DRIVETHRURPG PRODUCTS BY DUNROMIN UNIVERSITY PRESS Ad Post

Over in the lefty column are ads for DriveThruRPG. It takes a bit of work to get them looking nice and when I delete them they are gone. For this reason, I am creating a post with the links so I can save them for the future. I hope you have taken a look at all that Dunromin University Press has to offer. I'll be adding new links in the sidebar the next day or so. 

SM03 Cityguide to the City of Karan SM03 Cityguide to the City of Karan

SM00 A Traveller's Atlas of Dunromin and the Land of the Young

SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard

SM06 The Warren SM06 The Warren

SM04 Gazeteer of the Land of the Young SM04 Gazeteer of the Land of the Young

SM01 A Players' Guide to Dunromin SM01 A Players' Guide to Dunromin

Let the Hexcrawl Addiction Begin

I am really intrigued by the concept of Hexcrawls. I've never done this before, but the OSR community does not disappoint. 

Within minutes, Goblin’s Henchman pointed me to their In the Heart of the Unknown - Procedural Hex Crawling Engine Product: 

In the Heart of the Unknown - Procedural Hex Crawling Engine In the Heart of the Unknown - Procedural Hex Crawling Engine

I don't know what it is about art for Hexcrawls, but I love it. Click the link and check out In the Heart of Unknown. It's very cool. 

So I took a closer look at Third Kingdom Games and found a whole series of products. Of course, being a little daunted by the whole Hexcrawl experience, I needed the basics. I downloaded Third Kingdom Games, which I mentioned in my last post.  

Hexcrawl Basics Hexcrawl Basics

They also have map packs for Hexcrawls, which gives me a point of reference to get me started on this whole new way of gaming. 

 

Lake of Abomination Map Packet Lake of Abomination Map Packet

I could spend weeks pouring over the stuff produced by Third Kingdom Games and Goblin’s Henchman. And probably will. 

When I created my Map Pack, I should have known I was going down this path. This is a very boring template for hexes, with 3 different colors of hex in three styles. It's also has a commercial license. So, please grab a copy and use it for for your hexcrawl or your product. 

The Hex Pack The Hex Pack

Since I am looking to provide tools for you, I do have a walk thru so you can create your own DriveThruRPG links with HTML. Give that a try, if you like. 

Hexcrawling

 I started a new project called Miledown, a hex crawl adventure. 

It just came to me as art, translating it to an adventure is going to be a trick. I can't think of the last time I used a hex map for my players and wonder if I have ever really ran a hexcrawl at all. When I ran the kids through B2, that map is a grid. Not a hexcrawl at all. 

That's ok. DriveThruRPG is to the rescue. Why reinvent the wheel when someone is an expert wheel maker? I picked up Todd Leback's Hexcrawl Basics. Before this project I had been eyeing the book simply for the cover art. I love it. 

I guess if I am going to use this for ideation, I had better do a review. It's all printed out and ready to read. I can't wait. 

Check back soon for that review and progress on my own hexcrawl project. 

City of Nexus Map Bundle Review

Title: City of Nexus
Author: Seafoot Games  (Luke Seefuss and Rianna Stahl)
Rule Set: Any
Year: 2019
Pages: 5 pdfs, 15 pages each, plus 15 .jpg images. 
Rating: ★★★★★

Since this pandemic thing kicked off, I've been looking at Seafoot Games' City of Nexus bundle. It's been on the hot list for most, if not all of 2020. 

These sort of products give me fits for reviewing. How do I show an image without giving the milk away for free? Well, I'm gonna do my best by showing part of the title page of one of the five books included with set. 

It's impressive. Imagine this image with 300 px detail and multiply by five products. 

The books are nicely designed, with several pages dedicated to the Artist's Patreon following. The next ten pages include a 8.5" by 11" overview map, with nine pages dedicate to sections of the map. In this format, I advise printing one sided pages on photo paper. Every image has a grid for your figures, tokens or models. It's is wonderful with the right paper.

But I suspect that was not what the artist intended you to do. Each of the five maps has 3 jpeg files in 300px, 72px and one 300px poster size. The first two are perfect for virtual table tops and the choice of resolution is there to meet your needs. Sometimes, you don't want to pull up a massive file. 

These maps are battlemats for you to populate. They are extraordinarily detailed with beautiful set pieces, all obviously designed for each map in question. You could either ignore them or write them into your game. The set is ruleset agnostic for ease of use in any type of campaign. They are obviously medieval looking, but that's what 99% of OSR use. 

Back to "massive". The last jpeg for each map is a mighty poster 33" by 23" with a nice white border. It's perfect for framing as art OR to print off and cover with glass for your physical tabletop. Did I mention you get 5 of them? 

The price is great. It's CyberModay today, so I am not sure if there is a sale on right now, but at triple the price this is an excellent set. An easy 5 star product. 

Click the link to order. 

Hottest New Book City of Nexus | 20x30 Battlemaps [BUNDLE]

The Simple Things - Printing

I love books, but the oldest and the newest stuff is hard to get in print. Invariably, I wander DriveThruRPG ordering stuff left and right. It never ends. Once I read through something, it goes in one two places: into a hard copy or stays in my "Library of (Digital) RPG Titles" on my Kindle. 

Qualitatively, they are different places. One I expect to read again, while the other is something I might want to read by candlelight after the Nuclear Apocalypse. 

Anyway, reading preferences aside, printing books yourself is really dependent on your printer. I have an HP all in one inkjet printer. It's good for most things, most of the time.

In the picture on the left, look how sharp the text is. It's really nice. Perfectly acceptable for reading by nuclear candlelight. Inkjet are very good on plain paper for text. You can see a little blow through because I printed two sided, but it's still very legible. 

What inkjets are not good at are large, color images on plain paper. Things could not be worse. And since I print a lot of my own stuff on plain paper, the result is less than satisfactory. 

Here is a photo of Cult of Diana: The Amazon Witch for Basic Era Games by Timothy S. Brannan. I just love the covers of his books and this one is my favorite. 

And with inkjet on plain paper, it just sucks. Can you say mud? How did it go so wrong? 

It's the paper. 

Check out this next image. It's the same printer and settings, except I used photo paper.  

I'm very happy with this one, the colors are much brighter in real life, but I didn't want to alter the image with different settings to accentuate the colors. Where I went wrong is selecting my favorite cover rather than one that would highlight how good good can be. 

Take a look at this next image from Mr. Brannan's The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition. 

That 100 times better. We have blues and reds, and stuff in between. I can totally see the how this is different than how it appears on screen, but even using my cheap inkjet printer, the photo paper gives it far more color than plain paper. It's far more satisfying. 

Ah, the simple things. 

New! SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia

New Product from Dunromin University Press. This one is called The World Guide to Barnaynia. 

SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia SM05 The World Guide to Barnaynia

I'm not ready to do a review. In fact, I haven't bought it yet, owing to the fact that payday is Friday. Also, this book is over 200 pages of world details on Barnaybia, so it would take me a while to process it. I have many of the other titles in this series and enjoyed them all. I haven't played a session in this world, but I am looking forward to doing it. 

One of my favorite things about this whole series is the artwork. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is gloriously old school. Many of the images and maps look hand drawn, but are crisp and sharp like digital renderings. I suppose I could ask which it is, but that would ruin the mystique. 

One tangent. I hope you like these prepackage links which look like DriveThruRPG's product links. They aren't, I make them up on the fly. I do have instructions on how to make those for your website, at this link. When you do the code, you'll have to reference your copy of the image or link directly to DTRPG's .png file. Usually, it is 140 px and a .png. Also, don't forget to change the affiliate number so you get credit. 

Thank You for Making The Hex Pack My Most Popular Product!

Wow! I can believe all the interest in this Hex Pack. 

I like hex paper, but it's kind of a pain in the butt. A full page of hexes boggles the eyes and really isn't a full page unless you mess with the hex size. You need to go smaller than a page to get a manageable workspace. I jumped into Worldographer and knocked something together:

Hexes... like so. 

As I was doing this, I hopped over to Steamtunnel's The Hydra's Grotto to read up on 6 mile hexes. It really is the best size for hexes. Don't trust me, click that link to see all the mathy wonders that can be done with a 6 mile hex.

As I was working, I eliminated all of the stuff that bothers me. Text on the page, hex numbers, etc. I ended up doing 9 different styles: red, grey and black lines then dotted, dashed, solid lines. Once I was done, I threw them in a template. Since I was working from the ground up, I made a set of templates for 8.5 by 11 and A4.

A little consumer copy later, and I had my next DrivethruRPG document. This thing is PWYW, with a suggested price of $0.99. It's available via the Creative Commons 4.0, share and share alike with attribution for private and commercial use.

I honestly didn't know what to do with the price. For home use, there are 9 zillion websites you can download templates from for free. The main difference on this product is, there is a booklet for 8.5x11 and A4 pages, plus a file with just the hex in JPG and PNG at 1400x1299 pixels. Ninety-nine cents is probably too much for home use, but far too little for commercial use.

I don't know... I'm just hanging it here for all of you. I'm going back to my game now.

Enjoy!

Ads of Six - Dunromin University Press

I like doing these posts of ads, which is unfortunate for my readers. Lol. 

Today's Ad of Six are from Dunromin University Press on DriveThruRPG. These modules, gazetters and guides are great. If I get a chance to play D&D after quarantine, I'm gonna run a few of these. 

As a general rule, I think I'll be placing these Ads of Six in the left column from now on and save a post. 

SM03 Cityguide to the City of Karan SM03 Cityguide to the City of Karan

SM00 A Traveller's Atlas of Drunromin and the Land of the Young SM00 A Traveller's Atlas of Dunromin and the Land of the Young

SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard SM12 The Trials of a Young Wizard

SM06 The Warren SM06 The Warren

SM04 Gazeteer of the Land of the Young SM04 Gazeteer of the Land of the Young

SM01 A Players' Guide to Dunromin SM01 A Players' Guide to Dunromin

Products by These Old Games - The Ad Post

I've finally hit six products DriveThruRPG. Yesterday, I launched The Hex Pack and already have dozens of downloads. I think that's the strongest launch ever. I'm on the front page too, under Newest Free and PWYW heading. It's silly, but feels good.

 

You can find all of my products on DriveThruRPG under PWYW. Check them out.

Swashbuckler Character Class for D&D and AD&D Swashbucklers for D&D and AD&D

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Heroes Zero to Hero

Character Sheet for AD&D Character Sheet for AD&D

Kobold’s Folly Mini Setting Kobold’s Folly

Compass Rose Inn Mini Setting Compass Rose Inn

The Hex Pack The Hex Pack

And another thing... 6 Mile Hex pack.

Edit 5-29-2020 - Wow! The response to this tiny pack of Hex Paper has been outstanding! Thank you so much. 

I am hooked on Gemstone IV, a MUD. Yeah, I know it's 2020 but damn am I addicted. Anyway, being a MUD, you have to make your own maps. Other people have happily charted all the lands but I find that most fonts and images are far too small for me to read without my glasses. Ah, the joys of being a gamer for X decades.

I make my own maps which are much larger than normal so I can read them without my glasses. Here is an example, all maps print on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper:

Standard Marshkeep Map	My Map, Part 1	My Map, Part 2

As I do these things, sometimes I notice that the person that created the area was working on grid paper. The other day, I noticed someone must have used hex paper, because the small size and the arrangement of rooms. Hex paper can produce tighter maps as opposed to grids.

I like hex paper, but it's kind of a pain in the butt. A full page of hexes boggles the eyes and really isn't a full page unless you mess with the hex size. You need to go smaller than a page to get a manageable workspace. I jumped into Worldographer and knocked something together:

Hexes... like so. 

As I was doing this, I hopped over to Steamtunnel's The Hydra's Grotto to read up on 6 mile hexes. It really is the best size for hexes. Don't trust me, click that link to see all the mathy wonders that can be done with a 6 mile hex.

As I was working, I eliminated all of the stuff that bothers me. Text on the page, hex numbers, etc. I ended up doing 9 different styles: red, grey and black lines then dotted, dashed, solid lines. Once I was done, I threw them in a template. Since I was working from the ground up, I made a set of templates for 8.5 by 11 and A4.

A little consumer copy later, and I had my next DrivethruRPG document. This thing is PWYW, with a suggested price of $0.99. It's available via the Creative Commons 4.0, share and share alike with attribution for private and commercial use.

I honestly didn't know what to do with the price. For home use, there are 9 zillion websites you can download templates from for free. The main difference on this product is, there is a booklet for 8.5x11 and A4 pages, plus a file with just the hex in JPG and PNG at 1400x1299 pixels. Ninety-nine cents is probably too much for home use, but far too little for commercial use.

I don't know... I'm just hanging it here for all of you. I'm going back to my game now.

Enjoy!

Here is a link to go play GSIV. It's free to play or you can purchase a subscription.

Hot Products - Dishonored, City of Nexus and The Halls of Arden Vul

It looks like the hot product tool for Affiliates is a little broken on DriveThru. For the last week, the site has been telling me that City of Nexus is the hottest new book, while logging in displays Dishonored as number one.

Hottest New Book City of Nexus | 20x30 Battlemaps [BUNDLE]

How annoying. The other day I decided to make up my own links to products I like. They are over on the left hand column. If you want to read how I was able to get a neat little box for a website from data on DriveThruRPG, click here for the tutorial.

What seems to be a truly hot product is The Halls of Arden Vul, in many different forms. Below is a picture and a link to the complete set PDF, all 1,100+ pages.

The Halls of Arden Vul Complete The Halls of Arden Vul Completer

As a dungeon goes, it doesn't get any more mega than that. If 1,100+ pages at one go is too much for you, it comes in 5 volumes. Volume I to IV are $30 for the PDF and $55 for the printed book. Volume V is different, it's the map (well, 33 maps) and sells for only $5.00 digital.

I'm probably going to order the maps for now (Volume V). I love my artwork and the artists on this product are incredible.

Here are links to the whole series:

Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
Volume IV
Volume V
and Complete.

In looking up this information, I found a bundle pack for $275.00. I don't know... it's almost like they gave me a MEGA-amount of information to process.

The bundle pack is a PDF of 1,100+ pages and a physical copy of Volumes I-V. The "complete" PDF is the aforementioned PDF from the bundle pack. If those entry points of $109 and $275 are too steep, ordering the first four volumes individually, entitles you to a copy of that 1,100 page PDF. Additionally, if your order the $109 Complete PDF, you can receive a 33% on print copies of the individual books at a later time.

Wow... just the description is MEGA all on it's own. That is a lot of information to process. 

Art with Jeremy Hart

Jeremy Hart is a great artist over on MeWe, Facebook and Patreon. He has a whole series of items on DriveThruRPG (link to all of it), but I want to focus on his paper minis.

Jeremy Hart Solo Mini Eidolon A1 Solo Paper Mini]

So, I have dilemma. How do I post about paper minis without artwork? I mean as minis, a screen grab is essentially the product... so... you know, I don't want to do that.

The other day, I complained that I have no idea what I am doing with these colored pencils. It's not a format I normally work in. Rather than give up, I figured I'd just teach myself. It's a lot harder than it looks. Part of the issue is, I get a drawing done and want to get it colored, which will complete the work. Instead, I end up "ruining" it. Or at least not do it very well.

Sigh... artist's brain...

Here is where Jeremy Hart comes in. He makes these amazing drawings of monsters for whatever game you are playing. They are two sided little minis. A lot of them are black and white but some of them are in color. I am pretty sure he is using a computer and tablet combo, but this is an excellent opportunity to try out colored pencils. I don't have to trouble myself by drawing something to use the pencils. In fact, if you wanted to, you could run through his whole back catalog and print yourself a great coloring book.

The images below are close ups of his work, the green one is Jeremy's while the purplish one is my attempt with colored pencils.

This is a bad cell phone pix, actual images are
razor sharp and clear. 

The great thing about these Solo Minis are the price. Jeremy has them on sale for $0.10 each. That's a steal. I meant to download just one, but ended up with more than 12. Go give some these a try. You don't have to be a nut like me and use them for coloring sheets, you can incorporate them into your game.

These monsters are unique, so you'll either have to get his stat'ed products or make up some of your own stats. Don't forget, Jeremy has a patreon page which can score you monsters and stats starting at a dollar a month.

Seeking Zeros (Product Plug)

I'm looking for a few zeros and not in the way you'd expect.

Today I did a review of my products on DriveThruRPG and realized I am pretty close to some thresholds I'd like to hit. Here is a list of my total downloads for all 5 of my products.

AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 91
Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 135
Kobold Folly Minisetting - 122
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 244
Swashbucklers Character Class - 87

What I would like to see is at least 100 for my Character Sheet and Swashbuckler Character Class. I wish I was at 250 for Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners.

Let me recap what each product is:

The Character Sheet is just a character sheet with the 7 stats from AD&D and Unearthed Arcana, 1st edition.

The Swashbuckler Character Class is a gimmick character class, someplace between thief and fighter. The Swashbuckler does little to no damage per round, attempting to set themselves for killing strike on a roll of 20 or better. They are fast and adventurous, but perhaps not the greatest warriors. Very Errol Flynn.

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners is a framework for creating NPC characters with specific non-combat abilities which balanced for D&D and AD&D 1st Edition. The booklet can also be used to create secondary or professional skills for PCs, which don't push the limits or make them OP.

The Compass Rose Inn Minisetting and Kobold's Folly are two maps sets for a generic campaign setting and are rules agnostic. They come with maps that can be printed as 1 inch=5 feet battlemat. Character backgrounds are provided to make these locations come to life with gossip and intrigue. 

I would like to invite all of you to download these products. Each is Pay What You Want. In this time of crisis, the "Pay" and "Want" should go away. Download them at $0.00. It's cool, that's how this works. Help me reach these goals, even though they are probably silly.

I appreciate every download.