Pandemic Haul

2020 has been so surreal, terrifying and utterly chaotic BUT the gaming life never ends. If there is no game then there is always planning games.

Here's some of the notable ttrpg books I picked up during lockdown. Dead wood only, I downloaded so many PDFs I don't even remember what I have now. 

OSE

I bought the the Rules Tome version of Old School Essentials over the summer and it was a nightmare to actually get. This was back when Trump was trying to sabotage the election by messing with the post office and mail-in ballots. Naturally getting packages was just as disastrous as it sounds. The package went from the east coast to the west, back to the east coast and then finally to my door in LA. Truly a shit show. Thanks Trump voters.

Not sure I'm happy with the physical quality of the book. As you can see the black is already starting to fade, the bookmarks are fraying and it makes a really weird creaking sound whenever I open it. I swear I've only opened the damn thing like 10 times. I'm regretting not getting the leather one, might hold up better than this one is. Other than that OSE is damn good layout wise. The definitive b/x clone. I'll be using it when I run my vanilla fantasy campaign after the pandemic. 

Castle Xyntillan & Echoes From Fomalhault

After reading A Distant Chime's recap of Castle Xyntillan I was hooked. I immediately went out and bought it and then the shitshow happened with the post office lol. After finally getting my sausage fingers on it I fell in love. The book is the fun house dungeon IMO. It's a masterpiece, if you don't have it buy it now. I ran it over discord for my group and everyone TPK'd, twice. So good. Everything Lux writes is gold.

Fever-Dreaming Marlinko

I love the idea of City States, they just feel like old d&d. So I bought this after doing some research on OSR city adventures. Fever-dream is exactly what it's title implies, a fever dream of city flavor goodness. Everything in here is gameable and I especially like the mechanic where the city erupts into chaos based on the PC's actions. Good stuff. 

AND the LotFP stuff. WARNING if LotFP triggers you close this post now. 

Blood Anthology

The Deck Of Weird Things

Big Puppet

Fermentvm

The Octo-Blade

Ugh if only all ttrpg books could as high quality as LotFP, getting there though check out Neverland. Not gonna go into all the new releases but my favorite of them is Big Puppet. The art by Aeron Alfrey is so good. All in all if you like LotFP stuff you won't be disappointed picking these up.

And yes my Steins;Gate playmat is sweet, I know.

Vanilla Fantasy Campaign with 1d4 Toppings

Enter the campaign

During the COVID-19 Pandemic I've become obsessed with the idea of running a "vanilla" fantasy campaign. The seed was probably planted when I tried and failed to complete the Gygax 75 Challenge earlier this year. Since then I've been reading old b/x focused blogs, old game recaps from the 70s/80s and anything else I could devour. I'm pretty excited to start but I'm gonna have to wait for the pandemic to pass to bring back the ol' home game. 

Here's some stuff I want to see out of this campaign I'm brewing:

• A small homely town my players will get attached too. Then they (I) burn it down.
• A Tent-pole (mega?)Dungeon.
• A vast City-State in the background, maybe at war with another city.
• A revolving roster of different characters as seen in Darkest Dungeons.
• A OD&Desque wilderness. Low populations, vast wilderness, waring strongholds. 
• A homebrew world that comes alive through play. 

Holiday Mail Card

I got a sweet TTRPG themed holiday card from cool guy Samwise Seven.

Doge not included

So cool, thanks again Tim!

Flame Prïncess Cult Issue #1

So, if you're not in the LotFP Facebook group and you like LotFP stuff you should be. It's the most active and chill(no drama) LotFP forum right now and has a lot of cool fan stuff being churned out from it.

For example...

Blogger/Author Jeff Rients is making a FREE 3 issue (for now) Lamentations of the Flame Princess fanzine called Flame Prïncess Cult and Issue #1 is out!

If you want it all you have to do is join the group (or might not even need to join, idk FB is weird) to get a copy. Also you can submit art/writing to Jeff by following the guidelines in the post.

P.S. my Familiar Binding spell got into the zine (pg.11).   :D

The Night Alarm: the Advance!

LotFP Amiable Media

Over on the LotFP FB group author/blogger Jeff Rients made a very cool google doc listing all the blogs/youtubers/podcasts that are openly supportive of LotFP.

If you make or talk about LotPF stuff let me know or head on over to the LotFP FB and let Jeff know and we'll add you to the list!

LotFP GOOGLE DOC HERE

Art by Journeyman1029