#the forgotten empire larp

[collecosplay]

All Hallow's Eve LARP by L'Chaim Games - Meiserich (my ghost OC, yes he was shot in the face)

aka "Ghost Ball! Ghost Ball!", London, 02.12.23

Photos by Astora Photography on FB

My jester took so long to make because I took inspiration from Diana Wynne Jones' 'Howl's Moving Castle' where Sophie cuts up Howl's suit into triangles and then sews it back together, so Meiserich's outer layer is all triangles.

I wanted to make Meiserich out of scraps from previous projects, so virtually all of the cost of the outfit is the time that went into it. I worked on him for six months in virtually any free minute I could find the energy for. But it was worth it.

It's not 100% historically accurate, but this outfit was designed to double as a cosplay for the Fool from Robin Hobb's 'Assassin's Apprentice' and the rest of the Farseer Trilogy. (I still have to read the other books! No spoilers please though I have seen some sneak peeks thanks to fanart <3)

More about Meiserich as a character under the cut!

Meiserich (anglicised pronunciation: My-Zer-Rick) is a colloquial German name for galium odoratum, sweet woodruff. It's a flavour you can get commonly in German desserts and schnapps (Waldmeister), but I've never come across the flavour in the UK.

Meiserich is a jester from the early 1400's and lived in a part of the Holy Roman Empire that is now Germany, namely within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster. At the court of Droste zur Aa Meiserich had a close relationship with Lady Klara of the keep. In 1412 this court took part in a knights' jousting tournament in Buda where the future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund was also in attendance. Whilst there, through social occasions, Lady Klara found out and obtained evidence that Sigismund was the one who poisoned the previous King of Germany, Jobst of Moravia. She confided in Meiserich what had happened.

It comes to light that Lady Klara knows too much, so Sigismund sends soldiers to Münster to besiege the keep. Meiserich encourages his Lady to run and hide with the evidence of the poisoning. As a jester it was also Meiserich's job to act as a messenger and diplomat at times. However, the siege negotiations failed, he was shot dead with an early arquebus design and the castle was fired upon with trebuchets. Lady Klara initially survived in the rubble in an airpocket but ultimately suffocated.

Meiserich usually haunts the ruins of the castle keep he used to live in. It is now a tourist destination and he likes to tease the tourists. He also eavesdrops and through them and the keep staff learns of other things going on in the world. He has not forgotten about Lady Klara and wants to reveal the truth she uncovered to the world.

Please note: The poisoning plot is fictional, Sigismund doing this is something I made up based on some Wikipedia reading I did.

His wish to have fulfilled at the LARP was to have the keep in Münster renovated and restored, revealing the buried corpse of Lady Klara. In her hand are a vial of poison and a letter proving Sigismund was the one who poisoned the previous king of Germany, Jobst of Moravia. It will be a joy for the historians and great to hear the tour guides at the keep bring this up in perpetuity.

And he got his wish fulfilled at the game! I'm so happy. Monsieur Roc Flamboyant (a French noble, 1600's) was touched enough by Meiserich's story and devotion to Lady Klara that he made the wish for Meiserich. I could not have asked for a better end to this game.

Shout out to the podcasts that helped me put together Meiserich as a character:

Gone Medieval by History Hit

We're Not So Different - esp. episode "Medieval Fail Sons: Wenceslas IV & Sigismund"

Weird Medieval Guys - esp. episode "Sieging for Dummies"

The Court Jester by Kleio Pethainou

I'm glad I picked the early 1400's for Meiserich's death, this is still before the Western printing press, Columbus sailing off to the detriment of many, the fall of Constantinople, and the big witch hunting craze, so he died in a bygone world on the cusp of the Early Modern Period.

If I could give him one power like in BBC Ghosts, I'd say that the two bells on his hat are audible to the living.

[khaosophist]

I should befriend that mindflayer...He came to me with respect,and in my abysmal self-confidence, told him I was no scholar. While I had access to the archives before the guild priest. It was wonderful to finally feel like I was a step ahead. I still remember all the promises that priest made to me, and broke...The look on his face when he saw me there transcribing...

I was obsessed with dark elves. So I copied down the map of Nasgaroth, the region they come from. I listed each province. I was all proud I had gotten that knowledge in person. But then, I go to this section that's like a daycare for the LARP, and, carved in wood, is a map of Nasgaroth, the names of provinces written in pencil, worn out by time. The Black River, now seems a black sea. The map I copied was an Imperial Map. The one I saw here, was something else, hidden behind the mundane. Suddenly, everything I worked for was put into doubt. In that doubt I weaved the Idea of Ancient Nasgaroth. Once a great center of the planes in the times before stars were born, where the only light came from the souls of those that took their place in the darkness, and the chaos they weaved. I painted, the process itself like a history unfolding before me, as I saw Auroreal titans create the world through the colours of their souls. They calcified, and through aeons became weeping statues, black ichor falling, and falling, until the world was drowned. With time the Ichor recessed, and corpses became the continent. The chaos roared around the world, and radiated into the flesh of fossilized titans. Life arose. Chaos elves. The city of Zaetch eventually arose, and the Gate crackled to life, and the darkness was now enlightened by the light of chaos. Myriads of species, Star dwellers too, came to trade, and share knowledge. Darkness, blood, and chaos danced to the tune of oblivion. Until the proto-humans gave birth to the sun God. A hateful light for anything inhuman. A tyrannical order. But many prefer order over their own will.

Natives of ancient Nasgaroth survived by fleeing to the onyx mountains of Aman. In the darkness, robbed of Chaos, eradicated by the hegemony of humanity, Chaos began to be forgotten, reduced to disorder, rebellion, foolishness, and narcissism. In ruminations bereft of the primordial soul, chaos elves became dark elves. The corpses drifted. The black sea, becoming a black River. Zaetch almost Forgotten. But, I remember. Chaos has consumed us, and changed us, and revealed this to me through coincidence. But I suspect I'm Barmy.

Speaking of, I had looked for the queen of Nasgaroth, ironically finding that the orphans knew where she dwelt.

I want to thank the orphans for letting me bring them dry wood. I want to thank them for their hospitality even if I'm anything but straightforward. I want to thank them for accepting the motto of the moment we coined: "No Gods, No masters, nor parents!" In french it sounded better "Ni Dieu Ni Maitre, Ni parents!"

I'm also an orphan, something they made me realise. I still have the braid I made.

I hope Sinestra found a story that was more than what the empire made her believe was possible. What are the odds an abomination like me meets the imperial treasurer?

I want to thank Talios for sharing his beliefs about me. The first, that the art exhibits would not have happened if I hadn't posted my art throughout Bicolline a few years prior. Second, one that I don't believe in, is that I am famous in my own way.

I want to thank Carcajou, and the other guy that was with him, for believing in my name, and accepting my gift of a painting.

I want to thank the children for believing in me.

I want to thank coincidence for those full leather "merlin boots" that go up to my calfs. Because I bought them at Merlin's plumoir at $10 dollars, after I saw basic moccasins for $250, of which the maker responded to me after I told them it was over budget: "What did you expect? It's real leather! " Well fucking sorry for being poor, fuck. It was heartbreaking.

I want to thank the people that saw me carry my tower shield full of dry wood for the orphans and helped me.

I want to thank those two weird dudes that came to see me as I was taking wood for the guild fire and asked for something. I only remember a bit, the first question I answered that I served no god, and after they offered money, I told them money was meaningless to me. Man, what WAS that about?

Thank you for the friendship that pizza maker showed me.

I hope someone missed me.

I am Khaonon Chaosheart. Sometimes I feel chosen by chaos, sometimes I don't. But that's how it goes.

Azerath Metrion Zynthos? Lol.

All stars are chaos. (Except the sun God, he's a douche) Also, this is Bag, my goblin homey.

[dmsden]

The World Your Oyster - Adapting/modifying an existing campaign

Hullo, Gentle Readers. It's time, once again, for a Question from a Denizen. This week, our question comes from the colorfully named Blue-tomatoes. They ask, "I'm going to be running a game for a few of my friends, but I've never DMed before and none of them have ever played before. I don't think I'm *quite* ready to write my own campaign from scratch but I also don't really want to use any of the pre-made ones. Do you know of any campaign I could maybe modify to make it more my own? Also litterally any advice for a blind person leading the blind would be stellar. Thanks!"

Well, Blue, good news for you if you don't have time to create a campaign setting - no one expects you to. When I talk with GMs, most of them have no intention or interest in creating a setting of their own. They're happy to use elements of existing settings, or even to just leave the background of the world vague enough that they don't really need to do anything until the PCs ask questions.

Your question poses a very specific paradox, because you neither wish to make your own nor to use an existing one. I think you're perfectly fine to essentially not dwell on the setting. Odds are, if you tell your players that, in your campaign, the characters they play will be from a small town and will have little to no idea of what the rest of the world is like, then they'll be fine.

If you look back at 4th edition, there was a kind of "default setting" that usually gets referred to as the Nentir Vale. Initially, there was little to know information about what this setting was like. We knew what gods people worshipped, and we got hints of a bit of setting. There was a fallen empire called Nerath, and a tiefling nation called Bael Turath. Dragonborn were from a lost kingdom called Arkhosia. Other little plot threads were subtly dangled, but there was no vast map of the lands or anything like that. In other words, there was just enough story to make things interesting and to hint at a bigger world beyond.

As I've mentioned in some of my Worldbuilding articles, there are two major theories of creating a campaign - start big or start small. You could very easily start small - just come up with a map of the lands around where you want the campaign to start, including any other towns, any dungeons, and any other features you want to take note of, such as landmarks, monster territories, and so on.

Once you have this, all you really need is an adventure for the PCs to go on. You might want to have a mission someone sends them on, or you might want to open the map up as a sandbox and let them explore and encounter whatever they encounter. Both approaches are completely valid.

If you don't want to develop your own adventure, there are already lots of great ones out there, and, with the possible exception of Curse of Strahd, any of them are easily adapted to a more neutral setting. Nothing binds Ghosts of Saltmarsh to Greyhawk, for example, and, while adventures like Tyranny of Dragons, Princes of the Apocalypse, Tomb of Annihilation, and the like are set in the Forgotten Realms, it's not hard to unmoor them and place them elsewhere by changing some place names, some characters, and some gods.

Bear in mind, also, that you don't have to do this alone. You could sit down with your players and work together to create a campaign setting. It might be fun to create a campaign where everyone contributes to the different races, kingdoms, religions, and more. To create a history together, you might pull out the fantastic game called Microscope and use its rules to build your timeline.

If you don't want to give the players that much agency, put together your bare bones, and then let the players help you develop the parts of the campaign setting that they're interested in. If one of them is playing a cleric, get them to come up with some details of what their deity and/or religion is like. If one is playing an elf, ask about what it's like where their character lives. In the LARP I help run, the Isles, players have been responsible for developing kingdoms, religions, races, and even whole worlds, and it makes them more invested in the whole story.

I hope this helps, Blue. Let us know how your campaign comes together.

[apocynoideae]

The Force shall free me (Theovan, Old Republic LARP)

The new crash brought an influx of Force users and abundance of corpses in the Boneyard for them to mourn quite stoically. Van bounced around the grey Force users like a hyperactive puppy. She was eager for knowledge, standing on a shaky foundation cobbled together from selective teaching, hearsay, and intuition that never fostered discipline or independence. She had lived under strong leadership since she was 7. She clung to recently found aspirations of neutrality. Her eagerness had pulled at the end of a leash, and she was unsure of what to do with no one holding it. Someone could have grabbed her collar if they wanted a dog. No one did.

Within a week, Van slipped the collar like a cat. The sulking, moping, and hissy fits she'd thrown when she first arrived gave way to excitement at having choices. Patrolling, scavenging, defending repairs -- working to eat wasn't a matter of taking constant orders. There were expectations and limitations, but no personal guidance. She threw herself into a fight against droids because it needed to get done, and threw Force lighting because she didn't want to die. She spent time in the Sith shrine considering how to use power to gain freedom rather than just survival, and what that even meant. She fought the worry that it was too late to learn how to fit in without falling in. Where she lacked a plan, she had reactive determination.

She was told Iteration was a terrible place and it wasn't possible to have been somewhere worse. But under control had been, in very recent hindsight, somewhere worse. She did not want to go back.

Iteration, Derriphan (May 2018)

[thecorteztwins]

MUTANT EMPIRE: SIEGE

I thought I had misplaced this book while cleaning, but I remembered today I had taken it to a LARP to read during downtime and then forgotten it was still in the bag. Chapter Five was more of the outer space plot, and Chapter Six...is still not back to Magneto's Manhattan, so I won't tag the magnets this time, but it does focus on Charles, so I will tag @captaindicks and @hexiva because we find out Charles’s preferences in women, who he’s okay with pushing his chairs, and the one person to ever guess Professor Xavier has anything to do with the X-Men.

Basically, Charles is getting ready to address the media. When he does so, he says that the President's current cautious course of action is correct and that the mass attack by the military suggested by Senator Kelly and Graydon Creed would, due to the Sentinels that Magneto has under his control, cause nothing but property damage and likely civilian casualties. While he agrees force is not unwarranted, this particular method would be useless. I think that's a good thing to note about Charles---he doesn't demand every situation be always handled peacefully, he obviously does see force as an option, and an option he frequently uses/condones. He just believes in looking at other options first, and also judging what SORT of force is needed for the right outcome. Hence why the X-Men have currently gone into Manhattan to handle this (the ones who aren't in space, anyway) I'm not sure if the public is aware of that, I've been kinda skimming for the parts that interest me. Also, reminder that this is the 90s, so as far as everyone knows, Professor Xavier is a human expert on mutants/mutant rights proponent, but he is a HUMAN and has NOTHING to do with the X-Men. He is then asked about the killing of humans by Acolytes “in cold blood” caught on tape and “the abduction of local reporter Trish Tilby and her cameraman” If you'll recall from my last post, Trish and her cameraman have not in fact been abducted, but chosen to stay in Manhattan of their own volition. It's understandable that people on the outside would assume a kidnapping though. Also, while the Acolytes did kill two humans last chapter, I would not say it was done in cold blood. A human mob was swarming them, and two attempted to kill them. Specifically, a man fired a gun at the teleporter Amelia Voght, who by reflex teleported the bullets away from herself and into him. Then a woman came at her with a knife, and Amelia teleported her high in the air, where she died from falling. The latter was deliberate, and definitely uneccessary, Amelia could have chosen another way to defend herself, such as teleporting the knife away, and the text specifies she's choosing to use this as a show of force to scare the others into submission. So I definitely would call it murder, unlike with the man, where it was automatic self-defense. But I can't see it as truly cold-blooded when the woman was still coming at her with the intent to kill or at the least cause bodily harm (albeit with good reasons of her own---as she herself said, this is “our city” and the Acolytes are the invaders taking over with the intent to make humans second-class citizens---in another story, this young woman would be the hero) But, I can see the cameras capturing a very different scene, especially since Amelia tried very deliberately to look remorseless and terrifying, since, again, it was an execution meant to discourage further attacks. Xavier condemns the actions of the Acolytes, but then defends Magneto, saying that though he may be a fanatic and terrorist, he is not a cold-blooded murderer and would never have committed such acts himself. I'm inclined to disagree, I think he damn well would kill humans threatening him with the same, but then, if the tapes don't show the aggression by the civilians, if they show Acolytes just picking two random humans for slaughter, then, yes, I agree, he's never been that type and the Acolytes have (as I mentioned in a previous post) However, Xavier doesn't let Mags off the hook either—he notes that Magneto is responsible for the actions of those under him and that “he had foreknowledge of the Acolytes penchant for death when he became their leader” which is indeed true. I would just like to note at this time that these are the SECOND gen Acolytes that Xavier is speaking of here; I play the first gen who, while terrorists, were shown to be more noble and scrupulous in their brief time alive than the largely bloodthirsty second-gens. Just so we're clear, folks. Don't want any confusion. He is then asked if it's true that he's working with the X-Men, a theory raised in this book by the anti-mutant government liason Gyrich, aka the one damn person to put two and two together on this as far as I can tell. Xavier totally deflects by saying he does know some of them such as Henry “the Beast” McCoy (whose identity is public) and then saying that things can be “misconstrued” and jumping into how the IMPORTANT thing is that the American people know that they are safe and turns that into a little speech. Lololol Charles. He also feels “strangely attracted” in an “odd sort of way” to the lady interviewing, thinking that “she still cares” unlike many of her jaded peers in the media business. The text says “But then, he had long since established a history of being attracted to beautiful, odd women. Moira MacTaggert. Gabrielle Haller, Amelia Voght, Lilandra...” and also that “He loved no other above Lilandra” but the X-Men needed him and that was why he returned to Earth after having lived for a time on the Shi'ar throneworld with her as her Imperial Consort. Basically, he was her Sexy Alien Babe and I love that. I also love his type is apparently not just “hot” but also “powerful and kinda weird in some way” Charles also wonders if his ability to walk is the price he paid for his dream, because...his spine was repaired in space by Lilandra's people, but when he came back to Earth, it got fucked up again by the Shadow King and he wound up back in the chair again. No, Charles, that's just the writers boomeranging. We also learn he generally prefers for his chair NOT to be pushed, and that when help is offered by anyone who isn't the X-men or someone he's close to, he generally declines. He also thinks how “the problem with Gyrich”, who I wrote this post on here, “wasn't evil or even “bad” and that “Gyrich was not a villain, but he was an extremely dangerous man all the same” which about sums it up really. You don't need to be “evil” to be dangerous. In a book which strongly features Magneto, I think that’s a pretty good theme to bring up (and I like that it gets to apply to people other than Mags too--I think remembering that bigots are human is a really important thing, because when you start thinking of them as just evil, you stop being able to imagine you or those you know could have bigoted ideas, because you’re not evil, y’know?)

[larphacks]

PROCESS HACK: Seven Tips for Starting Your Own Game

So, I have a lot of asks sitting in my inbox about how to start / run / write a LARP game. I’m going to give it my best shot, but I’m equally aware that there are many wiser than me out there who likely have their own opinions, and I look forward to learning and reblogging from people who want to add to or disagree with anything I’ve said here. The post is a bit of a monster, so buckle in!

1. DECLARE YOUR INTENT

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your policies on diversity & inclusion / equality and accessibility should be the first thing you think about and the first thing you publish when you start making material public, not an afterthought. 

Photo from the first event of Pioneers, by @tomgarnett​

Now Read On....

It isn’t good enough to write some airy-fairy “~~everyone is welcome at our LARP~~ ^_^” rubbish either. You’ve got to get real with this stuff. This is a statement of principles that your entire game needs to live up to. You have to start considering now: 

What the practical limitations facing you are, and 

What sort of game you want to run vs. what sort of game you can run. 

Is your intent to run a game where everyone has equal access to all IC spaces? Then you can’t put any of those IC spaces in areas only accessible by stairs. Is your intent to run a game where people of all genders feel welcome and included? Then you’d better be prepared to back it up in your setting material by including specific representation of multiple genders in different roles, otherwise your intention means squat. Is your intent to run a game where everyone can participate in combat? Then you need to have a serious chat with yourself about hard vs soft skills.

The statement of principles that you start with will influence every aspect of your game, from setting, to system, to what sites you can and can’t use. It isn’t set in stone - there’s nothing wrong with coming back and revising it later, adding elements you’ve forgotten or clarifying how it relates to your game; indeed I heartily encourage it! But you need to understand now what sort of game you intend to run, and for what sort of people.

Unpopular opinion time: It is not inherently evil to run a game which is not equally accessible to all possible players. LARP is a physical hobby, some variants more than others - it is not wrong to run a game where it’s easier to play a fighter if you have 20/20 vision and the use of both legs; it is not wrong to run a game where it’s easier to play a mage if you are highly numerate and can speak fluently in public. It’s not even wrong to run a game at a site that’s impossible to access by wheelchair, especially if that’s the only site available to you. 

What is wrong is not clearly signposting those restrictions up front in your publicly accessible game material, and making whatever reasonable adjustments you can to compensate. It is worse to be welcoming and “talk the talk” in your advertising material, then fail to follow through on the field, than to state simply and clearly what access restrictions your game comes with - your players need as much information as possible to decide for themselves whether the game is right for them.

If you want some examples of what an “OC policies” or E&D / accessibility statement might look like, try these:

Death unto Darkness OOC policies

Profound Decisions Accessibility Policy

Profound Decisions Equality & Diversity Policy

Tales out of Anchor Event Rules

Photo from the first event of Falling Down, by @tomgarnett​

2. WRITE FOR THE SITE

Now that you understand what inclusion and accessibility requirements you need to meet, you can pick a site! 

If you’re a university or small-town LARP, this decision may be from a very small pool indeed; you may even find after looking at your options that you need to go back to your accessibility statement and revise it or manage expectations. That’s fine - you can only work with the resources you have; just make sure that you’re doing site recce & viewings with accessibility in mind.

If you are mobility impaired or have a friend who is, they may be willing to help you out by conducting an accessibility survey of your potential site. Don’t assume they’re obligated to help you, but there’s nothing wrong with asking politely.

It is important that you match the game to the site, not the other way around. My LARP career is littered with examples of start-up games which had a fantastic concept of the world they wanted to run in, and which implemented shockingly badly in play because the site they eventually found didn’t match up with their requirements. 

What do you have? A lot of single-use mixed-terrain woodland? Then small-party linear adventures can be an excellent feature of your game! A big open empty field with nothing in it? Have some linefights, or a big friendly diplomacy-heavy IC camp! An abandoned glue factory but no outdoor terrain? Claustrophobic space-prison survival horror it is! 

At all costs, avoid marrying yourself to any particular gameplay style or type before you know what site you’re working with.

Photo from the first event of Regenesis, by @tomgarnett​

3. GAMEPLAY BEFORE NUMBERS

Start thinking about designing the mechanics and working parts of your game the same way the military plans operations: Begin with the effect you want to achieve on the players and then think about the tools you can use to get there, not the other way around.  A lot of people who write and run LARP games are mathematically clever and get excited about creating intricate, clever systems like D&D; that’s fine, if that’s the sort of game you want to run, but you need to be focused on what the players get out of it and how it works in play as the first priority, not as an interesting side effect.

Your “system” - the crunchy numbers bit, the magic, the calls, the death counts, the bean bags, the Nerf guns, whatever it is - is a mechanism to create the kind of gameplay you want, not an end in itself. 

Once more: System is a mechanism to create the kind of gameplay you want, not an end in itself.

Photo from the first event of Slayers LRP, by @tomgarnett​

4. PLAYTEST THOROUGHLY

Take every possible opportunity to playtest. Give your mechanics, your setting, your character creation and your fight system to fellow LARPers. Give them to LARPers whose opinions you disagree with, who like a different type of game to you, who you argue with on the internet. Give them to friends and family. Give them to total newbies and ask them how accessible they are. Ask them to murder your darlings. Swallow your pride and take all feedback with equanimity - use it to hone and refine your game. Don’t feel the need to change everything someone objects to, but understand where the objection comes from and how you would meet it from a paying customer.

Don’t try to please everyone “just enough” (unless you are trying to run a national, professional-level game you intend to make a lot of money from, or a local system in a town that has no other LARPs and which you want to have a wide appeal to local nerds); please your target audience as much as you can, and make it very clear who that audience is and what sort of game you are running. Hard work during the playtest will help you articulate these things, and clearly signpost who this game is designed for - and who it’s not designed for.

One useful project management system that my friends Crazy Donkey LARP use when receiving feedback about games is the Stop, Start, Continue heuristic. They ask their audience segment to tell them about things they didn’t enjoy (that they should Stop doing in their games), things they felt were lacking that they should Start doing, and things which worked well which they should Continue doing. 

Photo from the first event of Split Worlds, by @tomgarnett

5. THINK ABOUT THE BUY-IN

What is the minimum amount someone needs to know to functionally play this game, and how long will it take them to absorb that information?

If you really care about your game setting, you’ll be overflowing with cool tidbits of history and costume advice and setting material. That is great - and all to the good for stoking the fires of keen from already keen players! But a huge volume of game material (such as, much as I love it, the Empire wiki) can be really offputting for a new player. It’s in your interests to boil down “the basics” as far as possible, and present them in a clear, obvious one-pager which allows a new player to quickly and easily absorb them. This also helps accessibility for people who have issues reading, or absorbing, a large volume of text at once.

The “At-a-Glance” pages for the six Cultures of Odyssey LARP (now, tragically, ended) are a really good example of how the game writers used a single format to boil down a high volume of culture-specific setting material into a series of representative fragments that gave a new player all the information they need to quickly play a character from that IC culture. Here and here are examples.

In system terms, this is a pretty successful attempt to collate several pages of Odyssey rules into as-basic-as-possible summaries for the reader in a hurry.

The Empire Game Overview is another good page, and the Combat Rules page for Empire is an example of the “Bullet Point / Expand” format that can make it easier for some people to absorb complex rules and system information. 

Photo from the first event of Tales Out Of Anchor, by @tomgarnett

6. KIT & COSTUMING

When contemplating what costume looks like for your setting, you should be thinking on two levels: Firstly, what makes the characters look cool and iconic (and, assuming your setting has different classes, nations, professions or cultures which are distinguished by kit, what is obviously different about each one); but secondly and more importantly, what do your players have access to?

Once again here, understanding your target audience is key. For a small, local weekly game that runs for a few hours on a Saturday and targets university students, your costume briefs need to be realistically achievable by people with a low budget and time constraints. For a £250 three-dayer in a castle, you can probably assume your target audience has a bit more spare cash to splash out on frock coats or chainmail or EL wire. If your target audience already has a certain type of kit in abundance - Medieval armour, or Roller Derby kneepads, or leather jackets - build that into your briefs.

Do your best to provide photographic examples of costumes in advance so that players can see what sort of “look” they strive for. When writing costume briefs, pick one or two clear, simple, iconic and easy elements for each brief - like “wide sash around the waist” or “brightly coloured headgear” - and try not to crowd the brief with too many elaborate suggestions for the perfect look. Your players will pleasantly surprise you. 

Be aware of body shape and size accessibility when writing your costume briefs. “Empire line” or “broad shoulders” or “ethereal, floaty, elfin clothing” may all sound iconic and straightforward to you, but they are all examples of clothing which disproportionately favours particular body shapes; steer away.

Think about where your monster/crew kit comes from; do you expect crew to self-costume or will you be buying kit for them? What does a properly stocked crew kit room look like? How does that affect your budget?

Photo from Hades, by Oliver Facey

7. SEPARATION OF POWERS

When you’re putting your game team together, clearly define what each role means - who’s responsible for what - and write down those responsibilities somewhere everyone on the team can see them. An amorphous blob of “the refs” which slowly evolves into proper working practices is unlikely to be as efficient as starting out with a head of site & logistics, a head of setting coherency, etc. 

You can always change and modify these terms of reference as you go on, but setting them out clearly at the start will cut out an awful lot of drama later down the line. 

Try to avoid having any individual make big important setting, system or plot decisions on their own; everyone, no matter how authoritative, should have their work checked by at least one other person who has the power to veto or bring their material to discussion. 

If you can, appoint a “conscience” early in the game design process. That person’s job is to stand behind you every time you’re about to make an important decision or rules call, or finalise a plot, or do something you think is really cool, and ask “What about player agency?” and “But how do the players interact with this?” and “What effect does this have on the players?”

Photo from Gruntz, by Oliver Facey

8. CREW

Where is your crew from? How do you keep crew coming back for more? How many crew do you need to run a successful game?

If you’re starting up a local small linear style system, inculcating an early culture of “crew one / play one” is a good way to keep a regular stream of crew available for more. For medium systems, you might implement a “crew lottery” where people who crewed the last game get favourable placement for tickets for the next event, or discounts on future tickets. You should also do your best to include crew incentives - you’d be surprised how little “bennies” like hats or t-shirts help cement a sense of group identity and belonging among your crew cohort.

Out of the number of crew you need to run your ideal event, 2/3rds will book, and half of that number will actually show up. Be prepared and write your encounter based on low crew numbers as a contingency.

All photos from this set are from the first games of new systems, or one-off games.

[kayawagner]

4th of July Customer Appreciation [BUNDLE]

Publisher: Skirmisher Publishing

This special 99% off 4th of July customer appreciation bundle contains 18 specially selected titles, including four Gold bestsellers and several new releases, all marked down to just 4 cents each for 24 hours only! We very much hope you will enjoy it and have a great holiday (and, if it is not a holiday for you, fun with all of these titles at work). 

Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition (LARP) Regular price: $9.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This newest and best edition of Cthulhu Live includes a richly detailed and uniquely playable rules system that incorporates decades of best practices and refinements from hundreds of gamers worldwide. Features of this self-contained live-action roleplaying game include:  All-new rules for skills, combat, Sanity, Magic, and Psychic powers. Extensive information on organizing events, stagecraft and special effects. Guidelines on role-playing Outsiders tainted by the touch of the Mythos. New and improved photographs, graphics, and other images, including works by renowned Cthulhu Mythos artist Richard Alan Poppe. A screen-friendly lo-res version of the book that includes the "parchment" background of the original print edition and red blood spatters that had to be printed blac... 100 Oddities for a Thieves' Guild Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to Skirmisher Publishing’s Oddities for a Thieves’ Guild, second entry in an ever-expanding series of curiosities for places absurd, bizarre, creepy, devastated, enervated, and frustrated (we can go on and come up with an entire alphabet of abject adjectives, but we have already calibrated our cogitation contraptions to alliterative mode).  Oddities are the details that can transform a 10’x10’ room into a memorable encounter and can be mundane or magical, trivial, obtuse, unusual, unsettling, and even horrifying. You provide the big items like critters, adversaries, mustachioed villains, history, treasure, and context, and we give you embellishments that can enhance any encounter — or hijack it for a hard left turn or even an about face.... 100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to 100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library, third entry in Skirmisher Publishing's ever-expanding series of curiosities designed to fill the empty corners of your campaign worlds!  Oddities may clutter a shelf or lie forgotten in a corner but are not defined by where they are so much as what they are and are unusual by their very nature. A dead rat in the basement of an abandoned building is not an oddity, but the same dead rat with its eyes sewn shut is. Oddities make you think about why they exist, how they ended up there, even what the hell they are, questions that are key to an engaging and invigorating roleplaying experience.  Oddities are intended to aid GM creativity and turn possibly bland areas or gaming episodes into something more. The goal of this... Cards & Quests Bestiary 1: Monsters of Kos Regular price: $0.80 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: Watermarked PDF This sourcebook for the innovative new Cards & Quests role-playing game presents more than 50 monsters to challenge the physical, mental, and spiritual mettle of adventurers at all levels. This fully-illustrated, 42-page manual also includes detailed guidelines on running encounters between characters and creatures in the Cards & Quests tabletop game system.  All of the monsters presented here are associated with the system-free Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting and can be easily incorporated both into games that use it or other settings altogether. They are inspired by the myths and legends of the Classical world and include everything from familiar creatures like the Centaur, Harpy, and Medusa to more exotic ones like the Empusa, Hippalectryon, and Ophiotaurus.&... Chevauchee: Rules for Battles with Medieval Miniatures Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF During the 100 Years War between France and England, bands of soldiers from both sides launched raids into enemy-held territory, burning, pillaging, and slaying as much as possible before opposition could be mounted in strength. This practice, known as chevauchee, is the inspiration for this game of medieval and Renaissance warfare.  Designed for fun and playability, Chevauchee is perfect for novice and veteran gamers alike and offers a basic set of man-to-man combat rules, expanded optional rules, and a special system for simple siege warfare. It can be played with almost any appropriate miniature figures, each of which can use whatever weapons it is armed with and is equipped with whatever armor the model wears, eliminating paperwork and speeding... Cooper’s Corrected Summon Monster I-III Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Some of the most labor-intensive and disruptive sorts of spells in the game are for sure the various levels of Summon Monster. As soon as they are cast, things grind to a halt as the proper stats are looked up, the appropriate Celestial or Fiendish template applied with all its various changes ... And that is assuming just one of it was summoned! And if the caster has the Augment Summoning feat as well, introducing more changes to the summoned monster's stats, well ... Cooper's Corrected Summon Monster solves these problems! Written by ENWorld staff reviewer and 3.5 rules guru John Cooper, this critical new series of books presents thoroughly revised and corrected stats for the creatures summoned by these spells. Features of Cooper's Corrected Summon Monster I-III i... CQB: Futuristic Skirmish Miniatures Rules Regular price: $2.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to CQB, a complete self-standing set of science fiction miniatures rules for depicting Close-Quarter Battle! Inspired by the combat actions of the United States Space Marine Corps and other units featured in Skirmisher Publishing's popular and bestselling USMSC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations universal sourcebook, CQB replicates gritty, intense, close-quarter skirmishes fought on board starships, space stations, and industrial settings of Earth’s colonial worlds.... Experts v.3.5 Regular price: $9.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Experts v.3.5 takes the concept of the Expert non-player-character class briefly described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and gives it unprecedented depth and playability. This 176-page book includes: * More than 30 fully detailed Expert types, including the Alchemist, Blacksmith, Courtesan, Merchant, Miner, Navigator, Physician, Sage, Sailor, and Weaponmaker. * The Specialist, a new basic character class that players can use to create versatile “adventuring Experts” of any sort. * Guild Master, Militia Leader, and Spellcrafter prestige classes, the latter of which can allow Experts, Specialists, and other characters to gain specialized magical abilities that they can use to enhance their mundane abilities. * More than 100 skills, incl... Festivals & High Holy Days Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Every calendar is peppered with holidays and annual causes for celebration. From local village festivals to grand revels that consume empires, no campaign setting is complete without holidays to mark the passage of time with jubilation and ritual observance. In addition to adding greater realism and flavor to campaign, holidays also offer unique benefits to adventurers who celebrate during downtime or take a break from their quests to get into the spirit of the season.  "Festivals & High Holy Days" contains entries for a dozen holidays and details on how to use them in role-playing games, to include the benefits they can bestow upon those participating in them.  This mini-sourcebook has been specifically designed for use with ... H.G. Wells’ Floor Games Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Often referred to as a companion volume to H.G. Wells’ wargaming classic Little Wars, Floor Games is a republication of "the Father of Miniature Wargaming’s" first volume devoted to recreational gaming. Highlights include a lighthearted, often humorous discussion on the theory and methodology behind a wide variety of "floor" and tabletop games and tips on the use and creation of improvised models, terrain, and other gaming props.  Skirmisher’s edition of Floor Games is divided into a Foreword, an Introduction, and four chapters: I) "The Toys to Have"; II) "The Game of the Wonderful Islands"; III) "Of the Building of Cities"; and IV) "Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles, and War Games, But Very Little of War Games." Other features include: Foreword by reno... Human Troops: Tokens & Avatars for Virtual Tabletops Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: ZIP File This set of 20 full-color tokens and avatars/character portraits by fantasy artist Amanda Kahl contains two variations on five different figures, a Champion, Spearman, Archer, Cavalryman, and War Dog.  The different variations can also be used to easily reflect different levels and capabilities and they have been given colors that can also make them especially suitable as royal or imperial guards.  These tokens and avatars are system-free and can be used for any sort of fantasy roleplaying games and in a wide variety of virtual tabletop programs, including the popular Roll20 interface.... Player's Guide to the Aegean (BASH Fantasy) Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Player's Guide to the Aegean for BASH!/BASH! Fantasy provides all the information you need to create characters for campaigns and scenarios in a Classical setting. It accomplishes this by presenting the various playable races and backgrounds and providing you with the details you need to generate a character of that race, including the exciting new Antaean, Arachean, Bull Centaur, Cynocephalian, and Myrmidon. This fully-illustrated sourcebook also provides you with options for play, like signature spells, or specialties for a specific culture, some information on their common worldview, gods worshipped, favored weapons, technology, companions, likes, and dislikes. It also includes information on using existing races in an Aegean campaign and new items, powers, adva... Six Spells: Lizardfolk Regular price: $0.50 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Lizardfolk are a primitive swamp-dwelling people that are considered to be more in touch with nature than most of the other humanoid races. Their shamans have, accordingly, developed a number of useful spells to help them survive and thrive in an environment that most consider hostile. This title contains six spells formatted so as to be compatible with any games using the sorts of basic fantasy role-playing game rules developed starting in the 1970s. They can be used as-is with games like Goblinoid Games’ Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future and can be easily modified and expanded for use with successor systems like OGL or other games altogether. ... Skirmish! Regular price: $2.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Skirmish! is a quick-to-learn, easy-to-set up game of combat that can played using almost any miniature figures to simulate small-scale battles. It is intended for both veteran and novice players and is simple enough to be a beginner's first wargame and versatile and expandable enough to satisfy more experienced gamers — especially those who want to pull some of their old toy soldiers out of a footlocker or the closet and use them in a game.<o:p></o:p> Skirmish! is designed for simplicity and playability. All that is needed to play Skirmish! are some miniature figures, a ruler or tape measure, and three standard, 6-sided dice. The basic rules can be read, a handful of soldiers selected, and a game set up in about 20 minutes, and in much less time than that for... The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan: A Coloring Book Regular price: $1.20 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This title contains line art 24 illustrations by artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge that are all especially suitable for coloring. They are inspired by The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, a classic work of picaresque fiction by British diplomat James Morier that was first published in 1824 and which has been compared with the Arabian Nights. Morier's epic adventure is filled with rip-roaring exploits, witty satire, and nimble humor, and follows the rags-to-riches escapades of Hajji Baba, the lazy son of a barber, as he seeks his fortune ... but only if it doesn’t demand too much work of him.  Baldridge himself was an adventurer and set out from Baghdad with his wife to personally retrace the journeys of Hajji Baba. He experienced a series of fantastic and harrowi... The Ageless (Cthulhu Live) Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Around this time every year, just as the leaves begun to change, Sir Arthur Westfield holds a grand salon at his manor of West End. The gathering always attracts a healthy mix of dilettantes, eccentrics, and academics. Often little more than a pretense for Westfield to show off his new acquisitions and oddities, it is also a chance for deals to be made. A renowned patron of the arts and sciences, many a man has worked long into the night, maneuvering the old man into some business arrangement or endowment. It remains to be seen what deals tonight may bring ... “The Ageless” is a live-action role-playing game script designed for 10-15 participants and a medium-sized staff. It is stat'ed for the Gold bestselling Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition system but is rules light an... The Dinner Party Regular price: $0.50 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF “The Dinner Party” is a self-standing short story set in Skirmisher Publishing LLC’s Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting that takes place shortly after the events described in the bestselling swords-and-sorcery novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis and in the same location as the adventure "Into the Mines of Moira."  The Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting is set in a Dark Ages fantasy version of the Mediterranean and the lands surrounding it a century after a Great Cataclysm destroyed the old world, plunged it into chaos, and reawakened magic and all form of ancient races and monsters. Now, the agents of Gods and Titans struggle against each other on behalf of their masters, nations strive to survive or dominate one another, and... The Forgotten Children (Five Heroic Characters for BASH) Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This title contains five fully-stat'ed characters for the BASH superhero roleplaying game that players can use as characters or which Game Masters can use individually or in conjunction with one another as villains! It is fully illustrated with custom images by game industry artist William T. Thrasher.  The five children described below were designed for use as Player Characters. Each has a Datafile as a hero, including a “Cheat Sheet” that gives more info on the character’s powers and abilities, and a character description with a few roleplaying tips. The Forgotten Children would make a fine beginning super team in an ongoing campaign afterward as well, with the Orphanage as their Base of Operations and their secr...

Total value: $54.86 Special bundle price: $0.72 Savings of: $54.14 (99%)

Price: $54.86 4th of July Customer Appreciation [BUNDLE] published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kayawagner]

4th of July Customer Appreciation [BUNDLE]

Publisher: Skirmisher Publishing

This special 99% off 4th of July customer appreciation bundle contains 18 specially selected titles, including four Gold bestsellers and several new releases, all marked down to just 4 cents each for 24 hours only! We very much hope you will enjoy it and have a great holiday (and, if it is not a holiday for you, fun with all of these titles at work). 

Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition (LARP) Regular price: $9.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This newest and best edition of Cthulhu Live includes a richly detailed and uniquely playable rules system that incorporates decades of best practices and refinements from hundreds of gamers worldwide. Features of this self-contained live-action roleplaying game include:  All-new rules for skills, combat, Sanity, Magic, and Psychic powers. Extensive information on organizing events, stagecraft and special effects. Guidelines on role-playing Outsiders tainted by the touch of the Mythos. New and improved photographs, graphics, and other images, including works by renowned Cthulhu Mythos artist Richard Alan Poppe. A screen-friendly lo-res version of the book that includes the "parchment" background of the original print edition and red blood spatters that had to be printed blac... 100 Oddities for a Thieves' Guild Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to Skirmisher Publishing’s Oddities for a Thieves’ Guild, second entry in an ever-expanding series of curiosities for places absurd, bizarre, creepy, devastated, enervated, and frustrated (we can go on and come up with an entire alphabet of abject adjectives, but we have already calibrated our cogitation contraptions to alliterative mode).  Oddities are the details that can transform a 10’x10’ room into a memorable encounter and can be mundane or magical, trivial, obtuse, unusual, unsettling, and even horrifying. You provide the big items like critters, adversaries, mustachioed villains, history, treasure, and context, and we give you embellishments that can enhance any encounter — or hijack it for a hard left turn or even an about face.... 100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to 100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library, third entry in Skirmisher Publishing's ever-expanding series of curiosities designed to fill the empty corners of your campaign worlds!  Oddities may clutter a shelf or lie forgotten in a corner but are not defined by where they are so much as what they are and are unusual by their very nature. A dead rat in the basement of an abandoned building is not an oddity, but the same dead rat with its eyes sewn shut is. Oddities make you think about why they exist, how they ended up there, even what the hell they are, questions that are key to an engaging and invigorating roleplaying experience.  Oddities are intended to aid GM creativity and turn possibly bland areas or gaming episodes into something more. The goal of this... Cards & Quests Bestiary 1: Monsters of Kos Regular price: $0.80 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: Watermarked PDF This sourcebook for the innovative new Cards & Quests role-playing game presents more than 50 monsters to challenge the physical, mental, and spiritual mettle of adventurers at all levels. This fully-illustrated, 42-page manual also includes detailed guidelines on running encounters between characters and creatures in the Cards & Quests tabletop game system.  All of the monsters presented here are associated with the system-free Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting and can be easily incorporated both into games that use it or other settings altogether. They are inspired by the myths and legends of the Classical world and include everything from familiar creatures like the Centaur, Harpy, and Medusa to more exotic ones like the Empusa, Hippalectryon, and Ophiotaurus.&... Chevauchee: Rules for Battles with Medieval Miniatures Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF During the 100 Years War between France and England, bands of soldiers from both sides launched raids into enemy-held territory, burning, pillaging, and slaying as much as possible before opposition could be mounted in strength. This practice, known as chevauchee, is the inspiration for this game of medieval and Renaissance warfare.  Designed for fun and playability, Chevauchee is perfect for novice and veteran gamers alike and offers a basic set of man-to-man combat rules, expanded optional rules, and a special system for simple siege warfare. It can be played with almost any appropriate miniature figures, each of which can use whatever weapons it is armed with and is equipped with whatever armor the model wears, eliminating paperwork and speeding... Cooper’s Corrected Summon Monster I-III Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Some of the most labor-intensive and disruptive sorts of spells in the game are for sure the various levels of Summon Monster. As soon as they are cast, things grind to a halt as the proper stats are looked up, the appropriate Celestial or Fiendish template applied with all its various changes ... And that is assuming just one of it was summoned! And if the caster has the Augment Summoning feat as well, introducing more changes to the summoned monster's stats, well ... Cooper's Corrected Summon Monster solves these problems! Written by ENWorld staff reviewer and 3.5 rules guru John Cooper, this critical new series of books presents thoroughly revised and corrected stats for the creatures summoned by these spells. Features of Cooper's Corrected Summon Monster I-III i... CQB: Futuristic Skirmish Miniatures Rules Regular price: $2.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Welcome to CQB, a complete self-standing set of science fiction miniatures rules for depicting Close-Quarter Battle! Inspired by the combat actions of the United States Space Marine Corps and other units featured in Skirmisher Publishing's popular and bestselling USMSC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations universal sourcebook, CQB replicates gritty, intense, close-quarter skirmishes fought on board starships, space stations, and industrial settings of Earth’s colonial worlds.... Experts v.3.5 Regular price: $9.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Experts v.3.5 takes the concept of the Expert non-player-character class briefly described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and gives it unprecedented depth and playability. This 176-page book includes: * More than 30 fully detailed Expert types, including the Alchemist, Blacksmith, Courtesan, Merchant, Miner, Navigator, Physician, Sage, Sailor, and Weaponmaker. * The Specialist, a new basic character class that players can use to create versatile “adventuring Experts” of any sort. * Guild Master, Militia Leader, and Spellcrafter prestige classes, the latter of which can allow Experts, Specialists, and other characters to gain specialized magical abilities that they can use to enhance their mundane abilities. * More than 100 skills, incl... Festivals & High Holy Days Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Every calendar is peppered with holidays and annual causes for celebration. From local village festivals to grand revels that consume empires, no campaign setting is complete without holidays to mark the passage of time with jubilation and ritual observance. In addition to adding greater realism and flavor to campaign, holidays also offer unique benefits to adventurers who celebrate during downtime or take a break from their quests to get into the spirit of the season.  "Festivals & High Holy Days" contains entries for a dozen holidays and details on how to use them in role-playing games, to include the benefits they can bestow upon those participating in them.  This mini-sourcebook has been specifically designed for use with ... H.G. Wells’ Floor Games Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Often referred to as a companion volume to H.G. Wells’ wargaming classic Little Wars, Floor Games is a republication of "the Father of Miniature Wargaming’s" first volume devoted to recreational gaming. Highlights include a lighthearted, often humorous discussion on the theory and methodology behind a wide variety of "floor" and tabletop games and tips on the use and creation of improvised models, terrain, and other gaming props.  Skirmisher’s edition of Floor Games is divided into a Foreword, an Introduction, and four chapters: I) "The Toys to Have"; II) "The Game of the Wonderful Islands"; III) "Of the Building of Cities"; and IV) "Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles, and War Games, But Very Little of War Games." Other features include: Foreword by reno... Human Troops: Tokens & Avatars for Virtual Tabletops Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: ZIP File This set of 20 full-color tokens and avatars/character portraits by fantasy artist Amanda Kahl contains two variations on five different figures, a Champion, Spearman, Archer, Cavalryman, and War Dog.  The different variations can also be used to easily reflect different levels and capabilities and they have been given colors that can also make them especially suitable as royal or imperial guards.  These tokens and avatars are system-free and can be used for any sort of fantasy roleplaying games and in a wide variety of virtual tabletop programs, including the popular Roll20 interface.... Player's Guide to the Aegean (BASH Fantasy) Regular price: $3.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Player's Guide to the Aegean for BASH!/BASH! Fantasy provides all the information you need to create characters for campaigns and scenarios in a Classical setting. It accomplishes this by presenting the various playable races and backgrounds and providing you with the details you need to generate a character of that race, including the exciting new Antaean, Arachean, Bull Centaur, Cynocephalian, and Myrmidon. This fully-illustrated sourcebook also provides you with options for play, like signature spells, or specialties for a specific culture, some information on their common worldview, gods worshipped, favored weapons, technology, companions, likes, and dislikes. It also includes information on using existing races in an Aegean campaign and new items, powers, adva... Six Spells: Lizardfolk Regular price: $0.50 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Lizardfolk are a primitive swamp-dwelling people that are considered to be more in touch with nature than most of the other humanoid races. Their shamans have, accordingly, developed a number of useful spells to help them survive and thrive in an environment that most consider hostile. This title contains six spells formatted so as to be compatible with any games using the sorts of basic fantasy role-playing game rules developed starting in the 1970s. They can be used as-is with games like Goblinoid Games’ Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future and can be easily modified and expanded for use with successor systems like OGL or other games altogether. ... Skirmish! Regular price: $2.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Skirmish! is a quick-to-learn, easy-to-set up game of combat that can played using almost any miniature figures to simulate small-scale battles. It is intended for both veteran and novice players and is simple enough to be a beginner's first wargame and versatile and expandable enough to satisfy more experienced gamers — especially those who want to pull some of their old toy soldiers out of a footlocker or the closet and use them in a game.<o:p></o:p> Skirmish! is designed for simplicity and playability. All that is needed to play Skirmish! are some miniature figures, a ruler or tape measure, and three standard, 6-sided dice. The basic rules can be read, a handful of soldiers selected, and a game set up in about 20 minutes, and in much less time than that for... The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan: A Coloring Book Regular price: $1.20 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This title contains line art 24 illustrations by artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge that are all especially suitable for coloring. They are inspired by The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, a classic work of picaresque fiction by British diplomat James Morier that was first published in 1824 and which has been compared with the Arabian Nights. Morier's epic adventure is filled with rip-roaring exploits, witty satire, and nimble humor, and follows the rags-to-riches escapades of Hajji Baba, the lazy son of a barber, as he seeks his fortune ... but only if it doesn’t demand too much work of him.  Baldridge himself was an adventurer and set out from Baghdad with his wife to personally retrace the journeys of Hajji Baba. He experienced a series of fantastic and harrowi... The Ageless (Cthulhu Live) Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF Around this time every year, just as the leaves begun to change, Sir Arthur Westfield holds a grand salon at his manor of West End. The gathering always attracts a healthy mix of dilettantes, eccentrics, and academics. Often little more than a pretense for Westfield to show off his new acquisitions and oddities, it is also a chance for deals to be made. A renowned patron of the arts and sciences, many a man has worked long into the night, maneuvering the old man into some business arrangement or endowment. It remains to be seen what deals tonight may bring ... “The Ageless” is a live-action role-playing game script designed for 10-15 participants and a medium-sized staff. It is stat'ed for the Gold bestselling Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition system but is rules light an... The Dinner Party Regular price: $0.50 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF “The Dinner Party” is a self-standing short story set in Skirmisher Publishing LLC’s Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting that takes place shortly after the events described in the bestselling swords-and-sorcery novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis and in the same location as the adventure "Into the Mines of Moira."  The Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting is set in a Dark Ages fantasy version of the Mediterranean and the lands surrounding it a century after a Great Cataclysm destroyed the old world, plunged it into chaos, and reawakened magic and all form of ancient races and monsters. Now, the agents of Gods and Titans struggle against each other on behalf of their masters, nations strive to survive or dominate one another, and... The Forgotten Children (Five Heroic Characters for BASH) Regular price: $1.99 Bundle price: $0.04 Format: PDF This title contains five fully-stat'ed characters for the BASH superhero roleplaying game that players can use as characters or which Game Masters can use individually or in conjunction with one another as villains! It is fully illustrated with custom images by game industry artist William T. Thrasher.  The five children described below were designed for use as Player Characters. Each has a Datafile as a hero, including a “Cheat Sheet” that gives more info on the character’s powers and abilities, and a character description with a few roleplaying tips. The Forgotten Children would make a fine beginning super team in an ongoing campaign afterward as well, with the Orphanage as their Base of Operations and their secr...

Total value: $54.86 Special bundle price: $0.72 Savings of: $54.14 (99%)

Price: $54.86 4th of July Customer Appreciation [BUNDLE] published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com