of art from his brilliant hand, unless (I hope) there is some secret stash of unpublished art somewhere that will someday be revealed.

He was a great one, perhaps the best artist of the early 1st edition era, and sadly his art career ended too soon. But I hope he found peace and happiness as a taxi driver. I can say from my own experience that being a delivery driver while in college was one of my favorite jobs, so I can kind of understand.

You can leave a message on his obituary to say how much his work meant to you:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thesouthern/obituary.aspx?n=david-trampier&pid=170356694&fhid=8429