The Chasm of Crasmere for Tunnels & Trolls

January's One-Page Adventure, The Chasm of Crasmere, is now available for Tunnels & Trolls!
The format is a bit, meh, but I'm still trying to get the "right" InDesign template created for T&T One-Page Adventures. It would also help if I was using something that wasn't still running Windows XP.

The village of Crasmere has been under attack by a hive of Giant Insects after an earthquake tore a chasm through the village. The adventurers must venture down the chasm to put an end to these attacks! Though, little do they know something far more dangerous awaits at the bottom of the chasm...

DOWNLOAD HERE (Direct Link)

The featured monster, Daughter of Ogrin, was created through the random tables in Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design. The interesting thing with using that book is that it is designed to be used with the more D&D like RPGs (mainly Swords & Wizardry). But with the simplicity of Tunnels & Trolls it was fairly easy to adapt the creation to fit the flavor of Tunnels & Trolls.

Enjoy!

RPG and Music Pairing: Slashers & Victims Light and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats

Music is often an inspiration for a lot of GMs and players at the gaming table. Whether it is a character idea, adventure plot, npc, item, monster or whatever. Even my first One-Page Adventure, The Tower of Skulls, was inspired by music.

This is the first of a series called: RPG and Music Pairing.
And we are kicking it off with a fresh slice of Slashers & Victims Light with a pint of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.

Slashers & Victims Light is a 1970s/80s slasher horror movie hack of Swords & Wizardry Light. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats is a Psychedelic "Psycho Rock/Crime Wave" band. This is probably the best pairing you will find for a slasher/horror RPG! Now, to be specific here I want to highlight the album, The Night Creeper* by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. When you get your gaming group together you will want to get your copy of The Night Creeper out and Patrick Bateman'splain why this album incorporates everything about Slashers & Victims Light. Before you begin, press play, and then discuss the rules of the game and begin character creation.
Track 1: Waiting for Blood "There's a man who's just been waiting here all night long as he watches you he's smiling there all alone. He needs something better but he knows you're on your own."
Track 2: Murder Nights "I don't want to know your name, I'll cut your throat all the same."
Track 6: Melody Lane "I saw her dance when she first hit the scene. Creep joint romancing with amphetamines but tramps like me stay in shadows unseen. I want her."
Track 7: The Night Creeper "Lock up your windows and bolt up your doors. Heed all the warnings he's coming for more. Innocent eyes are not what they seem. Strangers are dangerous, they'll hide all your screams."
Track 8: Inside "Am I evil? You know I am. Will I deceive you? You know I can."

So do yourself a favor and pick up your copy of Slashers & Victims Light and The Night Creeper by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.

*The above Amazon link is an affiliate link.

The Chasm of Crasmere

January's One-Page Adventure is here!

The Chasm of Crasmere (RPGNow)
Direct Link (Google Drive)

The village of Crasmere has been under attack by a hive of Giant Insects after an earthquake tore a chasm through the village. The adventurers must venture down the chasm to put an end to these attacks! Though, little do they know something far more dangerous awaits at the bottom of the chasm...

This OPA is designed to be used with Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. Also, as a reference you would need a copy of Tome of Horrors Light, Volume 1 (Free!).

Crasmere? That's right! The adventurers are back in the village of Crasmere! If you're not familiar with Crasmere it is the setting for the OPA, The Siege of Crasmere. Crasmere is to be used as a starting hub for your Swords & Wizardry Light and Continual Light adventures. Also, you can run this adventure without needing to run The Siege of Crasmere.

As part of the Twelve Months of Tome of Adventure Design I created the featured monster, Daughter of Ogrin, using Method 2 in the Book 2 - Monsters chapter. Sadly, I can't find my actual dice results for this monster. I wrote them down on paper and then just typed out the results. I do know that it came up with two attacks, Head (bite-fangs), Body (enfolds and suffocates) and two special attacks. Though, with the Body attack I combined that with one of the special attacks. And the other special attack came up with Squirt Liquid - single target (immobilize). And for the Special Defense the result was Transform self to energy form (fire, lava, heat). Next month I will remember to have all the results for those that have the book.

Notice: This One-Page Adventure is actually a 2-page PDF. The reason for that is I am trying to get more "professional" with these things. The second page has the OGL on the bottom half of the page and the top half is graphing paper for GMs to use.

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Twelve Months of Tome of Adventure Design

For 2018 I am going to be utilizing Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design for my One-Page Adventures.

During the holiday season I received two physical copies of this book and so I gave one to my daughter for her to use. So after she received her copy I was able to sit down and look through my copy of this book. And I love it! I'm a huge fan of random tables and anything that adds randomness to a game that no one is expecting (including the GM). And this book is just full of tables and tables and tables and tables and etc. There's a lot of tables!
This massive book is divided up into four mini books.
Book 1 - Principles and Starting Points (Locations/Missions/Villain's Plans/etc.)
Book 2 - Monsters (Monsters...duh)
Book 3 - Dungeon Design (Maps/Tricks/Traps/etc.)
Book 4 - Non-Dungeon Adventure Design (Wilderness/Cities/Planar/etc.)

So what this means for my One-Page Adventures is that I will use this book each month to help with creating my One-Page Adventures for 2018.
I played around with Book 2 - Monsters some and here is an example of a monster that was created using Method 1.
I believe there was a total of 7 tables I had to roll on. And I will now use a random name generator to give this monster a name.

Name: Bomul
Type: Fey - Mist Form
Bomul dwells within the abandoned mines of Ghunzle. Given that she is in mist form she could expand throughout the entire mines if she chooses. She has a powerful Giant Bat (Greater), Nil, as her companion. She can summon and command a mist that isn't part of her mist form. She can cause a creature to have a protective adoration for an object that's in their hand. Also, she can summon a swarm of bats at her command. Upon her death the mist form dissipates and what remains is a female creature that no eye has ever seen.
Items: Bat Ring of Swarming - Wearing this ring allows the owner to summon and command a swarm of bats (if not in a cave-like structure then it can only be used at night).
Rirthrar's Necklace - Whenever anyone puts this necklace around their neck the spirit of Rirthrar will attempt to possess the creature. If successful the creature will lose it's natural form and turn into a mist form creature.

I was able to create the idea of Bomul just through the random tables that took not even five minutes to roll on. It gave me a skeletal structure that I was able to flesh out (as I wrote this blog post). So this is just an example of what kind of monster you could get from using the tables in the Tome of Adventure Design.

Spotlight: Deven Rue Cartography & Illustrations

For the first post of 2018 I would like to put the Spotlight on Deven Rue Cartography & Illustrations.
I'm sure some of you are familiar with these beautifully hand-drawn maps by Deven Rue. If not, well then you are in for a real treat!

Did I mention that the maps are hand-drawn? Just look at that! Amazing isn't it?
Here is a recent video, FOUND HERE, of a hand-drawn map of Tal'Dorei, the campaign setting for Critical Role.

The reason for this Spotlight is obvious; the artwork is gorgeous. And I would like to see more of Deven Rue's work being used in OSR products. And I know there are some OSR publishers out there that would definitely be interested in this quality of work!

There are also illustrations other than maps such as Tavern Signs that you can also get commission work for.

Where can you find Deven Rue?
Facebook Twitter Patreon Twitch

I highly encourage you to look more into Deven Rue's artwork and consider becoming a Patron, a membership or even commission work! Also, there is merchandise.

End of Year Report 2017

The end of 2017 is upon us. I started this blog back in April for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. The post was some custom classes I made to be used for Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox. And in that month I wrote my first One-Page Adventure, The Tower of Skulls. Since then I've had a total of 50 blog posts. There were more One-Page Adventures, Reviews, Shout-outs and other subjects. For the longest time my most view blog post was the one about my daughter being the Dungeon Master. Though, since then my One-Page Adventures have been getting more popular each month and my latest One-Page Adventure, Beyond the Demon's Web, currently has the highest amount of views.

I've also created a Patreon this year and added some of my One-Page Adventures to RPGNow. I only have four of my products up on RPGNow but with a total of 400+ downloads. For 2018 I hope to increase my blog views and downloads by at least threefold.

This just in! (Seriously, I just checked while writing this post)
If you find it difficult to find my blog or difficult to remember the crazy name you can find it on Old School Gamer Radio!! It is under Blogs - OSR Adventures & Short Stories. And speaking of short stories; a miniseries coming in 2018, The First Orc.

Here's to 2018 and to the OSR Community. And a huge thank you to, well, you! Thank you all for the support this year! I'm glad to be a part of the OSR Community.

Tunnels & Trolls: Beyond the Demon's Web

December's Tunnels & Trolls One-Page Adventure: Beyond the Demon's Web

CLICK FOR DOWNLOAD

A werespider and a demon join forces to take control of the mortal plane and their first plan of attack is a small farming village. Will you venture beyond the demon's web and stop them before it's too late!?

I am still in the process of finding that "just right" format for One-Page Adventures for Tunnels & Trolls. Anytime I read other adventures or look at how other GMs write their material there isn't a "universal" format. So for the sake of simplicity this is the format I am going to go with (modifying here and there later I'm sure):
Monster Name
Monster Rating: xxx Dice: xxx Armor: xxx
Speed: xxx Size: xxx
Special: xxx
Description (but not always used for basic/universal monsters)

Speed
N: Normal (about the same speed as a human)
S: Slow (slower than a human)
F: Fast (faster than a human)

Size
N: Normal (about the same size as a human)
S: Small (smaller than a human)
L: Large (larger than a human)

For the specifics of the size and speed of the monster I will leave up to the GM since I'm sure each group has their own way of handling size and speed.

Special
Now, for this I read this style from someone over on the Facebook Group for Tunnels & Trolls. It seemed simple and straight forward.
If the monster rolls enough Spite (6's) then the monster can choose to use their special ability by spending the required amount of Spite (6's). Who the victim of the special ability is I'm sure the GM has their own way of determining this.

To those who are new to my One-Page Adventures the one thing you will notice is that there is not a map (and never will be). The reason for this is that each gaming group is different. Some can spend 8+ hours gaming in one session while others will be lucky to just get in 2 hours. And I feel that maps (though important and needed) can put a strain on some groups. Which is why I don't add maps so the GM can design/modify the adventure that works best for their group.

Enjoy and I hope to bring you a new One-Page Adventure for T&T sometime in January!

JB Publishing

As you can tell by the new design of the blog I have some changes coming for 2018.
My goal is to create a more professional product for you. The main focus will still be for the Swords & Wizardry system (thus other games powered by Swords & Wizardry) since this is my preferred system in my house. I have recently gotten into Tunnels & Trolls and have converted some of my One-Page Adventures for it and I plan to continue to do more for T&T. Also, on the agenda is to continue work on the Campaign Setting that I promised (don't worry I didn't forget). The goal for the Campaign Setting is to be as system neutral as I can be with it. With the work on the Campaign Setting will be lore through Short Stories (as short as 1,000 words to much more).

I've recently received some feedback from some on /OSR/ that they would like to have a direct link to my downloads rather than having to go through RPGNow (even if the products are free). I will also include a direct download link including the link to RPGNow for those that want the product without having to go through RPGNow.

So here's to the future of JB Publishing!

Beyond the Demon's Web

December's One-Page Adventure is here!

Beyond the Demon's Web (RPGNow)
Direct Link

This OPA was designed to be used with Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. Also, as a reference you would need a copy of Tome of Horrors Light, Volume I (Free!).
This is a spider filled adventure with a demon and a werespider joining forces to take over the mortal plane. Will you, adventurer, dare to go beyond the demon's web to stop this duo before it's too late!?

I am now getting back in the groove of things so expect a new OPA sometime in January.
Also, this OPA and future OPAs will be converted over to Tunnels & Trolls as a bonus!

Don't forget I also have a Patreon. Sadly, I have neglected it some but I am getting back to "serious mode" so check that out if you want. Though, I know there is currently some craziness going on with Patreon at the moment.

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Monster: Flesh Mound

A flesh mound is a pile of “living” flesh. They are typically made of human flesh and are created by demonic beings. The size of a flesh mound can vary from that of a dog to a large bear. A flesh mound will continue to grow as it continues to eat and absorb the flesh of humanoids. A flesh mound can attack and grab its victims with flesh tentacles. The larger the flesh mound the more tentacles it has.

I have created two versions for this monster: Tunnels & Trolls and Swords & Wizardry.

Enjoy!
(And I'm sorry for my artistic skills)

The Siege of Crasmere for Tunnels & Trolls

I recently got the PDF of Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition and I love it! Though, I haven't had a chance to run a group game yet but I did play around with some Solo Games. Including the App, Tunnels & Trolls Adventures.

As I was reading through the PDF and searching all through the forums about T&T I noticed a couple of things.

1.) I didn't find any books that were "official" monster books. Which I thought was a little odd at first and was confused as I was doing my read through of the PDF. But now I love this! I am glad that what I perceive to be a goblin is going to be different than how someone else uses them in their game. The simplicity of the monsters/'stat blocks' is great and allows for anyone to create whatever monster they want on the fly.

2.) I couldn't find a whole lot of gaming material for T&T. There is a lot of revised versions of older content but I couldn't find a lot of new third party content. 

So I went ahead and converted my One-Page Adventure, The Siege of Crasmere, to be used for Tunnels & Trolls. 

With converting it I changed the arrows from the goblins, under the 'Features,' from an attack to a Level 1 Saving Roll vs Dexterity or Luck. With the monsters themselves I multiplied their HD by 15 to get their Monster Rating. And for any +1s, like the Ogre HD 4+1, each +1 I added 3 to the Monster Rating. For the monsters that don't have a full HD, like the goblins, their Monster Rating is a flat 10. I read this somewhere on a forum. Someone was asking how to convert Basic D&D to T&T and this seemed like a fairly simple formula. 

With Klatt I added an ability to her attack that would reflect the damage that she deals with the axe that can only be healed through magical means.

And I left the magic item the same just because after my searching of magic item examples for T&T I feel that this would still work as is.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE The Siege of Crasmere a One-Page GM Adventure for Tunnels & Trolls

The Horn of Kardos

Finally! A new One-Page Adventure!

The Horn of Kardos

This One-Page Adventure is something I would like to call a Campaign Starter. The adventure itself can be ran using Swords & Wizardry Light while the GM can further expand this One-Page Adventure to be used with Swords & Wizardry Continual Light.

The information that is included to expand the adventure into an ongoing campaign is vague enough for any GM to adapt and create the story for it to fit into their world. Kardos is an ancient demon who has been worshiped in the shadows of the city for years. But his followers have been growing and they have recently discovered a way to bring their god back.

What does the return of Kardos mean in your world?
What power does The Spear of Elemental Harmony have?
What happens in your world when a rift is opened to an elemental plane?
These questions are for the GM to determine and the adventurers to discover!

Depression, Anxiety and a Creativity Block

*This post isn't exclusive to gaming but it is something that has an affect on my gaming side.*

For about a month or so I've been going through a season where my depression and anxiety have been really bad. And it has put up this very large wall in my mind that I just haven't been able to pass. And it is blocking my creativity and even my desire to be creative. When I sit down to try to do something creative it is like I am all over the place and in the end I never actually truly start anything. And if I do complete something it isn't as good as it could be. In other words: It is terrible and gets thrown out.

So I've just been stuck in this rut. And my mind is constantly racing and constantly empty at the same time. So this is currently the state of my One-Page Adventures and anything else I've been working on. It has even gotten to my play-by-post game that I am in. I just can't seem to function in a creative way.

It should pass. I just hope it will be soon.

Sorry.