Other Games to Play: 7th Sea Second Edition

So you are cancelling you Dullards & Dumpsterfires subscription and are wondering what to play next. If you in the mood for an entire change of pace I recommend 7th Sea Second Edition from John Wick/Chaosium (https://www.chaosium.com/7th-sea/) Imagine a RPG where your characters are special, heroes, the center of attention. Are you tired of writing pages of backstory and getting in touch with your PC’s mind and soul only to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and roll a 1. We all love our DM/GM/Judge for running games but who hasn’t missed a plot important roll …

D&D Begone, my take on things

There’s a lot of churn and chop in the TTRPG industry thanks to Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro trying to change the foundation of the Open Game License. There’s a lot of coverage on lots of web sites about this. If you need more background, check out the Youtuber DndShorts at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4kGMsZSdbY My opinion: The game Dungeons and Dragons has been in a toilet spiral since the fourth edition and WotC is still trying to migrate the TTRPG game to a video-game style of play. 5e was an attempt to stifle Paizo and other companies who were trying to fill the …

Autumn updates

Some updates for Gamemeisters’ fans…. There’s a new Explorer’s Society module in the works based on a Lefanu story (no not Carmilla) that is entering play testing soon. It will be a true 7th Sea single shot with only four main sequences/scenes and set a of pre-generated heroes. My hope is that people see it as an easy on-ramp for the BEST TTRPG game. Keep an eye on DriveThruRPG. The underdark wandering Von’Gleas is at it again and musing poetic about our favorite dark elves. Look for another installment of our crafty wizard’s travel journal as he moves in dangerous …

Von’gleas’ observations: Drow middle class

The astute observer will notice that most surface folk only interact with the top or bottom of the drow social orders. You are either the enemy of a matron mother and find out that unfortunate fact when you lay bleeding to death at her feet after a string of misfortunes that have left you depressed and destitute. –or– You fall prey to the lower class dark elf where you are left in a filthy alleyway dying and penniless not really sure how you arrived in such a sorry state of affairs. In either case goodly races see the same results …

Pieces of Soul

A kidnapping and a chase brings the heroes to the dark and mystical mountains of Eisen where they must confront an ancient horror. Can they rescue the victim? Can they stop the evil plot of a creature who’s lived for centuries? You and your 7th Sea second edition group can find out. This is the last installment of the Tale of Art, Love, and Fear story arc now available for purchase at www.drivethrurpg.com

Cover of the 1981 module X2: Castle Amber

Running X2: Castle Amber again after 40 years

It’s been almost 40 years since I first brought a group of friends into The Castle Amber. Last night the grey mists swept in and the party awoke in an elegant foyer. Their hirelings and pack animals are waiting outside in the thin band of grass between the walls of the chateaux and lethal fog. Rather than running this as a B/X we are using DCC for the mechanics and that has been a complete blast. The off the wall encounters and strangeness of the Amber family makes this such a fun adventure. Why not break the boredom of centuries …

Missed GenCon this year

So normally this is where I’d post my GenCon haul and talk about the ones that got away or the ones that other people stood in line for and didn’t tickle my fancy. Alas with the shift in schedule I was not able to make it to GenCon. I didn’t even make it to Indy. Last year I took a trip to Sun King Brewery in downtown Indy because I was so bummed out that the con was cancelled. I did poke into the web site and the discord a few times during the convention but it’s not the same. …

The Faux Marquess

The second adventure in my A Tale of Art, Love, and Fear is now available for purchase on drivethrurpg.com here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/354526/The-Faux-Marquess This second 5-7 step story for 7th Sea second edition is a follow on adventure from The Painter and the Pirate, also for sale at drivethrurpg.com. The heroes attempt to find a woman that everyone thought had perished in a storm at sea. She’s very much alive, looks like a missing marquess, and has amnesia. This second adventure offers more chances for fighting and chasing as the heroes work with or against one or both villains to help the …

DM Interludes

I started going through old character backstories and bits of prose that I have drafted through the years and decided that it would be a neat exercise to make a sort of radio drama. I’ve recorded one and decided that maybe it would be a neat thing for DMs to play between scenes or if they need some sort of break in an online game (for the bathroom, or to refill a drink, etc) so I have recorded The Roadside Knight it is a story told by a cavalier at his camp near the road he travels protecting the small …