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Monday, October 28, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 33 - Mortar of Pestilence
But what about the Pestilence? One of the first attempts to use the Mortar involved oil. A couple of pours of oil worked correctly, but it was found that water was far cheaper. One of the Mortars was not poured and over time, the oil went rancid. The oil was impossible to light and within minutes everyone with in 120 feet was sickened, including the defenders.
Oil will go bad within an hour when put in the Mortar. The sickness is airborne and will require a saving throw vs. Disease in the first round of pouring for everyone within 10 feet of the Mortar or within the target area at the base of the wall. A failed saving will sicken characters to the point that they will suffer -2 penalty on all ability scores and a -2 to attack. Anyone who enters the target area will need to make a save, even hours later. This effect will be washed away by the next rain or by pouring water on it.
The mortar can be filled by bucket or by Create Water spells. Usually clerics will have to work in shifts to fill the whole vessel by magic. Buckets are easier than magic and nasty materials can be added to the vessel. Oil is most common, but so is sewage. Any organic material placed within the Mortar will rot and spoil within an hour and causes the disease effect. Aside from water, any substance placed in the Mortar will become so foul it will be unrecognizable and often does not operate as it should. For example, poison will not be a poison on decanting, oil and alcohols will not burn and milk... oh god. Milk!
Pouring acid into the Mortar of Pestilence will demagik the device and it will bubble and spatter out of the container over a period of 100 hours. Everything in the area must make a save as if they were splashed by the acid.
Friday, February 22, 2019
52 weeks of Magic - 9 of 52 - Libertatem
It is a +3 gladius, or short sword. It is +5 vs. undead. Libertatem has the special purpose of freeing slaves and freeing captives unjustly imprisoned and has a bonus to strike undead and animated dead as a side effect.
The sword has one primary power - to heal once per day. Libertatem has one special purpose power: disintegrate. The nature of the power is limited to specific items but nearly unrestricted in usage. When the sword comes into contact with non-magical bonds, it will disintegrate them. Once per day, the disintegrate power can be used over an area 25 feet in radius freeing many bound people at a time. It can cleave magical bonds on a to hit roll. If the holder is bound, only the pulse effect can free them from non-magical bonds, unless they can contrive away to get the sword out and touch their own bonds.
If confronted by a person who is compelled by a charm-like effect, the sword will glow and smoke in frustration. The holder is entitled to a +5 save verses spells which compel, such as charm or command. If the spell is successful in affecting the character, Libertatem will either grant or refuse the bonus to hit, depending on the circumstances. In extreme situations, the sword can come into conflict with a charmed character and escape their grasp.
Libertatem has no power in a court of law, so long as the law is actually being followed. If justice is perverted in the court, the sword will literally smolder and glow. This is merely a show of force, it does not actually generate heat. The sword will use telepathy to make this determination. It is not particularly good at judging at relative justice, such as a goblin court of law and may go silent in these cases.
The sword radiates a magical and good aurora. Casting a detect alignment spell on Libertatem will not reveal an alignment, only it's purpose of liberty. Strangely, the sword will allow itself to be held by anyone who values freedom, justice and/or law regardless of alignment. It has clear preference for demi-humans over humans.
Libertatem has the ability to speak human (Latin), common, dwarven and halfling, in addition to using telepathy. Libertatem chooses to communicate in a very limited fashion, often in single words or short phrases, which can come across as bossy.
The sword has an Ego of 19. If the sword comes into conflict with a character the sword seeks to resolve the conflict as peaceably as possible. If the conflict is not extreme, such as a character being afraid to free others or enter combat, the sword will allow the character to set it aside or give the weapon away. If it becomes apparent that the character does not wish to free slaves and prisoners, the sword will try to worm it's way out the character's hand when drawn. Every time the sword is drawn or swung, the character must make a save vs. dexterity or lose control of the sword and drop it. Once freed, the sword's point will spin towards the character when they attempt to recover it. If the character persists in picking it up, the sword can strike them.
The sword will never express conflict in the form of adornments, the shedding of other magic and weapons, seeking creatures to slay, payment, or anything else that would restrict a character's freedom. It will try to talk it's way into a better characters hands, but only when a conflict exists.
Only those who actively subvert the law to unjustly imprison or enslave cannot hold the sword. If confronted by undead, the sword will allow any living person to pick it up and use it for as long as the immediate danger exists.
This weapon is close to being an artifact. The creation process required four wishes. This weapon is dwarven, and all dwarves are proficient when using it. The sword was deliberately forged as a traditional human weapon, as it was felt that a gladius would rally humankind to it.
Week | Item | Week | Item | Week | Item | Week | Item |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | Emulous Cursed Sword | 4 | |||
5 | 6 | 7 | The Symbol of Sol Invictus | 8 | |||
9 | 10 | 11 | Aemilla Carna | 12 | |||
13 | 14 | 15 | Shape of Memory | 16 | |||
17 | 18 | 19 | Staff of Eyes | 20 | |||
21 | 22 | 23 | Whispering Wings | 24 | |||
25 | 26 |
Coming Soon
| 27 | Coming Soon | 28 |
Coming Soon
| |
Now, the commercial. I have a little book called Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners, over at DrivethruRPG. I am obviously thinking of writing another and Gnolls might be the subject. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Review - Cepheus Light Upgraded
(No really, I'll slow down. 52 reviews in 52 weeks is like drinking from a firehose.)
Title: Cepheus Light Upgraded Rule Set: Cepheus Engine Year: 2021 Author: Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazelwood, Josh Peters, Robert L. S. Weaver Publisher: Stellagama Publishing Pages: 118 pages Rating: 5 of 5 Gold Stars |
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 34 - Aerialist's Skin
Flying is a little more than throwing one's self at the ground and missing. |
The Aerialist's Skin somehow contains a fractional dimension, meaning that it acts like a net or trampoline. It does not need to be suspended like a net, the falling victim's body penetrates into the fractional dimension of the Skin, rather than the cold, hard ground. The Skin's surface is soft, with a lot of give. It will reduce damage from speed or falling by 6d6 or the equivalent of falling from 60 feet. The tackiness of the surface is amplified by speed and impact meaning that a person falling onto it will not roll or bounce off.
The Aerialist's Skin is unlikely to find its way into a dungeon, but it is an interesting "consumer magic device" which the general public will have a small amount of experience with. Wizards use it to learn to fly. Circuses use it as a safety device for high wire acts. Creative thieves and thief acrobats may find a use for it in cat burglary.
The material is flammable, so usually it is wet down before use.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Week 23 - Whispering Wings
Week | Item | Week | Item | Week | Item | Week | Item |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | Emulous Cursed Sword | 4 | |||
5 | 6 | 7 | The Symbol of Sol Invictus | 8 | |||
9 | 10 | 11 | Aemilla Carna | 12 | |||
13 | 14 | 15 | Shape of Memory | 16 | |||
17 | 18 | 19 | Staff of Eyes | 20 | |||
21 | 22 | 23 | Whispering Wings | 24 | |||
25 | 25b | 26 | Shield of Force | 27 |
Coming Soon
| ||
Now, the commercial. I have a little book called Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners, over at DrivethruRPG. Also on Drivethru is my custom character sheet for AD&D and Unearthed Arcana.
I am obviously thinking of writing another and Gnolls might be the subject. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 42 - The Law of Verbena
When used dry, it is typical stored within an earthen vessel and each leaf is handled with a hilt-like device, which acts as both tweeters and handle.
The Law of Verbena comes from one of the side effects of the leaf's use. Typically, the leaf cannot be handled without healing the healer, even with the handle like tool. When healed by the herb, the user is marked with The Law of Verbena. They will glow with a soft light, they will radiate an aura of good and will repel evil 10' for three days after healing. These are the minor effects of Verbena.
The Law of Verbena will curse anyone who injuries the healed during the effects of healing. For this reason, all healing must occur in a temple and the healed and healer must remain within it's confines until the minor effects fade. Should that person be deliberately injured while sanctified, the attacker will suffer a powerful curse. They will lose 1d3 hit points and half of their constitution for 7 days.
This curse was anecdotal know from it's discovery, but not always believed. Under the cruel rule of the Emperor Asinusistic, an elven prisoner was tortured for information. Asinusistic healed the elf to keep the process going. He was immediately struck down the curse.
Over the next seven days, the Capital of 75,000 was stricken with the curse. Many people died outright and the city was thrown into chaos. Asinusistic survived the initial curse, but subsequently died when he was thrown from the palace rooftop. News of his death stopped the Elven incursion and it was another generation before hostilities started anew.
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Analytics Rots the Soul
Stepping behind my own curtain |
But what are they reading?
According to the stats, my readers aren't reading much about me. My top 5 posts, in order are:
Google Docs Templates for D&D
Book Review - A Brief Study of TSR Book Design
The 3 Toadstools and #tenmonstersetting
Module Review - BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - Update - We are live!
The first is about Benjamin Connell’s 3.5 Character Sheet, which I love for my D&D campaigns. The second is a review of Kevin Crawford's history of D&D books, the typography, style and page layouts. This was extraordinary helpful for my self-published books. The 3 Toadstool post was about Shane Ward's excellent campaign icebreaker experiment, Chris Hall's expansion. The ideas totally invigorated my creativity to produce new content for my campaign and my books. Ghost of Lion Castle was a solo adventure by TSR, which was a favorite of mine on rainy days. The final post is all about my first book.
So what?
3000 page views a month is not much of a goal. But to get there, I have understand my audience. If my goal was to convert every reader to a book purchaser, I am a total failure.
But was that ever my goal? I've been doing this since 2012 but didn't write my first book until 2018. That book was born out of the frustration of dealing with an accident at work, not any desire to... you know... make money or gain fame.
I've posted links to my books and thrown up some ads to make the website pay for itself, which is working. I have DriveThruRPG hosting files to mostly free titles I have written (I hate file hosting myself) which is also working. But going forward, I mean to be a part of the gaming community. My purpose isn't to make money or gain fame, but to transmit great ideas to the larger community.
In the month of August, I am bring out two new titles, which are totally tangential to the These Old Games. I mean to update and bring back 52 Weeks of Magic, which is a highly enjoyable activity even though it doesn't generate webhits. But most of all, I mean to write about all the things that are happening in this community.
At some point, I became a service provider, a place to read about all of the wonderful ideas from across the web. Its time to fully embrace that.
Wish me luck!
Saturday, November 27, 2021
New Books From Todd Leback to Review
Author's Note: Sometimes, life kicks you in the balls. Sometimes it just doesn't stop. If you don't laugh some or all of it off, you'll go nuts. This post is in that laughing spirit.
It pokes fun at my situation, skewers my reviews and pays homage to a spammer that used my 52 Weeks of Magic series to promote a consignment shop by implying items sold were possibly magical. It also promotes a pair of titles by Todd Leback.
Since it was unusually cool today, I knew this package contained a new book from Todd Leback. How do I know that? All of Todd Leback's books are magical.
In defiance of all FTC rules, I told all of my readers Todd Leback's books are magically protected from fire. In all seriousness, it's totally true that one of his titles, Into the Wild survived a housefire. So clearly, there is some unknown physics happening here, if not out and out magic.
Snow this early in Buffalo New York is so unusual, I find it hard to believe that a single book could possibly cause it before December.Well, it turns out that is correct.
In order for me to cause it to snow so early in the year, I had to order two books from Todd Leback. I ordered both A Guide to Thieves Guilds and Basilisk Hills Ultimate Hexcrawl. This order was placed back on November 11th and arrived the morning of November 27. I know DriveThruRPG is urging people to order early to allow time for Christmas delivery, so I might have just been lucky.
Or it was magic. You decide.
Monday, October 28, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 32 - Wondrous Decanter
The Wondrous Decanter will be filled with water when found. It can be refilled. It does not have charges. There are three ways of filling it: the normal way, going to the well or the stream and filling it up; the second way is for a cleric to cast Create Water; or using the Decanter as a part of the create Food and Water spell casting.
In all cases, the Decanter will accept up to 36 gallons of water. When filling from a stream or lake as opposed to magic, the Decanter will fill to the brim with clean water in one round even if the source was muddy or fouled. It is not a perfect filter, the source liquid must be mostly water. It cannot take water out of another substances. If water is not the major component of the source, the Decanter will not fill.
One of the wonders of the Decanter is, it will not spill a drop. It will dispense 1 cup of water every 3 seconds. The stopper will seal itself if left unattended. This item is a +5 item when making saving throws. It may occur to characters to use it like a water bomb. It is often too hard to break to make this effective. If broken, all 36 gallons will gush out from the fragments over a period of a minute.
The last wonder is more for the sagely, the Decanter acts like a Bag of Holding for water. It is no heavier full than empty. The water contained within also has little momentum so that all 36 gallons can't be dispensed by accident.
These Decanters come in a variety of shapes, styles, and outward sizes.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Stop Being Crazy In There!
Chaos Star |
(Jan 2023 update, all of the links are dead, so I removed them. Sorry.)
Friday, November 1, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 36 - Ring of the Mile
3-4 Grounded: On both knees.
5 Prone: Face down on the ground. Can only see 60 feet forward, and 120 feet left and right.
6 Supine: Face up on the ground. Can only see to the left and right.
7 Tears: The character can barely see. There is 50% chance of reversing direction.
8 Eyes shut: The character has lost the ability to see.
Monday, August 16, 2021
The Most Egregious Kickstarter Promotion Ever
Author's Note: Sometimes, life kicks you in the balls. Sometimes it just doesn't stop. If you don't laugh some or all of it off, you'll go nuts. This post is in that laughing spirit.
It pokes fun at my situation, skewers my reviews and pays homage to a spammer that used my 52 Weeks of Magic series to promote a consignment shop by implying items sold were possibly magical. It also promotes a kickstarter campaign by Todd Leback.
Todd Leback's Basilisk Hills Compiled Hexcrawl Kickstarter
Last year Todd Leback used Kickstarter to publish his book, Into the Wild. Mr. Leback's project was very successful, having met many, if not all of the stretch goals. In getting this project off the ground, Mr. Leback offered a preview look at his book which I reviewed. Even in the rough form, it was excellent.
I should be re-reviewing Into the Wild now that I have a physical copy. I haven't because real life intrudes. Back on July 19th, my house burned. I am meeting the the structural engineer this week to see what parts of the building can be saved. For the most part, the entire contents of the home were completely destroy, burned to ash.
Well, not everything.
Into the Wild survived, as did the contents of two boxes that the book sat on. It was something of a miracle. This on Print on Demand title survived 1000° C heat. Amazing.
This book is incredible. It was printed on high quality paper, in full color. The artwork is great and the maps are excellent as they are informative. This title is 221 pages and covers everything you need to run a Hexcrawl campaign by expanding Mr. Leback's prior works: Classing up the Joint, Domain Building, Hexcrawl Basics, Random Weather Generation, OSR Expanded Classes, and Wealth by NPC level.
And it's affords protection from normal fires, 5' radius.
In all seriousness I am not trying to imply that if you back Mr. Leback's kickstarter for Basilisk Hills Compiled Hexcrawl that it will protect your home from fire.
No.
I am telling you, you need to back Mr. Leback's kickstarter at the $25.00 Ultimate POD and PDF level to receive protection from fire.
I've been a gamer since the 1970s. I can assure you that lesser works by Gary Gygax, Monte Cook and Dennis Sustare are not even fire resistant and absolutely do not confer any sort of bonus to your gaming shelf like Into the Wild does. Back then, we had some clues that most books were not fireproof. The Satanic Panic proved that great piles of the Holmes Editions D&D Box Sets were not proof against fire. Now we all suffer from a paucity of mint condition copies and tragically high eBay prices on sets that don't even come with chits. Don't let the Panic back in with it's crazy book burning and over the top rants targeting gamers of all types.
Only you can prevent book burning. And buying a copy of each of Mr. Leback's products is a good start.
If Basilisk Hills Compiled is 1/10 the book that Into the Wild was, it should be able to save your game shelf from this:
Sunday, December 22, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 37 - Splayer's Clothe
While it is meant for taxidermists, tailors, cobblers, and other working people, adventurers can find strange uses for the Splayer's Clothe.
Items in the extra dimensional space are frozen in time. They will not rot, mold, cool, or warm while in the space. Hot or cold food can be wrapped up like this for preservation, as can a body. The only rule for placement is that the shadow of the item to be folded needs to fall entirely on the clothe. A standing person at noon can be folded up, as can someone in a darken room. The user can manipulate the environment to cause shadows to fall entirely on the clothe.
If a person is folded up, they maintain their original orientation when unfolded. People could be standing up, lying down or anything in between when folded, so long as their shadow is entirely on the clothe.
In the case of living creatures, they will be frozen in time, and will require no food, water or air. They cannot unwrap themselves as they can't move or think in this state. It is virtually impossible to wrap one's self up, as this would likely violate the requirement of keeping your shadow on the clothe.
The duration is unlimited. Unfolding a found Splayer's Clothe could be fun or perilous.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 31 - The Strap of Stamina and Strength
Some may think that it is a key chain, a necklace, a lanyard or other common device. It is obvious not a weapon but does hold power.
It IS activated by being placed around the neck, but all humans and demi-humans are using it wrong if they wear it.
- The dog will be granted maximum hit points for it's type.
- They will also grow to the maximum size for it's species or bred.
- The animal will gain human like intelligence, to a maximum of seven (3+1d4)
- The dog will be able to speak common, although it will speak only when it thinks it is necessary.
- The dog will become territorial and defend a specific person or area of it's choosing. This maybe rather nebulous to characters, such as all children, one woman, a house, a forest, a lake, etc.
Monday, December 23, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 46 - The King's Cold
One of Minwan's subjects holds the King's Cold. Nervously. |
King Minwan has observed that the torc will make him unnaturally cold, even on the hottest days on the savanna. This is one power of the device, but isn't it's true purpose. Minwan does not like to wear the torc as a crown due to this property, he is often seen fidgeting with it. On particularly hot days he uses it as a reward, passing it from kobold to kobold so they may gain relief from the heat. This closer to the device's true purpose.
Before the Empire came with it's roads and supply lines, the indigenous half-elves created many of these devices to support their construction efforts. Each crew was 11 workers under a supervisor. The supervisor was identified by his torc, a mark of office. As he gave out assignments, the workers would tap the torc on his arm. This conveyed 4 hours of immunity to the sunburn and proofed them against the heat. When the work was fully completed, the supervisor would often bury his torc as an offering. The kobold's digging in the Folly uncovered the device that is now known as The King's Cold.
There are variants which protect against cold as well as heat.
This item first appeared in The Kobold's Folly, which is a series of maps available on DriveThruRPG.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 49 - Oakheart's Staff
The true power of the Staff is it's ability to remove status effects over a radius of 30 feet. Raising the Staff in this way will have the following effects:
1) Unconscious and sleeping characters will be awoken immediately.
2) All people in the area of effect will recover 1 hit point.
3) All manner of bonds, such as ropes and shackles, will fall off.
4) If someone is under the effects of poison, a spell like charm, or a curse, they will be allowed another saving throw.
All four of these effects happen simultaneously and affect friend and foe alike. This power may be used once a day and costs one charge. The staff has 50 charges.
This staff effects the casting of Create Food and Water. It will double the strength of these spells when used in the process of casting. This effect is unlimited and costs no charges.
Sunday, August 9, 2020
#RPGADAY2020 9. Light
I could post about actual light, but I already did that last year under my series on 52 weeks of magic.
No, I won't rehash that. Instead, I will post on making light. Of play, of games.
Sometimes, a one-liner or good joke can make or break or possibly both a good session. One of my favorite gags came at the expense of my whole campaign. And I wouldn't change how things played out for the world.
The PC's got clobbered by my antagonists. Most of them died thrice over. However, a cleric survived through all of the bloodshed. I didn't pick up on the fact that he was leveling like crazy.
As the rest of the party rolled up new characters for the third time, he was collecting new spells. One of them was Quest.
Since I didn't expect that the party would would get to 9th level against this particular antagonist, that character was not protected against a 5th level spell. And when the cleric unloaded on him, the effect was spectacular as it was effective.
"I charge thee with a quest to bring me the most perfect grilled cheese sandwich."
I was really sick of that particular antagonist, so I didn't mind this outcome. But it turned in to brick joke. The guy ran off to find that grilled cheese sandwich which put me on the spot to come up with some other plot line. As this new plot line developed, the poor victim kept returning with grilled cheese sandwiches.
"Master, here is the most perfect grilled cheese sandwich."
"How do you know it's perfect?"
"Chomp... It's so good."
"The perfect cheese sandwich has been defiled by your bite."
"I know... I know, but it was so good!"
The table erupted in laughter each time we landed the joke. Eventually, I had to turn the DM reins over to someone else because the joke was killing my adventures. And that too was "so good".
While this is a story of making too much light, everyone should try to bring some levity and light to the table. It is play, a game after all.
Monday, December 23, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 47 - The Scryer's Beads
Hermin, the King's sister holds a crystal ball and is scrying a human court house. |
Anyone holding the crystal ball can switch from bead to be bead on command.
This item first appeared in The Kobold's Folly, which is a series of maps available on DriveThruRPG.
In that book, the Scryer's Beads were separated from the crystal ball and the kobolds do not have the ability to use the crystal ball effectively. The beads were taken from a horse thief in a small provincial town and are sitting on the bench of the local judge.
The Kobold King's sister, Hermin, is in possession of the crystal ball and frequently scries the court room. Hermin believes she is seeing the high court of a human king. Observations of the rural court house have caused the kobold tribe to believe a great number of strange things about human royalty and legal proceedings, which they seek to emulate. While this may be amusing, the tribe has developed a hatred of horse thieves, and perhaps a taste for them.
Monday, July 15, 2019
Updates - Compass Rose Inn, Website, Etc.
A few months ago, I purchased Inkwell Idea's Worldographer which is an excellent way to visualize your campaign ideas. This weekend, I released a new title called The Compass Rose Minisetting. This product introduces the Compass Rose Inn in visual form and brings to life long time NPCs from my home campaign. It is listed at PWYW with a suggested price of $1.99. It has been selling briskly since it's Sunday evening release.
This mapset is rules agnostic, there are zero references to rulesets. It can be plugged into any campaign setting or ruleset.
In August, a companion to this piece will be released. It will feature characters for D&D and AD&D, will contain more history, magic items and obviously, more maps. It will be offered at a $4.99 price point as a separate product.
In order to launch this product on time, I have placed 52 Weeks of Magic on a 3 week hiatus. Some of the magic items that would have appeared here will be included with this updated version of The Compass Rose Inn.
Additionally, These Old Games will be reworked during this time to incorporate posts from my 3 other blogs as they are being decommissioned at the end of this year. I simply cannot write, work, attend school, have a family and continue to update 4 different blogs.
I hope you enjoy these new features, as much I do producing them.
Phil
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
52 Weeks of Magic - Item 50 - Flask of DÄ«s Pater
The purpose of this item is preservation and rescue. If a character is reduced to one or less hit points, drinking from, or pouring the flask into the beleaguered character cause them to fall into a deep coma. The coma stops all reoccurring damage, such as poison. In the event that the person has less than 1 hit point, it will preserve the body at the edge of death. This property allows a cleric to cast a heal or cure spell on the person, even beyond the point where such a spell would be effective.
In the case of a character having a single hit point, they will recover from the coma in one hour, with one addition hit point.
There are limits to the flask's power. First, the coma only lasts 24 hours per sip or pour. Second, if the magical healing is not enough, the person will die immediately as the spell is cast. Magical healing is the only thing that will restore a character. Two or more clerics working together could cast two or more healing spells simultaneously in increase the odds of keeping the person alive.
The only way to see the liquid is to accidentally dribble it while drinking or pouring into a person with an actual need. It is crystal clear and smells strongly of honey and mint.