Spes Magna Games

First, an update. If you’re one of those few people who obsessively keeps track of the progress of Spes Magna projects, the reason nothing has been completed and released lately is due almost entirely to my real job. In short, I’m teaching about a dozen classes across five grade levels in a seven-period-a-day schedule. My committment to my students takes priority over Spes Magna Games, which, to be honest, is more of a hobby than a real business venture.

In other news, and before we get to some October horror, please note that I have a couple of items for sale via ebay:

1. The first edition of Cyberpunk from R. Talsorian Games, complete in its original box. The box is good shape considering it’s nearly 30 years old. Some corner wear. Some yellowing. No split edges or tape. Includes all the original books: Friday Night Firefight, View from the Edge: The Cyberpunk Handbook, Welcome to the Night City: A Sourcebook for 2013, and the player reference sheets. These materials are almost new as this game has only ever been gently used.

2. Path of Legend for Fantasy Flight’s Dawnforge campaign setting. I wrote this adventure shortly after contributing a chapter to the campaign setting itself. Path of Legend introduces players and their new heroes to the Dawnforge world with an epic quest that combines location and event-based encounters that include roleplaying, puzzle-solving, and, of course, combat. The book is most gently used. It is one of the complimentary copies I received for writing the adventure. It’s never been used for play, and it’s almost like new.

And now, let’s meet the Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Hit Dice: 2-5
Nota Bene: The Masks of Nyarlathotep, insane cultists who serve the Crawling Chaos, are kept in asylums under the care of loyal servants. When enemies of the cult require correction, the keepers of the Masks release their charges with necessary instructions, monies, equipment, et cetera. Masks vary in skill and deadliness, but even the weakest are a cut above the norm. In combat, they fight with mundane weapons, preferring razor-sharp blades so that they can better see the looks of terror in their victims’ eyes. A Mask wears a grotesque configuration of straps that affixes a leather strap across his or her mouth. Painted on this strap are a pair of smiling lips. While not monstrous enough to threaten Sanity, this accessory holds dark power. A Wisdom Save is necessary to see the accessory as anything other than a normal part of a trustworthy face. All Masks can cast a number of random spells equal to half his or her Hit Dice.

Tags: horror, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack

As part of a September Setting Sale at DriveThruRPG, some of my PDFs are (drumroll, please!) on sale. I know. Shocking.

That’s a Goblin for $2.01

Catch your players off guard with this Old School supplement that presents 23 goblin mutations, 15 fey goblin abilities, 3 goblin subspecies, and 6 goblin tactical specialties. Mix and match to create scores of different goblins! Also included is Tributary of Terror, a mini-adventure taking place within Reyr’s Well, a detailed fantasy hamlet suitable for just about any campaign world.

Goshahri: The City in a Cave for $1.84

Goshahri: The City in a Cave presents not a dungeon or even an adventure per se, although it includes a brief adventure. Instead, Goshahri is a place to be included as a recurring location in a Referee’s campaign world. Adventurers may visit Goshahri, perhaps to seek black market goods, to curry favor from the Bandit King, to deliver ransom payments, to rest and recover from an adventure, et cetera. While visiting Goshahri, adventurers may find themselves embroiled in the mysteries and intrigues that simmer just beneath the surface of the Bandit King’s domain.

Better Craft & Magic Bundle for $1.75

Improve your Pathfinder game with three products: Ars Metamagica, an alternate system for metamagic; In One’s Blood, a collection of new sorcerer bloodlines; and Making Craft Work, my all-time bestseller that turns the Craft skill into something that both makes sense and is useful for characters.

Ean Illiam’s Cavern Stores for $0.67

Find what you’re looking for in Ean Illiam’s Cavern Stores. Fully compatible with Dungeon World, this campaign location includes excellent features, such as cartography by Matt Jackson that includes blank spaces; not-too-complete descriptions of the cavern stores; two adventure fronts; stats and descriptions for the people, creatures, and animals found in the stores; pictures of the major and minor NPCs; and lots of helpful sidebars, including questions to ask and blanks to fill in, as well as new magic items and tables for randomly generating NPC names, types, instincts, and knacks.

Tags: Dungeon World, Pathfinder RPG, Swords & Wizardry

First, some news: I’ve released the playtest version of The Grimm’s Fairy Hack via DriveThruRPG. It’s listed as Pay What You Want with a suggested price of $2. Of course, as a purchaser (even if you choose to purchase the game for free), you’ll automatically receive updates to TGFH, to include the final, for-sale version. In TGFH, a based on The Black Hack roleplaying game, the players take on the roles of children from our real world who find themselves lost in a dangerous, magical realm. These playtest rules include all the information you need to get started exploring your own versions of grim tales.

And now a monster inspired by an entertaining film starring Finn and half of Firestorm.

Teeth in the Darkness
Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 5-30
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12″
Hit Dice: 2-5
% in Lair: 35%
Treasure Type: O, P, R
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 1-4/1-4/1-6
Special Attacks: Add 1/2 HD to damage rolls
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to Average
Alignment: Neutral evil
Size: S to M (2′ to 5′ at the shoulder)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/X.P. Value: 60+2/hp (2 HD); 110+3/hp (3 HD); 185+4/hp (4 HD); 290+5/hp (5 HD)

Found in caverns and ancient forests, the teeth in the darkness are intelligent predators that run in packs, hunting much like wolves. These creatures lope about most of the time on all fours, and they are skilled climbers but do not swim well. Their forelegs are longer than their rear legs, giving them an appearance somewhat like an gorilla. The teeth in the darkness have no eyes (and are consequently immune to attacks and illusions that affect the sense of sight). They have highly developed olfactory senses as well a form of echolocation that uses clicks, grunts, snarls, and surprisingly human-like screams; some of the teeth in the darkness’s vocalizations cannot be detected by normal hearing. The teeth in the darkness use these same sounds to communicate with each other. Due to their unusual senses, the teeth in the darkness are surprised only a on 1 (in 6), and they track prey by scent like a bloodhound.

In the dimly lit and shadowy conditions, these monsters are almost impossible to see as long as they keep their mouths closed to conceal their bioluminescent fangs. They move silently with cunning. In the dark when they cannot be seen, they surprise foes 5 in 6 times. Even in lighted conditions, they still surprise foes 3 in 6 times due to their stealth. The size of these monsters (and HD) varies with age and sex. Males are generally larger when fully grown. Regardless of size, they are quite strong. Add one-half the monster’s HD (round up) to damage rolls with its bear-like claws and glowing fangs. Their fur is blacker than black, and it does not reflect light. This makes it difficult to accurately judge their position at distances farther than 15 feet, especially when they are moving; this trait imposes a -4 penalty on “to-hit” rolls with ranged attacks.

Tags: AD&D, monsters, TGFH

At long last, the for-sale version of The Four Color Hack arrives at a virtual store near you. The revised, improved rules include streamlined, flexible ways to use Hero Dice to better simulate comic book action. Eleven villains make their debut in the rules as well.

If you’ve previously downloaded TFCH, you should have received an e-mail about the update. If not, the game sells for $3 US, but you can get it for $2 US by using this discount link (which expires at the end of July). Before the start of next week, I’ll also have updated Battle in Jurgen Zeeger Park, a short scenario for TFCH. If you’ve downloaded Zeeger Park, you should receive an e-mail about the updated file when it’s updated.

Here’s a new villain for TFCH suitable for a WWII-era setting:

Eisenmann
Level 5 Villain

Quote: “I will crush you!”
Real Name: Bernd Kalbfleisch
Identity: Secret
Place of Birth: Essen, Germany
Height: 6 ft. 2 in. (7 ft. 2 in. in armor)
Weight: 200 lbs. (600 lbs. in armor)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown

Hit Points: 30 (5 Vigor)
Base Damage: 1d12
Powers: Jet-Assisted Leap d10, Mechanical Genius d10, V-2 Eisenmann Power Armor d12 (7 protection, 2d12 damage)

Bernd Kalbfleisch was an early and avid supporter of the Nazis. After Adolf Hitler was appoint chancellor in 1933, Kalbfleisch quickly rose to prominence thanks to his mechanical genius and zeal to help rebuild Germany into a formidable military power. To his end, Kalbfleisch designed and built his Eisenmann Power Armor. In order to prove its effectiveness, he donned the armor himself and used it to crush resistance to the Nazis, operating in conjunction with the Sturmabteilung. Once the war started in September 1939, Kalbfleisch unveiled his second design. Now a member of the Schutzstaffel, Kalbfleisch splits his time between his laboratories and the field, where he aids the Wehrmacht under the code name Eisenmann.

Kalbfleisch’s armor greatly augments his strength, enabling him to lift about 25 tons. It also protects him from harm. The powerful jets built into the armor’s legs and feet permit jet-assisted leaps of about 320 yards. Kalbfleisch is a brilliant mechanical engineer, and he often field tests new devices. Use the d10 from Mechanical Genius as a Hero Die to “purchase” new devices to use against the heroes, splitting the d10 into at least 2d8.

Tags: NPCs, TFCH

Lent is over, and the Easter season has begun. It’s been a trying Lent. My goal was to give up making lame excuses. Overall, I don’t think I did well. My three main projects — The Grimms Fairy Hack, The Four Color Hack, and Boogie Knights of the Round Table — have all languished, neglected and sad. It’s not that I’ve done nothing with them. Well, except for Boogie Knights. That one I’ve not even looked at. It’s also not that I’ve been a complete failure. In no particular order:

I have managed to post a few new monsters. I also took the posts I did converting the skaven to Swords & Wizardry White Box and formatted them into this simple PDF. As the school year winds down, so too do the number of sessions left with Ludi Fabularum, the story game club I facilitate where I teach. For our last meetings this month and next, the students are playtesting the core of The Grimms Fairy Hack. I’m using Adventure Most Fowl by Howard Beleiff and Michael Garcia for the scenario. So far, the sessions have worked pretty well, but we’ve not hit any really crunchy parts yet. Next session, the children almost certainly find the goblins.

Part of what has slowed progress has been bouts in illness that started with my wife, moved to me (including the discovery of a class of antibiotics to which I am allergic), then to my son Christopher. Now the dog is sick. Wife Trina and daughter Adrienne are taking Sammie to the vet as I type this, which means we’re splitting up Mass times this Eastern morning. I need to make the 0800 Mass since I usher and Christopher’s in the choir. Later today, we’ve got two sets of in-laws to visit with, one for lunch, the other for dinner.

Tomorrow, for the first time in years, I’m not going to work. It’s nice having Easter Monday off, but I also have a stack of school work to do, including grading and lesson plans. I’d also like to get some writing done. We’ll see. Tomorrow evening, I’m going to hit a very small, local gym for a fitness assessment, have my body mass index measured, et cetera. If Christopher’s up to it healthwise, he’s coming along. We both need to lose some weight and get into better shape, and this seems like the place to do it. I’d rather give my money to a local business than a chain like 24 Hour Fitness.

Well, that’s my life in a nutshell lately. Good times.

Tags: monsters