Review: Barrow Keep - Den of Spies

tl:dr; a romantic-fantasy setting and intrigue tool-box for easily creating a web of relationships within a living setting.

Barrow Keep: Den of Spies is a system-neutral Young Adult-themed "old-school RPG zine of intrigue & romance". The back cover puts it as "when you were young, you thought Barrow Keep’s great walls would keep you safe. But now, coming of age, you realize how many troubles were inside these walls all along: duplicitous courtiers, treacherous kin, puritanical heresy-hunters, glamoured spies from the woods beyond the walls, and hungry, ancient spirits of the forgotten past. How will you protect yourself? How will you protect your friends?"

screengrab of front cover, art by Minerva Fox

This 72 page zine is approaching completion following a successful kickstarter campaign by R. Rook Studio, "specialists in the documentation of weird settings and strange locales." This is to be the first in a series of romantic fantasy settings for "adventure fantasy games with an old-school spirit".

Actual Play: Kobolds Art Exhibition part III - The Rescue

Following up on the previous posts about playing through the Kobolds Art Exhibition zine. Part II found here.

Impression of 'Ward Against Self', inspired by Marguerite Frieda Harris

Once again our party - children of the rulers of the realm - return to the depths of the palace to visit the Kobolds. This time they seek to rescue a palace servant from the cursed painting "Ward Against Self" by a Pit Fiend that they have named 'the murderpainting'.

Content warning - minor body squick, ~PG-13.

Year in Review 2020

tl:dr - spun up my best campaign in years, started this blog, reviewed some rpg books, survived the plague.

Main highlight of this year in gaming was spinning up my Ducal House menagerie-world game. We had the great good fortune to hold session zero in a bar the weekend before lockdown dropped - so we shifted directly to online via Roll20 + Skype. The intended tempo was twice a month, ~5 hour sessions; goal of this was to set expectations for time and make 3 games a month as 'we got in an extra game' not 'we missed a week'. Finally on average we got in 3.4 sessions a month. Stats wise, this puts the game on the average - weekly game is still traditional.

For session times we are skewing towards the long end of the standard hump according to some sources with 5.6 hour long games on average.

Review: Pathfinder Planar Adventures

tl:dr; a good guide for bringing the planes to your table. I; Interesting sites and a focus on visitable spots puts lots of useful inspiration in your hands.

I snaffled the Pathfinder Planar Adventures book up one time I saw it in passing and having read through it now (some years hence) I do not regret my purchase.

(photo of own copy showing cover art by Wayne Reynolds)

Review: Kefitzah Haderech - Incunabulum of the Uncanny Gates and Portals

tl;dr: a neat DMs toolbox for using portals in your game, full of useful generators and pithy guidance.

Originally I found Kefitzah Haderech - Incunabulum of the Uncanny Gates and Portals on a list of 'best OSR things to get off Lulu' and decided to get it sight unseen. I think I did a quick reality check to see what ratings were but otherwise I had no idea what to expect when this turned up.

Done by Lost Pages back in 2013. The back matter puts it very well - "Not traveling but cancelling distance instead. A supplement on portals and dimensional gates for any role-playing game system."

d24: Things happening at night in the magical academy

This was another 'rapid encounter table generation' exercise. Prompt was a post on Reddit requesting random encounters inside the academy. Another good opportunity to test the Bellard tool for quickly boosting tables.

Review: 2 Worm 2 Furious

tl:rd: a squirmy art explosion of a 0-level funnel with a great tension ratchet to have the players running to forestall the Age of the Doombringer Moth

I backed the Kickstarter for 2 Worm 2 Furious and it turned up.

As described in the Kickstarter it is a "deadly funnel that revolves around an ever mutating and evolving moth grub. You’ll want 4-6 players, 15-20 level 0 characters, as it’s a funnel, but it works for levels 1+" - but what turns up is an art explosion. The design and production are gorgeous with lots of strange and interesting art.