Formula Folio

Thought I should put up another of these...

Entangle
For the ink required to scribe a druidical entangle scroll

1 oz. of giant octopus ink
1 oz. of holly berry juice
An oaken bowl
11 stems of grass knotted together in a circle

In an oaken bowl, add the octopus ink and holly berry juice and mix well by moving the bowl in a circular motion. Coat the stems of grass with the mixture. Pour out the excess liquid and place the bowl containing the stems in a tree hollow for two full moons. On the last day of the second full moon, harvest the ink. The bowl will have changed shape into a wooden vial and within will be a thick black ink. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

Formula Folio

Detect Snares & Pits
For the ink required to scribe a druidical detect snares & pits scroll

1 oz. of giant octopus ink
1 oz. of holly berry juice
1 oz. of soil
1 piece of twine

In a ceramic container, mix all ingredients. Seal container with beeswax. Place container where an animal was once snared or pitted and let sit for 1 lunar cycle. Makes enough ink for 2 scrolls. Any special quill is suitable.

Rush Music in a Japanese Game Show

So I was watching an 1986 episode of Takeshi's Castle last night and in the background they were playing an instrumental version of Territories from 1985's Power Windows album. I had a rather weird moment of conflict of worlds during the recognition process. Rush music and 80's Japanese Game shows previously did not mesh in my world view. Aparantly Takeshi's Castle was known for using popular music... the one I heard is "Home Run: Territories: The theme of The Animal."

The 10%

I just looked at some of S&SS blog statistics and found that about 10% of visitors are classified by Google Analytics as non-Native English Speaking. I was surprised by that and thought I should say "Hi!" to all those who visit the site from around the world. The internet bring us together in ways that were never able before and hopefully when I'm old and near death, I'll look back upon the development of the 'net as one of the great steps of humanity. Here's to hoping!

Tome of Tomes

Finally in workable condition. Lots of catching up to do.

Curses of the Pharaohs
Author: William Wisterson
Race: Human
Dimensions: 14x12x2.5
Weight: 7 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Very rare
Fields of Study: Humankind, supernatural & unusual
Special Knowledge Categories: History, dweomercraft
Value: 525 gp

This work is invaluable to those contemplating any form of tomb-robbing, for within are dozens of different common curses as well as how to recognize a cursed area. In addition to the practical knowledge, there is much here about the dwellers of ancient Kemet and their society. Anyone reading this book and studying for at least a month gains a 10% chance to detect or notice any cursed area or cursed object associated with ancient Kemet.

Sunday Un-seriousness

I'm still sick. Better than before but sick - not 100%. Sorry for no updates recently.

Still Sick. Ugh.

Tome of Tomes

Both Suzi and I are sick and we've been so for several days now. It's a sniffy, sneezey, coughy apartment here at XRP land. I haven't got nearly as much done as needs be done.

Elven Dialects
Author:  Jacinth Infal
Race: Half-elf
Dimensions: 8x10x1.5
Weight: 4lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Uncommon
Fields of Study: Demi-humankind
Special Knowledge Categories: Languages
Value: 105 gp

Infal expertly details the differences between spoken elven throughout the civilized world, her extensive travels proving vital to the accuracy of her work. Elven Dialects is mainly composed of a series of short dialect dictionaries showing different meaning and usage.

The Bane of Big Ideas

So I'm working on World's Apart (a fantasy game based upon Mongoose's OGL Traveller), A Magical Society: India, and an unannounced Pathfinder project. All of these are probably 80-100k word projects. That's three big irons in the fire. The problem with these large projects is that I tend to get serially obsessive: working on one exclusively for a short while before moving on to the next. This leaves me little time to do the small, daily, creatives that I really *need* to be doings: Tome of Tomes, Formula Folio, Creatures & Objects Below the Shattered Moon. These four smaller projects help keep my brain from "focus tiredness" and they make good small posts here at the blog and eventually nice little PDFs.

The Bane of Big Ideas is that they trample all before them. Time to force the old brain into doing *everything* that needs to be done.

On a side note, I've just accepted another Advanced Adventure Manuscript (it'll be #25 or #26) and I'm still looking for more. I"m always looking for more AA material.

Where's theres a whip, there's a way!

Woke up this morning singing this song. Time to get to work!

Awwww....

XRP PDFs 50% off at e23!

We're running a 50% off PDF sale with the good folks at Steve Jackson Game's e23 until the end of the month. We've sold our PDFs with e23 for several years now and I realized that I hadn't ran a big sale with them before, so I thought December would be a good month to do so.

Squirrel Spiders

This would be a cool critter to stat up in Sorcery & Super Science! I should do so, I think. Thanks for all the well wishes on the big 40, all, and hope you enjoyed the presents!

I'm 40! And I have some presents for you!

Today I am 40! Whoda thunk I'd make it this far? Now that I've had by celebratory breakfast of delicious egg and potato tacos, I've put up a single day sale on our our Sorcery & Super Science! products at rpgnow.com.

They're all $1.

Yeah, that's pretty insane... I've never done a $1 sale, but hell, you only turn 40 once and I might as well spread the cheer. Happy birthday to me!

Worlds Apart Layout Tinkerings

So I've been working on Worlds Apart (our Mongoose Traveller-based fantasy game) for a while now and have been tinkering with the layout. I'm trying to be a bit more graphic-designy on this one. Here's a mock-up of the table of contents spread. I'm pretty pleased with it, but I know I've much more tinkering to do.