OK I’m thinking about doing away with the Max no of Languages column against Intelligence, and instead replacing it with a percentage called “Chance to understand other language”. Rather than the player picking from a long list of languages, with the max number being set by their Intelligence, every time they come across a language other than their mother tongue they roll against this percentage. I fell this would simplify play, make INT a bit more useful, and be in keeping with Crypts and Things setting Zarth which as an ancient dying world many millenia old has many dead or near dead languages of empires/cultures long gone to dust.

But I’m interested in your views.

So vote now!

[poll id=”2″]

Ok so the playtest for Crypts & Things finished a couple of weeks  ago.  Thanks to those who participated, I have taken your very useful feedback into consideration and it will be informing the updated and polished version that I’m working on.

Main areas I’m looking at;

Spells – I’ll be making some tweaks to spells such as Sleep and Charm Person, which playtesters felt where a bit over powered. I’m also going to be adding new spells.   C&T breaks spells into three lists; Black (Bad evil magic, spells that do damage, summon evil creatures), White (Healing spells, spells that protect you from harm and are generally)  and Grey.  It became clear to me that this is an area where I could spend a little bit more time for development for some great affect. So all three lists are getting filled out a bit more with around 20 new spells.

Magic Items – It was felt that the magic items list was a bit too damn short, so I went to my lair and came up with some more twisted and sick items to mess with your player characters. Such is the Crypt and Things way, muhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa 🙂

Sanity rules  & Damage Rules – Not so much a rewrite here, more making sure that these rules are clear and unambiguous.

New Cover – the cover I’ve been previous touting is not going to be the final cover. Instead I’ll use that for a future supplement I already have in mind. The overwhelmingly positive feedback I’ve had from people, which has been along the lines of “I WANT THIS GAME!” :),  has convinced me that sticking my hands in my pockets and getting Jon Hodgson,  awesome artist and good friend of D101 Games, to do a full cover  for C&T.  Remember this is the man who did the covers for OpenQuest and Life and Death, and he’s very excited about the art direction that I’ve given him 🙂

Until the Crypts and Things playtest ends that is. Already got some really good feedback about the game from a couple of the playtesters and once the playtest is over I’ll collate the ideas into a single doc, mull it over and tweak and amend where necessary. Overall C&T held water quite well, just a couple of areas where some clarity is needed in the text and a few spells (Sleep, Charm and Magic Missile I’m looking at you) which need tweaking.

Then its a weekend of polishing and care for C&T, then onwards for Sept/Oct release. Quite keen to get this one out the door and curious to see what people make of the final product.

Overall its been a Maximum Gaming Fun experience for all involved so far 🙂

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

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 🙂

Phew, just finished the monster chapter for Crypts & Things. 119 monsters in total, 65 new ones, which means just over half the list is new 🙂

For the interested here’s the list

Continue reading →

This is the only picture for the setting chapter of Crypts and Things, except for the map, and I knew that it had to nail the sheer bleak brutality of the setting with it.

John Ossoway has delivered in spades on this one. Its a scene on the slopes of the active volcano Mount Terror, the heart of all evil in the world of Zarth. In the foreground  a sacifice to the alien Locust Star, a  gateway to demonic otherworlds that hovers in the sky above, is being dragged to his fiery doom by the Evil priests who live in the fortified temple in the background.