A Cat of Tindalos

A Cat of Tindalos

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Berlin

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1770463267/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

“With its rich sense of time and place, nuanced portrayal of individual destinies, precisely rendered imagery, and poetic expression of themes, Jason Lutes’s Berlin is truly a masterful narrative.”―Amor TowlesA Gentleman in Moscow
“A watershed achievement―Berlin charted new territory for the graphic novel and comics at the same time, at once a story about artists trying to make art during the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and a bildungsroman of the first order. This landmark collection returns this story to us now when we need examples of how to stay human to each other in the face of a politics that turns friends into enemies―a newly necessary book.”―Alexander CheeThe Queen of the Night
“Lutes covers the cabaret scene, the struggles of the press and riots as the Nazis rise, and lives that seemed full of possibility are twisted by the grasping arms of the state… A modern classic.”The Guardian Best Books of 2018
Berlin reads like not just a masterwork but also a life’s work.”The Washington Post, 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2018

““Recommend” isn’t a strong enough verb for conveying how badly you need to read Berlin… The stories that play out between those two bookends sway from the romantic to the apocalyptic and back again, and the intricate linework and oft-mind-blowing layouts are incomparable. For a reader who’s white-knuckling it through our present period of social collapse, Berlin is a beacon of both warning and hope.”Vulture
“One of the most ambitious, important and fully-realized works of graphic literature yet created, a real masterpiece of both story and art.”Forbes

Jason Lutes was born in New Jersey in 1967 and grew up reading American superhero and Western comics. In the late 1970s he discovered Heavy Metal magazine and the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, both of which proved major influences on his creative development. Lutes graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration, and in 1993 he began drawing a weekly comics page called Jar of Fools for Seattle’s The Stranger. Lutes lives in Vermont with his partner and two children, where he teaches comics at the Center for Cartoon Studies.







Secrets of the Old City Classic Conversion

Secrets of the Old City Classic Conversion  


"Almost every inhabitant of The City has heard that it was built upon the ruins of an older place – indeed, evidence of the Old City is everywhere. And rumors of its hidden treasures persist, even now.
The histories recount that the Old City was buried by cataclysmic ashes long before The New City grew up to resume the industry of these parts.


However, few among the wisest scholars know that the Old City was itself founded upon an even deeper ruin –a far more ancient and treacherous place. None now recall who the Ancients were, or what disaster befell them…"

A Dungeon World adaptation by Mark Tygart

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wdUN5KReJGx-BlAmeNejx_cv6QM8_vek


Based on the classic 2009 one page dungeon by Simon Bull





To Star Trek fans in California


A note of interest to Star Trek fans in California:

The Memorial Service for John D.F. Black, associate producer and story editor on the original Star Trek, will be held this coming Sunday, December 30, at 2 p.m. at Bastian Perrott, Oswald Mortuary Chapel, 18728 Parthenia St., Northridge, CA 91324. 

This celebration of John's life and work is open to the public.


John's widow, Mary Black, who had served as his secretary while he worked at Star Trek, has requested this celebration of John's life and work be open to Star Trek fans. It is her hope that those who were touched by his work as a writer, who took his words, "Space ... the final frontier," into their hearts, can have an opportunity to say farewell and send him wishes for a happy journey into John's own final frontier. For those who live in the Los Angeles area, this service will provide you with that opportunity.


Saturday, December 22, 2018

Happy Holiday Delving!

Grom’s Undoing  for Dungeon World!

Conversion Notes for Dungeon World by Mark Tygart 

Of The Ruination of Tenamen a classic one page dungeon by Simon Bull 

                                                                                                                                   


Monday, December 10, 2018

Stellarium of Vinteralf, Snow Elf Version

Despite my annual flu shot I'm down with a nasty bug presently.

I should be working on the cool new project my Sword breaker friends have agreed to publish but I can barely manage daytime TV and essential eldercare for Mom.

I did manage to go through a few files for a grand reorganization of my website next year sometime and I did find something like the latest Tower of Zenopus conversion I recently posted that might be of interest to Dungeon World fans.

This is my latest conversion of the Stellarium of Vinteralf in which I changed the Vinteralf (seal men) to "Snow Elves" and which I quite like. Sort of a arctic Hobbit with a Lonely Mountain Observatory quest!. Anyway, change the snow elves back to seal people if you prefer, but I did think of a few minor conversion tweaks which I hope helped play....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NJFIVH6dd-Uloz7E7TgRUyMntP_df0Az


Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Tome of Mysteries 2019!

From an Evil Hat press release (https://www.evilhat.com/home/refocused-resized-hat-mode-activated/)

Projects that remain with us from now through 2019 include:

  • Monster of the Week: Tome of Mysteries: Michael Sands from Generic Games, designer of Monster of the Week, has been working on a supplement for the game for a while now. We’re happy to confirm that we will publish this as well. Layout is currently underway.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Vale Greg Stafford (1948 - 2018) R.I.P.


"The shock and grief the Chaosium family felt at the news of the passing of our beloved and revered company founder, Greg Stafford, cannot be measured. Greg died yesterday in his sweat lodge at his home in Arcata, CA. Mercifully, his passing was painless and quick. He died as he lived, on a spiritual quest of enlightenment.


As one of the greatest game designers of all time; winner of too many awards to count; and a friend, mentor, guide, and inspiration to generations of gamers, “the Grand Shaman of Gaming” influenced the universe of tabletop gaming beyond measure.


Greg founded The Chaosium in 1975, and from the outset (to quote his own words) “was never content to imitate, but instead published games that were original in their style of play, content and design”. Under his leadership, the company quickly became renowned for its originality and creativity, and was responsible for introducing numerous things to the hobby that are standards today. As John Wick (7th Sea, Legend of the Five Rings) memorably said, “The older I get, the more I hear young RPG designers say ‘Never been done before!’ And then I just point at something Greg Stafford did a few decades ago.”


If you would like to show your appreciation for his life and legacy, or express your feelings, or pay your respects, please feel free to leave a note there. Greg's wife Suzanne and his family know that he was greatly loved, respected and revered in the gaming community all over the world, and they have the link to this thread to read your posts when they are ready. Greg's family request that you respect their privacy in this time of grief. "

-Ab Chaos #85 — News from Chaosium



Here is the link: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/8417-greg-stafford-condolence-thread





Wednesday, October 10, 2018

The Cats Came Back!

My current understanding is that Goggle+ shutdown as devastating as that is; will not include the service that maintains this blog. If that is true I simply keep my site up and running (with the RPG free downloads) as always...


Sharing this...


Don't Shut Down Google Plus Petition

I'm still unsure what Google is pulling the plug on but I already know it is all my favorite tabletop RPG sites.

Sign the Petition!:

https://www.change.org/p/google-inc-don-t-shut-down-google-plus-2

"I've met so many friends on Google Plus and I really don't want to lose them. I spend most of my time on Google Plus and I don't know what I would do without it."







Friday, October 5, 2018

Wand of Wonder (Minor Artifact)Revised

Thanks to the Tavern for great feedback!... 

(0 Weight, 12 Uses per owner)

A small ebony wand engraved with a star of chaos in silver.

The wand of wonder is a strange and unpredictable device that will generate any number of strange effects,each time it is used. Some typical effects are shown on the table below, but you may alter this table for any or all of these wands in your campaign as you see fit

When you use a Wand of Wonder roll +Charisma,
On a 10+ the player may select the effect from the table below, but may never select that effect again while using the wand.
On a 7-9 roll randomly for the wand's effect
On a 6 or less a charge is expended but nothing happens (Alternate Rule: GM selects a negative or useless effect).

D100
Roll Effect
01-10 Every magical or enchanted item present glows blue for a full hour
11-18 Sleep as per Wizard Spell
19-25 An illusion of a frog appears and sings “It’s not easy being green” on a tiny banjo before disappearing
26-30 Party surrounded by soap bubbles at 30-foot range
31-33 Storm clouds and heavy rain falls for one hour in 60-foot radius of wand wielder
34-36 Loud booming laughter is heard
37-46 Lightning bolt (3 x die 70' x 5' bolt)
47-49 Stream of 300 large butterflies pour forth and flutter around
50-53 Magic Missile up to 3 attacks, separate targets (if desired) each attack doing die-1
54-58 Darkness in a 30-foot diameter hemisphere at 30 feet center distance from wand
59-62 Grass grows in area of 160 square feet before the wand, or grass existing there grows to 10 times normal size
63-65 Vanish any nonliving object of up to 1,000 pounds mass and up to 30 cubic feet in size (object is ethereal for 24 hours)
66-69 A small rabbit appears and attempts to hop away
70-79 Fireball (2 x die damage in 20' radius)
80-84 Invisibility covers wand wielder
85-87 Target transformed (no save) into a Giant Amoeba (See below). Attacks everything nearby.
88-90 10-40 gems of 1 coin base value shoot forth in a 30-foot-long stream, each causing one point of damage to any creature in path -- roll 5 d4 for number of hits
91-97 Illusions of playful sprites dance and play over a 40-by 30-foot area in front of wand for the next hour
98-00 Flesh to stone (or reverse if target is stone) if target is within 60 feet
(Note: Die is the characters damage die)

GIANT AMOEBA Solitary, Large, Amorphous
Acidic Grab (d10 damage) 12 HP, 0 armor
A giant amoeba is a shapeless mass of living, liquid protoplasm. Though naturally translucent with darker interior spots, its surface is slightly sticky and tends to collect dirt and other debris from its environment; therefore, a moving giant amoeba looks like muddy water. A weaker cousin of creatures such as the gray ooze and black pudding the giant amoeba is the result of an alchemist's experiment gone horribly wrong.
Instinct: Dissolve flesh
• Slithers
• Mindless
• Relentless

The wand uses one charge per function. It may not be recharged. Where applicable, saving throws should be made. After a user has exhausted its charges the wand will vanish only to reappear somewhere else.



Thursday, October 4, 2018

Wand of Wonder

Wand of Wonder (Minor Artifact)

(0 Weight, 12 Uses per owner)

A small ebony wand engraved with the star of chaos in silver:



The wand of wonder is a strange and unpredictable device that will generate any number of strange effects, randomly, each time it is used. Some typical effects are shown on the table below, but you may alter these for any or all of these wands in your campaign as you see fit.

D100 
Roll 
Effect 
01-10 
Every magical or enchanted item present glows blue for a full hour 
11-18 
Sleep as wand 
19-25 
An  illusion of a frog appears and sings “It’s not easy being green” on a tiny banjo before disappearing
26-30 
Party surrounded by soap bubbles at 30-foot range 
31-33 
Storm clouds produced heavy rain falls for one round in 60-foot radius of wand wielder 
34-36 
Loud booming laughter is heard
37-46 
Lightning bolt (70' x 5') as wand 
47-49 
Stream of 300 large butterflies pour forth and flutter around
50-53 
Magic Missile as wand 
54-58 
Darkness in a 30-foot diameter hemisphere at 30 feet center distance from wand 
59-62 
Grass grows in area of 160 square feet before the wand, or grass existing there grows to 10 times normal size 
63-65 
Vanish any nonliving object of up to 1,000 pounds mass and up to 30 cubic feet in size (object is ethereal for 24 hours) 
66-69 
A small rabbit appears and attempts to hop away
70-79 
Fireball as wand 
80-84 
Invisibility covers wand wielder 
85-87 
Target transformed (no save) into a Giant Amoeba (See below). Attacks everything nearby.
88-90 
10-40 gems of 1 gp base value shoot forth in a 30-foot-long stream, each causing one point of damage to any creature in path -- roll 5d4 for number of hits 
91-97 
Illusions of playful sprites dance and play over a 40-by 30-foot area in front of wand for the next hour
98-00
Flesh to stone (or reverse if target is stone) if target is within 60 feet 

Giant Amoeba
Solitary, Large, Amorphous
Acidic Grab (d10 damage)
12 HP
0 armor
A giant amoeba is a shapeless mass of living, liquid protoplasm. Though naturally translucent with darker interior spots, its surface is slightly sticky and tends to collect dirt and other debris from its environment; therefore, a moving giant amoeba looks like muddy water. A weaker cousin of creatures such as the gray ooze and black pudding the giant amoeba is the result of an alchemist's experiment gone horribly wrong. 
Instinct: Dissolve flesh
  • Slithers
  • Mindless
  • Relentless

The wand uses one charge per function. It may not be recharged. Where applicable, saving throws should be made. After a user has exhausted its charges the wand will vanish only to reappear somewhere else.


Great Quotes

"It was Moloch upon the mountain of the Latins, looking with his appalling face across the plain; it was Baal who trampled the vineyards with his feet of stone; it was the voice of Tanit the invisible, behind her trailing veils, whispering of the love that is more horrible than hate."

G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (referencing the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage)

In Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin there is an epigraph on a Carthaginian funerary urn that reads: "I swam, the sea was boundless, I saw no shore. / Tanit was merciless, my prayers were answered. / O you who drown in love, remember me."





By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53809379

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Gray Goblin Warrens Revised

Not much love for this conversion so far, but I think it would make a great "Caves of Chaos" dungeon crawl, perfect for newbie Dungeon World players. This revision cleans my notes up a bit and shows how I would adapt it for my group a little better I think...

Classic One-Page Dungeon by C. Brackett: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e0ha-GmZPGOch4CtxEtAdwx7ks8jX1un

My Conversion Notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I-MgLuFWfGSgeP2r3SDZgBKRxCkYu4of

Goblin Character Class: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WKYKxah9tP8l_zvThENb3cRKj7eAbzyW


Monday, October 1, 2018

The Quintessential Dungeon

Will Doyle Adventure with Tygart Dungeon World Conversion Notes edited with a third round of (minor) revisions.

Mark Tygart Conversion Notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7cav44145d9V250UE5Yd3BzelE

Will Doyle's Dungeon: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7cav44145d9M0g1OWxCZUZLYkU


Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

New Dungeon World Conversion Notes: Gray Goblin Warrens

"Something is stirring below the Hag's Tor... Something that laughs with malice in the dark and dines on human flesh in the old dragon's lair. The gray goblins have returned!"

Classic One-Page Dungeon by C. Brackett: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e0ha-GmZPGOch4CtxEtAdwx7ks8jX1un

My Conversion Notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I-MgLuFWfGSgeP2r3SDZgBKRxCkYu4of

Goblin Character Class: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WKYKxah9tP8l_zvThENb3cRKj7eAbzyW


New Monster-of-the-Week Creature

Name: Penanggalan
Type: Devourer (Desires to consume people) Powers: Body Separation, Blood Drain, Flight
Weaknesses: Fire, Decapitation
Attacks: Slam 2-harm close 2-harm area, Blood Drain 3-harm intimate restraining
Harm: 5 ☐☐☐☐☐ | 0 armor

The Penanggalan or 'Hantu Penanggal' is a creature of Southeast Asian folk mythology. "Penanggal" or "Penanggalan" literally means "detach" or "remove".

According to the folklore of that region, the Penanggalan is a detached female head capable of flying about on its own. As it flies, the stomach and entrails dangle below it, and these organs twinkle like fireflies as the Penanggalan moves through the night. In Malaysian folklore, a Penanggal may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic, supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means which are most commonly described in local folklores to be dark or demonic in nature. Due to the common theme of Penanggal being the result of active use of black magic or supernatural means, a Penanggal cannot be readily classified as a classical undead being. The creature is, for all intents and purposes, a living human being during daytime or at any time when it does not detach itself from its body. Sometimes they are depicted as able to move their intestines when exposed like tentacles.

A Penanggal is said to feed on human blood although local folklore (including its variations) commonly agrees that a Penanggal prefers the blood of a newborn infant, the blood of woman who recently gave birth or the placenta (which is devoured by the Penanggal after it is buried). All folktales also agree that a Penanggal flies as it searches and lands to feed. Once the Penanggal leaves its body and is safely away, it may be permanently destroyed by either pouring pieces of broken glass into the empty neck cavity, which will sever the internal organs of the Penanggal when it reattaches to the body; or by sanctifying the body and then destroying it by cremation or by somehow denying the Penanggal from reattaching to its body upon sunrise.


Sunday, September 23, 2018

Dungeon World Adventure:Tombs of Atuan Revised

Amazing how adding a single good prep question can really help an adventure! This is minor something that I actually made up at the table in play to start (based on a map in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea book Tombs of Atuan) but keep coming back to refine...players seem to like it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9a3U2NjFWR0ptWjg/view?usp=sharing