This week has a lot of detours. I've run the laser 4 times since Saturday. Now I have a lot of items to assemble and complete. I wrote a review and revamped my review page with HTML. I rolled a character for my X2 - Castle Amber campaign and have a piece or two to write on that. Finally, I have broken with Amazon for what I hope is the final time and have a new alternative in the wings.
Let's go back to front: Amazon disabled my account because I don't generate enough clicks and sales.
Well, yes. There is no solid connection between Amazon and me. I have to dream up really awkward ways to work a link in. I'm not good at sales, and I use that awkwardness as a crutch. It's time to stop.
What do I have as an alternative?
Two items and three mentions:
Awin, an affiliate marketing platform, Libro.fm, an alternative to Amazon's Audible, and finally, Meeden Art, Inc., an art supply company marketing through Awin.
I obviously love to read. I had hoped to pick up Libro.fm as an affiliate through Awin. They felt I wasn't a good match. I agree. This website is very niche. But I still want to support them and others.
Let me tell you a bit about Libro.fm. They are like Audible, but their style is different. You can pick from three subscriptions: one book a month, two books a month, and a yearly subscription, with a great discount on 12 books in a year.
Second, they are totally DRM-free, unlike Audible.
Third, they allow you to designate a local bookstore as your favorite. When you purchase through Libro.fm, a portion of each membership or individual book sale goes to that bookstore. I have selected Sulfur Books, a glorious little bookstore in Clifton Springs, NY. (I will come back and post again about Clifton Springs, but not here.)
While I don't have Libro.fm as an affiliate, I can share my membership link like this. When you click that link and place an order, I receive a free title. To be honest, considering the amount I read, that's better than gold. I could not be happier with this deal.
If you have a website and you like books, maybe you should consider Libro.fm. This is not an affiliate program with approvals and such. It's offered to all of their members, for all users. I love it.
Awin also led me to Meeden Art, Inc. I am very passionate about painting and drawing, despite not being very good.
Creating an ad for art supplies is something I wouldn't have to work at. In fact, on day one, I purchased some paints and gave myself two laser cutting projects to support my artistic habits. I overpurchased in the extreme, but I will burn through this paint fairly quickly.
The reason you are not seeing an ad for Meeden is that I need a tax document to complete the process, and it is tax season. I will be responsible and do my taxes early to get that document. Or, I won't post any ads until I do those taxes at the last possible second. I must roll for impulse control. :)
Not being too strongly aligned with my TheseOldGames brand, they would be extremely prominent without being an off-ramp. This matches my tactics for DriveThruRPG. I can give you a link, you know what the link is for, and you can partake as you wish.
And let me thank you and DTRPG again for that support. You and DriveThruRPG easily pay for my web costs.
Moving backwards, I have created a new NPC for Castle Amber. Her name is Gabriella, or Gabby, and she is a witch. She is trapped just like the party but she has been here for a very long time. If you follow my suggestion and don't completely railroad the party into Castle Amber, you will need links back to your campaign world. Gabby is one of my links to home.
I will be posting about her in my next run back to the Castle. These links to my Castle Amber series will display all of the posts in that category, so you may go all the way back to the beginning. Castle Amber is an epic module and could take all year to work through.
In order to generate her, I used one of Timothy S. Brannan's books called Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch for Basic Era Games. This is one of a whole series on Witches for B/X style games. I use the OSE ruleset, and we will see how well these books merge with that system.
This was also an opportunity to refresh my review page with actual HTML. It is so much easier to update now. Let me know what you think in the comments, either here or there. My pages have a comment section, too.
Let me share the last item, the item I wanted to be the focus of this post, but failed at. I have a couple of items I rocked out with the laser. The first item was a repeat of physical dungeon terrain. This is the collision of art and gaming. I love making terrain and painting figures.
The dungeon terrain consists of 1", 2", 4", and 6" walls, pictured in the upper left of this image. They are modular and now have a texture etched on them. In the near future, I will stain one set and paint another. I am not sure how I want them to look, so I want to see both styles.
I will be doing a follow up post on these little bits and bobs.
The next two projects are obvious for painting. I was able to cut a palette out of 1/8" plywood. It came out nicely. I thought it would be too thin, but it wasn't. I also thought I would need to bevel the edge, but I didn't do that either. It works nicely as is.
The final item was a color wheel. Color wheels are a self-teaching tool. However, they are annoying to do on canvas. You need 1/8" or 1/4" masking tape to lay out the spaces. I cannot tell you how annoying it is to mask out 135 or more spaces for paint.
Etching a color wheel is amazingly fast. I could do this on canvas, but I wanted to try a wood panel. It's nearly perfect. Zoom in, and you will see that I dropped the brush in the red/pink area. If I had masked that area with tape, that mark would have been on the tape.
Oh, well.
The final thing I will comment on is my intended structural changes to the website. I have nearly finished the Review Page and this simple change makes it simple to maintain. I will need to do more reviews in the future.
One other change I made was to my post categories. I now have a template so I can post a whole series of articles and link back to them via a single category search. That is very useful and was a trivia change all readers can see, but it is non-disruptive.
In 2026, I will be marching backwards and cleaning up articles and posts, mostly for grammar. For all non-game book reviews, I will be adding my Libro.fm link. Once I have Awin and Meeden Art set up, I will also be applying ads to posts, too.
Thanks for sticking with me through these changes.
I think... I hope I have all of these witch-themed books by Timothy Brannan. I was hunting for a particular ritual for an upcoming game and post, and couldn't find it. Well, that is because this one title doesn't pop up in the search for "Witch" in the DriveThruRPG app.
The Pagan Witch has all of the same great artwork you'd come to expect from Brannan's prior works. Again, I took the date above from the forward, which provides excellent insight into why these books were published. The whole series has a great layout and detailed explanations in each chapter. There are no surprise changes from book to book.
This title focuses on Pagan Traditions. This goes hand in hand with my love of the Romans. While not Roman at all, they were there alongside them. And of course, they didn't get along much. This book covers what it means to be a witch while highlighting what THAT means to other characters, like magic users and clerics. Backtracking to the Introduction, Brannan pulled in the modern-day depictions of a witch.
Like the other books, it starts with the class description, cowens (assistants to the witch), and familiars. Personally, I think familiars are more "witch-like" than "wizard-like" and enjoy the details given to them in this series. From the class description, he moves on to spells, rituals, monsters, magic items, and NPC witches. This book is well constructed to get the most out of the concept.
My reason for reaching for this book this weekend was that I needed a ritual spell to cast a particular character in a special light. You'll be seeing Gabby in my next post for X2 - Castle Amber.
In session 1, the party retreated to the Castle's exterior to take stock. Merry, Jude, Rety, and Nononn make a plan of attack once the foyer doors open in the morning.
Session 1.5 presented the character sheets. If you want to know what the party has, take a moment to review.
The party obtained some treasure, but more importantly, received two Demos Magen who are now behaving oddly. They make the choice to leave them outside under the watchful eye of Pizzaballa while the rest of the team explores the northwestern corner of the castle.
Rety checks the door just south of rooms 6, 7, and 8 and finds it unlocked. As the main party listens at door 8, there is a click. Alexei and Lance walked to room 6 and opened the door. Nononn has a caniption. While the team searches the linen closet, he orders the two green characters into the main hall to listen for Pizzaballa and keep watch on the approach.
The party doesn't hear anything in room 8 and opens the door. They study the slime-encrusted room and decide that there is nothing of interest at the moment. They close the door.
Rety believes she heard something in room 7, so the party arms itself for battle. In reality, she failed her roll and reacted to an imagined sound.
Rety, Merry, and Kuri take a knee, bows drawn in 5 feet back from the door. Behind them, the magic-using characters stand ready to fling magic missiles over the bowmen's heads. Thomas and Dorian flank either side of the door to push it open. Behind the clerics, Jude and Nononn wait, weapons drawn.
This is Kevin.
On the other side of the door, Ted turns to Bob and hisses, "Did you hear that?"
Kevin waves 6 of his eight legs. "Someone's stealing our towels."
The Arenea ready themselves for what will be known as The Battle of Soap and Towels.
This is one of those odd times, where A) I wasn't going to do a commercial but now I am, and B) one module refers to another. Castle Amber refers the reader to X1, which features the Arenea as antagonists to the Phantons on the Isle of Dread.
In this case, neither side will engage in movement. Everyone is locked and loaded. Thomas unlatches the door. Both Dorian and Thomas give it a good push. Initiative is simultaneous, and no one is surprised.
I have decided I didn't like the Arenea's spells and gave them different ones, but it doesn't matter much. All three bow wielders target Bob and let fly. Not only is his spell foiled, but he drops dead. Kevin and Ted unleash Magic Missiles at the same time as Solvo, Sybil, and Belaphon.
All of the magic users are hit and are slightly toasty. Since the party is making all kinds of noise, I roll for a wandering monster and get Raskasta. Alexei and Lance notice the largest Cat Man they have ever seen and retreat into the corner of the main hall, behind the double doors on the south wall. They are trying not to be seen. A group of five of them comes out of the Study. No one looks at Alexei and Lance.
Round 2. The Arenea win initiative and take the fight vertical, skittering up the walls to the ceiling. Thomas, Dorian, Nononn, and Jude rush into the room. The two Arenea try to blind Nononn and Jude with continual light spells, but fail. Jude has a polearm and is able to take Ted off the ceiling. No one else can reach that high.
The Magic Users fade southward, with Solvo guarding them. They both took heavy hits in the last round and are really annoyed. They don't realize Alexei and Lance are not visible.
The party found better jewelry than this.
The lead Raskasta gives a gruff command to a young woman and closes the door to the Study. The woman runs off down the hall to the Indoor Forest.
Round 3. The bowmen advance into the room, and the party mops the floor with Kevin. Bel, and Sybil lead by Solvo, stumble out into the main hallway to regroup as the rest of the party searches for more monsters hiding in the webs. They were tagged by one magic missile each, but sometimes Magic Users will play up their spells' power for the watching masses.
Bel sees the door to the Indoor Forest close. He looks to Lance and Alexei, but they are nowhere to be found. Bel lets out a groan as Sybil runs to the foyer to check on Pizzaballa.
The party splits again. Bel, leads Nononn, Solvo, and Rety to the doors to the Forest, bows ready. Sybil and Pizzaballa return to the southside of the main hall with Merry and his bow for cover. Kuri, Jude, Dorian, and Thomas continue to search the Arenea lair.
Bel opens the door to the Forest. There is no one in sight. They communicate this the best they can with hand gestures to Merry's team. Jude collects up the treasure they find in the lair and returns to the team in the main hallway.
Each character has gained 435 Experience, except Lance, Alexei, and Pizzaballa, who missed out on the combat. This closes up Session 2. I hope you enjoyed it.
Here is the scorecard post. I should have started with a character list and character sheets. You know why? In Session 1, I put Lance at the front and in the last rank in the marching order. Dummy. Tracking 13 characters is a beast.
These are PDF files from my Google Drive account. You don't need an account to download them
There are also Demos Magen with the party now. They do not have character sheets.
If I had posted these earlier, I would have successfully completed my #CharacterCreationChallenge. As it stands, I am still a few short.
Before we go further, let's have the overt DriveThruRPG commercial:
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials. I picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
Exactly why I haven't been posting links to X2 Castle Amber is beyond me. I've been nattering on about it for weeks.
When I posted Session 0, I listed the characters' levels. I didn't do that this time because modules like X2 put the characters in a sweet spot where low-level characters rapidly catch up with somewhat higher-level characters due to the taking of gold. The party won 10,000 gps from Jean-Louis D'Amberville in Session 1.
In adapting this for my table, I have solved the railroad problem by allowing the characters to retreat to a point of safety outside of the Foyer. That's cool. However, the module was written as a railroad and doesn't take into account that if you subvert that point, the party could return to Jean-Louis's Salon over and over again.
Should 10,000 gps and 3 more Magen be available every time?
Yes-No. Jean-Louis and his Magen should be there, but should not offer a match to the players each time. At least not for money. That would be game-breaking because dumping 10,000 gps on the party would send their levels through the roof in short order.
Here is a handy post where I compare all of the character level charts from OSE. Since OSE doesn't have the concept of "Challenge Rating", you can use this chart to quickly determine how much experience is too much to hand out. It doesn't help with creating a combat scenario, but it will stop you from throwing too much cash at the party in one go. It also helps you determine how quickly low-level characters can catch up to higher ones and what classes will rapidly level.
Jude (formerly known as Punch) had this issue. In the B2 sessions, he struggled to keep up because he obtained most of his experience from combat, not treasure. In B/X, limiting the treasure is the best way to keep characters in a certain regime of play.
I don't know if we'll see Jean-Louis later, but I have a couple of ideas about how I would play him. He was a pomus ass at first, then morphed into a gamer and gambler. The next time the party sees him, I suspect he will act like a trainer, a promoter, and a coach. He should stay interesting, but slightly annoying, so the party doesn't get stuck. This is why I gave him a cell phone in the last session. Players would catch the meta of a pre-republic French dude trying to be an Instagram influencer. That's fun.
I believe I'll have time to post again on Saturday or Sunday.
In modern role-play, Castle Amber is challenging. There are so many moving parts, and the module is presented as a straight-up railroad.
In Session 0, I suggested that the DM either dispense with the mist/fog to stop the railroad. Or present it as a mysterious force that stymies the party. The module was written for an unknown cast of players and makes the obvious assumption that one purchased X2 to play X2. That requires the author to turn it into a railroad.
At your table, the motivation to explore Castle Amber can be different, specific to your campaign world. Therefore, you don't need to push so hard.
I have given these characters a version of "Horse Heaven", so that they feel safe in proceeding into the castle, and the question of the mist never came up. After setting up camp, the party walked right into the adventure.
Theoretically, the party could explore all of the castle without being forced or arm-twisted into slogging through the whole adventure. At least until they reach the gates to Averoigne. Then they are trapped.
The entry to Averoigne wouldn't be a surprise. They can back out, up until that moment.
This does present some flex in your campaign world. If the party can back out of Castle Amber, why can't other parties find it, too? That is where you need to get creative and make something different or special happen to the characters.
Anyway, let's get into Session 1.
The party has opted to enter the Grand Salon with Jean-Louis D'Amberville. If you opted for the railroad option, this is your first challenge. Most modern players would question Jean-Louis about the situation. I dodged that here by allowing the players to retreat to a safe zone.
Nononn is fully suited in his ghostie armor and throws open the door.
"Marvelous! Enchanting!" exclaims Jean-Louis. "Take it off! And step in the ring, please."
Nononn's ghostie armor should cause fear, but the D'Amberville family is highly magical and bat-shit crazy. I figured I'd put a lampshade on that from the get-go. That would give players a nice meta-jolt.
The party exchanges a few questions, while Jean-Louis encourages one of them to get in the ring with his Magen. Jean-Louis really wants Nonnon to be the first. Jean-Louis's bet is his suit of armor vs. the ghostie armor. As per the instructions, he also offers side bets. There is a lot of gold here, and therefore a lot of experience on the line.
The Magen is not much of a challenge to an equal-level character like Nononn, who is 4th level. This is because most characters with high strength, dexterity, and constitution have bonuses. What hinders the party is the fact that they don't know the Magen's stats, plus they have the opportunity to throw in the towel, whether the combatant wants it or not.
The challenge for the DM is managing a large party watching a single combat. I would sort the party by PLAYER demeanor. Those who want to fight go into one group, those who want to gamble go into another group, and those who are not interested in either of those go into the third group.
Before we go much further, let's have the overt commercial:
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials. I picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
I mention this because this combat uses non-standard rules per the module. PC's do 1 or 2 HP of damage while the Magen does 1-3. Any time a combatant does max damage, there is 5% chance of a KO. Being reduced to zero kills a combatant. Each boxing round is 6 normal combat rounds, and there are 5 boxing rounds. Mechanically, we are talking 30 initiative rolls and 60 to hit rolls. This is why I split up the party into 3 groups.
I use one house rule at all times, which means I can't take it back for this scenario. All characters, including monsters, can go to -10 hp before dying. It makes death virtually impossible in this scenario. It also sets up a dramatic twist later. There is a second house rule in play that I will mention later.*
Those interested in boxing are engaged with Nononn, and Nononn's player can ask other players to make his die rolls if he wishes. Gamers are a superstitious lot and may want to switch who rolls and what dice are used for luck. They also get to throw in the towel for Nonnon, even against his wishes. This keeps them busy.
The gamblers are verbally engaged with Jean-Louis, making bets and throwing taunts. You want to have snappy patter going for them.
The last group will take over the DM's role and will roll the dice for the Demos Magen, including throwing in the towel. This sets up a little friendly hostility because they can screw the party with random die rolls or save the party by throwing in the party. Jean-Louis will meta-shit-talk them if they throw the towel without a good reason.
By breaking the party up into different groups, you get everyone engaged rather than 1 person rolling dozens of times while everyone else watches.
Remember, I mentioned that a like-level fighter has an advantage in this combat? That is not entirely true. They only have an advantage if they know the Magen's hit points. And only the group rolling the dice knows the Magen's hit points, and I ask them not to reveal them on pain of forfeit. They need this information so they know when to throw in the towel.
*My second house rule that is always in effect is "Just say it". If a player is discussing gameplay and tactics, but not speaking for their characters, they can use numbers and such. If they flip it around and have the characters speak about HP or levels, I'll break the fourth wall and mock them. This is important for this boxing match because it clues in the party as to Nononn's state of health.
Nononn doffs his armor and gets in the ring. The other two Magens signal the start of the match by stamping their feet. To make the insanity of the situation complete, the floating wizard's eyes appear, and Jean-Louis orders his Magens to cheer. I want the vibe to be Heath Ledger's William Thatcher vs. Heath Ledger's Joker. And here we have it.
Nononn is a beast of a fighter. He has more hit points, is harder to hit than the Magen, and he has a plus one to damage and to hit. At the end of the first round of boxing (six combat rounds), the Magen is down to 18 HP from 29, plus Nononn tags him for both a 20 to hit plus max damage at the end of the first. The Magen avoids being KO'ed. Nononn has 22 hp left.
In the middle of the second round, things go south for the party. The Magen rolls a pair of 20's in a row, rocking Nononn. He takes damage and rolls 94% and 06% to avoid being knocked out.
Remember what I said about players being a superstitious lot? Due to a fluke of the dice, Nononn happened to roll within one of the top five or bottom five on a 1d100. The team got spooked and threw in the towel. That's not how random or die rolls work, but that is the choice they made. Players do this all the time, but shouldn't.
Annoyed, Nononn climbs out of the ring, glaring at his friends. The party heals Nononn and more than a few characters ask for double or nothing.
Jean-Louis suits up in the ghostie armor and asks the party, "Do you really have enough for double or nothing?"
They do not. They do have 2500 gps and Jean-Louis bets his suit of +2 chainmail against them. Ana replaces Nononn in the ring. Jean-Louis orders one of the guardian Magens to take the place of the slightly banged-up Magen.
If anyone asks, the ghostie armor has turned into something unusual, but completely normal plate armor once Jean-Louis dons it. It is essentially non-magical now.
Ana and the Magen survive round one and round two, but the Magen goes down in round 3. Pleased, the Nononn accepts the +2 chainmail and suits up.
Back in December, I posted about my first and second run through of X2. And I would like to incorporate an event that happened decades ago. The party in that session healed the Demos Magenes they defeated, and a perplexed Jean-Louis asked:
"Why would you do that? They are just automata. A thing."
Jean-Louis is still super excited and dismisses the banged-up Magens to the corner, like broken toys. But he hasn't had this much fun in a long time, so he wants to go again. The third Magnus takes off his armor and gets in the ring.
The gang of gamblers wants to go big. In addition to the 2500 gps the party has, they offer a pair of +1 daggers, a +1 short sword, a bag of holding, and a cloak of elven kind as a wager.
"My, my. You are suddenly very rich, and perhaps on a winning streak."
The healed but bruised Demos groans at the condescending tone. He is now ashen, instead of the golden tone he started with. The party dismisses it as not remembering correctly, and Jean-Louis ignores the automata entirely.
The floating eyes examine the groaning creature, then the party's wager. After an oddly one-sided conversation with the eyes, Jean-Louis gives back the party bag of holding and bets 10,000 gps against the party's wager. Everyone is all smiles as Merry starts to strip off his armor.
Jean-Louis bellows, "Bravo!" and the party turns around. Jude, armor off, is standing in the middle of the ring.
"What a fine challenge this will be. The lightning bruiser against the magical automata!" Jean-Louis is not wrong. "Perhaps, you would like to accept my offer of magical preparation? I wish I had ordered food and libations for this." He pulls out a cell phone, but having no data here, puts it away.
Thomas enters the ring and bestows a blessing on Jude, who kneels to accept it. Jude has an 18 strength. He now has a +4 to hit and damage thanks to the spell. But he only has 18 hit points vs. the Magen's 29 HP. Rety and Bel consult each other as Sybil uses her magical Cloak of Wondrous Items to produce a pig on a spit.
Jean-Louis claps and 2 of his creatures approach to assist him out of his not-so-ghostie armor. The ashen Magen is nearly useless in this task, and Thomas takes an interest in him. It removes a guantlet and stops to examine it. The other Magen completes the task before it is finished.
After everyone is situated with food and drink, Jean-Louis asks if they are ready.
Rety replies, "Almost," then nods to Sybil.
"Wait!" shouts Jude as Sybil casts invisibility on him. Jean-Louis is not amused and mutters something about cheaters being drawn and quartered. The Wizard Eyes flutter around the boxing ring. The eyes face each other, bouncing up and down as if having an animated conversation.
The challenging Magen vanishes, as one of the eyes casts invisibility on it.
Jean-Louis chuckles appreciative and says, "With that, I believe we are ready."
For drama, Invisibility isn't canceled by attempting to attack. It's the rolling of damage that causes the spell to end. The first round of boxing doesn't go well. Jean-Louis roars with laughter as the two combatants stumble around the ring trying to find each other. Jude utters an oath, and the Magen fixates on his location. Jude moves, and the ring quakes as the Magen strikes the turnbuckles.
The party seems to be ok with this turn of affairs, continuing to engage with their host. The food and libations go down fast. The round ends, and the opponents retreat to their corners and the merriment continues.
The second round is a stunner. Both fighters come out of their corners swinging, and as a consequence, both drop their invisibility spells. The Magen strikes on each swing, but does poorly with damage rolls. When Jude hits, he rocks the Demos Magus hard.
They move on to the third and final round. Jude is staggered by a series of hits, stumbling around with one hit point left. The Knight pulls himself up and chases the Demos Magen now. Jean-Louis considers throwing the towel. Jude unloads 3 powerful hits to finish the fight.
The party cheers, and Jude comes out of the ring. They collect their winnings as Jude asks to retreat from this horrible place to rest. Thomas, Merry, and Dorian pour on the healing spells as the party cleans up. They have decided to exit Castle Amber and rest until the next morning.
Sybil laughs and smiles as she turns to recover the empty spit. Lance packs up the food, but Nononn and Thomas are dismayed.
Jean-Louis is pointing at the two Magens who received healing. Both have lost their golden luster and no longer respond to the man's orders. They dumbly allow themselves to be led out by Nononn and Thomas.
The party has won 10,000 gps and a +2 suit of armor.
In the yard outside the foyer, one Magen mumbles, "We don't remember our name."
Let me share the last item, the item I wanted to be the focus of this post, but failed at. I have a couple of items I rocked out with the laser. The first item was a repeat of physical dungeon terrain. This is the collision of art and gaming. I love making terrain and painting figures. 
