Earlier, I posted about replacement sidekicks. These models will serve as these replacements. I will also have them for sale if anyone wants to go home with one of these little guys.
The Akhamet Campaign Setting is vast and you can create a vast number of different characters.
These models are from the Persian range from Old Glory. There are less crisp than Crocodile Games or Foundry, but they paint up nice and are cheaper.
I started a new series of post where I will be discussing thoughts about mini-settings I have in the works, partially or completely.
The series begins today with a new installment every Tuesday and Thursday through July.
Check it out! FOE Mini-Settings Series on our Patreon.
Earlier, I posted about replacement sidekicks. These models will serve as these replacements. I will also have them for sale if anyone wants to go home with one of these little guys.
These models are from Wargames Foundry, perhaps my favorite company for historical models.
More goodies for Gencon.
The dragon is a creature that will see use in at least two different adventures, playing a different role in both.
The Olympia Campaign Setting can be the home of any number of monsters and creatures you can imagine.
It is from Reaper Bones 5, I think.
Yesterday, the Game Keep held the finale part of Die Inspired's Convoy to Straith. This is the same game I have been posting about since mid-April (See this post and these updates May 8th, May 25th, andJune 25th).
I have yet to catch my breath...
Just as I thought the craziness was cranked up to eleven, the team cranked it up to FIFTEEN! I mean, without going into details, they used a few tools to help speed up the process and it worked... The pressure rose and things got worse and worse as more people died.
Again, most of the encounters were pretty simple (as I posted in a previous Old Pro Tricks on simple effective scenes) and... deadly.
Epic things leading to incredibly entertaining - but sad - deaths. As we tried to reach the find a way to leave this accursed island, things got from wild, to crazy, to insane, to COMPLETELY MAD! The breaks we took barely managed to cut the tension. I found myself holding my breath multiple times and my blood pressure shot through the roof!
As we died, everyone stayed to hear who would live, how they would live, and what would happen.
Even after sleeping over it and write about it... My pulse races and my breath quickens.
Yeah. It was that good.
I am sure I said this before, but I am not one who listens to actual play online. I just don't like them. But I will definitely tune in for this. I'm curious about how the games went for the other early groups and I will want to see those "simple effective scenes" again and how they will work those into post-production.
One of the things that was very interesting to see were the many ways people tried to survive: some use great teamwork, others focus on their own resourcefulness, other had a game plan. Everyone worked together during the event itself.
Ma' Hawkins didn't raise no stupid boy!
Edit I edited this post at the request of the Die Inspired crew.
If you don't know, at Gencon, one of the adventures will have the players take on the role of First Ones... I had a great time thinking about which characters to use. There are so many combinations possible...
I went with about it quite simply: I first went through the many races found in the new Power is Fickle. This book updates, expands, and upgrades of material what was first published in Service is Eternal.
What does that mean? New art. Tightened the writing. Tightened the rules. And made the material more multiverse-specific than "just" Tyrants of Saggakar, even a short mini-setting of a world the First Ones recently took over. It is just full of options, magic, archetypes, monsters, and the usual good stuff!
I put down the eight races and their iconic class. Boy did I dream of really interesting, unique combos. But I limited myself to one class. Then, I trimmed down the choices.
Now Power is Fickle has 8 playable First One races and four minion races. So I actually have another 6 unique races to create a second group of iconics... another time! So without further ado, here are the iconics, with their miniature.
Female First One (spiderling) bard 11 (Dark Dancer)
From a young age, you trained as an entertainer with your mother who was a Dark Dancer too. From her, you learn the secret dances of the school. Like many spiderlings, you prefer to manipulate events rather than control them directly, let others take the fall.
Much to my surprise, I made it to the final event of the first season of Die Inspired! It's seems like so long ago that I sat down to create Jim Hawkins, the halfling son of the owners of the Admiral Benbo Inn.
I am really happy that I was able to use my 3-point background to create someone who is unique, easy to slot into any campaign, and really fun to play. I had a blast playing Jim, pulling from that background all the time. "Ma' Hawkins didn't raise no stupid boy." I will be using it on ALL my characters going forward and asking the same of my players.
Also in character-building, I went with a combination I felt was a little different that the more iconic role. Jim is a lightfoot halfling bard 3 (college of lore) whose background is Guild Merchant. Not typical but something I thought fit the character, and something I was able to bring in multiple times during the game. Yes, my membership in the Guild of Culinary Delights came up quite a few times. My spell list included a few utility spells that came in handy multiple times - and that failed as many times.
As I prepare for the final event, I can only hope Jim will be able to survive to escape his current predicament.
And predicament it is.
Tomorrow is the final - and fatal - day. Wish Jim luck!
Terrain for Gencon. What are these crystals for? What are their impact upon Olympia?
I received this crystal for free as a broken piece at a convention in Nashville (I think it was Hypericon 2018).
Earlier, I posted about replacement sidekicks. These models will serve as these replacements. I will also have them for sale if anyone wants to go home with one of these little guys.
The Akhamet Campaign Setting is vast and you can create a vast number of different characters.
These models are from a mix of Old Glory and Crocodile Games.
Earlier, I posted about replacement sidekicks. These models will serve as these replacements. I will also have them for sale if anyone wants to go home with one of these little guys.
The Olympia Campaign Setting has a wealth of miniatures from historical sources that can be used and most of them appear human. So you can use many such models for your character.
These models are from Wargames Foundry, perhaps my favorite company for historical models.
More goodies for Gencon. The blue giants and the beastmen are titans.
The giants were printed by Matt - big thanks. While the beastmen and wood nymphs are from Reaper Bones. I think Bones 4 or 5...
The Olympia Campaign Setting can be the home of any number of monsters and creatures you can imagine.
It has been too long since I published a FOE book. It has been even longer since I published a book about the First Ones. When I first published Service is Eternal, I focused on getting all my content and ideas together as they flooded into my mind. After a few years, I went back to it and... well I didn't think it was as great anymore. Concepts evolved some, clarifed, and formed into slightly different things.
One major concept that really form and got a good, definable name is the Burning. The ever-devouring ambition that links all First Ones together. It is neither a hive mind nor a deity, but something that has elements of both. It unites the First Ones without making them a monolothic presence.
Well if you don't know the First Ones, they appear in some form or another in every FOE setting, from Tyrants of Saggakar to Akhamet. They are used differently in every setting, in some, they are more directly involved than others.
Today, I am publishing the new and revamped guide to the First Ones, called Power is Fickle Villainy and the First Ones. It is mostly a book about the First Ones, how to create and use them, but it was expanded to include playing and running villains with style and a reason. Therefore, Power is Fickle is not a ToS product, but a FOE product.
For those who prefer a hardcopy, it is also available on Amazon.
The art in SiE wasn't up to par and frankly looked terrible. This new book has a LOT of new art. Most of it commissioned just for it and drawn by FOE regulars The British Shark, Niall Arts, John F Ridley (inspector97), Blehc, Irene Campos, and many others.
But you want to know what the book contains:
We are the First Ones.
Lordship is our burden.
Obedience is our birthright.
Power is fickle.
Service is Eternal.
A guide to adding the First Ones to your Campaign. This book presents who they are, what they do, and how to add their threat to your campaign. They are more than just a new faction. They are a threat to the multiverse that grows from within and without.
- Details on how to include the First One in your campaign
- Details on howto run an evil campaign
- Details to help you create a campaign for evil characters
- 8 playable First One races
- 4 playable Minions races
- New class options and expanded rules
- Over 50 new feats, backgrounds, and spells
- Over 15 magic items and artifacts
- 18 sample characters to help you link the First Ones to your campaign
- Over 30 new monsters
The Burning reaches across the Multiverse. All for 5th Edition.
Terrain for Gencon. What are these crystals for? What are their impact upon Olympia?
I must thank Matt for Printing this for me. This large piece is definitely a centerpiece.
Every once in a while, a writer gets suddenly inspired by something you see in the world around you. For me, it was when I randomly clicked on a YouTube video and suddenly elements for a one-shot began to fall into place. One after the others, the dominos fell into place with scenes and elements to play.
In short, it took less than an hour to have basic character outlines, a plot, a mini-setting, and a game system to use.
Now will it be good and/or fun? I believe so but that's where I have to spend more time to complete the work. A skeleton may be good enough for me to run, but I want to flesh it out some more.
So what is the idea? It is a Cthulhu Modern adventure. I thought of using Delta Green but that brings too much baggage and would dilute the adventure. The main tenet of a good One-shot adventure stands in the simple adage: One Action, One Time, and One Location. The idea fits all of these, into one convenient whole.
I don't want to spoil anymore but I've been blasting the idea onto the page, creating the scenes, the handouts, and unique tweaks and secrets to make the characters more interesting. I'm about 75% done for the adventure, working on the finale with explosions and sanity-draining horror.
But at the same time, make this adventure something that players new to CoC can get into the action and learn something about the setting and how usually the plays. As well as deliver what people expect when playing CoC: madness and horrible death!
So why am I talking about this? Because I still have one last adventure for Gencon to write and complete. And I'm a little stuck with it. All my ideas for THAT feel flat and uninspired.
I plan to run this adventure a few times before publishing it on the Miskatonic Repository, Chaosium's equivalent of the DM's Guild. It feels so refreshing to write some non-D&D. And I wonder how many of you can make it of... Beyond the Gate.
