ORACLE

5/29/2010

Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen

Here is my latest effort, hot off the presses! I present the Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen, which is a landscape three panel reference screen for use with Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion. It was designed to be printed and easily used along with a customizable game master screen.

Also included in this PDF are a few Labyrinth Lord themed inserts that can be displayed on the front of the screen. I wanted to create graphics that could be used during game demos and conventions that would help promote Labyrinth Lord, the Labyrinth Lord Society and Goblinoid Games. If anything, Dan Proctor should appoint me the LLS Minister of Propaganda and Public Relations for this one!

As usual, feedback is appreciated and also alert me to any errata that may be needed. Finally, a big thanks goes to David Baymiller, who acted as my proofreader on this project.

Inserts:



Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen

5/26/2010

NEMESIS in a Nutshell

I was looking back through some documents from a few years ago, and stumbled upon something I thought would be interesting and handy to share with everyone. First, just a bit of background...

Back in 2006-2007 I was working on and ran a very short lived Sword & Sanity game powered by a customized version of the NEMESIS: Roleplaying in Worlds of Horror system, which is a game that utilizes the One-Role Engine (ORE). ORE is a rules-lite roleplaying system that allows the player to roll a dice pool of 10 sided dice, and this one roll tells you everything you need to know to resolve a situation, both in and out of combat. It is a very clever, and well designed resolution system. The NEMESIS rules are free to download and play, and I highly recommend the game, but be warned it is a bare-boned system that leaves a lot of breathing room, and some may feel needs further fleshing out. Personally, I find this to be a positive thing about the game, because I enjoy tweaking and "messing" with game systems.

During this time I began working on a conversion for the game to help me realize my Sword & Sanity concept, and I called the project NEMESIS by Torchlight, which basically took the modern NEMESIS rules and changed them up for dark fantasy roleplay. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on the rules I had written up for that game, but if I receive enough feedback from this post I would consider taking another look at the project and doing a rewrite.

Anyway, the document I ran across today is titled "NEMESIS in a Nutshell", and basically is all the vital rules from the NEMESIS system compiled together so they can be printed on one sheet of paper (front and back). I have had "Nutshell" available for download over at Project NEMESIS for a few years now, but I have cleaned up a few things and corrected some minor mistakes I was able to find, and I am now offering it here to be downloaded and enjoyed:
NEMESIS in a Nutshell (v1.1)

5/24/2010

Looking Back on My First Amazon Purchase

I was browsing some of the more recent posts over at Stefan Poag's blog Aldeboran, and ran across something I found interesting. It seems a recent trend on the 'net is to take a trip down memory lane and see what the first couple of items you purchased on Amazon were. So I decided to play along, and I was pleased to see the results. It looks like I ordered the Baen editions of Robert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Mac Art and Kull, as well as The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard, a Critical Anthology by Don Herron. This order was placed on June 14, 2001 and delivered on June 18, 2001. All for the meager price of $39.58. I was so eager to have the books I did not even take advantage of the free shipping! See for yourself:

5/23/2010

The Outer Dark: Year One Retrospective

As I stated in my last post, Swords Against the Outer Dark just celebrated it's first aniversary! I feel it has been an interesting and fruitful year as I look back on some of my previous posts there are a few that stand out to me. Here are some of those and a few thoughts:
  • The Dark Corners of High Adventure series I feel is a collection of the strongest materials I have presented here on the Outer Dark. This series was a chance for me to further exemplify my Sword & Sanity concept, as well as present my own brand of Yog-Sothothery to the world. This series is a culmination of some of my favorite subjects: the Viking Age, Scotland and the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Designing an entry for this Year's One Page Dungeon Contest, and actually having it selected as the "Best Cthulhu" winner, was another big achievement for me. "Raid on Black Goat Wood" was another way for me to show how Lovecraftian gaming could be achieved using an old-school fantasy approach. I got a lot of great feedback from this, and I am extremely proud of the results. (As a teaser for things to come, I have already begun expanding upon this adventure to become a full blown Labyrinth Lord module, and I believe I am going to submit it to Dan Proctor over at Goblinoid Games for publication. Wish me luck on that one...)
  • A question that has come up repeatedly over this past year is, how I would suggest handling sanity and horror in my game? The post I always refer folks to is "Spelling out Horror and Sanity In Fantasy Roleplaying", which sums up my feeling on the subject. I do not use a sanity point mechanic or any additional rules for monitoring the mental health of characters. Read this post to understand my thinking on why.
  • Another question I get a lot is, why I do not support or play Call of Cthulhu? I do not think I have written a post exclusively on this subject (maybe I should), but I know I have spoken to this on several occasions. The short answer is that I love fantasy roleplaying games. And in loving these games I have offered quite a bit of supporting and supplementary materials for Castles & Crusades as well as Labyrinth Lord. I feel I have posted some pretty strong material for these games here on the Outer Dark, and I intend to keep doing so. Next up, an Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen for use with customizable game master screens (like this one).
  • Having Dave Carson supply artwork for me to use here on the Outer Dark!
  • I was also proud to have been able to interview legendary game designer Jim Ward.
I am sure I have forgotten something, but if what I mentioned above is all that I have accomplished this past year then I am proud of my efforts. I have ambitious plans for the coming year, and if I can find a way to make some of those plans come to fruition it will put my previous efforts to shame. I hope this blog has been helpful and entertaining to those who stop by to read my ramblings. I look forward to offering you much more in the years to come!