Raising the Ziggurat Sale

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Over at the D101 Games web store, I’m having a big sale of my main rulesets to pay for a very special bit of kit.

This quick sale is running for five days only, Monday 14th October to Friday 18th October. It is a chance for you to pick up our games in PDF at the deeply discounted price of £5 each.

I plan to make a magnificent return to convention gaming in 2025. One of the games I’m planning to demo is an new Oldhammer RPG I’m working on. I want to use Fenris Games’ Ziggurat as the centrepiece of the starter adventure. This awesome mini will raise the spirits of Grognards everywhere. It is modelled on the original Ziggurat of Doom, which was featured in the introductory adventure for Warhammer First Edition.

Unfortunately, this is a serious bit of kit, the price of which I’ve not budgeted for. Also, I need to get it quickly and paint it in time for Grogmeet 2025 in January. Failure to fund will mean that I must deploy the massively less epic cardboard Ziggurat made out of pizza boxes.

So, to raise some quick funds, all the following are currently discounted and only £5 (about $6.50) on the D101 Store on pdf. Also, if you buy a copy now, I’ll send you a 25% off voucher for the physical book once the sale ends.

Click on the links in the following titles for more about each title and product page to buy.

Follow the Rising…

Follow me on Blue Sky, where I’ll post progress, possibly exciting flash sales, and rarities I find in the D101 stock cupboard over the next five days.

Or if you prefer D101 Games is now on Instagram.

So here’s to Happy Raising!

Last day of Lost Shores Deep Ones Kickstarter

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It’s the final day of Fenris Games‘ Kickstarter campaign to bring back their Deep One miniatures in high-quality resin featured in Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Wars board game.

It features some top Deep One miniatures, giant-sized aquatic horrors, and fantastic undersea ruins. I’ve backed it because I’ve got plans to use both the figures and the landscape in a future convention scenario 🙂

D&D 2024 Pre-Release Anticipation

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So, I’ve been largely ignoring the new version of D&D, with the exception of the 50th Anniversary Celebration stamps put out by Royal Mail featuring the art of Wayne Reynolds (a personal friend). I’m too busy being obsessive about my own games and the resurgence of Chaosium with RuneQuest (of which I’m a huge fan).

Full disclosure: this is where I stand with D&D, summed up by three takes on it.

  • My D&D: Crypts and Things – which leans heavily into Grimdark Swords and Sorcery genre-wise and uses OD&D (via Swords and Wizardry) as a clean base with some comfort of life changes to make it less creaky. Runner up Beyond Dread Portals,which brings a looser post-D&D but still class/level-based game to the table.
  • My Modern D&D: Vanilla would be 13th Age, and I recently backed the second edition. I’ve played and run this more than I can remember, and every time, it has been a smooth experience that’s made everyone around the table have a good time. Setting-specific and slightly lighter, but in the same narrative ball park, and slightly post-D&D, I’d go with Paul Mitchener’s Beyond Dread Portals game.
  • My OSR D&D. Until recently, I would have said Swords and Wizardry, but Old School Essentials intrigues me greatly and, more importantly, seems to have a greater pull to the table than S&W.

I like 5th Edition. I’ve run a few games, mainly testing/pilots, but I find it lukewarm. While the players have always had a good time, it’s not the AMAZING LET’S PLAY THIS AGAIN time that 13th Age or Beyond Dread Portals is, and I’m a bit ho-hum as a GM.

I had a go at publishing material for 5th Edtion, with the Sorcerer Under the Mountain, and had a line of modules written by others lined up, which will soon see the light of day. Still, COVID really knocked the wind out of my sails on that one. Hence the huge delay and getting the stretch goals for Tales from the Sorcerer of the Mountain Kickstarter out.

But I genuinely like D&D, despite my D100 addiction (see OpenQuest/RuneQuest), so I’ve watched with fascination as Wizards of the Coast has geared up this edition.

Dropping into bullet points, some thoughts while I wait for the book to arrive today.

  • While it was harsh in the amount of upset it caused at the time, I’m actually quite thankful for the OGL Crisis. It showed that despite Corporate owners thinking otherwise, D&D is a public phenomenon that transcends them practically and creatively. It also caused a lot of publishers, including myself, to clear up their relationship with the OGL going forward (or not, as the case may be).
  • The digitalisation of D&D? Whatever, for me, it’s a physical book and friends around a gaming table. I shall be gleefully encouraging this approach but with a group down at a local club or a home family game.
  • One D&D, D&D 6th, D&D 2024? Again, what they call it transcends what the player base calls it (see MyD&D above for my definitions). As a computer software developer it amuses me that they have dropped editions from the nameing, which makes it much easier for them to roll out changes and not have to answer the whole thorny “is this a new edition, do I really need it?” (answer from my 40+ years of experience, no).
  • If D&D 5th was their chance to “unite the tribes” of D&D, perhaps D&D 2024 as well as being their 5.5 part marketing move to make more money out of it, but also a chance to make D&D 5th more its own thing.
  • As a GM I hope to really click with the new version. For the last ten years of 5th Ed has been like some party that the world and his dog have been invited to, and I’ve been strangely absent except for a bit of popping in to see what is going on. I’ll be first to admit that its my own fantastism over D100 games, where its very easy to default to D&D being an inferior game system, and being busy exploring the OSR. Perhaps its time to take the launch of the new version as a chance to run a campaign and take a real deep dive?
  • I’m going to run it. Hopefully, it will be a laid-back, once-a-month/week game, and I can publish anything new I come up with through D101.
  • Is familiarity why I keep coming back to D&D, even when I’m being obsessively nerdy about other games? It’s my wife. When she tells work colleagues what I do with D101 Games, she simply says, “It’s D&D.”
  • I’m genuinely excited about this! (not going to think to hard why).

So Happy D&D Release Day!

Why Do People Become Sky Pirates

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A quick bit of writing before I get dragged off to a University Open Day by my daughter this morning. This is the start of the How to Be a Sky Pirate chapter of Sky Pirates of the Floating Realms.  

There are many reasons why people become sky pirates, including the following.

1.       Out of necessity. Many communities cling to small sky islands and don’t have enough land for even meagre subsistence farming. So, the more able members of these remote communities end up “fishing” in the sky lanes for food and other resources.

2.       As a result of being exiled. Large, organised sky island communities tend to be highly organised and laden with rules and laws simply to survive. The threat of being cast out and abandoned on a distant floating sky rock is something that many lawmakers use to keep their people in line. Also, many communities will have an annual casting of the stones. Where two or more candidates for exile, people who have broken local laws or are simply intolerable in the eyes of their community, receive votes in the form of a stone with their name on it. The candidate with the most must leave the island for a set period (say ten to twenty years) or for life.  

3.       They are misfits. Like being exiled, but a choice rather than something being imposed upon them. Freethinkers, revolutionaries or out-and-out oddballs choose a life aboard a pirate ship, free to explore their ideas and be themselves.

4.       Freed prisoner. Some Tyrants have Sky-Island Prisons, where those who break their laws or simply get on their wrong side end up. The prisons range from camps made up of huts or tents, where the inmates labour in the fields, to highly secure fortresses, where there is a daily schedule of lockdowns, exercise in the yard, and sessions in the workshop making crafted goods for the Tyrant’s enrichment. Fortunately, Sky Pirates often attack these institutions, driven either because they are an affront to the pirates’ sense of freedom or because they need to supplement their crew.

5.       Promises of a life-changing fortune. Some people see it as a job and that they will either accumulate enough treasure over a career or have one big haul that gives them a post-pirate life of comfort in a villa in a big cosmopolitan sky city.

6.       For the sheer high-spirited adventure of it! The life of a sky pirate offers excitement and adventure in a way that many workers in the settlements can only dream of. Many pirates are simply aboard for the lifestyle.

Originally posted on my Patreon for Fantastic Odyseys Zine. Sign up for more posts like this and members-only previews of stuff I’m working on.

The Summer of Oldhammer

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One of the biggest defining moments of my career as a British-based Tabletop Fantasy Gamer is, without a doubt, Warhammer. A constant in the monthly White Dwarf magazine, its grim but darkly humourous take on fantasy gaming, which took in a melting pot of influences (Tolkien, Moorcock, classic British Warmovies), was playing to the crowd of bloodthirsty teenagers who were already addicted to the worlds of imagination shown in early Fighting Fantasy solo game books and of course D&D.

Its been a while since I’ve done a series of linked posts, and I’ve got an ulterior motive in that this is research for a game I’m designing (big reveal later this year). Plus, it will be damn fun to look at the roots of my hobby; this is Warhammer, after all!

One big thing is that I will be looking at early editions—collectively called Oldhammer by Grognards. For reasons that I’ll make clear during my posts, I don’t have such a strong connection with modern editions of the game.

Warhammer 1st Edtion, cover by John Blanche

So here’s an overview of what I plan, which I may deviate from if I get overenthusiastic about something.

  • Warhammer and Me.A personal introductory post where I get out of my system how early editions of the Warhammer games have affected my gaming and publishing.
  • Oldhammer part 1: White Box. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st Edition. Primarily a wargame, but with elements of RPGing.
  • Oldhammer part 2: Forces of Fantasy. 1st Edition WFB army lists but packed with extendtions to the base game. The equivalent to the OD&D supplements (Greyhawk etc) that leads to…
  • Oldhammer part 3: Red Box. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2nd Edition. Now a wargame pure and simple, but still with the narrative background of an RPG.
  • Oldhammer part 4: Red Box supplements. The Tragedy of McDeath, Blood Bath at Orc’s Drift and more! The game’s Grim Dark humour reaches a high mark, a bit too much Carry on Warhammer?
  • Oldhammer part 5: Green Book. We reach the first total RPG take on the Warhammer World. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 1st Edition.
  • Olhammer Part 6: Judge Dredd the Roleplaying Game. Perhaps a surprise entry to some in this series, Games Worshops Sci-Fi RPG based around the popular 2000AD comic character.
  • Oldhammer Aftermath: Further editions of WFRP (2nd-4th), what I make of them, and the British OSR games that carry the torch.

When I was a lad, we didn’t have 500+page RPG books

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Those young uns with their 500+ pages of setting info and character options. Back in the 80s we had 100 + page rule books, with 23 pages of system, five pages of setting info scattered in high-light boxes throughout the text (WITH A TIMELINE!), ten monsters and WE MADE SHIT UP AND LOVED IT! 🤣

Find out what prompted this Grognard outburst from me by reading my mate Sacha’s reflective blog post.

Warning! Contains RuneQuest 2 from the dawn of Role Playing and mention of Stranger Things Era Geekry.

RuneQuest 2 cover

Short concise rules, setting punchy and yet invocative, oh how we loved you RQ2

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Adventure Creation System on Kickstarter

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It’s fitting that Arion Games are kickstarting an Advanced Fighting Fantasy Adventure Creation System, which is a solo-play version of their multiplayer Fighting Fantasy RPG, until the end of the month.

Here’s what they have to say about this 400-page book (!)

Although RPG’s are usually played by a group, some can also be played solo, with the player creating their own adventures using the RPG rules and an appropriate system.  So, a couple of years ago, Arion Games decided that AFF2e was a perfect canditate for this treatment and started work.  Things went quite slowly until last year, at which point the manuscript really started to move forwards, and now it is finally complete and is into the layout process.

Ah but, I hear you say, what has this got to do with me?  Fun as solo RPG’s are, I don’t play them, and only run AFF2e as a group RPG.  Why would I want this book?

Well, this is the clever bit.  The way this book has been written means that the tables, systems and tools within are just as good for creating AFF2e group adventures as they are for creating Solo Adventures.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Adventure Creation System cover

The Book of Schemes for Mythras

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The latest book of for Mythras has just dropped.

Its also available in pdf from both the Design Mechanism and DriveThruRpg.com.

Here’s what Design Mechanism has to say about it.

This book is not a fairy tale. It is not about heroes and heroines. It is certainly not about standing up to and overcoming evil. This book is about grey morality, personal interests and rivalry. This is Book of Schemes, a Mythras supplement to help you weave scheming and intrigue into your campaigns – and turn your players into Machiavellian masterminds.

Set in the city-state of Guelden, in the lands known as Wittringia, Book of Schemes is a self-contained guide to the city, its politics, people, factions, secrets, feuds, plots and duplicities. In these pages you will find everything needed for an exciting campaign using Guelden’s streets as a backdrop. Book of Schemes also covers the cults, magic, guilds and gangs of the city, and contains a multitude of scenario ideas, and a complete introductory adventure: Chaos at the Quay.

Written by Dan True, mastermind behind the Combat Training Module series, Book of Schemes is a fascinating addition to the Mythras city book range, and is easily used with, and alongside, Mythic Constantinople, Fioracitta, and the cities found in the Book of Quests.

So prepare to walk the labyrinthine cobbles of Guelden… but watch your back. Treachery is only a footfall away.

And here’s the delightfully dark cover.

The Book of Schemes for Mythras cover

 

Fantastic Odysseys on Kickstarter’s ZineQuest Now

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Until the end of the month, Fantastic Odysseys, an A4 magazine supporting OpenQuest and related D100 games, is on Kickstarter’s ZineQuest.

If you back now, within the first two days of launch, you will receive the mini-zine The Terror of Fishstop Island

Here’s the cover by Dan Barker.

Fantastic Odysseys coming to ZineQuest soon

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I’ve previously taken part in Kickstarter’s ZineQuest doing zines for Crypts and Things (From the Shroud) and a general one for D101 Games (Grogzilla), so this time its OpenQuest’s turn.

This is an A4 Zine with colour cover and black and white illustrations, which has between 32 and 64 (depending on how well the Kickstarter does) pages of gameable content—adventures, setting information, new religion, GM and Publisher advice. I’ve posted a full contents list on the supporting Patreon for the Zine (which expands what is going on in the zine, as well as having previews).