Against the Cult of the Reptile God

Wizards just made N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God available in PDF.

I have fond memories of running this game back when it first came out. On the surface it follows a familiar formula: quaint village, nefarious goings on, and nearby adventure locals. The added twist is that there is enough going on in the village itself that several adventure sessions and deadly encounters can happen right in the character's home base.

Also I really like troglodytes and nagas, they just seem really sinister and nasty making for great villains. And I also admire Timothy Trumans evocative, dark art work that set the tone for this challenging novice adventure.

Petty Gods

I'm really glad to hear that Gorgonmilk took up the responsibility of getting Petty Gods completed. I thought it was a great idea when I first heard about it, and I donated some art for the interior and the cover.

Looking at the direction it is taking I'm thinking it is a good thing that Gorgonmilk is taking on the job, because it sounds much more compelling as a resource book now!

Hard to believe it was almost two and a half years ago this project started. Damn things can move slow in the OSR. (hello WotRP!)

D&D Premium Reprint

Wizards of the Coast is putting together a gorgeous reprint of the original D&D sets. When I first saw this image I thought it was some fan-made thing and my reaction was what a cool idea! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was Wizards that was actually putting this together. Well played Wizards, well played.

The only other thing I have to add is just...

Dundracon 2013

I'll be at Dundracon if you happen to be in the area and want to go to one of the best game conventions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Always lots of excellent gaming goes on. I will have my recent game Murder of Crows available for sale, as well as old classics like the entire line of Dungeoneer games. I should have some art prints, and if you want some Magic, Game of Thrones, or L5R cards signed that I've illustrated for I'll be happy to.

I'm trying to get together some art prints as well. Unfortunately I didn't get Warriors of the Red Planet completed, but I do have the latest version in PDF format on my iPad, and if you buy anything at my booth and ask for a sneak peek of WotRP you can see it and I'll give you a 10% discount.

D&D Classics in PDF

Back again. Finally!

WotrP - the Problem with Mapping Barsoom

I have been trying for a while now to create a decent map of Barsoom. Consulting various sources, taking notes from the books, looking at the many other homemade maps available online. One thing becomes rapidly clear. There is no definitive map of Barsoom. Contradiction after contradiction abounds. Even the books seem inconsistant - though it is harder to tell with words compared to actual pictures.

Time is running short and it looks like I'm going to have to just pick what I like best aesthetically  and create a map that works best for a semi-sandbox style game to flesh out the Barsoom-inspired Mars campaign section of the book.

Here are just a few examples of Mars maps floating about the interwebs.

One of the better maps came in the John Carter Warlord of Mars boardgame/wargame by SPI:

Another one I like is from the almost-RPG John Carter Adventure Handbook published by Heritage models:

But, of all the various maps of Mars out there, by far one of the worst is the one in the ill-fated Warlord of Mars published by TSR - which was quickly rescinded for copyright violation:

This is a very interesting topic, worthy of several posts, so I'm sure I'll have more to say about it in the coming days as I finish up the version of this map for WotRP.

Discuss this on the WotRP forum, where I'll be posting more details and images.

Sorceror Upgrade

My Friend Ron Edwards has a Kickstarter to fund the next evolution of his great Sorcerer RPG.

I had the honor to paint the cover for this new edition! So I'm quite excited to see that the Kickstarter has already met its funding goal and it just started today. So do me a solid, head on over and check it out, and if it looks cool make a pledge and you'll be getting a great indie RPG with (hopefully) great cover art. :)

Check out the Sorcerer Upgrade Kickstarter link here