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I never thought you could find so much to say about a mere portcullis! Shows just how wrong I can be...
OK. We all know what a portcullis is: a barrier that can be dropped from above to block an accessway (gateway or corridor), and which has a relatively open construction so that you can see through it even when you cannot get through. They have a real-world origin in mediaeval castle design, they were popular additions to a gatehouse to deal with anyone who'd negotiated your drawbridge and moat; and were designed as a 'quick reaction' defence, they could be dropped in an instant when the need arose and - just to be on the safe side - were heavy and tended to have points on the bottom so if you timed it just right you might even squish some of those pesky invaders, not just keep them out. Sneaky castle designers often installed two so you could trap intruders between them, maybe dropping something down on them through 'murder holes' in the roof of your gatehouse passage, or just shooting arrows through the portcullis at them.
Anyway, this product begins with the common characterists of any portcullis. They provide partial cover, do not detract from line of sight (useful for spellcasters...) and wll not obstruct your detection spells. Oh, and due to the lattice-style framework, they are easy to climb. There are suggestions as to construction materials and condition, as well as the mechanism used to raise them... lowering them is easy, let gravity do its job!
Then comes the first table, which gives a selection of features you can add to your portcullis, anything from quirks in the construction like fancy decoration to large spikes protruding from it, linked systems involving more than one portcullis or an rather spooky one which never makes a sound as it is lowered or raised.
Next is a table of 'Dressings and Features' which in a way is more of the same. Maybe someone has left a wreath hanging on it, or a pair of metal gauntlets grip the bars... don't look inside them if you're squeamish, skeletal hands are within!
Finally, some traps and tricks. The trap may be what causes the portcullis to fall, or something else may be going on that makes it a lot worse... I still remember one nasty trap which involved a very strong wind and a portcullis in a passageway - the way round it was to have found a potion that turned you ethereal before the wind got up. My character didn't, and that was the end of him!
Another inventive little treat to have to hand when designing fortifications or indeed dungeons.
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Thanks, Megan. Jolly decent of you to take the time to take a look at Dungeon Dressing: Portcullises! |
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Loads of interesting stuff here, but in places it is quite hard work to extract what will be useful to you. The work opens with a rather rambling discourse (perhaps a editor could have tightened this up?) which appears to be trying to give advice on both how to be a good GM and how everyone around the table needs to work together to make the game fun for all.
Next come some snippets on creating different moods which don't get very much further than suggesting some moods and styles that you might incorporate into your game. This is followed by the first bit of real detail, a discussion on what to do with your prisoners. Apparently the author's experience is of groups - it's not clear if he's talking about PCs or NPCs here - who show no quarter and kill all captives out of hand. My experience is different, just about every GM I have ever played with enjoys taking PCs prisoner (usually MY character, dammit) and the players are not much different, delighting in what they can do with captured NPCs. Be that as it may, here's a table of suggestions for what you might do to keep prisoners alive but out of your hair.
More sections covering different things and offering suggestions, often using a D12 based table (ah, the poor neglected beastie gets some use!) as a vehicle for the suggestions proffered. Dark secrets, debt collectors (now, there's a reason to go adventuring in the first place!), extreme sports (some weird ideas here, although golem combat has some promise...), jailbreaks, local delicacies (not stuff that would make it onto the better cookery shows!), misfortunes (a fair few neat ideas for what can go wrong here), money pits (i.e. ways of relieving your PCs of their hard-earned loot) and more litter the pages.
Some are useful (omens, for example), others less so. They make for entertaining reading (ridiculous laws, anyone?) and may spawn an idea or two that you can throw into your game. Not too many, most will prove quite irritating to the characters even if the players see the funny side of it.
Then the real gem: a vast array of traps. These are more than the standard dungeon fare, these are full of twists and best of all, each has a way of figuring your way round them by the use of wits rather than rolling dice. MacGyver your way out of these...
Good stuff, but rather muddled in presentation in parts. Delve away, it may well be worth your while... but better editing would make it easier to use and eliminate errors and muddled bits.
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Designed as an introduction to the whole Adventureaweek campaign world, the putative setting of all their adventures (although most can be readily translocated into a suitable part of the campaign world of your choice) this short adventure is also intended to serve as a lead-in to A1: Crypt of the Sun Lord, if you're intending to use that.
The basic concept is simple, and yet an elegant way to get around the constant problem of your character knowing the world he lives in far better than you, his player, does by saying that the characters come from a nearby kingdom which is actively encouraging adventurers to move to an outlying fishing village called Rybalka. It's a wild and dangerous place, so much so that ordinary citizens are reluctant to move there even if offered payment. Clearly some braver souls, some adventurers, are needed!
The way to get there goes across the massive ice-cold Serpent Lake, pretty much an inland sea, and passes a ill-omened island, Crow's Rest Island. Sailors are full of tales about people who have been shipwrecked there, tales of horror and haunting far worse than merely being shipwrecked and having to survive.
There's a comprehensive backstory to inform you about what's really going on, and then we get into the adventure proper which starts with the characters aboard ship... and there's a storm blowing up! The ship is swiftly covered in snow to the extent that the captain decides that it is less risky to stop at Crow's Rest Island than it is to continue the voyage. And so it begins...
Although quite simple, the adventure is atmospheric and there's plenty of material to aid you in setting the scene, snow-covered and brooding with a mysterious crow that somehow only the party can see. Beautiful illustrations and lush maps provide visual cues to supplement the descriptions. There's plenty to do, with negotiations with spirits as well as a couple of brawls... and the adventurers should emerge back on shore as the storm dies down and their ship is ready to resume its voyage. But, boy, they will have some tales to tell of their exploits!
If looking to start a campaign with a bang, this ought to fit the bill, excitement a-plenty yet all perfectly do-able by first level characters.
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This is a rather beautiful and evocative drawing, in a 1920s style, of a young lady in a very strappy almost topless dress, hair up and with a flower...
It's a shame that she doesn't look as if she is enjoying the party much.
The drawing, however, is lovely and the story behind her glum expression may be what drives your next adventure.
That, or there's a Cthulhoid monster sitting behind me that she's just noticed... :)
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Fancy providing security at a royal wedding?
That's the crux of the task that faces your characters in this adventure, but it is so well done that it's a real treat. The whole thing is full of neat suggestions from the outset - like not telling your players the name of the adventure so that they don't figure out that it's based on fairytales and folk legend until it's far too late... not to mention a series of traps so well described and presented that it takes dealing with them to a whole new level: a real part of the game, not just something to be dealt with so you can go do whatever it was you were here for in the first place. It's all too easy for traps to be viewed as a nuisance for the party rogue to go do his thing, couple of die rolls and move on (healing the rogue if necessary): here they are an integral part of the adventure.
There are also numerous hints and suggestions to enable you to enjoy watching the party cope with high society. Consider that they are an ordinary bunch of adventurers, and are now being thrust headlong into a full-blown royal court with all the attitudes and customs and ceremonial that that entails. Will they conduct themselves in a fitting manner, or make fools of themselves?
There is, as you'd expect, quite a lot of interaction and scope for role-play here. But never fear, there are plenty opportunities for more robust activity, a good chase or two as well as several combats. It's challenging, but never boring... and certainly no easy duty.
Events pile up quick and fast, but you are provided with resources to cope with whatever the characters choose to do about them, the notes are full of options 'If the party chooses to...' which will help you present it seamlessly giving a real feeling of freedom of action. As ever, full game mechanical details for both Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and the Pathfinder RPG are provided, clearly differentiated so that you can pick out the ones you need.
I'm already looking forwards to Part 2. In the meantime, where are some players....?
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I opened this with a sense of puzzlement: just what is a doom painting anyway?
All was soon revealed. A doom painting is a mediaeval depiction of the Last Judgement, as taught by Christianity, that was a popular adornment of churches in England... and the reason why so many old English churches have white-washed walls these days, a relic of Puritain distain of such art in the 17th century! Whilst a lot of the iconography of a traditional doom painting would be inappropriate in most fantasy worlds - as they don't tend to practise Christianity there - the base concept is ripe with possibilities, from depicting the tenets of whatever deities are revered there to enabling the GM to weave subtle forshadowings of his plots into artwork which the characters may or may not notice. You could even provide hints about an impending trap... or the painting itself could be a part of that trap!
The first table provides suggestions for the overall appearance of the painting. One interesting feature is the two-sided nature of each work: this is completely traditional and harks back to the Last Judgement theme of real-world doom paintings. One side would depict what happened to good folks (welcomed into heaven) and the other side showed the evil people being consigned to the fiery pits of hell! So here you might see something like "A king and queen are seated in this painting. All those who have approached the king have been decapitated, while those who have approached the queen are showered with fine gifts." (#84-86). You can be as cryptic or as blatent as you like: the images are best presented without commentary to let the characters make of them what they will.
The next table is entitled Dressings and Features, and offers various additional features that might add interest. Perhaps the doom painting is upside down, or has been defaced or partly covered over... or maybe it has an ornate frame. You will have to decide if the feature has any significance, or if it's just something done by a previous party of adventurers...
Finally comes a selection of traps and tricks that can be incorporated into your doom paintings. Now, there were some in the first table, but here five new paintings are described in detail along with the awful things that might befall anyone who stops to take a look.
Now, I'd suggest that you use doom paintings sparingly - unless there's a very good reason, like whoever constructed the dungeon being an art collector - but a well considered one could provide a potent and memorable dungeon feature. If you visit one of my dungeons in the future, watch the walls...
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It's called swords AND sorcery after all, so why should you have to choose between chucking spells and swinging a sword when creating your character? If a mix of both takes your fancy, this product holds some interesting suggestions.
First up is the Dimensional Knight base class, fully developed up to 20th level. His aim is to be omnipresent on the battlefield, using mastery of spatial manipulation to dart around, open portals and the like to mount attacks in the most unexpected places. Spell-casting is sorcerer-style, without need for preparing the day's spells in advance, but subject to the usual level-based limits as to the number and level of spells that can be cast. The range of spells available is quite specialised and limited, but caters to the particular needs of the class well.
Next a prestige class, the Spellslinger. This is appropriate for games in which firearms are permitted, and caters for both magic-using characters who want to carry a gun for protection or a gunman who wants to harness arcane power: for the spellslinger uses a handgun to launch his spells and can even develop the ability to spit arcane energies rather than bullets from its muzzle!
This is followed by another new base class, the Thunder Chief who is a front-line fighter capable of calling down weather, specifically storms, to aid him on the battlefield. He is gifted in manipulating the weather and in particular harnessing the power of lightning, and is also capable of limited divine casting using a special spell list, which is provided, and also creates and wields a special 'stormblade' weapon embued with mystical power.
You may find these all fairly niche classes, and it is probably wise to consider the campaign style carefully before choosing any of them. If, however, epic largescale battles feature, both the Dimensional Knight and the Thunder Chief could be quite potent on the battlefield, although it's hard to imagine a Thunder Chief being very happy with extended dungeon delving. Innovative players will soon develop ways of using their powers off the battlefield as well.
The product rounds off with a good range of new feats, spells and magic items. Most are aimed at the new classes, but at least some might find favour with other characters as well. An interesting and thought-provoking work.
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Worth it for the backstory alone, this product opens with a dire tale of how a greedy and intolerant emperor who confused dire poverty caused by crop failure with a mere unwillingness to pay taxes was eventually deposed... but not before he'd both devastated the township that was the centre of what he perceived as rebellion and had built a gaol there. That emperor's long gone, but the gaol remains...
There is a description and a rough sketch map of this dire establishment, a strange place indeed that's built on a towering column and hangs out high above the surrounding wasteland (a cell with a view, perhaps?). If you indend much running around therein, you may need to come up with more detailed maps, especially if you use miniatures for combat, but the sketch and description are enough to give a feel for the place.
Several people are then introduced: the warden, a guard,and a couple of prisoners; each with a whole backstory of their own. Then comes several plot outlines involving the gaol. Perhaps the party is hired to get someone out of there, whether wrongfully imprisoned or in need of incarceration but with friends wealthy enough to hire folks to break them out. Or the characters might even have fallen foul of someone and been imprisoned. Or... there is plenty of food for thought here with twists and turns aplenty to make a full-blown adventure.
A couple of interesting items, a few rumours and some encounters wind this up. Perhaps worth tucking aside for when your characters annoy you so much that they need banging up... but certainly an interesting location to place in some out-of-the-way part of your campaign world just ready for when you need it.
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Whatever reason you might have for romping over a lunar landscape, here are two giant areas in almost photo-realistic detail all ready for you to leave your footprints on.
Both feature a mix of large and small craters and some rough terrain - and if you find depth perception difficult in a top-down view, try the old astronaut trick of visualising the sun and what direction it is shining from, and you will find that the shadows all begin to make sense and you can see the depth after all. (This is, if you're interested, what Apollo astronauts were trained to do when looking at lunar photographs.)
Single page versions of both maps and instructions for printing and organising them are tucked away at the back of the PDF. Both maps have a hex overlay, and you can determine an appropriate scale given the size of whatever miniatures you intend to use.
There are no structures anywhere, so those wishing to brawl can do so without worrying about collateral damage, and those wishing to explore can enjoy what might easily be virgin territory. So, be this Earth's Moon or some other airless cratered world that you have encountered in your travels, enjoy....
... and remember, in space nobody can hear you scream!
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This is a fine and imposing - and perhaps scary! - tribal mask, in possibly African style but perhaps mid/south American, that might hang on an explorer's study wall... or suddenly appear in front of you during a jungle stroll.
It's clear and crisp, angular, and looks good, whether you choose the colour version or the greyscale one that is included in the download. A striking image, use it to effect in the course of a game, or to illustrate your latest pulp or cod-archaeology epic!
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The sheer importance of religion within day-to-day life in a fantasy world is often underestimated. Just think how central religion is to many folk in the real world - and our gods don't tend to indulge in the flash-bang obvious nature of your average fantasy deity... few fantasy characters would deny the existance of their world's deities, even if they are not interested in worshipping them!
So, temples. Most deities expect worship, and regular organised worship needs a place in which the faithful can hold services, listen to sermons and get religious help and advice. In fantasy worlds, the temple can be a source of healing, perhaps a school, and certainly a place to get help if you need to deal with supernatural problems like the undead. But just as a mosque, a synagogue, a wat, a cathedral and a Mormon meeting house are quite different structures in the real world, so will each deity in your campaign world be venerated in quite different buildings. Here's a useful tool to aid you in designing some distinctive temples in which your deities can be worshipped.
The first table lets you roll for (or choose) the basic structural design - and there's a full hundred options. Well, 99 - the last suggests you roll twice more and combine the results. You may want to make a choice based on the nature of the deity in question, but perhaps not - the organisation and priesthood that has developed around a given faith may have travelled a fair way from its origins. So you may have #80 - A majestic stone building with subtle gold engravings and purple wall hangings - despite the god worshipped there being a humble and caring weather-deity with no such pretensions! Once you have derived one temple for a given deity, you can also decide if this is the standard pattern for places of worship dedicated to that god - just as you'd never confuse a mosque with a Christian church, there may be some identifying characteristics if not a cookie-cutter similarity between temples of a certain god.
Next, there is an intriguing list - I'm not calling this one a table because you'll want to choose not roll - of features you can add to your temple based on the domains appropriate to the deity in question. So in a temple of a Good god you might find a basket of provisions resting in the foyer, free for the taking while in a space dedicated to a deity of Wind upper windows are left open to provide a breeze for hanging chimes. It's a neat way to invoke the core beliefs in the very architecture of your temple.
The next section is quite interesting too, looking at donations, tithings and sacrifices. Rather than the physical structure, here are suggestions about the services and offerings that a deity might demand of devotees, based on that deity's nature. They are grouped on an alignments basis, so a Good deity might call for you to say a prayer for the soul of an enemy, a Neutral one might want you to share a tale of wonder whilst an Evil one might only be satisfied with the blood of your parents! You can use these to begin to build up a picture not only of the temple you go to when you wish to worship whichever god you wrote down on your character sheet, but what you are going to do when you get there.
This theme is continued in the next section, which looks at events, festivals and rites. This is a collection of ideas for activities, along with suggestions for areas within a temple and the sort of knick-knacks you might find there. Some events are based on the time of year or happenings in the community, others are more personal, the marking of milestones in an individual devotee's life.
Finally, the last section is 'Clergy in a Hurry' - and rather than priests scurrying about robes flapping, this is designed to help you populate your temple ready for the characters' visit. There are tables for gender, race, name and position (along with a handy list of religious titles), and then you can also come up with what they are wearing, mannerisms, accessories and even the rumours about them. So, meet Umrbrige Yensel, a centaur bishop wearing silk vestments with jewels, with facial tattoos and a tendency to lay his hands on others' shoulders... and who is said to use old bath water when he cannot be bothered to consecrate holy water for the temple!
All in all, this is a magnificent resource to make temples come to life in your campaign world.
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A rather charming line-art sketch of a young lady - timeless enough for her to feature in fantasy or far future games... perhaps a character portrait, or someone the characters chance to meet.
The terms of the enclosed licence permit private or commercial use provided that the artist is credited and that it's not used in any art collection or in a work in which it forms more than 25% of the whole: quite fair but, and this is a big but, these terms should be displayed in advertising material not only after you have decided to purchase the picture. OK, so you are only $4 out of pocket if you wanted to do something different and now on reading the terms decide that you cannot. UK law - it's where I live and under which I operate - has in the past come down heavily on licence terms only made available after purchase. Just as well these are fair terms and unlikely to be challenged!
Oh, and it's a nice picture. I did say that, didn't I? Being an old female I don't often play young ones these days, but I do have fun with female NPCs and she'll come in handy when I need to illustrate one.
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This is a selection of stylish 'flat' 2-sided paper miniatures of Elf Adventurers. They have an assortment of weapons, some armour and some flowing robes. They are labelled Warrior, Cleric, Archer, Rogue, Wizard... etc. but these are not hard and fast designations: you may decide that the 'paladin' is a fighter with decent armour, sword and shield; or that a 'Wizard' is actually a druid or a cleric.
What is quite fun is that the layers tool of PDF technology has been used to allow you to play around with the colour-schemes. It's a bit hit-and-miss, but if you play around long enough you will find out which settings suit your needs.
Detailed and clear instructions are given on assembling the figures and their bases (again, you can change what those look like by fiddling with the layers). It might have helped if the English language instructions were printed in a colour that gave more contrast with the background, but the Spanish and pictures enabled me to figure it out all right!
If you have an elf character and want a paper mini for him or her, this is worth a look...
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You can never have too many monsters! But it's a real treat when you get thoughtful well-designed ones that can really establish themselves as living (usually) creatures within your world rather than mere cannon-fodder to wheel out when it's time for a brawl.
Each of the twelve comes with a wealth of background detail about how they fit in to wherever it is you'll find them, as well as an illustration and full stat-block. All the entries lack is a pronunciation guide, a few are tongue-twisters.
Perhaps you would like a dragonleaf tree in your garden. I can see some puzzled mail carriers when they see a 'Beware of the tree' sign... just before an oculo swarm happens by. Maybe you'd like a salt golem for a butler, or a pet star drake. And there are several others, some capable of interaction, others mindless marauders with whom you'll have to do combat as soon as they come into view.
Just reading through the descriptions sets ideas into motion, how they might be woven into existing plots and locations or even spawning ideas for side-adventures or whole plotlines of their own. This is what monster books ought to be like!
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An orc is an orc is an orc, surely, and good for nothing more than target practice, right?
Well, even if your only use for an orc is as a sparring partner, here are a full 34 orc personalities to make that brawl a little more interesting... and if you put that sword away and maybe try having a chat over an ale or three, you might discover that orcs are people too. However if you hold - as do many adventurers - that the only good orc is a dead one, these 34 are all combat-ready and come in a range of CRs from orc young at one-quarter of a CR to an assassin or spear master who both weigh in at CR 7.
Starting with a page on how to read stat blocks (most of us have grasped this by now but handy if you are starting out in the game) next there is a page about orcs in general. Apparently an adult male orc is roughly 6 feet tall and 210 pounds, and quick to anger (sounds remarkably like my husband, but I don't think orcs cook as well as he does!), and should you wish to play one there are some notes on orc characters.
Then, on with the stat blocks. Each comes with a brief description as well as all the stats you need to use that orc (in combat or otherwise) along with the weapons, armour and other notable possessions he might have with him. As you might suspect, many are barbarians and so have the altered stats for raging included as well as their regular ones. Most are fairly scruffy and unpleasant-looking, and if you do fancy getting to know them over some ales you may have difficulty finding a tavern which will let you in!
Still, if you want some variety rather than wave upon wave of indentikit orcs to fight, this is an easy way to have some distinctive combat-ready orcs at your fingertips.
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