Spes Magna Games

For the last Quid Novi? of February, I just had to do another haunt. I’m intrigued by the idea of haunts, a sort of cross between an undead monster and a trap. I’ve taken a few liberties with the haunt rules when creating the Deadly Doll.

The Deadly Doll
NE haunt (effect limited to humanoid creature who touches the doll); persistent
CR 5; XP 1,600
Caster Level 9th
Notice Perception DC 18 (the doll whispers to the holder)
hp 22; Weakness triggered by touch; Trigger touch; Reset 1 day

Effect The haunt is triggered by picking up the doll. The target must succeed a DC 17 Will save or be dominated as per the spell dominate person. The dominated person must use the doll to lure a child and then murder the child.

Destruction The doll must be burned after succeeding with a remove curse against DC 20. Otherwise, the doll will reappear 1d6 miles away from the burn site after 24 hours. Casting break enchantment against DC 20 can free a creature from the dominate person effect.

Background Once upon a dark time, an evil man crafted toys in order to lure children into his deadly clutches. Eventually, the outraged and vengeful community upon which the evil man preyed uncovered his wickedness. He suffered horribly at the mob’s hands before dying. Unfortunately, his death did not end his terror. The evil man’s basest desires survived death, infecting one of his many dolls. The Deadly Doll now serves as a focus for the evil man’s monstrous appetite for murder.

In other news, the new What Is It? contest for homebrew monsters lairs over at this EN World link. Also, voting for What Is It? 2 takes place here. Monsters for What Is It? 1 and voting results are here.

It’s time for another What Is It? Contest. This time the prize is unlimited bragging rights for having the best monster as judged by the votes of your peers plus any one PDF from my catalog. The picture for WIIC2 comes from Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584):

The rules are simple:

1. One submission per entrant.

2. Post a complete stat block and fluff text for the creature depicted above in the ENWorld thread linked to above using the standard format for PF monsters. Also, include at least two plot hooks for the monster.

3. Your work must be your own and cannot use anyone’s Product Identity or Closed Content material.

4. The deadline is 3 March 2011. After this, all entries are considered final.

5. A winner will be chosen via a poll set up in another thread. This poll will remain open until approximately 10 March 2011.

6. All entrants retain rights to their submissions.

The Prizes
1. The winner chosen by poll gets to brag about awesome his or her monster is.

2. The winner will receive a copy of any one PDF from my catalog. Reception of the PDF is contingent on me having a valid email address for the winner.

Take some time to check out Troll in the Corner. They’ve got some intriguing content on their website.

I was first clued in about this company via a Pathfinder book giveaway contest. It’s sort of an Internet honey-do list. Visit here. Like this. Follow that. Complete the instructions, and you get a chance to win nifty Pathfinder stuff, including three hardback books: the bestiary, the core rule book, and the GameMastery Guide. You can read all about this spiffy contest by clicking on this sentence.

If you’re not into contests, I heartily recommend you check out the World of Aruneus patronage project. This looks like some good zombie-smashing fun. Makes me wish I had a full-time job so that I could jump in at least the $10 level.

A few people kept telling me that I’d look great on webcam talking about Rewarding Roleplaying. Well, that’s not quite accurate. It wasn’t a few people. It was really just one person, but I generally trust my own advice, so I took a stab at it:

I also took the plunge into Facebook. The jury’s still out on this one, but it does seem to be a good way to stay in touch, get acquainted with new people, et cetera.

Quid Novi? VII and Versatile Performer Redux, this month’s QN? bonus PDF, get their finishing touches this week. The schedule has them both being ready to go out Sunday, March 21. After that, the short adventure to be included with Fencing & Firearms will be finalized, and then the new, improved F&F goes on sale.

That’ll leave The Case of the Purloined Princess, which, to be honest, looks like it’ll see release in early April rather than late March. I’m a little disappointed with myself about this, but it’s better that TCotPP be released later than planned rather than it being rushed along and put out for sale before its time.

Finally, don’t forget the Quid Novi? subscriber drive contest currently going on. There’s still plenty of time to get your fellow gamers to sign up for Quid Novi?.

Since Quid Novi? subscribers get the one-third discount, we’re looking to increase our subscriber base, and we’re asking for our subscribers to help.

Get one other person to subscribe to Quid Novi? before April 1, 2010, and you and that new subscriber will both get the new, improved Rewarding Roleplaying for free. Have your recruit email me with your email address in the body of the message to let me know who’s responsible for bringing another reader into the fold. I’ll personally ensure you both get the new, improved Rewarding Roleplaying.

What’s more, the top five subscriber recruiters will get free copies of the new, improved Fencing & Firearms, to include the one-shot adventure.

Finally, the number one subscriber recruiter will get all of the above, plus a copy of The Case of the Purloined Princess.

To clarify: If you recruit more new subscribers than everyone else who recruits new subscribers, you get one each of everything listed above for free. If your numbers two through five in the recruiting of new subscribers, you get Fencing & Firearms, the accompanying one-shot adventure, and Rewarding Roleplaying. Plus, every new subscriber who lets me know he or she was recruited by an old subscriber gets the for-sale version of Rewarding Roleplaying as a special welcome.

The contest started once this post was made, and it runs until midnight, March 31, 2010, Central Standard Time.