Spes Magna Games

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I’ve got the whole week off from work. I’m pushing hard to have all of my school work done this week so that I don’t have to take anything home with me over the holiday. No grading, no lesson planning, nothing. I’ve been wanting to spend some time not working so that, in part, I can get some writing done, but what to write?

I think I’ve made up my made. My all-time best seller is Making Craft Work. Back when I frequented the Paizo boards, I regularly came across people recommending MCW for other people’s games. It still sells a few units just about every month, and I released it way back in 2010.

So, here’s my idea: I want to add a system for on-the-fly magic item crafting to the rules. Just like I retooled the rules for the Craft skill so that it becomes something that might actually be useful during an adventure (instead of between adventures when characters are in a sort of Limbo-like state), I want to retool the item creation feats. I’ve got a few ideas about how this will work without having to change anything other than expanding how the item creations feats work. Just like the changes to the Craft skill, the changes to the item creation feats could be added to just about any existing Pathfinder campaign without having to change a single word on anyone’s character sheets.

I’m thinking this will about double the page count of MCW, which is a good thing, because next week I also want to figure out how DriveThruRPG’s print-on-demand function works. I’ve been wanting to move Spes Magna toward print-on-demand for at least a few products, but I have no real idea how to do this. I’m a hands-on kind of guy, and reading how-to guides makes my head hurt. I figure starting with something small and relatively simple is a good way to start.

With a little perseverance, I hope to have the new draft of MCW written and formatted for print-on-demand before I go back to work on 27 November.

Wish me luck.

Tags: Making Craft Work, Pathfinder RPG

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

Since the beginning of July, I’ve completed three PDFs and put playtest drafts out there for the public.

Aquatic Depths & Denizens focuses on adventuring underwater for Swords & Wizardry. It includes rules for swimming, drowning, fighting and spellcasting under the waves, five player character aquatic races, an assortment of aquatic spells, and a plethora of marine monsters. Download your copy and playtest today.

Optional Skill Resolution Rules presents a flexible system for resolving skill checks usable with Swords & Wizardry (and likely compatible with other OSR games). With OSR2, the Referee and players define a character’s skills based on race, background, and class. No skill lists restrain those choices. Do you want your Magic-User to be a ladies’ man? There’s a skill for that. Do you want your Paladin to have studied Forbidden Cults? There’s a skill for that. Download the playtest version of these rules today and see if they work for your game.

Here’s the playtest version of Astounding Archetypes: Bloodhand Gang. Presented in this Pathfinder-compatible PDF are five archetypes: dragon warrior, jotunkin, telekinetic monk, warp thief, and yo-yo magus (my personal favorite). I originally featured these archetypes on my website. I’ve tweaked all five a bit here and there, trying to clear up unclear rules, streamline class features, et cetera. I’ve also put together one villain for each archetype.

Of course, helpful folks who playtest the PDF and/or provide feedback receive credit in the final PDF. They also receive a free copy of the final PDF, providing I have an e-mail address. To further sweeten the incentives, playtesters/feedbackers may also select any single PDF from my on-line catalog to receive for free (again providing I have an e-mail address). My email address is mark at spesmagna dot com.

Tags: Pathfinder RPG, Swords & Wizardry

When I started Spes Magna Games back in 2009, I also started Quid Novi?, a twice-monthly e-mail newsletter of gaming goodness that eventually became a monthly PDF of gaming goodness which has now fallen by the wayside. The Quid Novi? Collection includes the 10 individual PDFs as originally published.

About 80% of the content in the Quid Novi? Collection is for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. You get two short adventures, and curses, diseases, magic items, haunts, monsters, giant lilypads, spells, and a Psionics domain for clerics. The other 20% of the collection was written for Old School gaming, and includes two short adventures as well as curses, magic items, prismatic mists, monsters, deadly mushrooms, and spells

Caveat emptor: If you were a Quid Novi? subscriber, you’ve got no reason to buy this collection. You already received all of these PDFs for free. The zipped file for sale includes 10 separate, bookmarked PDFs.

With this special discount code for DriveThruRPG, you can get The Quid Novi? Collection for $1.50, half off its regular price.

Tags: Old School gaming, Pathfinder RPG

What follows is one of the villains from my most recent Quid Novi? mini-adventure, The Coming Storm. In related news, I’ve re-edited the last two Quid Novi? mini-adventures (the aforementioned one and The Ruined Fort) into a single PDF, which is now available for sale at DriveThruRPG and Paizo. The links are in the sidebar on the left side of your screen.

Orc Leader
CR 6; XP 2,400
Orc bard 5/red dragon disciple 2
CE Medium humanoid (orc)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10
Weakness light sensitivity

DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 58 (5d8+15 plus 2d12+4)
Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +5
Defensive Abilities countersong, ferocity, well-versed (+4 saves vs. bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects)

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +6 (1d4+2) and bite +6 (1d6+3), or
Melee +1 longspear +7 (1d8+4/x3)
Ranged javelin +6 (1d6+2)
Reach 10 ft. (with longspear)
Special Attacks bardic performance (14 rounds/day), bloodline arcana, claws and dragon bite (5 rounds/day), fascinate (Will 14), inspire competence +2, inspire courage +2
Spells Known (CL 6th; concentration +8)
2nd (4/day) – blistering invective (Ref 14), boiling blood (Fort 14), cure moderate wounds, gallant inspiration
1st (5/day) – cure light wounds, saving finale, touch of gracelessness (Fort 13), vanish
0th – detect magic, ghost sound, mage hand, message, read magic, resistance

STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 14
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Harmonic Spell, Intimidating Prowess, Lingering Performance, Toughness (B)
Skills Intimidate +12, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Linguistics +8, Perform (sing) +10, Perception +10, Spellcraft +5, Use Magic Device +10; Armor Check Penalty -1
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Orc, Sylvan
SQ bardic knowledge, blood of dragons, versatile performance (Bluff, Sense Motive), weapon familiarity

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever the orc leader casts a spell with the fire descriptor, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled.

Claws and Dragon Bite (Su): The orc leader can grow claws and fangs as a free action. These are treated as natural weapons, allowing it to make two claw attacks and a bite attack as a full attack action using its full base attack bonus. The orc leader can use its claws for a number of 5 rounds per day. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Ferocity (Ex): An orc remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. It is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. A creature with ferocity still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.

Lore Master (Ex): The orc leader is a master of lore and can take 10 on Knowledge (arcana) skill checks. It can choose not to take 10 and can instead roll normally. In addition, once per day, the orc leader can take 20 on any Knowledge skill check as a standard action.

GEAR
+1 longspear, divine scroll (tar ball [CL 3rd], lily pad stride [CL 5th]), potion of aid, masterwork chainshirt, key to strongbox, 2 javelins, plus 175 gp of personal items

Tags: dungeon crawls, NPCs, Pathfinder RPG