H.P. Lovecraft Bronze Bust Project Kickstarter

The H.P. Lovecraft Bronze Bust Project Kickstarter just went live. This looks like a worthy project that deserves to get funded. Check it out...

Raid on Black Goat Wood Revised

It has been a long while since I posted anything here on the Outer Dark. I have lots of good reasons for this, including another project that has pulled my attention away, and of course there is my gig as a stay-at-home dad that is never ending. As a peace offering to my long neglected readers, I am posting a revised version of my one-page adventure, Raid on Black Goat Wood. The biggest revision is the map, which I feel is a BIG improvement over the original. I have also adjusted the layout of the document, which I hope will help organize things a bit better and make it easier to navigate the text. I made only a few small tweaks to the text of the adventure, so it remains very close to the original. I would like to thank all of those who downloaded the original and ran it for their groups. This means a lot to me, so thank you all! I hope this new revised version of Raid will be as warmly received as the original release was. Enjoy!

Edit: Found a typo on the PDF. I uploaded the new PDF to Google Docs. If anyone sees any other misspellings please let me know ASAP. Thanks!

Edit #2: Thanks to Aidan for pointing out some pretty glaring typos that I and at least five other people overlooked when the adventure was first written. These have been corrected and the newest PDF has been posted and linked.

Fire Sale for Chris Huth

I just heard the terrible news that my friend Chris Huth has suffered the misfortune of loosing his home and all of his possessions in a fire last week. For the next few days Pelgrane Press will be donating "100% of the price of download sales, and 50% of all physical sales" to Chris to help get him back on his feet. 

Chris is a very talented artist, and I can tell you from personal experience that he is an all around stand-up guy. It truly saddens me to think about what he must be going through right now. He has illustrated several pieces of art that will eventually show up in a Swords Against the Outer Dark product, and I am damn proud he lent his talent to my projects.

If you know Chris and would like to help, or just in need of a product that Pelgrane is offering, please consider making a purchase. Every little bit helps Chris. Thanks!

Prepare Yourself... IMP is Coming...

Ragnar "Bat" Hill (Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets) and I have been conspiring for over two months and we are now ready to talk about the game we have been writing. We have dubbed it, IMP: A Small Familiar Game. We have a new blog for the game, where we will be sharing development notes and general blather about the game. Please check it out, and follow our progress as we dive headlong into small press games publishing together.

My Weird Adventures Contest Entry

Trey Causey has a contest going on right now over at From the Sorcerer's Skull. He is asking for adventure seeds to be submitted for possible use in a Weird Adventures companion he has in the works. If you haven't heard about the contest then head over there now, read the rules and get your submissions in. Here is mine:

In the Hills There Are Dark Ways 

An otherwise relaxing trip into the misty hills of the Smaragdine Mountains turns into a hellish tour of "old-time" religion and ancient evil. 

The Set-up: The PCs find themselves stranded in the small mountain village, Pilot's Den. Quickly, it becomes obvious that the townsfolk are not only a little odd, but it appears they are members of a fervent Holiness Church, The Chruch of Our Father. As the party tries to negotiate a means off the mountain and back to civilization, it appears that the townspeople are in the midst of their annual Harvest Festival. In the center of town, Zebulon Bishop, the local preacher, is giving a rousing sermon. The PCs can't help but notice the great stone positioned right in the center of town; long, rectangular, lying flat and carved with the image of a great snake that coils around its circumference. It is not long before the townsfolk are overcome by "the Spirit," and begin drinking poison from mason jars, speaking in tongues and taking up venemous serpents, all in the glorious name of "The Father." The awful truth is that the villagers are not just speaking in "tongues," they are spouting Aklo, the ancient arcane language of the Serpent Men of Valusia; Zebulon Bishop is indeed a Serpent Man in the guise of a human; the ancient Indian stone in the center of town is in fact an altar; the Harvest Festival is an annual blood ritual, performed to guarantee bountiful crops and prosperity for the town; and "The Father" being called forth is the Great Old One, Yig. At the climax of the ceremony, preacher Bishop calls for blood and points to the PCs. Right on cue, the ground begins to shake, and awful groaning noises emanate from below the mountain. How will the characters escape the clutches of the Snake Cult? 

Highlights: An isolated mountain town inahbited by a backward folk; snake handling, Aklo speaking cultists; a mad preacher, who, from the pulpit, calls for blood to be spilled in the name of "The Serpent Father"; Serpent Men; ancient rites performed to appease the Great Old Serpent.

It is Lovecraftian, which is a big surprise I am sure. This is a scenario I have had cooked up for some time now, and had originally planned to use it for a Colonial Gothic game, which unfortunately never happened. I updated a couple of things to make it more appropriate for Weird Adventures, but in the end very little was changed. I have a few little Easter eggs hidden in there to make things fun, so kudos to those who spot them. I am crossing my fingers and would love to win a copy of Weird Adventures. Wish me luck, and enjoy!

Sword and Mythos Anthology From Innsmouth Free Press

I just saw that Innsmouth Free Press is crowdfunding a new anthology, Sword and Mythos. Here is the blurb:

Sword and sorcery: the realm of daring assassins, crafty thieves and talented wizards. Lovecraft’s Mythos: a place where the weird, the horrifying and the strange coalesce. Both sub-genres should come together and you can make it happen. 

Sword and Mythos is an anthology to be edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, published through Innsmouth Free Press. Since 2009, Innsmouth Free Press has been publishing many fine authors in its magazine and anthologies, including W. H. Pugmire, Nick Mamatas, Ekaterina Sedia, Ann K. Schwader, Jeff VanderMeer, Laird Barron, Molly Tanzer, Jesse Bullington and many others. It has produced the anthologies Historical Lovecraft and Future Lovecraft (which was reprinted by Prime Books), and is releasing the Fungi anthology at the end of 2012.

This, of course, is a subject near and dear to my heart, so there is no question I will support this project. For those interested in kicking in, head over to Indiegogo:

Challenges

I think I have chosen an appropriate title for this post considering everything that has been going on lately. Despite the deathlike silence, I am still very much alive and working very hard toward getting a couple of projects finished and released. Despite the constant need for me to focus my attention on family obligations, I am slowly grinding my way toward getting things done, and I hope to share something very soon.

Recently, I acquired a copy of The Challenges Game System, written by Tom Moldvay and distributed by GameScience back in 1986. Apparently, this is a very obscure game, and hard to obtain. I didn't even know of it's existence until earlier this summer. So, what is Challenges? In Moldvay's own words:

The Challenges Game System offers an easy-to-play alternative to fantasy game systems which are becoming increasingly complex. All of the basic information needed for play is organized into 8 pages, instead of scattered among hundreds of pages of several expansive books.

I can say with confidence that he succeeded in his goal. Challenges takes the crux of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and boils it all down to an eight page game. The only glaring omission is the lack of a bestiary. I am assuming this is something that would be released later, or possibly as part of adventure modules. With my penchant for minimalist games, it should come as no surprise that I like Challenges a lot. Also, consider this: Moldvay released this game without the luxury of the Open Game License, and did so without, to my knowledge, bringing the wrath of TSR, Inc. down on him like a bolt of lighting from upon high!

What does Challenges include? Present are the "core" D&D classes (cleric, sorcerer, thief and warrior) and races (elf, dwarf, hobbit -- yep, you read that right, the game calls them hobbits -- and human), as well as five levels of spells for both sorcerers and clerics. Armor Rating and Life Points work just as AC and HP do in AD&D. The basic combat rules have more in common with the Holmes edition of Basic D&D than AD&D, but advanced combat rules are included as well that introduce a few new wrinkles, though nothing as complicated as that found in AD&D. Despite some differences in terminology, though the intent is always obvious, Challenges is AD&D-lite for all intents and purposes.

One of the big departures from AD&D that Challenges makes is using the Luck score as the game's generic saving throw mechanic, as well as a roll to be used at the Game Master's discretion to resolve a number of situations that might arise. This doesn't seem like a big deal, given that Swords & Wizardry introduced this concept with its release in 2008, but consider the year 1986 and how thinking outside of the box was frowned upon in the D&D community. I know that other games published by TSR, like Gangbusters, used Luck, which I would guess is where Moldvay got his inspiration. I am left wondering if Matt Finch was influenced by Challenges when he decided to use the single saving throw in S&W? Either way, this concept has grown on me over the past few years, though I must admit that I wasn't very impressed when I read the rule in S&W the first time around. As for Challenges, I can see the obvious benefit of using Luck to simplify the game.

I have found a lot to like about Challenges and it has me realizing that minimalist D&D is not only possible, but it can be done without cutting too much away, or loosing any of the core concepts or flavor. Having been gripped with so many challenges myself this past year-and-a-half, it is nice to find a gem like Tom Moldvay's The Challenges Game System to get me get jazzed again, and to help recharge my creative batteries.