Fighting the Good Fight

I'm saddened by what's going on within the Blogosphere, the OSR, and Social Media. I wish, in 2020, I didn't feel the need to type that I'm against racists and antisemites, but I do. I'm against them and I have no place for them anywhere in my life. I'm not going to break it down further because better bloggers than I have addressed it. I want to thank Erik Tenkar and Robert Connely for having the courage and moral strength to do what is right.

To cheer myself up here is The Fighting American, created by Joe Simon and Jack "The King" Kirby, for Tiny Supers 2nd Edition

The Fighting American (Paragon)
Stress Capacity: 6

Traits
Armored (Tier 1)
Super Speed (Tier 1)
Super Strength (Tier 1)
Resolute

Power Origin
Enhanced (Super Soldier)

Weakness
Speedboy

Weapons
Light Melee (Unarmed)

Belief
Fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way

"Nelson Flagg was the unathletic younger brother of star athlete and war hero Johnny Flagg, and served as the writer for popular TV news commentator Johnny at station USA. When outspoken anti-Communist Johnny is killed by one of the many enemies his commentary has earned him, Nelson makes a deathbed promise to hunt down his brother's murderers. Recruited for the U.S. military's "Project Fighting American", Nelson has his mind and life force transferred to Johnny's "revitalized and strengthened" corpse. Assuming Johnny's identity, he adopts the costumed alter ego Fighting American to battle Communist threats."

Review: Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride for D&D 5th Edition

Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride is an adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition written by Levi Combs and published by Planet X Games. 

The Adventure is 66 pages and is designed for Characters of 5th through 7th level, the Player's Pack is 12 pages, and the Treasure Maps is 9 pages.  All three feature black and white interior illustrations with color covers.

A PDF of this adventure was provided to me in exchange for a review.

Okay, we have that out of the way now, let me start by saying what I love most about this adventure is its attitude, it is out to make sure that a group who plays it has fun. I really like that attitude.

The adventure is set within a dangerous jungle that houses the undead Mummy Bride. Levi makes it clear that this module focuses on Cannibalsploitation, Cenotes (a natural pit or sinkhole), and a Grindhouse-style. It explains these three tenets very clearly to help the Dungeon Master grasp its style. We are also quickly giving Rumors and Wandering Monster Tables. They are on self-contained pages and are clearly laid out. Additionally, Planet X introduces the Trope Mechanic and very clearly gives you advice on ways to emulate the Grindhouse-style with very clear ways to capture it's essence and ad-lib when the Players, inevitably, stray from the path.

I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure and even stole a large portion of it to run a one-shot using the TinyD6 game system when I needed an adventure to cover for an absent DM.

It's strange because when I began planning for my 1st DnD setting, I was inspired by Tarzan for some reason and this Adventure reminded me of that.

I don't want to spoil too much but if you like Cannibals, Mummies, Demon-Toads, Cannibal Gods, Undead Piranha and Crystal Skulls then you will love this adventure.

The Dungeon features three levels and ways to expand the setting, including a local village and other temples to explore. Additionally, there is an Appendix featuring magic items and monsters.

I can't recommend Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride enough. Buy it here as quick as you can.


Also, Planet X Games currently has Kickstarter for an OSR Zine, The Phylactery, and you should check it out too.

Greyhawk & Hero's Journey 2nd Edition

I'm sure Joseph Bloch's Greyhawk Grognard needs no introduction from me, but I'd like to give Joseph a HUGE Thank You for fan supporting Greyhawk for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.

Wizards of the Coast would be fools NOT to support Matt Mercer and Critical Roles campaign setting, having said that, I don't watch other people play RPGs (it just makes me want to play them more) and I probably won't pick it up as I've never used his setting from Green Ronin. But, I 1000% support Wizard's decision.

So far he has created documents for Feats, Factions/Organizations, and Wizards. If you enjoy his labor of love think about backing his Patreon, I just did.

James M. Spahn's Kickstarter for Hero's Journey 2nd Edition finished up last week (it's being published by Gallant Knight Games) and I just received the PDF tonight!

The Hero's Journey 2E is my favorite version of Swords and Wizardry and as much as I love Adventures in Middle-Earth for 5E, I might run this instead.

You can buy the PDF here and I cannot recommend it enough.

Monstrous Monday: Wompa for White Star

WAMPA for White Star

Armor Class: 6 [13]
HDE: 4/30
Total Hit Bonus: +4
Movement: 20
Special: Hide and Stealth 
Attack: 1d6
Hit Dice: 4

Saving Throw: 15

"A wampa made Hide on a 4 or less on 1d6 in its native environment and use Stealth on a 3 or less on 1d6.

Standing at a height of 2.5 to 3 meters and with an average mass of 150 kilograms, the wampa is one of Hoth's top carnivorous predators. It sports a pair of small cranial horns and lived in caves.[

Prey.

Creatures such as the tauntaun are prey to the wampa. However, all of the fifteen tauntaun subspecies are agile and swift, able to outrun the ice creature. Hence, a wampa will move in stealth, white fur blending into in the snow before ambushing and stunning, or slaying, its prey with razor-sharp fangs and claws, then dragging the body with its powerful arms to its cave within which it is hung upside-down, suspended to await being consumed in due time."

Ravenloft: Toil and Trouble

This is my second post where I attempt to make Ravenloft meaner and more evil when dealing with the heroic nature of Dungeons and Dragons. The first post may be found here.

The Demiplane of Dread and Desire and the Powers That Be who oversee it are certain that all beings, by their very nature, are flawed and deserve to be either Witnesses in their punishments of the Dark Lords and Lady's imprisoned there or they are nascent Dark Lords and Ladies who deserve their own Domain so that the Powers may torture them directly.

Let's take a look at Clerics, Druids, and Rangers, classes that Pray for their spells each day. Gods and other ancient beings are unable to overcome the will of the Powers That Be, this means that when a divine spellcaster finds themselves within the Demiplane they only have access to the spells they had prayed for before entering it. Let's hope you picked your spells well because they are the last trace of your link to the deity you devoted your life and your Faith too. 

Wizards, Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Fighters, Rogues, and Monks have it a bit easier in the Demiplane. Their spell selection and storage are generally not affected like a divine spellcaster's. Once per turn, the Dungeon Master can have one of the above Classes roll a d20 immediately after they cast a spell of 1st level or higher. If they roll a 1, the spell isn't cast and the spell slot is lost unless the spellcaster chooses to deny the Powers That Be for the moment. By choosing to do this the spell is cast, but the DM saves the 1 rolled and may use it to replace any die rolled by any of the Players later in the same session. There is no limit to the number of 1s at the DM's disposal per session.

Ravenloft: The Powers That Be

I first became familiar with Ravenloft as a setting for ADnD 2E on the back covers of comic books.

After our first or second session playing ADnD as Garamond, my fighter, whose Ability scores were so low he couldn't qualify for any other class or any Kits, we started talking about the settings we'd like to try and Ravenloft was at the top of my list.

It's odd because I never liked horror growing up, I was even afraid to watch the classic Universal monster films and couldn't sleep for days after watching a short snippet of Night of the Living Dead and Halloween (by the by, I rewatched the latter recently and I'm not sure WHAT I was afraid of).

But as I got older I found myself drawn to horror, especially in fiction and especially in RPGs.

Sadly, I don't know how well horror lends itself to heroic fantasy. Yes, ADnD 2E isn't as super-heroic as 3.X, 4E, or 5E but the only thing that scared me in the 2nd Edition era were monsters that caused you to lose levels (we leveled so rarely and it just pissed me off). Yeah, we would run from those monsters but only because we didn't want to lose levels and we never had a Cleric along with us.

After playing Call of Cthulhu (I don't remember which edition, it was either 4th or 5th -- but honestly, aside from 7E does it matter?) I just didn't think ADnD or most versions of DnD worked for horror. In fact, when White Wolf announced the rights to publish Ravenloft under 3.X I hoped we'd at least get a version for the Storyteller system (I don't know why I didn't just run Adventure! in the Demiplane of Dread and Desire).

While Curse of Strahd is one of my favorite campaigns for 5E (and second behind Vol 1 of Tyranny of Dragons in my stores), it too was a great sandbox, but not that frightening. In fact, we lingered at 10th level for 8 months because our Dungeon Master didn't want my Druid to get daylight.

So I've been thinking about ways to make Ravenloft, if not frightening, at least evil, or in this case EVIL.

First, what if the Dark Powers were simply the Powers That Be (to steal from Whedon's Buffy and Angel mythology). What if they are Lords of Law whose primary mission is to lure evil beings into their Demiplane and trap them there? What if every being who gets trapped there is going to be tormented and tested to see if they should permanently be imprisoned because they are imperfect? Maybe they aren't EVIL enough to be a Dark Lord or Lady, but they are evil enough to be trapped within their borders too. Maybe this is Purgatory, but what if it's something worse?

The point is that the Lords of Law are unable to see subtlety or to read context and because of that, nearly any being is too "chaotic" to be set free. Accordingly, the Powers That Be believe that no being should be saddled with free will because it is, literally, chaos. And since Ravenloft is a prison run by guardians who are inflexible, literally anyone can run afoul of the Demiplane's mists, but adventurers are especially drawn to the Powers' attention due to their chaotic actions.

The Powers That Be know you will fail their tests once within their borders, but their only question is are you evil or EVIL? Remember, if you are evil then you just become some lost and fallen soul participating in the punishment of a Dark Lord or Lady. You aren't even worthy of your own specific Hell.

But, if you are EVIL? Well then their Demiplane grows and perhaps, one day even grows into a true Plane or eventually into something even more all-encompassing. The Powers are hungry to set the Multiverse right and to scourge Creation of Chaos in all of its lurid forms.

Gods, Fiends, Aberrations, Primevals no one really knows where the Powers That Be originated and somehow their presence and especially their creation triumphs over even a God or Primeval's will. In other words, no one messes with the Powers That Be, because they can't and they might become imprisoned. Even Gods have nightmares and the Powers are their worst fear. Perhaps they already have come for Gods in the past? Perhaps a God has been imprisoned by the Powers and everyone has simply forgotten them. What if a trapped deities' most loyal worshippers were imprisoned at the same moment? What if Tharizdun is the only being to ever escape the Powers, it's only fear is being rediscovered by them, and that is why it shrouds its true identity in masks and lies?

So that's how the Demiplane of Dread and Desire operates and next time we'll talk about how the Powers decide if you are evil or EVIL?

Monstrous Monday: Maximillian for White Star

MAXIMILLIAN for White Star

Armor Class: 3 [17]
HDE: 3/75
Total Hit Bonus: +3
Movement: 25 (Flying)
Special: --
Attack: Blades 1d6+2, lasers 1d6, electrical charger 1d6
Hit Dice: 3

Saving Throw: 16

"Although mute, his sharp stiff body language does the talking. He shows no trust toward strangers especially when they are considered as guests. He is known to be disobedient and will do as he pleases, ignoring his owner"