This is why it takes so long...

So I've been working on A Magical Society: India today for about 50 minutes.

I've written 115 words.

Difficult, difficult writing...

A Magical Society India

The hardest 215 words (unedited) that I've written in a long time. The introduction to A Magical Society India. (yep, I'm finally starting to write the bugger). It'll be done when it's done.

This book aids the creation of a generic medieval Indian world for role-playing using various versions of the world’s most popular role-playing game. This is not a campaign setting, nor is it a history book. This book allows you to add a medieval Indian feel to your world without forcing you to play in a truly medieval Indian world. This volume provides a wealth of resources concerning medieval India: the spatial systems, the social groups and distinctions, the trade and economics, the law and justice, and the typical Indian medieval mindset. Modeled after the state of the Indian sub-continent circa 1200-1400CE, this book simulates, but does not replicate, actual medieval India.

This book also provides introductory information on costumes, customs, mythology, games, tournaments, linguistics, and other aspects of medieval India. This supplement provides GMs information and tools for increasing the depth of their existing world. However, it should be noted that the real historical India is vastly more complicated than presented in this book. It is a huge landmass filled with dozens of different cultures and languages, waxing and waning as history progresses. This book only scratches the surface and some basic core assumptions in gaming integrate poorly with actual medieval Indian society. Ultimately, GMs must make decisions on how their magical medieval society works.

New Classified Art

Got in another batch of classified art and thought I should do a preview. This one demonstrates the effectiveness of a pen filled with knockout gas.

Sunday Un-seriousness

This has always been one of my favorite cartoons. It's one of the few that gets better as I get older. Too many times has this basically been the equivalent of the quality of the adventuring plans that I've known.... :-)

New full-page Bingham Illo

Just got a new illo from John Bingham for an (as yet) unannounced project. Love it.

Fantasy Editing Music

One of my favorite albums for editing fantasy material is Therion's Secret of the Runes. If you have any interest in symphonic metal/fantasy metal, this is an utterly wonderful album. Pick it up.

Advanced Adventures #30: To End the Rising PDF now for sale!

I'm pleased to say that AA#30 has hit the digital shores! You can pick up a copy for $6 at rpgnow.

To End The Rising is an OSRIC(tm) module designed for 6-10 adventures of levels 1-3.

The shores of Lake Selmar, and the village of Prallis, are normally tranquil – except during the Rising. Every five years, a host of fearsome monsters emerges from the lake to lay waste to the village. The locals have endured this terror for decades, but now innocent travelers have been attacked. Can the party put an end to the Rising, forever?

Sunday Un-seriousness

Boom! Headshot.

Assassins are tricky buggers....

BINOCULARS
Assassin’s: When placed over the eyes, these binoculars violently protrude a thin pointed metal rod from the center shaft with enough force to penetrate a human skull. Still worse, a small explosive charge just behind the point of the rod explodes after penetration.

Assassin’s binoculars deal L(2) damage. There are two small pressure plates in an oddly placed position where the would-be assassin can lightly press when viewing, negating the weapon while held down. Cost: $3,500 plus $200 for a replacement exploding center spike.

Finally got On Her Majesty's Secret Service rpg

Finally managed to snag the old victory games On Her Majesty's Secret Service on ebay yesterday. I've been looking for a while, but I'm not terribly consistent and it seemed like every time I checked, I'd just missed it.

Hopefully it'll be in my hand by the end of the week. Then, I'll get to run through 4 solo adventures and have a bit of fun. Perhaps I'll incorporate the solo idea into some Classified project or another.

Giant Restock on Advanced Adventures Modules!

So I just got in a giant restock of Advanced Adventures modules at the XRP website. We now have copies of every Advanced Adventure produced (previously we were out of 8 titles).

Also, we still have a few copies of Advanced Adventures Compendium Three (featuring AA#29 &#30 which haven't been printed yet) from the promotional print run we did for North Texas Con 2013.

Spy Music

One thing I like to do when writing/working is to listen to appropriate music for the piece I'm working on. This means for most of my fantasy stuff I listen to things like the Conan soundtrack, some Wagner, and a bunch of fantasy/occult-influenced metal.

Working on Classified has been a bit more difficult for me to find music. I picked up the compilation of the Bond theme songs (and am thinking about picking up complete soundtracks as well), and I've been listening to various "hip" 50's-60's music web radio stations, but my choice of music for spy-related stuff is much less diverse than my fantasy stuff.

Because of this I've taken to scouring the net for things to listen to and one of the gems I've found on You Tube (and which I will be purchasing shortly) is the soundtracks from the movies In Like Flint and Our Man Flint. I've seen the first movie and thought it was humorous enough, but the soundtrack, IMO, is vastly superior.

Take a listen and enjoy... (not a direct link since You Tube and blogger don't want to play well with each other right now for some reason...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO4Q09Bkcco&list=PL8B4A20AEACD65FD7

1e Pre-Gens Uploaded for Stonesky Delve and The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates

Just uploaded the pre-gen characters for Advanced Adventures Stonesky Delve and The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates to Scribd. All together, there are 20 pre-gen 1e characters of levels 4-7 in the two downloads.

Enjoy!

Frankfurt Map Update

I did a bit more work on the map yesterday and thought I should post an updated version that's a little be more fleshed out (labels-wise) than the previous one. All in all, I think it's shaping up nicely and a probably a hour or so of additional work will bring it up to the publishable version.

Frankfurt Map

So I've finished the "mapping" section of the map and am just beginning the "labeling" section. The map is going to have fairly sparse labeling compared to what an actual street map of Frankfurt has, because the function of the map is to show the relative location of points-of-interest in Frankfurt, not to provide a guide for a person moving about the city.

One big thing that's changed since the original game came out in 1984 is the easy availability of high-quality maps for GMs. Since these street maps exist and can be printed out for hand-out to players, I expect the city maps in Classified to work with an internet map if the players wish more detail than just description.

In 1983 good luck finding a map of Frankfurt if you lived in the US. Now you have satellite images. The role of the maps have changed and I'm hoping the customers understand this change.

Below is the work in progress.

A New Month, a New Map

Started working on a map of Frankfurt, Germany for the Classified Mission Operation Rogue Lion. I'm going to follow in the vein of my source material and make the maps very information-oriented over "artistic." I love artistic maps, but I'm also a big fan of the stripped-down, information download maps, and given that this is for a covert game, I think that's the better "artistic" choice.