50% Off Expeditious Retreat Press Sale! (PDFs)

Heya all, GM's day is right around the corner (March 4th), so we here at XRP have put several of our PDF products on sale at Your Games Now. For those of you who don't know, we don't do many sales a year, perhaps one or two, so if you've been waiting for a bargain price on PDFs, now's the time to jump.

The sale ends on March 8th.

We've taken 50% off our entire 1E Advanced Adventures line!
We've taken 50% off our 1E monster book Malevolent & Benign!
We've taken 50% off our entire Sorcery & Super Science line!

Immobilizing Attack

A new power for Sorcery & Super Science!

Immobilizing Attack: (Active, Transferable, Uncommon) You have an unusual distance attack that does not harm your target, and instead immobilizes. You should state what happens when you use this power, such as you spit sticky mucus, you shoot spider webs, or you command the air to solidify around a target. You can only immobilize creatures of the indicated size or smaller and, if hit by your attack, a victim can free himself the next turn with a successful Strength conflict against the indicated rank. After that, a conflict to escape may be attempted once every minute.

T    Range    Weight    Break Rank
B    20           200               4
I     40           400               6
A    60          600               8
U    80         1200             10

The Back Cover of The Secret of the Callair Hills

Since it seems everyone dropped by look at the front cover art yesterday, I thought I should bring the back cover to the party as well. IMO, the style of the art is not only interesting in-and-of itself, it also fits perfectly with the contents and style of the adventure - a good low to low-mid leveler.

The Secret of the Callair Hills Cover Preview

I got the art from John Bingham a few days ago and here's the cover for Advanced Adventures #19: The Secret of the Callair Hills. John did the inks and his wife, Daisey, did the colors. I'm thoroughly enamored of the look. The way I like to describe it is, "Imagine if the artists of the 16th century could have used color inks when printing their woodcuts." I like the clean lines and clean color. I think it's distinctively old-school, yet a brand-new vision.

The Whispers of the Bone Lord

A new whisper track for Sorcery & Super Science!

The Whispers of The Bone Lord

Bone Ladder (Basic): Activating this whisper pulls bones from the ground that quickly assemble into a ladder capable of holding 5 tons. The ladder is normally 30 feet tall, but the sorcerer may spend an additional 1 point of Fortune to extend the ladder an additional 10 feet to a maximum of 100 feet. The ladder lasts for 10 minutes. Activating this whisper costs 1 Fortune.

Bone Horse (Intermediate): Activating this whisper pulls bones from the ground that quickly assemble into a horse-like shape. The bone horse can carry 1 ton, move at 20/176, and follows the commands of the sorcerer. It can take up to 20 points of Health damage before failing. The bone horse lasts 6 hours. Activating this whisper costs 2 Fortune.

Bone Fists of the Countless Dead (Advanced): Activating this whisper pulls dozens of bony clenched fists from the soil in a 50 foot radius centered upon the sorcerer. All living creatures larger than a house cat (except the sorcerer) are subject to an attack at Combat 10 dealing +6 bludgeoning damage and a +4/ rank 4 combat condition. Activating this whisper costs 6 Fortune.

Bone Lock (Ultra): Activating this whisper pulls multiple bone segments from the sorcerer, dealing 20 Health damage and reducing the sorcerer’s physical primary abilities by 1 for the next week while the lost bones regrow. The sorcerer can mold the bone parts into a mystical lock that can only be opened by its creator. The bone lock cannot be damaged (by anything), and also acts as mystical armor against bashing attempts to gain entrance into what is has locked. Any attempts to damage the locked object find their damage reduced by 30 points. Activating this whisper costs 8 Fortune.

Tome of Tomes

Another in the series. I really like doing these. Nice bit of flavor, IMO.

Mosses and Lichens of the Dim Zones
Author: Durnal Stonefist
Race: Dwarf
Dimensions: 8x10x1.5
Weight: 4lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Common
Fields of Study: Flora
Special Knowledge Categories: Mosses & ferns
Value: 50 gp

Stonefist’s work on the mosses and lichens found underground in “dim zones” (areas with some slight light) is an old work, but a thorough one. Stonefist must have traveled extensively underground, as the book contains a wide variety of mosses and lichens which are often found hundreds of miles apart. Illustrated nicely, the work can be used to identify the most common varieties of mosses and lichens found underground in dim zones after a month’s study by someone with at least a 12 Intelligence.

Tome of Tomes

Another tome for your libraries...

Crypts of Eternity
Author: Yerals Abitis
Race: Unknown
Dimensions: 8x8x1
Weight: 2 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, vellum
Rarity: Very rare
Fields of Study: Supernatural & unusual
Special Knowledge Categories: Planes (outer)
Value: 625 gp

This small tome contains descriptions of the 44 crypts within the pocket dimension titled by the author as Eternity. Whoever Yearals Abitis was, he was not an adventurer of the common sort, for only the outer appearance and entrance room of each crypt is described and illustrated. It is unknown if the crypts are undisturbed and, more telling perhaps, that if the pocket dimension and its crypts exist.

Slow Day

Slow day here at the XRP  household. Woke up to find 5 inches of snow that needed shoveling so we could get out and get some groceries. We have a long driveway/alleyway and removing the snow (that we could remove) took almost 2 hours to accomplish.

So it's almost 3pm now and I've done very little work. *sigh* I guess it'll be a slow, long day. :)

300 Post!

Just hit our 300th post here at Sorcery & Super Science! I've been very conscientiously trying to post often enough to let people drop by everyday (if only for a brief moment) to see if there's something of interest to them as well as to make sure that the people that drop by once a week or so have enough new and varied material to keep their interest. I think I've been successful in both accounts.

On the XRP front, just got the final art for Advanced Adventure #19: The Secret of the Callair Hills. I think it looks very good and I'm excited to get another lower-level Advanced Adventure out there. Callair Hills is for levels 3-6 and it's a pretty sandboxy affair. I think it works out nicely and in the hands of a GM willing to personalize it, I think it could be a lot of fun.

I've also been working on more character-oriented stuff for Sorcery & Super Science! I have several new whispers, highlights and powers and I'm nearing completion on Characters Below the Shattered Moon - Volume 2. Hopefully I'll get the final 1000 words done today and we'll see it out by next week.

So here's to the next 300 posts!

Sorry for the Silence

Sorry for no updates in the past few days. Suzi and I were out of town visiting friends. It was a nice little trip and we were able to play several games each of Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, and Twelve Crowns. All three are great fun. I lost my first-ever game of Pandemic, scored an amazingly-low score of 29 in Ticket to Ride (seriously, that is utterly horrible *and I was trying!*), and I managed to go 6 rounds in Twelve Crowns only scoring 3 points.

All in all good fun. Now back to work!

Expeditious Retreat Press's Advanced Adventures the focus of a scholarly paper about the OSR

There are so few scholarly treatments of table-top gaming, that I thought I should let everyone know that I'm majorly stoked that our Advanced Adventures line is the focus of a Master's degree paper about art, nostalgia, and the Old-School Renaissance. Awesome!

The essay was written by Darren Allan Crouse, and supervised by Dr. Greg Gillespie, in the Department of Popular Culture at Brock University in Ontario. In the study, Crouse discusses the construction of nostalgia in the art of our Advanced Adventures line. He challenges traditional academic understandings of nostalgia as simple escapism. Crouse argues that, while the Advanced Adventures pay homage to the history of RPGs, the series is an expression of an emerging old school gaming subculture who use nostalgia in new and creative ways - while charting new directions for their hobby.

This is obviously a dreadfully terse simplification of the paper. Read the entire paper for yourself at Your Games Now. Regardless if you end up agreeing or disagreeing with Mr. Crouse, I think we can all sit back and enjoy the fact that the OSR has spurred one of the few professional analysis of the hobby that we all love. I hope there will be more and more.

I want to express my heartiest thanks to our artists Stefan Poag, Bradley McDevitt, Peter Mullen, John Bingham, Jeffrey Womack, Matt Finch, and William McAusland. It is their collective visions that bring the Advanced Adventure series to visual life. Personally, I'm finding it hard to express just how happy and proud I am. I never thought that anything I had a hand in would end up as a subject of scholasticism. So I think I'm going to keep grinning like a fool for quite some time... :)

If you would like to contact Dr. Greg Gillespie at Brock University, his e-mail is ggillespie@brocku.ca

Formula Folio

And we continue with the 1st-Level clerical ink formulas...

Detect Magic
For the ink required to scribe a clerical detect magic scroll

1 oz. of giant squid sepia
1 oz. of giant octopus ink
1 oz. of holy water
1 mugwort

In a crystal container upon the holy altar, mix 1 oz. of sepia with holy water and coat the mugwort. Seal container with beeswax and let sit for 1 year. Open at midnight and remove liquid and mix with 1 oz. of octopus ink. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

Objects Below the Shattered Moon - Volume 3 out now!

This short PDF provides harried GMs with new sorcerous artifacts, firearms, armors and shields, a few lesser miscellaneous items, as well as a comprehensive accounting of the different types of field rations found on the world below the shattered moon.

It's available at Your Games Now and at RPGnow. It will shortly be available at Paizo and e23.

CD Drive Broken In My Laptop

I am grumpy. Very grumpy.

Beef Cake! (Iron Rations, that is.)

Iron Rations
The earliest type of rations, these are known for their odd taste and texture. They do fill you up, however, and they sure taste a lot better than a famine tube.

Beef Cake Iron Ration (I) 4; Value 20
Skill Sets: C (I) 1, Ma (I) 1; Components: (I) 4
Description: A trio of small cakes (made from beef bouillon powder and wheat), and trio of 1-ounce bars of sweetened fruit, nuts, and wheat, and a packet each of salt and pepper.
Effects: Food for one meal.

Corned Beef Iron Ration (I): 6; Value 30
Skill Sets: C (I) 1, Ma (I) 1; Components: (I) 6
Description: A tin of corned beef, two cans filled with hardtack biscuits, a single cup’s worth of ground coffee, a packet of sugar and one of salt. Additionally, there’s a small packet of tobacco and 10 rolling papers.
Effects: Food for one meal and some smokes as a side-benefit.

Beef Jerky Iron Ration (I): 6; Value 30
Skill Sets: C (I) 1, Ma (I) 1; Components: (I) 6
Description: A tin of beef jerky, two cans filled with hardtack biscuits, a single cup’s worth of ground coffee, a packet of sugar and one of salt. Additionally, there’s a small packet of tobacco and 10 rolling papers.
Effects: Food for one meal and some smokes as a side-benefit.

Pork and Beans Iron Ration (I): 6; Value 30
Skill Sets: C (I) 1, Ma (I) 1; Components: (I) 6
Description: A tin of pork and beans, two cans filled with hardtack biscuits, a single cup’s worth of ground coffee, a packet of sugar and one of salt. Additionally, there’s a small packet of tobacco and 10 rolling papers.
Effects: Food for one meal and some smokes as a side-benefit.

Down The Shadowvein Player's Map

Below is the player's map for the Advanced Adventure Down the Shadowvein. This one takes place right after The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom and will be our first "follow-up" module. I've completed the manuscript and it's off to editing right now, but I've only detailed about half of the areas I have plans to do. So there's another Advanced Adventure in the works called The Mouth of the Shadowvein. :)

That means The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom, Down the Shadowvein, and The Mouth of the Shadowvein will be a trilogy of adventures. Of course, they'll all be usable as stand alone products, but I think they'll work much more enjoyably together.

So look at the map, try to decipher the symbols, and imagine what adventures lurk Down the Shadowvein!

Scourge of the Mall Rats Cover

Just got the illustration in and here are the covers for the upcoming Scourge of the Mall Rats!

Front

Back

Lasers, lasers, lasers...

 Who doesn't like more lasers?

Mark II Laser Pistol (U) 1; Value: 6,250
Skill Sets: C (A) 5, E (U) 1, Ma (A) 15, Mc (A) 10, R (A) 1; Components: (I) 10, 10, 15; (A) 2, 15, 15, 19, 20; (U) 1
Description: A more advanced common laser pistol reconfiguring the same components with increased efficiency. A mark II laser pistol uses 100 eu per shot, providing 10 shots before depleting its power cell. Reloading a cell takes 1 round.
Effects: +12 to damage, +4/ rank 8 heat
Power Source: Power Cell (U) 1 for 1,000eu before depletion.
Range: 0-60, +0; 61-120, -1; 121-200, - 3; 201-400, -5

Mark II Laser Rifle (U) 1; Value: 7,000
Skill Sets: C (A) 5, E (U) 1, Ma (A) 15, Mc (A) 10, R (A) 1; Components: (I) 10, 10, 15; (A) 2, 15, 15, 19, 20; (U) 1, 1
Description: A more advanced common laser rifle reconfiguring the same components with increased efficiency. A mark II laser rifle uses 100 eu per shot, providing 10 shots before depleting its power cell. Reloading a cell takes 1 round.
Effects: +14 to damage, +4/ rank 10 heat
Power Source: Power Cell (U) 1 for 1,000eu before depletion.
Range: 0-60, +0; 61-120, -1; 121-200, - 3; 201-400, -5

Mark III Laser Pistol (U) 1; Value: 7,000
Skill Sets: C (A) 5, E (U) 1, Ma (A) 15, Mc (A) 10, R (A) 1; Components: (I) 10, 10, 15; (A) 2, 15, 15, 19, 20; (U) 1, 1
Description: The first real improvement on the common laser pistol. A mark IIII laser pistol uses 100 eu per shot, providing 10 shots before depleting its power cell. Reloading a cell takes 1 round.
Effects: +14 to damage, +4/ rank 10 heat
Power Source: Power Cell (U) 1 for 1,000eu before depletion.
Range: 0-60, +0; 61-120, -1; 121-200, - 3; 201-400, -5

Mark III Laser Rifle (U) 2; Value: 8,500
Skill Sets: C (A) 5, E (U) 1, Ma (A) 15, Mc (A) 10, R (U) 1; Components: (I) 10, 10, 15; (A) 2, 15, 15, 19, 20; (U) 1, 1, 2
Description: The first real improvement on the common laser rifle, increasing damage and range. A mark III laser rifle uses 100 eu per shot, providing 10 shots before depleting its power cell. Reloading a cell takes 1 round.
Effects: +16 to damage, +4/ rank 12 heat
Power Source: Power Cell (U) 1 for 1,000eu before depletion.
Range: 0-70, +0; 71-140, -1; 141-280, - 3; 281-560, -5

Tome of Tomes

Another in the series.

Underground Construction
Author: Garl Berlyson
Race: Gnome
Dimensions: 14x12x2.5
Weight: 7 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Uncommon
Fields of Study: Physical Universe
Special Knowledge Categories: Architecture & engineering
Value: 150 gp

Underground construction is obviously a labor of love from one most fond of the underground. Berlyson spends entire chapters dedicated to structural aspects to keep the ceiling from falling in, but his true interest lies in domestic and holy architecture within the stone of the world. Of particular note is his section on dwarven ornamentation featuring over 200 individual forms of such in straight-forward drawings.

AA#17: The Frozen Wave Satsuma available for sale!

Satsuma is here! It's the first Advanced Adventure with a hint of the orient and I think It'd pose an intriguing adventure for any party. And yes, that's a treasure ship made of pure ice. :) Cover art by Peter Mullen and interior art by John Bingham.

You can buy a physical copy from the Expeditious Retreat Press website, or you can pick up a PDF copy at Your Games Now or at RPGnow.

A bank of frigid fog rolls down the northern coasts, bringing seaborne raiders sacking villages and temples along the way. Survivors wail of strange-speaking men in stranger armor, wielding weapons unseen in civilized lands. All know that the fog must hide a larger ship of some equally strange design, for the raiders strike from small boats which would surely capsize in the open seas.

What dangers await upon the cold and windy ocean? What terrible foreign ship lurks within the haze, hiding like a lion upon the wine-dark sea? Into this fog travels the intrepid party - seeking to solve the mystery of The Frozen Wave Satsuma!


The Frozen Wave Satsuma is An OSRIC(tm) module designed for 6-8 adventures of levels 3-5

I Need to Stat this Out...

because it would be awesome! :) Talk about a strange taxidermy thing to stumble upon in a ruin dive in S&SS...

http://atlasobscura.com/place/dead-pals-of-sam-sanfillippo

Giant Equestrian Statue of Genghis Khan

Now this would be something pretty impressive to stumble upon in a post-apoc world. :)

http://atlasobscura.com/place/genghis-khan-equestrian-statue

Formula Folio

Another of the 1st-Level clerical scroll inks...

Detect Evil
For the ink required to scribe a clerical detect evil scroll

1 oz. of giant squid sepia
1 oz. of holy water
1 gallon of purified water
1 piece of carnelian
1 hair from the head of a holy man

In a silver vessel, bring the purified water to boil and add the carnelian and holy water. Boil until only the carnelian remains. Add carnelian and hair to the squid sepia in a golden vessel, seal, and let sit for a fortnight. Remove and decant into a crystal vial and let sit exposed to the noonday sun for three days. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

Putterings at the XRP house...

Suzi's making bread. We're listening to Siouxie and the Banshees' Kaleidoscope. I've been pawing through a stack of old maps I drew back when I was 14 and another set when I was 19. More snow is expected today, but the squirrels are having fun on the clear spots in our back yard until then.

Life could be better, but that would require rolling a 20. Far and away, we're lucky. Funny that such sehr ernst music wafts through a happy house. And that's no irony. :)

Age Modifiers in 1E

So I'm statting out a dwarven stronghold. I've been doing the numbers based upon the number of rooms I've drawn on my map and then I started thinking about age, because I needed to know what is "young adult" for dwarves. This leads me to the age categories chart and the various modifiers found therein.

I've never used age modifiers as written in the book except for when making old people. I think I will start to use them under all circumstances.

What about you guys? Do you use the modifiers as written (so that a newly started character gets +1 to Str and +1 to Con if they're mature?

Tome of Tomes

Continuing the series...

Archibald’s Collected Signs
Author: Archibald Williamson
Race: Human
Dimensions: 8x8x1
Weight: 2lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, vellum
Rarity: Rare
Fields of Study: Supernatural & unusual
Special Knowledge Categories: Heraldry, signs & sigils
Value: 100 gp

Over 1,000 signs and sigils are compiled in this small work. Archibald was a magic user of some worth and it is believed that he surreptitiously collated his collection via copying from various libraries throughout the known world. The signs within are mostly alchemical and magical, but there is a collection of over 25 personal signs of the great magic users throughout history. It should be noted that Archibald included his personal sign in this list…

Gamer seeking Sorcery & Super Science! game

I've been asked to post the below by a fellow gamer named Charles Fodel. He's looking for some people to play S&SS with via Infrno. 

"Could you please post this on you S&SpS blog?
Playing S&SpS every other Tuesday starting on Feb 15.
1st adventure will be "House Of Blue Men"

http://infrno.net/games "

Down the Shadowvein & Call for Gen Con Tourney GMs

I have two more sections on this one to go and I already have almost 12k words. That's normally the limit I place upon submitted manuscripts. I get special word-count privileges. :) It's turning into quite a fun lower-level underdeeps exploration mod, but even with having only two more areas to describe that's only half the map that I originally drew up ala Descent into the Depths. It looks like there will be a follow-up adventure for this one, making it the first two-parter in the Advanced Adventures line.

Also, I've just started writing an adventure called The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates that I plan on using as the Gen Con 2011 Tourney this year. This year it'll be a one session (instead of two session) tourney as I need to be at the OSR booth as much as possible.

If there are any interested GMs out there who'd like to be part of the tourney (so far we have two GMs total), drop me a line at josephbrowning@gmail.com and introduce yourself. I'd love to have several tables going at once (last year we had 3) and welcome assistance.

Blood Burrs

Another of the many static hazards in Sorcery & Super Science!

Blood Burrs
Mutated grass (Basic)
No statistics

Description & Information: These innocuous looking burrs are common during late summer and early autumn on the grasslands of the world below the shattered moon. They are large, roughly an inch in diameter and dark brown in color. Believed to be a mutated form of genetically-modified grass specifically resistant to pesticides, the blood burr is a constant worry to travelers. Traveling during the night through unknown territory is the most common cause of a blood burr infestation.

Any creature walking through a patch of blood burrs will find their legs coated by the clingy pods. If they are not immediately removed (within half a minute) they release an anesthetic and drill into their host’s body, sucking out the blood within. A mild infestation of blood burrs lowers the victim’s maximum Health by one per day. A more severe case can result in the loss of half a dozen or more Health points per day. After draining a total of 5 Health a single burr will drop from the host and germinate into a new blood burr plant.

Attached blood burrs can be burned off without injury to the host, but tearing them off results in 5 Health damage for a mild case and 10 for more severe cases.

Formula Folio

This ink is probably the one most used by all clerical scroll writers, IMO. :)

Cure Light Wounds
For the ink required to scribe a clerical cure light wounds scroll

1 oz. of giant octopus ink
1 oz. of holy water
1 oz. of horse glue
1 scruple of gum Arabic
1 scruple of sage
1 small piece of hematite, powdered

Mix ink and holy water is a golden vessel. Add sage and gum Arabic and decant into a crystal container. Cover crystal container in horse glue and roll in powdered hematite, coating completely. Let rest in sunny area. When glue and hematite have fallen off the surface of the crystal (usually 2 months) the ink is ready. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.