How would you characterize an idea that just pops into your head? Was it deliberate? Were you brainstorming and trying to generate ideas of a particular type? Was it accidental and just a stray thought while you were off doing something else? Either way if you’re anything like me, these brief thoughts flit through your mind like a shooting star. Lighting up the night sky for just a moment. The briefest flash.

Gassy Gnoll

If you’re lucky, you caught a glimpse of that idea and it led you on a merry chase to some strange, wonderful, and often irrelevant conclusion. If you were unlucky, it zipped by and you were lacking the time or materials to ponder it then and there or even write it down so you could reconsider it later in an attempt to rekindle that line of thinking. And we’re left waiting a while for the next one to appear.

When we catch one of these flashes, we interpret it in some random way based upon past experiences. What does it mean? What might it represent? Why does it matter? Sometimes it’s a dead end. Sometimes it spawns other ideas or thoughts and you could spend a lifetime chasing them all down.

Once we’ve mulled over an idea, we often want to share it with someone else – communicating our perceptions of these brief flashes so that someone else might perceive it in a similar way. Each communication then becomes a shooting star in someone else’s mind… No two sparks ever occur the same way though we like to think we have a shared vision. Each interpretation is unique and special.

And this is all a good thing. Why? Because there should never be such a thing as writer’s block or not having an idea if we’re truly paying attention.

Every day our brains are awash with sensory perceptions, any one of which could spark a brilliant idea that could change the world forever or simply help you figure out what you want to eat at the next mealtime. Does that mean that every flash is a brilliant idea? Heck no. But the trick is to harness those flashes and tie them to whatever project you need to work on.

For me, I seem to get strange ideas in weird places. Driving to a soccer practice. Doing some grocery shopping. Reading a book. Watching television. Sleeping. Literally any time of the night or day. Each may lead to a new NPC, a plot hook, a strange device, a whole new world, or who knows what else.

And here’s the kicker: Most of it is forgotten or lost.

But if that happens I don’t stress about it. There are always more ideas. Maybe I simply wasn’t listening hard enough in the first place. I’ll just try a little harder to catch the next one. Or the one after that…

Do I meditate? Or enter a trance? Or sit in front of the keyboard for hours on end, fingers hovering over the keys? Nope. I just live my life and see what comes. It doesn’t have to be brilliant. It just has to BE.

Complaining about writer’s block is moot. It won’t get you anywhere. Change your scenery. Go for a walk. Read or listen to a book. Talk with friends. See a movie. Get out of your chair and explore your senses. Just be ready for random ideas at any time. Do they seem irrelevant? Cool. Sometimes those are the best ones that lead you on wild trips through strange country.

Just open up and take it all in. Who knows when following one of those brief shooting stars will be just the idea you were looking for?

Related articles

• The Gassy Gnoll: Where do you find artistic inspiration?
• The Gassy Gnoll: Musically Inspired Stories
• The Gassy Gnoll: Communicating a Vision (Art Direction)

First, the good. Honestly, I think the adventure described in TSoC is excellent. The world is wide open and ready for an enterprising GM to quickly pick up the pieces and work them into an existing world or campaign fairly easily. It’s a 31 page PDF that details a sandbox ripe for the picking. In broad strokes, you get a farming village with a problem. Something is stealing their children. Can your group of 3-6 1st level characters solve the mystery and save the missing kids?

The village is nicely detailed with established NPCs and areas ready for your PCs to explore. Will they start at the tavern? Visit the abbey? Chat up the villagers? It expands past that, with a local area filled with unique bits and pieces ripe for expansion. Plus there’s a good bit of history to the area, which makes the whole world seem bigger and more layered. Plenty of room to grow with a group of characters.

Two of the really cool bits of the book for me were the Rumor Table in the Rumors and Information section and the Tanglewood Random Encounters section. As the PCs explore the village and talk to some of the NPCs, they will learn snippets of the story of the fall of House Lansing and its lasting effects in the area via the Rumor Table. Not all of the rumors are helpful, but they definitely aid in breathing some life into the inhabitants. The Tanglewood Random Encounters on the other hand are separate smaller descriptions of various areas and NPCs the PCs might encounter as they enter the eerie ancient forest. Some of these encounters would be fun to expand on, such as the Unlucky Artist who was in town doing portraits and came to a bad end.

The adventure has a wide open feel and some fun battles for the beginning characters to get their feet wet and use some strategic thinking as well. The book layout, though a simple two-column approach with bold headers, worked fine for me. The art by Luigi Castellani, though sparse, definitely offered a solid glimpse at the world the adventure inhabits. And the maps from Tim Hartin were pretty good, showing the various important locations for combat.

So as you can see, there’s a lot to like here.

Now let’s move to why I think the module didn’t engage me as much as I would have liked. Though all the information is found within the pages of the PDF, I found the writing style a bit sterile and unemotional. When reading the story of how Lord Albert Lansing’s son went missing, I should have felt outrage and fear as a parent. Instead it felt like I was reading a technical document.

“…Driven by grief, Lord Lansing entered the Tanglewood seeking help from the forest spirits that were said to dwell within…”

Perhaps it could be a bit more emotionally charged…

“…Though he and his men sought the missing son anywhere they could think to look, Lord Lansing was desperate. In a grief-fueled haze, he entered the ancient Tanglewood to seek the help of some of the forest spirits rumored to dwell there, knowing it was a last resort and wondering what the price might be for any aid rendered…”

I’m still not convinced that’s the issue, but it’s something to consider. I know that many old school adventures had a dry writing style, so it may just be the style, but I think the writing needs a bit more punch. Maybe I’m spoiled, but I thought Atarin’s Delve was better.

If you’re looking for an introductory adventure to use for new Labyrinth Lord characters, The Stealer of Children is a fine choice. Plenty of options throughout the book should offer a great variety of roleplaying and combat encounters to keep the party busy for quite a while, plus plenty of juicy hooks to expand on should the GM choose to do so.

For more about Small Niche Games and The Stealer of Children…

• … check out all the Small Niche Games available at DriveThruRPG.
• … grab a copy of The Stealer of Children at DriveThruRPG.
• … check out my earlier reviews of Small Niche Press products - Atarin’s Delve and Chronicles of Amherth.

RPGPundit clearly defines his purpose in a well-written introduction defining the concept of “Old School Roleplaying” in a manner seemingly tip-toeing around calling the game what it is. This is presumably because of the current intellectual property owner’s massive army of legal wizards who they seem more than willing to unleash at a moments notice. But the introduction also defines the game’s intent and inspiration.

Already not more than a page into the actual content of the book, I find myself taking notes for further research and reading material. What is the background on the Brahmin caste? Just what is an Untouchable? I assure you these things have very different connotations from how we see the words today.

The game itself does a very good job of covering the basic, more familiar fantasy roleplaying classes but also introduces classes that are particular to the culture and succeeds in making them more than just a redefinition of existing classes. One of my favorites is the Thugee of which my only previous experience with was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Character creation itself does an excellent job of providing a massively random draw from various aspects of the Indian culture, including its caste system. Random table for period appropriate names anyone?

Going back to the Indiana Jones reference one would think the Thugee a villain. This assumption would be horribly incorrect as an actual Thugee is a “Holy murderer”, or we could call it an assassin. Thugees existed before that concept however.

Skills are definitely represented old school, in that they might not seem to have any effect on the game being played. I assure you though, you will not overlook that mining experience when you find yourself trying to stop a runaway mine cart at some point. Skill systems such as this always put a player’s, and game master’s, creativity on point, something I always find myself wondering why more “modern” systems have moved away from.

What would be traditionally called magic is handled through a series of Enlightenment Powers, some of which closely resemble their counterparts. Even in the renaming of the powers, a sense of the time and culture is preserved. When was the last time you had “Vajra Thunder” cast on you?

Some of the Enlightenment Powers, such as Banish Magical Effect, Bless/ Curse, and Charm Monster may leave little to the imagination. Their familiar naming convention, though, does serve to ease would-be magic users from a more traditional setting in to one that may very well be alien to the player, but shouldn’t be for the character.

The Game Master’s section will be very familiar to anyone who has been roleplaying for a while. It includes some of the old favorites such as rules for wilderness travel and even for morale. The latter is very important if you intend on including hirelings or slaves in your party. This facet of more mainstream games seems to have fallen out of favor with modern games and gamers. But you have to ask yourself just who is carrying that mountain of treasure for you, and just how much are you paying them to do it?

Once you get to the Gazetteer section of the book, you’re in for the real meat and potatoes of this game. The complex relationships of politics, the regions, even the realms of the underworld are all described in great detail. This last part being very useful for those with absolutely no knowledge of Indian culture but wishing to run the game.

For example if a Game Master wanted to run a good versus evil style of campaign he would know one of the easier places to deliver that experience to his players might be the Dandaka Jungle. Also quite the opportunity for lost treasure and artifacts with some many lost temples and hermitages abound beneath the leafy and vine draped canopy there.

Monsters and maps, creatures and critters, gods and religion… the book does an excellent job of ensuring the reader understands everything presented to them. There are even appendices that include rules for advanced level play for those who find the game popular among their play group.

Players interested in becoming nobility and land owners? Twenty levels of play not enough? Perhaps it’s time to retire these characters and take on the roles of their children? All of these rules are covered within the book.

So if you’re looking for a short break from the more “western” fantasy roleplaying games that dominate our hobby, or if you’re looking for something more unique to dive into I highly recommend Arrows of Indra. Even if you’re just looking for a book of research on caste systems or in need of original ideas for adventures, monsters, or religions, this could be that book for you.

For more about Arrows of Indra and RPGPundit…

• … check out the product page at Bedrock Games.
• … check out the Google+ community for the game.
• … check out the Facebook page for the game.
• … pick up a copy at DriveThruRPG!

——————————————–

Timothe Loya is the lead writer and designer for Tim Loya Games, which has produced several unique game supplements in The Expedition Journals of Amestus Armen series.

Related articles

• Arrows of Indra is now available in print
• What is Obscure? Obscure RPGs. from The Other Side blog

Gassy Gnoll

When is your PC’s birthday? Any ideas? I certainly don’t. I have an age for both my current characters but have absolutely no idea what time of the year they were born or whether they were even hatched. Are their birthdays important? Perhaps. How much emphasis does the culture place on such dates? Is a birthday something to be celebrated or bemoaned?

Important government or religious figures, or myths and legends may have particular holidays named for them. Who wouldn’t want to remember a king’s birthday or celebrate a beloved princess? But what happens when a dictator’s birthday is more important than the rest of the people in the country? This sort of crunchy detail can really offer some interesting roleplaying opportunities as well as hooks for GMs and other players to sink their creative teeth into.

Such a simple thing can become the centerpiece in a larger chunk of history. But consider all the other anniversaries that can become part of the tapestry of a world.

Here are a few ideas:

• Birthdays (becoming parents, birth of an heir, preordained religious figure)
• Date of passing (murder, assassination, death from natural causes, sacrifice, war)
• Weddings (alliances, romances, arrangements, oaths made and shattered)
• Office (taking office, losing a position)

Each of these can be worked into a PC history just as well as an NPC backstory or part of the story of the world and how things came to be… Ultimately these are mortal events binding individuals to the greater fabric of time and space. Think of all the individuals we know of our own history and how they are connected to our heroes and national identity.

Shouldn’t we have a few more of these simple events to help us hang things on as characters and worlds? I think so!

(If you’re wondering why this gassy old gnoll is talking about birthdays, it’s because it’s the gnoll’s birthday today! Yes, he’s getting older and grayer and wondering when the “wiser” part will kick in. )

Related articles

• The Gassy Gnoll: Musically Inspired Stories
• The Gassy Gnoll: Where do you find artistic inspiration?
• Gnasty Gnolls: Lore and Adventurers

But this carnival’s all about my own campaigns and what I’d like to run if time wasn’t an object. Though opportunities for this Gassy Gnoll have existed, I have somehow managed to avoid them for more than a decade. Sure, I’ve had a few isolated sessions that were intended to become longer campaigns. Sometimes I was even lucky enough to get two or three sessions in before things faded into oblivion. But that has always been the result. It always fizzles. The last campaign of any sort I ran was back in 1998/1999 and seems a million years ago now.

So why is now different? What’s changed? I have two daughters who are creative, gifted, and big bright spots in my life. And though we’ve dabbled here and there with some sessions, I’d like to get a world in motion so we can explore it indefinitely.

What am I considering? Classic fantasy. Good old dungeon crawls punctuated by urban encounters. A world where the good guys are good and the bad guys are horrible, but you want to root for them anyway. Classic fantasy offers me plenty of opportunity to take good old fairy tales and twist them to my needs I think, without scaring the crud out of them. (Though I’ve also been considering an urban fantasy instead, something along the lines of a Supernatural or Dresden Files. But I don’t think they’re quite ready for what horrors might exist in the real world.)

Though I’ve run a few Cyberpunk-ish campaigns over the years, I always tend towards good old fantasy. There’s just something about the traditional tropes that offers lots of room to adapt whatever I want to use.

What system? Either 4e or DCC most likely, though I’d enjoy giving Fate a shot at some point.

What do I need? A good place to start and a way to weave bits from other places together so they don’t seem like so much of a patch-work even if they are.

Where would it go? That’s an excellent question. I suspect I’d run it largely as a sandbox world until they got into a dungeon or particular module and then would play those fairly straight.

What would I get out of it? First and foremost I’d get to play with my kids and share one of my favorite pastimes. Second, I have a built-in gaming group here and my wife can even join in occasionally if she’s around. Third, we can steal time when we have it – play an hour or so while we have lunch together, play after dinner, or even plan for longer sessions over the weekends if we have the time.

I will likely adapt some of the pieces of my old Moebius Adventures setting (the “Age of Phaedrus” was more a traditional fantasy world with some fun twists) and add some new bits, working in modules from the multitude of great publishers putting adventures together for the DCC RPG. Are we going to die a lot? You bet – in probably some really ugly ways. Will it be fun? Heck yeah!

So I am hoping to get some of the pieces in place before school ends in a few weeks. Will it work? I don’t know! Probably!?! I’ll likely report on the campaign and we’ll see where we go from there.

A hearty thank you goes out to Lowell Francis for kicking things off and I look forward to some of the awesome posts in the carnival!!

Related articles

• The Gassy Gnoll: GMing for a Ship of Fools (April RPG Carnival)
• The Gassy Gnoll: Communicating a Vision (Art Direction)
• Gnasty Gnolls: Lore and Adventurers
• RPG Blog Round Up
• [Age of Ravens] Campaigns I’d Like to Run: RPG Blog Carnival for May
• The Gassy Gnoll: Where do you find artistic inspiration?

Like with Secrets of the Tainted (SOTT), this adventure explores the city of Tarina – “a place where anything is obtainable for the right price.” Sounds good, right? Before your group of 1st level characters even get to the city, they become sucked into a plot involving thieves, wizards, and knights. Talk about being pushed into the deep end of the pool! Where SOTT explored the literal underworld of Tarina, TGOT focuses on some of the politics on the surface. And like always, politics sometimes brings together unlikely groups of people. Where will it lead the PCs?

The adventure is a 56 page PDF (44 pages of content) featuring gorgeous full-color cover and interior artwork by Ambrose Hoilman and well-written text by designers Jaye Sonia and Ben Cacchione. My same complaints about blank pages and font size still apply here (see my review of SOTT for more), but this book seems to suffer from fewer blank pages (until the last few sections anyway), which made it a little better. Beyond that I have to say it’s quite a spectacular looking book with a lot to offer a Pathfinder group eager to explore a whole new world.

One of the things I really like about this adventure is the underlying mystery driving everything from the very beginning. It is because of the mystery that this adventure winds around quite a bit, leading the PCs into various parts of the city to meet different factions. What’s even better is that the PC’s choices from the very beginning will mark them as working for (or with) certain groups and that will also be interesting to explore later on. Though the PCs could slaughter their way through every part of the scenario, they need information to accomplish their mission. And unless they know how to talk to the dead, it’s difficult to interrogate folks when they’re not breathing (not impossible, but difficult).

As an introduction to the setting, I think this approach works brilliantly to reveal some of the layers that PCs (and GMs) can explore down the line.

Construction-wise, there are elements of the sandbox approach mixed with some scripted bits that offer the GM and players a ton of flexibility exploring the various threads going on here. And if you’re looking for threads, NPCs, or locations for use in your own campaigns, there are a TON of great options in this toolbox. GMs (and designers) should pay special attention to “Part III” where many locations are detailed with plenty of juicy nuggets to offer enterprising PCs for quite a while. I can only imagine that some of the encounters based on this part of the adventure could be quite entertaining.

And the conclusion should offer quite a spectacular encounter. After all the Q&A the PCs endure, they end up in a cool location and have some fun beasties to take out.

That said, one of my concerns about the module is how deadly it could possibly be depending on how the PCs choose to go. If they go down one or two blind alleys, it’s possible they could be stopped before they get started, ending up in a lot of hot water with groups that might be happier with them out of the way and not causing trouble. In that respect, I think that TGOT takes more of the DCC RPG approach to adventure design, potentially thinning the herd and not coddling 1st level characters like many adventures have in the past. The PCs will survive if they learn quickly that discretion is the better part of valor, but they’re going to be bruised and battered a bit along the way.

In summary, I think BlackStar Studios has another great adventure on their hands that should entertain a group of 1st level Pathfinder PCs for quite a while as they explore a whole new world. They may not like everything they find as they peel away the layers of Tarina, but they’re going to be sucked in from the very beginning and it will be very interesting to see where they end up.

For more about Shadowlands: The Gates of Tarina Adventure Module, check out…

• … Shadowlands: The Gates of Tarina Adventure Module at RPGNow along with the rest of the BlackStar Studios products available.
• … the BlackStar Studios Facebook page or the BlackStar Studios Twitter feed for current events and announcements.
• … the BlackStar Studios home page (doesn’t look like it’s been updated for a while).

Related articles

• Supplement Review: Shadowlands: Secrets of the Tainted Adventure Arc (PFRPG) by John Maki from BlackStar Studios
• Supplement Review: Storm Bunny Studios Presents: The Ghost of Ashenwood Road by Jaye Sonia
• Supplement Review: Appendix N Adventure Toolkit: The Treacherous Cobtraps by Jimm Johnson from Brave Halfling Publishing
• The G*M*S Magazine Podcast Episode 94 – Shadowlands with Chris Merwin
• Supplement Review: Appendix N Adventure Toolkit #1: The Ruins of Ramat by John Adams from Brave Halfling Publishing

Where does communication come in? Everywhere. In my own experience, it seems to break down into several steps:

1. The initial e-mail of introduction detailing what the publisher is looking for in broad terms (subject, style, medium, size, etc.).
2. Negotiating a price for the work being done, including details about how the art is to be used by the publisher.
3. Development of early sketches and the back-and-forth of fine-tuning.
4. Delivery of final image(s).
5. Publishing the product with the images included.

Each step of the way, communication is key. Keep in mind that these are just my steps and probably differ wildly from anyone with experience handling art direction for a small publisher.

Though I’m working with some talented folks (Jason “Banditt” Adams, William C. Pfaff, Bill Moran, and now Jason Cox), my consistency communicating at each step of the process has been a little haphazard at times. My recent communication issues have stemmed from scheduling issues, feedback, and changing path in mid-stream, which have caused me to rush things a bit. That results in asking artists to design pictures of people, places, and things that may not have been fully formed in my head. If I can’t communicate to myself on paper how a particular NPC is supposed to look or what their business looks like to a customer, how can I ask someone to render a gorgeous black and white or color image? 

Not very bloody well is the answer. In this last case, I should have slowed down and done the slow walk around the character in my head, noting various things big and small, from mannerisms and speech patterns to clothing, hair, and commonly used tools. Each small detail adds up quickly and the art that results from someone else internalizing those details can vary widely. I’m correcting things as I go, which hopefully won’t tick anybody off along the way.

I often think about the quote “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” when perusing art online or admiring a piece from an artist I’ve found. But when producing products, the whole concept of “art direction” seems to require a lot more than that. Honestly I’m not sure I know enough about art one way or another to pull it off. If nothing else, I have a lot more respect for those publishers who do art direction themselves or have someone dedicated to the task. And I’m learning as I go. Hopefully it’ll be good enough and improve over time.

So this is one of my lessons learned of late. Details. Details. Details. When I have a firmer grasp of what someone, something, or someplace looks like – then, and only then, can I share those details and ask an artist to try and convert those details to a visual piece of art.

Any of you learn any lessons about working with artists or handling art direction tasks? I’d love to hear any guidelines or tips you might share from your own experience!

Please share in the comments!

Related articles

• The Gassy Gnoll: Where do you find artistic inspiration?
• RPG Blog Round Up
• Bret Victor: Stop Drawing Dead Fish. A talk about art and computers

Written by Michael Curtis for Goodman Games, The Sea Queen Escapes! is a 24-page PDF detailing an adventure for six 3rd-level Dungeon Crawl Classics characters (20 pages of content). The cover features artwork from Doug Kovacs and the interior includes art from Jeff Easley, Kovacs, Peter Mullen, Russ Nicholson, Stefan Pang, and Michael Wilson. Honestly the art is one of my favorite things about Goodman Games’ products that really brings me back to my youth and the art in my original Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook for 1st edition AD&D. Thank goodness for the Old School Renaissance.

It’s tough to offer much detail about the story without spoiling the whole thing, but it’s a great setup. The hook offers a simple way to drop this adventure into just about any campaign. Broken into three distinct phases, each offers a slightly different (but related) feel. The challenges mix traditional combat with some unusual traps, curses, and creatures… Even some interesting tips on underwater fighting that I thought were quite solid. Remember, this adventure does deal with the ocean – so your PCs are likely to get wet!

If you aren’t looking for any spoilers, I’d skip the next bit of the review…

• One of my favorite encounter descriptions is near the very beginning of the adventure: “The Shell Game.” It involves a collection of turtle shells floating in the air to get from the end of one set of stairs to the next. It’s a bit like a scene out of a Mario Brothers game where your little icon has to jump from shell to shell while avoiding getting squashed by some creature or another. Like everything else in the DCC universe, this particular encounter could be deadly if things don’t go well. So what’s my advice? Have things go well, of course!
• If you’re looking for a creepy, ghoulish, and creative group of creatures to cause trouble for your PCs, the Lampreymen are awesome. Lampreys by themselves are quite creepy, but when you make them humanoid and give them spears they become horrific!
• Lastly I have to say that asphalt lakes are simply evil. Don’t drop any lit flames or you’ll have some issues.

That’s all the spoilers, I promise.

I will say that the writing is quite good and surprised me in one place. The words “isosceles trapezoid” are rarely found anywhere in the real world outside of a math book and yet they appear in this adventure. Brilliant!

So if you’re a fan of the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure series, I can definitely encourage you to check it out. Michael Curtis and Goodman Games did a great job offering some tricky encounters to further pare down your DCC adventuring party!

For more about the book…

• … check it out at DriveThruRPG for the PDF version.
• … check out all the Goodman Games products at DriveThruRPG.
• … and check out the Goodman Games website for many many more great products and adventures to inspire you!

Related articles

• Dungeon Crawl Classics reaches 1,500 likes, offers two free adventures
• New DCC RPG Limited Edition Cover
• My Dungeon Crawl Classics experience
• Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG: Limited Edition Cover #3
• Building Character – Background Vignettes
• Supplement Review: The Vile Worm by Jimm Johnson and Jeff Lynk from Brave Halfling Publishing

Here are some details on just a few of the recent releases from Raging Swan Press…

Urban Dressing

If you haven’t been following the Urban Dressing series from designer Brian Liberge, he’s been cutting a swath through quite a few parts of the urban landscape:

• It all started with Urban Dressing: Market Stalls back in January 2013, which led to…
• Urban Dressing: Traders & Craftsmen in February, which led to…
• Urban Dressing: Alleyways in March…
• and April’s Urban Dressing: Temple.

Conceivably you could construct an entire urban center… The PCs could visit a market stall, which leads them down an alley to a troubled trader or craftsman hiding out in a temple!

Wilderness Dressing

Then there’s the continuing saga of the Wilderness Dressing series from a variety of designers:

• January brought us Wilderness Dressing: Woodlands (designer Mike Welham)
  
• February brought us Wilderness Dressing: Plains (designer Eric Hindley)
• And March brought us Wilderness Dressing: Hills (designer Brian Gregory)

Now our PCs are on a journey, traveling across hills, plains, and through the forest to their destination.

Dungeon Dressing

And if that’s not enough, you have to dress up your dungeons as well. Thankfully there’s the Dungeon Dressing series to explore many of the common elements of dungeons of the rich and infamous:

• In January, we saw Dungeon Dressing: Double Doors (designer Creighton Broadhurst) and Dungeon Dressing: Sarcophagi (designer David Posener).
  
• In February, we saw Dungeon Dressing: Dungeon Names (designer Creighton Broadhurst).
• In March, there was Dungeon Dressing: Bridges (designer Ben Kent).
• And in April, we’ve seen Dungeon Dressing: Thrones (designer Greg Marks), Dungeon Dressing: Doom Paintings (designer Mike Welham), and Dungeon Dressing: Porcullises (designer Aaron Bailey).

When the PCs arrive at their destination (named well in advance and over a bridge of course), there will be a dungeon worthy of their talents! From the portcullises and double doors to rooms filled with dangerous thrones and paintings of doom… How could they not be impressed with a bit of interior decorating?

And Much More!

April’s not done yet! They just released Village Backdrop: Hosford and Wilderness Dressing: Swamps is almost here. I really need to figure out how to read all this great stuff and write some reviews!

Beyond that, there’s plenty of crunch in the 100% Crunch series, village goodness in the Village Backdrop series, and a few releases of updated anniversary editions of previous Raging Swan products such as Swallowfeld, The Lonely Coast, and Dark Waters Rising.

Creighton must be a heck of a slave driver to get 30+ products released in just the first four months of 2013. It’s insane!

Ultimately they seem to cover just about everything you might want for your Pathfinder campaign… Encounters, adventures, monsters, and more ideas than you can shake a stick at.

What’s next? You can peruse the Raging Swan Press release schedule at any time and peer into the crystal ball…

For more about Raging Swan Press, check out…

• … the Raging Swan Press website.
• … the Raging Swan Press Facebook page.
• … Creighton’s Raging Swan and gaming blog for details on this and other products.
• … and be sure to check out all the cool Raging Swan products at DriveThruRPG and the Paizo store!

Related articles

• Raging Swan Press releases Dungeon Dressing: Portcullises
• Raging Swan Press releases Dungeon Denizens: EL1 from G*M*S Magazine
• Raging Swan Press releases Wilderness Dressing: Hills from G*M*S Magazine
• Raging Swan Press releases Dungeon Denizens EL 2 from G*M*S Magazine

The Gassy Gnoll has already spoken about his own experiences with letting campaigns get out of hand (see here) and maybe someday I’ll talk more about that experience, but instead I want to turn the tables slightly and talk about how one of *MY* characters tried regularly to steer our campaign into the rocks…

I’ve mentioned Didius Cato (aka DC), the escaped slave and rogue I played a few years ago in a fairly lengthy campaign I played in up in Denver for a couple of years. He was a ton of fun to play and I miss him, but damn if he occasionally steered the group wrong. (Others would likely say it happened often, but potato – potahto…)

The first time I got an inkling of his capricious nature, we were investigating a strange place where shadows were moving but there was nothing visible to be casting them. I suddenly got this bizarre thought to pull out a die to determine which of two courses of action he’d take. Odd, he’d take the risky one. Even, he’d stay the path. Of course, I rolled odd. And DC suddenly decided to jump feet first to land in one of the shadows. It was cold as I recall, but there were no bad effects beyond that. (I may be remembering it wrong, but we’ll leave it at that for now.)

Much later, our group was walking through the capital city of Rauxes when DC and his companions passed near a slave market. As an escaped slave, you might imagine that DC had a bit of a negative reaction to ongoing slavery in the world. This was an analog of Ancient Rome with magic thrown in for good measure, so slavery was a part of the social landscape and a minefield DC had to tread carefully through every day. At any rate, there was a slave auction going on that day… so the dice came out. Again, the die landed on an odd number and DC was compelled to act.

During that particular battle, DC’s companions were also compelled to act… to try and save him from himself. DC ran in like a mad man, sliced at the ropes holding these long lines of slaves prisoner, likely stabbed a guard or three, and screamed at the newly-freed individuals to run for their freedom. Somehow DC and the party managed to work their way out of that situation without a) dying or b) getting locked up in prison and becoming slaves themselves.

But this brings me to a point on this very topic. If the opportunity presents itself to turn the current campaign or adventure on its head, that means the GM must be prepared for it, right?

The entire concept of tabletop role-playing revolves around being social. Asking and answering questions. Improvising to solve (or create) problems for the players (or the GM).

Some of the most fun I’ve ever had GMing has been winging it as I chased the players through the campaign world trying to figure out where they’re going and what they’re going to do when they get there. So whether I deliberately or accidentally put the option on the table for my players to do something dumb or screw with the plots I have winding around in my head, that’s my challenge as GM.

And as a player, it’s my job to see possibilities in the world the GM has created and run with them. It’s likely we’re not going to run quite in the directions they want us to, but we’ll meet in the middle somewhere usually.

In a Battletech campaign in college, my best friend and GM set up a scenario for our group of ‘mech warriors to take care of. We had to take out everything along a particular landing strip on a planet. When asked if there was anything we needed, we gave him a list of a few items… Big metal pieces we could assemble a box out of and “1, shitload, mines.” Yes, that’s what we asked for. And… he gave it to us! So we put the mines in the box, rigged the whole damn thing to explode and had one of our air-’mechs drop the box onto the tarmac.

We finished the whole scenario in less than 7 seconds I believe. He was in shock. And we were all laughing.

So if you give your players the rope to hang themselves, that’s great – but sometimes it’s enough to hang the GM as well. Prepared or not, you roll with the punches and hope you have something ready or can create it on the fly.

The “Ship of Fools” sails on my friends… It sails on…

Related articles

• The Gassy Gnoll: GMs, We Salute You! (RPG Blog Carnival)
• The Gassy Gnoll: Homesick Adventurers
• April RPG Carnival – GMing for a Ship of Fools from Elthos RPG
• RPG Blog Carnival: Epic Moments of GM’ing.
• March RPG Blog Carnival: Round Up from Kobold Enterprise ~ the adventure has just begun
• RPG Blog Round Up
• 3 Things Dungeon World Is Doing That Should Be In Your Game