Beyond the Pit

Like Monster Manuals?

Want the sequel to the seminal Out of the Pit?

Want another 250 Fighting Fantasy beasties straight out of the pages of the classic FF books?

250 original images from the likes of Russ Nicholson, John Blanche, Martin McKenna, John Sibbick, David Gallagher and Terry Oakes?

Then this my friend is your Kickstarter, already funded so completely no-risk.

Also Graham’s a good lad who ships quality product on time, with good communication along the way. I know this from the Blacksand KS earlier this year (which I must review at some point).
Beyond the Pit cover

The Pheraen Otherworld

From the upcoming Here Be Dragons for OpenQuest by Simon Bray and Paul Mitchener, here is the setting’s Other World overview.

To the faithful of Pherae the gods exist both in their own world and in the mundane world at once. When gods manifest in the world of men they appear as thunderous voices, burning figures in the night, strange omens, maddening visions and creeping shadows. It is not unknown for gods to seek the companionship or even love of certain special mortals, the nymphs and demons of Pherae attest to these unions. The gods once relished in meddling in the affairs of mortals, but their powers are chained and weakened by humanity’s loss of faith.

Each god controls their own realms, Tyria rules her sky realm from a blinding golden palace, Gorga broods on her writhing throne in the underworld and Arton hunts the Wild Things in a forest beyond the edge of the world. Mortals can visit these places, either through invitation by the gods or through their own magic. These realms are dangerous and present challenges beyond the scope of all but the greatest heroes. There are sacred places, ancient temples, hidden caves and blessed grottos where the divide between the divine and mortal are thin. Sometimes people go in and are never seen again,but worse, sometimes things come out.

Many do not know that beyond the realm of myth and legend, beyond the gods and dragons themselves is a cold dark, lonely place, where hateful things watch the world with envy. Some know that these are the forgotten gods of the Ancients, waiting to return. Some call these things demons, they summon them for power, and these things are beyond the pale, monsters more fearful than the spawn of Hallucious and Gorga. These are the beings that Khata tried to train to dance to his merry tune, they are monstrous things which overthrew his Empire and devoured his very soul.

Aiming for a Dec/Jan release of Here Be Dragons, which I’m currently polishing up in layout 🙂

Fiendish Friday: The village of Shek

A small dirt poor village for your Crypts and Things game, from the upcoming adventure module UK-S2 The Dark Path.

Shek

Shek is a small agricultural village, whose residents cling to the Old Religion of Earth worship. They are used to the intervention of the spirit world in their daily lives, and dotted  around the village are small little offering  shrines to local spirits,such as the Wee Man, The Lady of the Trees, Oddkin the Bodkin and Wee Lass (no relation to Wee Man). These spirits provide protection from the extremes of the weather and ensures the health and vitality of the villagers, their livestock (mainly goats) and their crops. Priests who try to convert the villagers to their religion usually get tarred and feathered, and Sorcerers s are  treated as if they are the most evil people on the planet.

Shek comprises of around 15 log cabins with thatched roofs, a big communal barn for livestock sits on the edge of the village, and big circular hall in the centre acts as a communal meeting place. For entertainment Shek folk drink Bog Beer (a dark almost black ale), take hallucinogenic mushrooms found locally in the Woods of Delirium   and start random, but harmless fist fights (aka. “Good friendly violent fun”).

Bundle of Holding Old School Revivial – what would a UK version look like?

With the recent Bundle of Holding – “Old School Revival” Pdf bundle just gone, and what a fine thing it was, my mind could not help but think what would a UK version look like.

Remember this is pure fantasy on my part, and uses the idea that the UK OSR encompasses more than D&D.

The main bundle:

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Quick Start  – Complete no-brainer this one.

Dragon Warriors, this is us brits taking the basic D&D idea, putting it through a folklore looking glass and coming up with something quite special and unique.

OpenQuest Basics – ok so I’ve not pulled this together yet, the link goes to OQ Deluxe (why don’t you check it out 😉 ) but a free low page count intro to D100 system you can’t go wrong.

A UK Old School primer – a selection of Coopdevil’s Fighting Fantasist articles about what the UK OSR is about 🙂

Oubliette Magazine issue #1 – because us Brits also do Fanzines too 😉

Crypts and Things – Blood of the Dragon A Swords and Sorcery sandbox!

Small but Viscous Dog – A B/X Warhammer hack by Chris Hogan.

As add ons:

Woodland Warriors – Simon Washbourne’s ( author of Barbarians of Lemuria) excellent child-friendly striped down d6 using version of Swords & Wizardry with Mice.

BRP Rome – OK published quite fittingly by an Italian company, but written by a Brit (Pete Nash) and would fit nicely alongside some of the historical setting pieces written in White Dwarf & Imagine magazine back in the day.

RuneQuest 6 – Its heritage may be Californian, but this implementation is pure Brit Old School ( remember us Brits owned RQ via Rune Rites in 80’s White Dwarf 😉 )

Anything I’ve missed out?