Shadow & Fae

    Beware what you wake in the dark... At some point last year I bought Mothership, and after reading through the player's survival guide I decided to give it a shot. I ran some friends on the GLoG server through a space station as they tried to rescue... someone. There were lots of laughs along the way (My ma' was a robot!), but I'd hardly call it horror. A little disappointed, I put it back on the shelf. Still, I've been meaning to come back and read through the Warden's Manual for some time, especially as I keep hearing it called one of the best referee books in the Old School vein. Friends and foes, I was not lied to. The Warden's Manual is punchy, blunt, and full of hands-on guidance about how to create situations that are already bad, and destined to get  really bad  before the get better (and some day even worse). The usefulness of the manual extends beyond sci-fi into the realms of all role-playing games. A few items that I found especially good were: T...

  I 've been desperately trying to get this out before Halloween, and HERE IT IS! https://shadowandfae.itch.io/harwood This idea struck me a few weeks back while I was watching Over the Garden Wall and reading "Where the Dark Stands Still" I knew if I didn't get on it soon, I'd never finish it at all. It's been a very fun little hex crawl to write, but I must confess it is not fully play-tested.  Things I'm Proud Of A complete mini-hexcrawl, dungeon, and human-made art! A little village with its own history, holiday, and hauntings! A solid adventure scenario with some interesting possibilities. Things I'm Not Sure About I think the village could be fleshed out with a bit more intrigue, but it's probably sufficient for play. I hope you enjoy... A Walk in the Harwood!

For those who have been waiting for print editions, they are now easy to order thru Lulu ! Click here to get a copy! I've received proofs of both, and am impressed with the end result! They are saddle-stitched, 60# cream pages, with beautiful matte covers that feel sturdy in the hand. As always, you can get free copies of both these, and all my other games, on Itch . Thanks again for all your support and encouragement, it means the world to me.

The other day I dreamed up a dangerous game of desperate folk doing what they needed to survive in a world that doesn't care for them. For now, I'm calling it Goon . The Setting Imagine a world something like 1920's America, and nothing like 1920's America. There's a City on the River Rhynne named San Rheese. Illegal casks of booze flow up river from Port Victoria to the factories of Cipolla City, and trains run from the civilized East steadily deeper into the untamable West. And here in the center, at the Crossroads of the New World, we do what we have to do to survive. The Players The game is about little gangs vying for power and recognition in a corrupt world. Some are dedicated to the good of the people, and some to the size of their pocketbooks. It's up to the players to decide what their little gang will pursue, and how. The System I've taken cues from GLoG and Into the Odd to create a dangerous system where tomorrow is never guaranteed, and drawing a...

  "Poems & Stories" By J.R.R. Tolkien, Cover by Pauline Baynes, 1980 Edition Worlds from Seeds The most daunting foe to many a budding Referee (Sometimes called a Game Master, or even a Dungeon Master) is the blank page. Let's not mince words, Referees are frail, fallible human beings of limited capacity, just like (almost) every other human mucking about on Earth, and yet we're expected to summon worlds from our fingertips, breathe life into the unwashed hordes, and pull intriguing lore straight out of our unmentionables . It's too much to ask. But hubris-filled fools that we are, we're going to try it anyway. Where shall we start?  From Tiny Seeds What is it that interests you personally about fantasy stories? For now, keep things painfully simple. Your list could be as simple as "A Dungeon, a Dragon". There's a reason that recipe works. But there's no harm in spicing things up a little: "A Corrupt Temple, a Falling Star, a 'Vi...

There's a lot of options when it comes to modeling weapons and combat with dice games. I'm of the bent that combat should be just as interesting as the rest of the game. Some like to bypass it by making it as fast as possible, others basically turn combat into the whole game. When the rubber hits the road, I want to see players make interesting choices each turn, so that when combat occurs, it is just as interesting as exploration and roleplay. The trouble with this in traditional dungeon games is you only get one action each round, and if it's anything other than "attack" the rules sometimes punish you for doing something "sub-optimal". My attempt at a solution to this is to give everyone two actions in combat, one of which can be an attack or spell. Fighters get an extra action which can be an attack at 3rd level, but everyone can try various "maneuvers" if they're in a situation where they might be able to do so. Weapon Types On top of t...

  What Makes a Setting Good? Adventure games are about adventuring. In so far as a setting empowers that, it is good. If it makes adventuring difficult or confusing, it has taken a misstep. That's the theory, and I'm running with it. Lots of folks like to talk about Elden Ring, which gives a  touch  of lore up front, just enough to make you wonder, and then trusts you to explore and figure out that world on your own. If you want to dive into the lore, you've got to dive into the world and it's dungeons. That is my aim. Inisval Three Centuries Ago The Grey Lady lead the Fairfolk away from their home in Greymirror deep into the underworld at Fairgrave, and they have not been seen since, unless you believe old wives' tales and rumors, that is. The land was entrusted to the King in Casarra, but it was never the same. Three Decades Ago Dwarves, exiles from their home in the east, founded a mountain home at Lastlight. They don't allow visitors, but from time to time t...

I've been working on Shadow and Fae for about three years now, and I think I'm getting to the point of calling it done. But then, why not improve it just a touch more... Why not make it a zine? And if it's a zine, why not make two more zines to go with it? If you want more details on this journey, the three zines I'm working on, or to support me as I go, take a peek here:  https://itch.io/s/120972/shadow-and-fae-2e-3-zine-fundraiser