Bill Webb's page

Tracking says they arrive at the Frog God Warehouse tomorrow!

Pre-orders are available and will ship next week

https://www.froggodgames.com/starfinder-0

In about 4 hours...

Hey all, Bill Webb here.
I wanted to give everyone a “State of the Onion” as we at FGG call it, on all current projects. Then I want to talk a bit about that last week on the Bard’s Gate Kickstarter.

First of all, everything is moving along (albeit we had some slowdowns). Quests of Doom 3 is at the printer and is expected to ship to the warehouse in a couple weeks—so figure delivery to you in mid-July. Chuck actually finished this the week after he got out of the hospital—against my orders to rest---so its back on track.

The Blight is behind schedule—the stretch goals and add-on’s of the extra books, as well as Chuck’s issues with his leg and Greg finishing his 3rd year in med school just got us behind. Everything is now written (yours truly was the last delinquent delivery) and in development and art is being purchased. I don’t want to give a final date on this—but suffice to say we underestimated how long the added material would take, and got behind. That being said, the text is awesome, much of the art is as well, and we will, after all, be producing what I believe will be the largest (certainly one of the largest) books ever made for the game! Better late and quality than on time and rushed.

Bard’s Gate actually has all the art and maps done (Skeeter got a head start), and ongoing work is primarily focused on conversion and final editing. While this one needs to print in China (its color), we may actually have the pdfs ready fairly early (like end of summer), and all indications are that this one will be on time.

So have no fear, we will deliver and it will be to our standards of quality—we just have slipped behind on a couple fronts. As a bonus—this gives you time to reinforce your bookshelves before the books get there!
Ok, so Bard’s Gate and the pitch. Those of you who know the Lost Lands know the name Bard’s Gate. It’s basically the hub centerpiece city of both the wilds of Akados and the Sinnar Coast. This place is integrally linked to Rappan Athuk, The Sword of Air, Stoneheart Valley, The Borderlands, Barakus, The Sundered Kingdoms and about a dozen of the Quests of Doom adventures. Heck, it’s the starting point for Sword of Air. Anyone playing in the Lost Lands will benefit greatly from this book.

If you don’t play in the Lost Lands, but just need a city, it works for that as well. Ok, time to do a Grognard check—how many over 40’s used the City State booklet for every city in every area of their game world? The best part about a book like Bard’s Gate is that you can grab bits and pieces of it for use as a city adventure or you can use the whole as canon material—your choice. After all, who doesn’t want to visit Tenkar’s Tavern or Thilo’s Scriptorium? There are Easter Eggs galore throughout the city, and dozens of side quests and adventures that can be tailored for low, medium and high level player characters at the GM’s discretion.

Skeeter and Casey have done a wonderful job of expanding and re-imagining the work that Clark Peterson and I produced back in 2003-2004—this city is much bigger and better than it was before—this is not just a window dressing of the existing material. We have modified most of it and added over 120,000 words of new material.
We designed this book to be used, not to sit on the shelf (ok, the metal one is designed to sit on the shelf, it weighs too much to use at a table I fear). Care was taken to make it so you as the GM can easily read, find and follow plot lines and connections within the book and thereby maximize its utility. After all, since the player characters need to return to a city after killing the dragon and rescuing the princess, you might as well have something waiting for them that wants to kill them!

So that’s about it, except for one final note about the giant maps—these are an experiment, and literally can be used as a table cloth or shower curtain. I know they are pricy, but as we are unlikely to make many of them, our costs are fairly high. They are made of cloth and are quite durable. We had one prototype in Dallas last month, and about 20 folks wanted to buy it from us. I can say that one will be going on my wall (and used as a table mat when the party enters the City). Again, we focused this on utility. It makes it very easy to tell where folks are if the party decides to split, where one goes to the armor shop and another goes to the sewers to visit a certain guild. While not quite to miniature scale (it would have been 14 feet long), this still may be the coolest map I have ever seen (ok, geek mode off).
Thank you all again for your patronage of FGG, and I hope we continue to delight you with our books and other products.
BW
30 JUN 16

ps--coming soon, Mountains of Madness by Tom Knauss, Quests of Doom 4, and a few other surprises!

I am posting via phone so cannot link, but it's 40 percent off most Pathfinder products until PaizoCon starts.

Order early so you can get the books in time for Greg or myself to sign at the show!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/froggodgames/quest-of-doom-3-adventure s-worth-winning-for-5e-an/description

https://froggodgames.com/grab-bags

Boxes for boxing day! 20 percent off all grab bags, two day only sale. Checkout code is Boxing-20.

Grab bags include FGG overstocks ($300 retail, $100 plus discount), OOP Necromancer books (normally $135), and boxes out of my personal collection of miscellaneous gaming materials 1970-2015 ($150 retail before discount)

Grab bags are a huge value, and rarely go on sale, but we have about 20 pallets arriving soon for Borderlands and Northlands, and we need space!

Limited quantities, so get them while we have stock!

Bill and the tadpoles finally packed up all of the old Necromancer Games inventory into randomized grab bags this year. These are strictly limited in stock (no more books exist). All of these books were printed between 2000 and 2007, and include rare Judges Guild books, Box sets like City of Brass, low print run Kenzer and Troll Lords Modules as well as other hard to find books like original copies of Demons and Devils, Vault of Larin Karr and others.

Grab bags consist of either 8 softcovers and 2 hardcovers, 10 softcovers and 1 hardcover or 12 softcovers. These are the last bits of the Necromancer Games stock from the old Days of Swords and Sorcery Studios, and are being offered to you for the last time. When they are gone, they are gone, and no specific requests for individual books is possible (all boxes are packed and ready to mail). Most items are mint/NM condition, though some have shelf wear or minor flaws after 15 years in the warehouse.

Bill's Collection Grab Bag Part II

$150.00
Mama Frog decided that she wants a new room added to the house to use as an office for Frog God Games. She demanded that Bill cut into the kids inheritance by selling part of his collection—dropping it down to just a few crates of his precious items. Last year’s collection boxes are all sold out, so this time he dug a bit deeper. Poor Papa Frog, his collection has dwindled and now only includes Class 4-5 rares, several keepsake items with sentimental value and his old JG collection

Included in these boxes are randomized items including a pair of Wilderlands box sets, Conan Roleplaying Games supplements, strange assorted mini-games, vintage KODT issues, Leather books and collectables from the modern era, indie publications of various OSR modules, including some that are very hard to find, old copies (some 30 years old) of trade press magazines, Scarred lands books, one of the last copies of Rappan Athuk Reloaded (shrink—could it contain a golden ticket?), 1e modules, including N series, UK series and other hard to get books, the last bits of the Forgotten Realms collection, some duplicate old Judges Guild materials, a few ancient Tunnels and Trolls books, Castles and Crusades books, Lejendary games books and supplements (Gygax), and of course, a copy of Necropolis signed by Gary himself at Gencon in 2003.

Boxes are packed at random and contain random materials, though Bill tried to make sure everyone got something good in each. Some boxes are worth much more than $150, some are worth slightly more than the purchase price, and most are worth more than the purchase price. Some items are not mint condition (and many are very old).

Very important, low cost book coming soon, news in two weeks.

Then, the Blight in 90 days or so...

I just read Endzeitgiests review of Sword of Air. Wow. I am pleased and humbled by his words. If anyone can post the link, I am failing to do so on my phone.

Bill

So right now its Tsar, closely followed by Tome Complete...will the record hold?

News tomorrow...it may not.

Happy Krista's Day! What is Krista's Day you ask? Well, it's the day that we appreciate Mama Frog and all of the hard work she puts into fulfilling all of your orders by offering ridiculous discounts on excellent titles!

You see, as we've been adding more and more books to the Lost Lands series, we've been steadily running low on warehouse space. We just took delivery on the Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms Player's Guide and we had to shift quite a few boxes. This has resulted in some of our inventory spilling into Mama Frog's office, which is the final straw!

We've divided various physical products up into groups of 40%, 60%, and 80% OFF their retail price! For many of these items, once they're gone, they're gone for good so get them while they last

Use the following coupon codes during checkout depending on the items you have in your cart

•40% OFF: KRISTA-40
•60% OFF: KRISTA-60
•80% OFF: KRISTA-80

The sale ends Sunday 7-19-2015 at Midnight (PST),

so get your game on!

40% OFF TITLES

Razor Coast HARDCOVER for only $59.99! (regular price $99.99)

Freebooter's Guide HARDCOVER for only $11.99! (regular price $19.99)

Heart of the Razor HARDCOVER for only $23.99! (regular price $39.99)

The Lost Lands: Stoneheart Valley HARDCOVER for only $19.99! (regular price $32.99)

$100 Grab Bag for only $60.00! (regular price $100.00)

60% OFF TITLES

The Tome of Horrors 4 HARDCOVER for only $19.99! (regular price $49.99)

The Voyage Package: Razor Coast, Heart of the Razor, Freebooter's Guide, and Fire as she Bears, all for only $71.98! (regular price $179.96)

Head to the site to see other sales for this weekend!

Pdfs will release today to backers--same with Cyclopean Deeps 2 and Fields of Blood.

Books are all shipping, and set to arrive (and start shipping to you) in about 2 weeks.

Pre-orders will start as soon as backers get their stuff.

Greg Vaughan at his finest!

There is no school like the old school!

Late Night Swords and Wizardry with grognard GM Bill Webb of Frog God Games. Travel back to the dawn of the game where character generation took 2 minutes (which is good, because you die a lot!), there was no such thing as a spot check, dwarves and elves were classes, not just races, and a +1 sword was a wonder!

This is the 5th year in a row that Bill has run an event of this type, and the third year where its been the late night affair. This year expect a dungeon crawl adventure where you better bring your imagination and your thinking cap.

Starting at 9 pm and ending at 3 am (or later). Number of players is capped at 12 (plus invited guests for a total of 20 players). Bring dice and miniatures. This year there will be 2 sessions (Saturday and Sunday nights).

You can roll up characters at the table. Rules will generally follow those in Swords and Wizardry Complete and Bill Webb's book of Dirty Tricks (available at the Paizo store--and the rulebook pdf is free!). All character generation is 3d6 in order, although stats cap at +1/-1 on bonus and penalty, and are thus, mostly irrelevant.

Bill's games are well known for having high fatality rates and extremely difficult puzzles and traps. If you play in both sessions, experience points and treasure carry over to the next night. If you have a character from last year's "Character Killing Session" event (or bring yours from this year next year), the same applies.

You never know who might show up at Bill's table. There are occasional special guests with names you just may have heard before. Games start promptly at 9:30 pm (9:00 if you need a character), and run until Bill falls over. Kids are welcome (there will be 3-4 there already), as long as they can handle the time of night and have basic skills.

What happens when you take some the best adventure writers in the world, and set them loose to assemble a book of masterpiece-level challenges for players? Quests of Doom, that’s what happens!

Dead tree books coming mid April--those of you who missed the Kickstarter, its now for sale! ( http://talesofthefroggod.com/quests-doom-complete-pfsw )

This book is packed with 18 adventures in over 300 pages, by acclaimed and award-winning authors Ed Greenwood (The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, The City of Splendors),Bill Webb (Rappan Athuk, The Lost City of Barakus), Matt Finch (Swords & Wizardry, Tome of Adventure Design), J. Collura (Caverns of Thracia Reloaded, Chaos Rising), Michael Curtis (The Dungeon Alphabet, Realms of Crawling Chaos),Casey Christofferson (The Tome of Horrors, City of Brass), Steve Winter (Tyranny of Dragons, Murder in Baldur’s Gate), James M. Ward (Gamma World, Pool of Radiance, Castle Keeper’s Guide), and Skip Williams (Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, The Rod of Seven Parts).

Containing some of our older adventures (Demons & Devils and Vampires & Liches), and a vast array of new ones, your players will be pitted against the craftiest and most sinister adventure-writers we could find, to give you more of our Adventures Worth Winning!

Available for both Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 5e (as two volumes)and Swords & Wizardry (Original Edition retro-clone rules).

We are extending our sale until January 4th--I just need more space! With Sword of Air and Quests of Doom arriving over the next 60 days or so--the warehouse is just too full. Now is a great time to get the books you are missing from your collection.

We've decided to extend our 30% OFF sale for Christmas until midnight on Sunday January 4th. The coupon code is: XMAS2014

We've sold most of our Holiday Grab Bags so get them while supplies last! There are maybe 30 left of my collection and 65 or so left of the $300 for $100 boxes.

The pdfs are finished and will be mailing out to Kickstarter backers in the next 48 hours. The book is huge! Over 500 pages of color goodness will be hitting your email boxes very soon.

The book is at the printer in China--and will be mailed out in real form as soon as we get it. The book will not go on sale until we send it to backers, but pre-orders can be made here and on our website in a couple weeks.

Its been a journey, but the roots of my home campaign are finally in print. This material predates most of Rappan Athuk, and may be my best work ever.

Next time I want to write a 500 page book--someone slap some sense into me:)

Bill

Ok guys. 861 of you said do the Quests of Doom book for Pathfinder. I am out on a limb moneywise here. Help?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/worldspinner/worldspinner-fantasy-rpg- worldbuilder-and-map-make

Check this one out. It has my seal of approval!

Announcement in about 3 hours

Wizards Feud is written

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Ok, Wizard’s Feud is written, leaving only the introduction and dedication to scribe! The editing process (especially for Pathfinder) will take a couple of months. That being said, the book is essentially all done from a writing standpoint. I still need to say nice things about my wife, kids and the countless players who have helped develop this over the years, but otherwise (assuming Skeeter and James do not have me assassinated during the editing process), I am calling the text done. Maps and art are in process, and I have reassigned the missing artwork (missing artist) to another artist. I still believe we will complete the project by Christmas (except that pesky blacksmith, who has to wait for the bound text copies).

I am VERY pleased with how this all came together, so please enjoy a little teaser from my text… Wizard’s Feud

Once upon a time there was an engineer.

Drove a locomotive both far and near.

Accompanied by a monkey that would sit on a stool Watching everything the engineer would do

One day the engineer wanted a bite to eat,

He left the monkey sitting on the driver's seat,

The monkey pulled the throttle, the locomotive jumped the gun

And did 80 miles an hour down the mainline run.

Big locomotive right on time, big locomotive coming down the line. Big locomotive no. 99, left the engineer with a worried mind.

Lyrics by Jesse Fuller

The Monkey and the Engineer

One thing about sand-box style adventures, as well as basically anything I write, in any case, is that I am not going to tell you exactly how to get to the end. The whole point of a huge adventure like this is that the journey matters more than the destination. There are thousands of hours of play material here, in addition to a carefully crafted adventure. The main adventure can be played as a directed main theme or alternatively as something the player characters stumble upon from time to time, slowly building bits and pieces until they finally take on the main path.

No railroad conductor here. I can be the monkey, but you have to drive the train.

What I will do is provide you with the tools and references to allow you as a GM to run the adventure at your own pace, seeding in diversions and distractions as desired, yet all the while allowing the main pathway to continue. Throughout this tome are hundreds of adventure areas.

The plots and subplots sometimes link together, and sometimes they do not. There is no set order to how you should “run” this series, eventually ending up with the players in the Hel’s Temple dungeon or the Lost City of Tsen. What this chapter contains is a synopsis of clues and tidbits from all of the other chapters that provides a cross-reference for you for the main bits and pieces for the overall Sword of Air campaign. How you piece and puzzle them together is up to you. At the end of this synopsis is a brief introduction for the way I have run this adventure in the past. You are free to take or leave it as you see fit.

Perhaps the largest piece of advice a GM should give their players is that they need to use their heads on this quest. Heavy reliance on information gathering, divination spells, consultation with sages, reading things they find and carefully searching for clues before they dash into a boss fight may well make the difference between success and failure at any point in the adventure.

By the way, if you are a player and reading beyond this, may Tsathogga curse you with a green and slimy death. Go away!

Enjoy!

BW 16 Jun 14

All Razor Coast Products will be discounted effective this weekend by 25% (5% for each nomination we got). Information will be up soon on how to get this deal! I may put together a couple of package deals for the full set as well.

Its a great time to pick up the main book or missing pieces (keeping in mind the player's guide, Heart of the Razor adventures and Fire as She Bears Ocean Combat rulebook are all hardcovers), as well as the map folio at a hefty discount!

The link to our product page is:

http://froggodgames.org/all-products

Please get out there and vote for us on EN World!

Bill

http://talesofthefroggod.com/blog

No books will be shipped from FGG from June 2-12 since we will all be out of town in Dallas. Customer Service is likely to be slow in that timeframe as well.

PDFs will be available as usual, and we will pack and ship when we return!

Bill and Krista

Book of Dirty Tricks ships today to all Sword of Air Backers!!! Figured why make you wait until we delivered the main book—so we shipped it off early. Let us know what you think when it arrives. Goes on sale for everyone else this week.

Dunes of Desolation final proofs arrived as well. This hardcover beauty will go on general sale in July, and will pre-release at PaizoCon in limited numbers. Desert rules for Pathfinder, just in time for summer and the hot weather.

Backerkit is live, folks can also pre-order if they didn't get in on the kickstarter through this link: https://the-lost-lands-the-lost-city-of-barakus.backerkit.com/preorders

Ok; here goes:

Frog God Games just got the word from the printer...Cyclopean Deeps and Rappan Athuk 2014 subscriptions ended up costing us far less than we anticipated. Since this is the case, and because we are so delinquently late on delivering them, we did not feel right about taking so much of your money. In light of this, we are taking them down from sale for a day or so while we reprice them. For those of you who already bought them (and yes, we know where you live!), we will be mailing you a coupon for $25 off on any FGG product bought from our site (that's $50 if you bought both or all 3). The two-year CD subscription price was about right for the second half (so we did not overcharge you for that part).

Again, we thank you all for your patronage as well as your patience, and while we do like to make a little on these things, on this one we simply made too much money, and as a team we did not feel right about it.The coupons are good for any purchase made on the FGG site--we are sorry but we cannot apply them to other sites (like Paizo) or to Kickstarter purchases.

Its a great time to hop online and buy that Tome 4 or Stoneheart Valley, not to mention the Razor Coast supplements that you missed or did not buy yet. Thanks again, and coupons will be arriving soon!

Bill and the crew from FGG

I am final proofing the printer copy...Holy D1 Batman--this thing reminds me so much of the Vault of the Drow series, it may be my new favorite Chuck Wright special.

Matt, Skeet, James and Chuck did a phenomenal job on this thing. I am taking it off sale for a few days while I work something out on our end...don't panic, it shall return soon.

Only 1000 copies may have not been enough.

Thank you Liz!

Matt just called and reminded me...I forgot with the KS and all the other stuff.

Today April 1, 2014, marks the 4th anniversary of Frog God Games incorporation.

From the folks who helped us start by having the faith to buy into the vapor product of Slumbering Tsar, to those who helped us fund Swords and Wizardry, Rappan Athuk and all the rest. To those of you who are supporting us now, we offer our hearty thanks.

I want to especially thank Lisa Stevens for her advice and encouragement in the early days. Without her, we would have never done this. Without Aaron Leeder, I would have given up long ago as well.

Thank you Rachel and Dawn for helping us through the early days, and many other folks (Liz, Ron Hawkins, Erik and Jeff, Rick Sardinha, Erol Otus, Robert Altbauer, Artem Skukeyev, Hohn Stater, Jeff H and Gary, Chris McFann, and many, many others.

Frog God appreciates all of you and the 4000 others we forgot to mention. Its been a fun run. See you all in year 5!

Bill, Krista, Jillian, John, Skeeter, Matt, Greg, Chuck, John, Chris.

I just saw the second adventure for Tom Knauss' plains sourcebook (to follow the Dunes book). I think you guys are going to be pretty pleased with these environment-based sourcebooks. The material is EXCELLENT

I just got the first color draft to look at for the Gulf of Akaidos Region (Stoneheart Mountains, Dragon Hills, and Tsar and Tsen areas)--wow...You guys will see this area in Sword of Air.

Its coming together fantasticly--Greg is adding order to my chaos!

I spoke with Greg yesterday--it looks like Northlands and the Blight are BIG, BIG, BIG. Like Tsar big.

I'll let Greg post on this stuff--as I have only seen pieces. But Encyclopedia Frog is growing--hurry out to buy reinforcements for the bookshelves.

Thought you guys would appreciate a sneak peek! This will be out in pdf in a couple weeks--and in old style (Greyhawk-sized booklet) softcover this fall, when it mails out with Sword of Air. Its a really fun GM tool I made up over the past few decades!

Welcome to Bill Webb’s Book of Dirty Tricks. This fun little tome is a GM utility for use during regular play when either too many good things happen to the players due to luck or just whenever the GM feels they need a little push to remind them that success is fleeting. Over the years I have seen many movies, read many books, and played a great deal of this game. While I usually don’t steal tricks verbatim from these sources (I like to assume my victims have seen and read the same things I have), I do like to take them as general ideas and modify them to achieve the same effect.

Dirty tricks are intended to create great players. That is and should be the only reason a GM springs such things on them. It also has the effect of creating a great game, where even mundane tasks cannot be taken for granted, and boredom is rare.

Be aware: Lots of spoilers from the classic adventure modules are in here because I use them as examples. No discussion of tricks and traps would be complete without mentioning Gary Gygax’s Tomb of Horrors1, for example. If you haven’t played through Tomb of Horrors yet, put this book down, get a group together, and play through that module before you keep reading.

This book consists of portable encounter and campaign modification ideas that can be used with, or at least tailored to, virtually any level party. There are several different angles to each set of dirty tricks depending on how the GM wants to use them. These tricks are by no means an end all to end all, nor do they represent a complete listing. This author looks forward to hearing from you with your ideas for more dirty tricks. Each category is described below:

Bill Webb’s House Rules
This is a series of house rules that have been used in the Lost Lands for more than 35 years. If applied, these rules significantly decrease the power level of play and make the game much more difficult. We (and the author in particular) pride ourselves on a tough but fair game. Players who survive in my adventures have bragging rights few can match. Players who survive and thrive in my campaign itself are truly men (and yes, Jillian, women) of steel.

Several optional rules have been used for years in my actual campaign. Keep in mind these rules are not for everyone, as my home game is much grittier low fantasy than many other campaigns. Likewise, these rules fit well with OD&D2, but perhaps not as well with modern game systems such as 3.53 and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game4, in some cases. The real key here is that advancement in my campaign is slow. Characters and monsters, even high level ones, are vulnerable and can be killed. Players in my game who have reached 6th- or 7th-level are proud of their accomplishment. Several areas for which I have house rules and that have been in place in my Lost Lands campaign for 3-1/2 decades, are:

• Experience Points
• Attributes and Bonuses
• Table Dice Rolls
• Damage Rolls and The Value of Magic Weapons
• Hit Points vs. Rolls to Hit
• Travel and Getting Lost
• Food and Water
• Surprise, Initiative and Melee Order, and Spellcasting in Combat
• Hit Points, Death and Dying
• Doing Things Rather than Rolling Dice

Each GM must assess for himself how implementing these rules could affect his campaign. They are not for everyone, but those of you who want the challenge and feel of my home campaign may wish to give these a try and see how well they fit you.

The Players Got Too Much Treasure
This series of tricks is designed to “take away” some of the players’ ill-gotten gains based on circumstances outside of the main game. These can be used for several reasons. First, if the players simply got a little too lucky and gathered a few too many gold pieces last adventure,
the GM may need to take back some of that loot without appearing capricious. Second, the dirty tricks can be used to provide impetus for the players to “get going already.” Nothing spurs a group of greedy players out the door more than financial hardship. Last, it offers a sense of realism. I mean, really, who among us has not gotten a bonus at work, just to have the car break down or that tuition payment be due all in the same week? The GM giveth, and the GM taketh away … that is just the reality of the game. Specific tricks in this category include:

• Tax Collector
• Framed!
• Wilderness Bandits
• A Friend in Need
• Holy War!
• Disaster in Home Town
• Here is your new Castle (aka The Money Pit)!

Situational Advantage (Environment)
These tricks can be used to make what would otherwise be a simple encounter deadly. By creating a difficult environmental factor, the GM can give his monsters a significantly better chance to win in combat vs. the big bad player characters. After all, one must protect his low-level monsters from those nasty players! Alternatively, these tricks can be used to make the players use their other abilities to overcome a challenge. Be careful with this though: Falling off the slippery bridge into the chasm is a lousy way to lose a character. Players need to be able to tell stories of epic character death to appreciate play. Now, if you caused a player character to fall off the rope and into a pool of gray ooze because a goblin was hurling beehives at him from the cave entrance above, or if the evil wizard tossed a vial of oil of slipperiness onto the castle wall, causing the players to plummet into the 500 foot chasm below — that is worthy of a story. Specific tricks in this category include:

• Slippery Conditions
• Bad Air
• Stinky the Skunk
• Slow Movement (mud and rubble)
• Death from Above!

Time Wasters
This series of tricks should be used sparingly. However, they are incredibly useful in those circumstances when the players are geared to automatically succeed at something, or in those cases when you as a GM have become too predictable. They also provide an opportunity to use those random encounter tables that all GMs love. Specific situations where this GM has used some of these include the “all-elf party” where secret door detection became laughable (also known as “the reason Bill hates elves”), as well as one instance where I found that my players started casting defensive spells every time my flavor text got heavy. Specific tricks in the category include:

• Fake Secret Door
• False Adventure Lead
• Magic Key (does nothing)
• Unobtainium
• Extra Heavy Flavor Text
• Monkeys Typing Shakespeare
• Buttons and Levers

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
These tricks are used to remove the predictability of what seems a safe or easy situation. Just because it’s a goblin does not mean it has fewer than 8 hp and that your fighters get multiple attacks against it. Certainly we all have used those cursed items out of the rulebooks as well, although they always seemed a little unfair (you put it on and die, no save). Everyone has used the “hot chick is a vampire” version of this, and there are many, many more. I will give you a few examples of situational wolves that you may or may not have seen before. Specific tricks included here are:

• Cursed Items
• Kobolds with Toys
• Super Bunny
• Symbiotic Monsters
• The Unkillable Monster
• Beauty is Only Skin Deep

Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
More fun for the GM and less dangerous for the players are the sheep that appear to be wolves. It always brings back memories of The Wizard of Oz5 for me. It’s a blast to have the players waste spells and magic items to completely obliterate that 1 hp bad guy. Sometimes it’s dangerous to do so (remember your first gas spore?), but most of the time it’s just paranoia followed by massive overkill. These tricks are particularly effective when used deep in a dungeon, right after a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing encounter, or in another way where the players are expecting the worst. It’s quite entertaining to see if you can get the 10th-level party to negotiate a truce with the 1 HD goblin because he “scares the hell out of them.”

• Kobold with a Glowing Stick (aka the “Wiz”)
• Stuffed Dragon
• Scary Looking Things
• Illusions

Trickery
These tricks are just that … tricks. They are good ways to hide treasure and to create general chaos for adventurers. Sprinkled in occasionally, these types of tricks are good for keeping player
characters on their toes, and also good for making them approach different things more carefully.

• Hidden Compartment within a Hidden Compartment
• Trap on a Trap
• Time Limited Magic Item
• The Melting Lock
• Tesseracts and Teleportals
• I Can Get In and You Can’t!
• I Got It, Now What?

Greed is Bad!
Often, players get greedy. They simply are not satisfied with some random boon or thing that they have found, and seek to exploit it. I am often reminded of the Once-ler from Dr. Suess’ “The Lorax”6 when I am motivated to use tricks like these. Having found a “good thing,” the players may try to get “too much of a good thing.” This, of course, must be punished.

• Collapsing Treasure Room
• The Apple Tree
• Magic Pools and Potions (is one enough and two too many?)
• Hiding in Plain Sight

More Lost Lands Canon from FGG! The Lost City of Barakus (Gold Ennie for Best Adventure in 2004) is being revised, expanded & updated!

The Lost City of Barakus Returns!
Frog God Games strikes again. More material from The Lost Lands is on the way, and while we finish up the massive Sword of Air, we decided to go ahead and get the next volume of material going.

Winner of the 2004 ENWorld Gold Ennie for Best Adventure, this hardcover book is the original (revised and expanded) work by WDBK Kenower and Bill Webb. The book will be produced in 2 versions, one for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and one for the Swords & Wizardry Roleplaying Game.

For all you Lost Lands fans out there, this one is canon — it interfaces with Stoneheart Valley, Rappan Athuk, and Sword of Air, and represents the next of many ongoing chronicles of the Frog God Games/Necromancer Games home world. A MUST HAVE book for any fan of our material.

Our base level of funding is small — we wanted to keep the price point down on this. We listened to your feedback from our last few Kickstarters — and we are adding more new material based on stretch goals as detailed below.

The Lost City of Barakus, designed to take characters from 1st to 5th or 6th level (or higher), is as much of a campaign setting as an adventure. Detailed within these pages is the great, bustling metropolis of Endhome, the Penprie Forest and Duskmoon Hills located north of that city, and, finally, the huge dungeon that is the Lost City of Barakus. Within all these areas are many adventures, NPCs, and locations for the party to explore, interact with and conquer. How and in what order the party chooses to take on the various challenges before them is entirely yours (the GM’s) and the players’ choice.
Though given specific location names, the adventure herein could easily be modified to fit in any campaign world. As always, change, add, modify, delete and alter as necessary to meet the needs and desires of you and your gaming group.

Adventure Background
Centuries ago, a race of humans built an elaborate underground city beneath the Duskmoon Hills called Barakus. These were a magic-loving people, and for hundreds of years they dwelled peacefully in their subterranean home, delving into the arcane arts. Eventually, however, one of their number, a necromancer named Devron, rose to great power and transformed himself into a lich. The wizards of Barakus banded together, and after a great struggle, banished him to a prison far below the city. Before his banishment, however, Devron forged the helm of power, which he could use to restore his power at some future point.

Though Devron was locked away in a magical prison, the wizards of Barakus knew that someday he might use his powerful magic to somehow free himself, and so they created a weapon, the sword of Kell, which a mighty warrior could use against him. Because they wanted control over who got and used the sword, it was forged such that unless empowered in a specific room in Barakus with the use of three orbs of power which were themselves powered by three “flames” — small geometric shapes scattered throughout the city. The idea was that the three elders of the city must agree on a champion before they offered their flame: without complete agreement, the sword was useless.

However, before a suitable champion could be found to battle Devron, the lich played a risky gambit. At great expense to personal power, he summoned a stone of madness, which erupted through the floor near the gates to his prison. This magical stone had the power to drive all sentient creatures mad. This it did, and the good people of Barakus soon destroyed themselves, and the city fell into ruin.

Centuries passed. The stone of madness’ power diminished and most of the city was freed from its effects. Eventually, creatures from the Under Realms and the surrounding wilderness began moving into the city and using its many halls and chambers for their lairs.

Barakus is now a massive dungeon, filled with creatures that have their own designs and desires. Many of the inhabitants over the years have altered the layout of the city slightly to fit their needs, and hundreds of years of monstrous habitation has left the city’s once-great halls filled with forgotten treasures and un-sprung traps.

Of course, Devron still dwells deep beneath the earth in his magical prison, and as is the wont with trapped liches, he would like nothing more than to escape his prison and find his helm of power, which would restore the power he lost during his captivity. While exploring the city, the party may decide to find the sword of Kell, empower it, and go after Devron. The battle between the heroes and the lich is likely to serve as a climax to this adventure.

Stretch Goals
All stretch goals for this Kickstarter will focus on additional content.

$20,000 Bonus Dungeon Level 4B - "Hall of the Shield" (written by WDBK Kenower, Bill Webb.) This level will add a new and powerful shield that the players will find highly useful during the end game and battle against Devron. Further, after the players leave the environs of Barakus, both the shield and Sword of Kell could take them to the next stage of their adventure in the depths of Rappan Athuk or in their quest for the Sword of Air.

$22,500 New Wilderness Encounter - Bill will add an additional wilderness encounter of 2000-4000 words to the book. These encounters will include: mini-dungeons, monster lairs, new monsters, and new magical items never before seen in the Lost Lands.

$25,000 New Wilderness Encounter - Bill will add an additional wilderness encounter of 2000-4000 words to the book. These encounters will include: mini-dungeons, monster lairs, new monsters, and new magical items never before seen in the Lost Lands.

$27,500 New Wilderness Encounter - Bill will add an additional wilderness encounter of 2000-4000 words to the book. These encounters will include: mini-dungeons, monster lairs, new monsters, and new magical items never before seen in the Lost Lands.

$30,000 Player's Guide (Free PDF to all backers) Add $5 per player's guide for softcover (price goes up to $10 after the Kickstarter.)

Additional Stretch Goals to come.

We need to keep the warehouse clearing out for the next 13 books to fit!

All books, including our trademark hardcovers will be marked down for a short time only for the paizo GM Day Sale!

Paizo will be having a store blog tomorrow evening regarding it, but the sale will begin at 12:01 am.

The link to the overall GM's Day Sale is this: http://paizo.com/store/sale/gMsDay2014Sale
and your stuff specifically: http://paizo.com/store/sale/gMsDay2014Sale/frogGodGamesGMsDay

They won't be live until 12:01 am tomorrow.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nordgames/steampunked-time-machine-the -mad-scientists-card-g?ref=live

Great cardgame by our very own Chris Haskins (Viking Frog)--check this one out; his card games are all well designed and price point is fantastic! He truly is the mad scientist of card games.

Bill

I am starting to drag my head up from Sword of Air--about 2/3 written now and huge chunks are off to editing, cartography and art. I am on track for a late summer delivery. The cool thing is that over half the magic items in this book are new creations.

Bill Webb's Book of Dirty Tricks is written, and will go to layout as soon as art is done. This book will release at the same time as Sword of Air, with pdfs available as soon as it is done. This book is being done as a parchment cover chapbook, old-style, just like the original rules.

We have not been idle--just quiet while we sorted out the next couple years of books.

I am pleased to announce several new releases coming soon, and our summer/fall 2014 schedule will be busy--so save those nickels and dimes!

Starting in May, we will begin releasing short pdf adventures/[player aides/single encounters and other bits of stuff at a very low price point--our goal is once a week. These will be pdf only (for now), and may have a hardcover compilation somewhere down the road. John Ling is leading this effort.

Rappan Athuk and Cyclopean Deeps I subscriptions are done! They are being final edited, errata corrected, and will be heading to the printer in early May. Look for delivery of the real books in July. These books will go on sale (for non-subscribers) about a month after we mail them. CD Year II is still being written, but should be done much quicker than I was.

We know its been a rough ride on these, so I wrote one extra chapter in RA (7 instead of 6 chapters) for the patient wait. Note to self--never do a subscription again when you overhaul your fulfillment and IT systems.

Our series of geography-based books--similar to Dead Man's Chest (oceans) is in production. The rework of Glades of Death is ready for layout (as a pdf), and the Desert Book (Dunes of Desolation) is done, art done and in final proofing. The plains book (never go in the tall grass--name tbd) is almost written, and the final couple sections are coming in over the next month or so.

These books are scribed by our very own Tom Knauss--and, are composed of geographic type crunch, along with several short adventures to go with each geography. The desert book will release in June or July, and plains will release in September or October. Mountains, Hills, Swamps and Badlands will follow. These books will be Pathfinder only, and will be approximately 200 page hardcovers retailing at $34.99 or so. Since Glades and DMC were already released years ago, I may offer them as POD at DTRPG, but we do not plan to reprint them.

One note here, it does not make a lot of sense to make (crunch) rule books for S&W--its just too rules light. Good fluff and 3-4 adventures are in each book--so there is plenty there for our SW crowd, but these really are rules books, so we decided not to make an OSR version (sort of contradicts the OSR culture to do do).

Next up is the 5th installment of The Lost Lands: The Lost City of Barakus. This Gold-Ennie Best Adventure award winner is being revised and expanded, errata cleaned up, and will sport a new cover. The next of The Lost Lands canon (e.g. my home world) will start as a kickstarter in April 2014. We have already edited the main book into both Pathfinder and S&W, and will know what else we need to add based on the success of the Kickstarter. The book will be offered in both versions, as well as limited edition collectors leather copies. The bonus goals will mostly be in added material--as the kickstarter gets bigger, the book gets bigger.

The basic book buy on this kickstarter will be $40. This adventure and setting book is one of the best campaign starter APs ever done. Expansion of the wilderness and dungeon will set its levels at 1-8 or so. It makes a perfect start to any campaign (or a reset), and ties in to Stoneheart Valley, Rappan Athuk, the Sword of Air and even Razor Coast--not to mention other major FGG releases coming over the next few years.

We will be running a couple of huge GM Day sales--here at Paizo, on our site and at John Reyst's site. Keep an eye out for them!

Much more coming in 2015--rulebooks, adventures, and more monsters!

Bill Webb
1 March 2014

We will be gone to Hawaii from the 6th to the 18th--so no books will ship during that time. We will pack as soon as we get back, and pdfs are available normally.

Bill

I have a few--which ones do you guys like?

Update #18
Dec 18, 2013
Surveys Are On Their Way
Comment LikeHi All,

We've setup our surveys through Backerkit and we're pushing the big red button. We are crossing our fingers that the survey reaches each one of you in a timely manner and you're able to fill it out, choose any add-ons you'd like, and send it back to us so that we can get cracking on everyone's pledge rewards.

There are two things we must point out:

1. If you are adding any hardcover products that are already published such as Rappan Athuk and you'd like them to be shipped ASAP instead of with your copy of Sword of Air; you'll need to select the "EARLY SHIPPING OF ADD-ONS" option while in the add-ons screen. This will cover the extra shipping charges since their will be two separate shipments. If you do select this option there is no guarantee we can deliver them before Christmas, but we will do our best. (if you choose the PDF option for any add-ons you will receive a coupon code and a link to the product so that you can download it for free from FrogGodGames.com and it will be added to the files within your account.)

2. There are coupon codes for 7.5%, 12.5%, and 17.5% off an entire purchase at FrogGodGames.com which you receive during the Backerkit survey. Make sure to keep this coupon code for your records. It is good through June 2014. (the coupon code you receive is based on your pledge level.)

Thank you again for being part of this Kickstarter! If you have any issues with your Backerkit process please use the support form found here: froggodgames.com/support.

-Frog God Games Staff

It's time to clear out the FGG warehouse. We need to make room for new books, and Mama Frog says the old stuff must go! We want everyone to promise they will not open these until Christmas (ok, Hanukkah is ok too), and we want to hear who got what in the boxes. You could be the lucky one who nets a Wilderlands Box set or even a Rappan Athuk Reloaded in one of these! Bill has enlisted the aid of Baby Frog, Lil' Frog and Mama Frog to gather up odds and ends from the past 15 years to pack it all up and offer it to you at clearance prices. You see, even 1 book still takes up shelf space in the warehouse, and its time to clear those shelves.

For Black Friday, we are assembling 200 grab bag orders (first come first served). The grab bag orders will consist of 200 boxes of each type--$29.99 (medium priority box) and $99.99 (large priority box). Boxes will contain random items from FGG and Necromancer Games with a retail value of at least 3x the cost. Many items will be out of print, exclusive or even rare. Boxes may contain items including dice, t-shirts, maps, Kickstarter bonus items, miniatures, cards, modules and hardcover and softcover books. You could probably double your money (at least) on Ebay. We just don't have time for that.

All boxes will contain randomly selected material from the past 15 years. That includes the low press run Troll Lord Games and Kenzer-distributed Necromancer Games modules from the early 200o's. A few ultra rare items will be included at random within the boxes. The Frog's will pack and seal all the boxes before they ship and we will not know who gets what box contents. All items are new condition, some may have a bit of shelf wear--as they are up to 15 years old. Ultra rares and unusual items going into these boxes include but are not limited to:

Wilderlands of High Fantasy Box set (shrink) including all 18 maps!
Copy of Rappan Athuk Reloaded (shrink)
2 copies of Crystal Skull (only 500 made, all files lost)
2 copies of City State of the Invincible Overlord (including map)
2 copies of Caverns of Thracia
Tome of Horrors original printing
2 copies of the signed Gencon only release of Slumbering Tsar 1 (only 251 made)
2 copies of Bill's Rappan Athuk notes
2 copies of Nick Logue's Razor Coast notes
A staff copy (10 made) of the Rappan Athuk leather Edition, custom illustrated
Out of print Mythmere Games books (deskbooks, Ice Tower of the Salka original press, etc.)
Level 7B and Call of the Frog God Kickstarter exclusive modules (not for sale normally)
Kickstarter only Orcus and Tsathogga Miniatures by Reaper
Copy of Vault of Larin Karr
4 copies of the Lost City of Barakus, including the fold out map
Copy of Rappan Athuk 3 (original press)
Copy of Tomb of Abysthor (original press)
Note, these items are hard copies only, and no pdfs are provided. All boxes will ship priority mail with overpack boxes inside to ensure safe delivery (hence the extra cost over standard priority rates--we have to pay for those inner boxes, and we cannot have your Crystal Skull arrive damaged!) and will be sent over the next 2-3 weeks. Shipping is extra--Large/$17 US, $48 Canada, $77 international and medium/$12 US, $32 Canada, $48 international. Multiple orders are allowed.

Thanks Paizo! We are really excited to finally get this one done.

Hey all…here it comes, and soon. In about two weeks, Frog God Games will begin its new Kickstarter on the next installment of the temple of elemental….I mean the Lost Lands.
Yours truly has made arrangements to take some time off of my day job to….you won’t believe it…finish Sword of Air. After 14 years of waiting, this multi-phase adventure and sourcebook of the Necromancer Games (meaning me) home game world will come to light. This adventure and setting have been referenced in every book I have ever written, all the way back to Crucible of Freya.
I have resurrected all my old notebooks and (literally) typewritten manuscripts. Found all my old drawings and maps, playtested several sections of the adventure at the last few conventions, and am ready to finally bang this thing out. This adventure series links strongly to Rappan Athuk, Slumbering Tsar, Stoneheart Valley and many other old Necromancer Games books as well. Those links will be expanded here as well.
The underlying quest is to recover the lost fragments of a mythical artifact known as the Sword of Air, an icon of Law and Good, and perhaps the only thing that can stop the foul minions of Tsathogga from overrunning the earth. This adventure itself is geared for 1st-20th level players (truly a sandbox), with the main storyline being set for levels 5-15 (really 3-12 for Swords and Wizardry). The book will be produced in both Pathfinder and Swords and Wizardry formats.
SIGNIFICANT deluxe editions will be available for you collectors. Two premium editions are planned; one leather embossed, and one, well, you will have to wait and see, but my printer is referring to it as the “nuclear” edition. I am estimating page count at 500 (may vary), and all versions will contain a large fold out map of the region as a stretch goal. Premium editions may have a few extra features related to the map itself. Additional stretch goals will include full color printing, additional material (for all!), and possibly an exclusive, Kickstarter only, module.
Currently, this book consists of several parts.
1. The Hel’s Temple Dungeon—kind of like Tomb of Horrors on crack. This six level trap and puzzle infested dungeon formed the basis of my game through my high school and college years. Clark Peterson’s very own Bannor the Paladin spent several real life months in the place, and sadly, finished the objective. This is where the fragments of the fabled Sword of Air can be found…perhaps.
2. The wilderness area to the west of Rappan Athuk and extending into the goblin filled Cragnook Mountains, providing detail about the Wizards Wall (created like the Great Wall of China to keep the goblins at bay by the great wizards Margon and Alickthron (actual player characters from the early 1980’s). Over 70 unique encounter areas are detailed, each one an mini-adventure in itself.
3. The Ruined City of Tsen. Sister City to Tsar, and destroyed at nearly the same time by what many believe was a falling meteor. This place forms and aboveground dungeon area the size of a city, with over 100 detailed encounter areas. It’s a very dark place…even at noon.
4. The Wizard’s Feud—This campaign style adventure pits the players in a long-running series of intrigues and battles between two archmages. Which side will they take? Their actions all play into the overall quest, and could well determine which side wins. Law and Chaos are not always what they seem, and if the wrong decisions are made, the entire ordeal could fail. Remember, one of the wizards WANTS Tsathogga to win.
5. New Gods and Demons of the world, new spells, and new rules for various aspects of play.

That’s it for now. I’ll update this prior to the Kickstarter initiating.
Bill

so who are my brave victims?

Bill