Notes from the Abyss, the appendices of Crypts & Things

This train of thought started with me thinking about the infamous Appendix N (the section of the 1st Ed Dungeon Masters Guide which listed all the books that had influenced the development of D&D).  Of course everyone knows that Appendix N stands for Appendix Newt, but they are just too scared to admit it 😛 But seriously folks there will be an Appendix N in Crypts & Things, since I think its important (and fun) to show the game’s influences. Initially I thought that I’d put it in the Crypt Keeper’s chapter (notes from the Abyss), then I thought that it would be more fun (and Old Skool) to actually have an Appendix N, in a series of Appendixes at the back. Then the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Both AD&D 1st ed and my beloved RuneQuest 2 have copious  Appendix sections, where a number of misclanous topics are address as well as giving very brief and to the point GM guideance notes.

So this is the road I’ll be going down with Crypts and Things. As well as my version of Appendix N, there will be appendixes that detail Crypt Creation, the Weirdlands, a City Events table,  a random stuff table (which includes tricks and traps) as well as some other topics, see the list below.

Crypts and Things Appendixes
A. The lifecycle of a character
B.  Blasphemous Locations
C.  Crypt Design
D. Random objects
E. Who is thine Enemy?
F. City Events
G. Araskia’s alternative experience system
H. Horror
I.  Into the Weird Lands
J.  Descriptive phrases
K. Killing Time
L. Love and Loss
N. Bibliography

River of Heaven playtesters needed

Ok not the usual Fantasy Swords and Sorcery fare we dish up here, but OpenQuest related in that is OQ Sci-fi

John Ossoway is nearing completion of River of Heaven, and we need playtesters to give it a good run though.

It is the dawn of the 28th Century.
The Third Renaissance, or Bright Age as future historians will call it, is at its zenith.
After the catastrophic first contact with extra-terrestrial life that led to the horrific Solar System war, humanity clawed its way back from the brink and finally reached the stars. For millions of people, Earth’s sun is no more than another star in the night sky, a mote of light, a spiritual birthplace that they will never visit in their lifetimes.

It has been over a century since the Machine Civilisation gifted humanity technological marvels such as the Visser Cube, allowing wormhole travel across the vast chasms of interstellar space. Now interstellar distances grow ever shorter. How the myriad of splintered cultures view this gift varies. Some see it as a blessing, a way to draw humanity into a united whole. Others see it as a curse, robbing them of their individuality. And then there are those who would use it as a means to subjugate humanity and impose their own will upon all…

Across the river of heaven, humanity clings to a scattering of islands in a sea of stars. Players can take on a multitude of roles in this future: a crew member on an interstellar trader, a member of the mysterious Engineers’ Guild, a body-hopping Intercessionist agent – out to manipulate human cultures to its own secret ends, a Renouncer Zealot – intent on destroying Artificial Intelligence in all its forms, or perhaps one of the Reclaimers – planetary engineers dedicated to terraforming any viable planet they happen upon…

River of Heaven uses D101 games’ OpenQuest rules engine; a sleek and streamlined D100 rule set that enables you to maintain the tempo of your stories whilst keeping the rules simple and in the background.

If you want to be on the playtest email me at newt@d101games.com asap 🙂

Crypts and Things has gone to playtest!

This morning I sent out the current draft of Crypts and Things to those people who answered the initial call for playtesters.

There should now ensue a a month or so of playtesting, during which time I’ll sort out finalising the text and layout in parallel.   Hoping for an August release 🙂