I have no idea if you are near running Port Godless, but my offer still stands. You may need to drop me an email; I'm brickk (at) gmail Hope this is going well, -Ben.
Delighted to see this so well received. :D
She knows she's in her own place, she shouldn't be trying to go toe-to-toe versus a group, especially since she knows the place was recently raided. She should have fallen back to a group of the daemons, pulled some of them into a group, buffed them, sent them in to attack and weaken you, and then hit you invisibly with a second wave she augmented with summons, keeping herself as out of the fray as possible and dividing up the battlefield as much as possible. At the level you were facing, she has like three pit spells, teleport and dimension door; she can do some awful things. He stayed right in the mix too much with her, and that wastes her potential. *shrug* Not terrible, but potential for a lot more.
You appear to be a long way from it, but when you reach 5-07, Port Godless, please feel free to ask me to run it. I'd be happy to do so. -Ben.
To confirm, and you can say yes by favoriting this post, "Do you want me to scroll back and text-walk you through the conclusion?" Or, do you want me to run you through in real time? If you want me to run through in real time, post a reply. By "real time," I mean post by post as you explore the upper area, rather than a montage.
EDIT: Bones
That is high tier with 4 character adjustment. Slightly less worrying for a front liner sitting at the bottom of the level range, but only slightly. This appears to be the tier? You can "favorite" this post to respond.
We've released another preview (free while this campaign is active!), Heimdall, the Bright God, on DTRPG. Pick them up and get a look at what we've been doing at Design Camp. We're only $460, 12 backers from getting our greenlight. If you're interested in learning about Pathfinder or 5E design why not join us and become a part of the project? -Ben.
We've crossed over to 65%, on our way to greenlight and decided to share another offering. This time it's the god Lugh. This download will be free for the duration of the campaign, and then cost $1. It's our gift to you, and I hope you'll join us. If you've joined us before, then you've got this material, but not separated out like this. Share and enjoy, and we'll see you at the basecamp! -Ben.
We're hoping you'll come join us, but it's only fair we show you a sample of some of the work we've developed in a previous Design Camp. So, to do that, we're offering Sir Galahad and some miscellanea from the Arthurian "pantheon" we created. This is Pathfinder RPG material, but I think you'll enjoy it. This download will be free for the duration of the campaign, and then cost $1. It's our gift to you, and I hope you'll join us. If you've joined us before, then you've got this material, but not separated out like this. Share and enjoy, and we'll see you at the basecamp! -Ben.
Our new project is live on Kickstarter. If you're curious about RPG game design and want to check out the process this fall, come join us! Our plan is to take a 3rd Edition adventure and convert it to both 5E D&D and Pathfinder. We're going showcase that process with backers and you can participate! We welcome novices, veterans (although I'd bet you already have your own process), and even the merely curious. This is going to be a three and a half month experience and you'll have a 5E or PFRPG adventure when we're done. Why not join us and learn something about RPG design this winter? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stormbunny/design-camp-2-the-conversio n I hope to see you there! -Ben.
To pull this forth with a Force grab, the collected Vader is delightful and the now 4-issue Doctor Aphra series has been fantastic. -Ben.
We are really close to funding this-- at $9500 of $10K as of this note and there's plenty of room for more. If you're digging the idea of an occult modern setting, this project is your animal! -Ben.
As one of the contributors to this setting/adventure, I can tell you that there is some connection-- the Men of Leng, for instance, are mentioned, and their slave ships do arrive on the docks. There is another link, there as well, in the Tarnished Souk (although that's subtle, and a related book) but I promise it's there in the Ghoulish Cliffs, the Silver Key, and in Tarrec, mentioned in the 5-room adventure add on, Down the Rabbit Hole. We wanted the Dreamlands vast and while we wanted there to be links to the Dreamquest for Unknown Kadath, and I feel like there are, we didn't want to drop it right into those spaces. Additionally, this was 2009, so the amount of Pathfinder on hand to augment it was different than what's there now. EDIT: You're not going to see a lot of response here from Rite for a while, as the publisher died last summer and his wife is finishing up projects, but just had their daughter arrive in the fall, and she's pretty busy. However, Clinton Boomer, Wicht, and I were all involved in this project-- with the lion's share being Wicht, then Boomer, then me. The 5-room was Boomer, Matt Banach, and myself. The Tarnished Souk was Matt and Justin Sluder, and myself.
EDIT: Read Sickly's post in discussion, and I concur. So now, the eagles have attacked, Sickly has attacked, I need to provide a results post, and then it's Sidney's turn again in Round 11, as everyone else is out of the action-- although Gruugdúrz could do something in the pit in round 11. Correct? (Favorite this post to indicate agreement, please.)
You're very welcome. :) I was working primarily with the 13C for the region, because that's when Ars Magica 5th edition is set, and they'd started me off on the whole crazy thing which then laid the foundations for Southlands. While I did go back in places for the mythological stuff, I tried to stay near there. There are some exceptions; I think of al-Kahina (7C) when I consider the Spider Prophet. The Tethys freebooters drew a bit more from the pirate crews that operated out of Madagascar in the 16C-18C.
You're welcome. I tend to pick them up used on Amazon, but I probably spent a good chunk of the commission before I ever even finished. :) I have a stack of about 8-10 I have been referencing for the Norse stuff I'm doing now. I picked up a good ten-ish about 13C India because it really looked like some place I wanted to write about at some point. The Kilwah Sultanate and the Swahili Coast were the interesting discoveries in there for me. And Sanchoniatho.
Ok, so, visually, I looked at: African Air
They're fantastic and a wonderful idea of the vistas available on the continent. Now I didn't read all of these cover to cover, but I read a lot of them, covering the bits I found useful after looking for particular topics. The Arabian Nights, Townesend Carthage, A History, Warmington
Phoenician History, Sanchoniatho
A lot of fragmentary stuff on Carthage via the web, translations of ancient manuscripts and some Archaeology magazine articles A History of the Maghreb in the Islamic Period, Fenton&Littman
Siwa Oasis, Fakhry -- this was especially good. The Berbers, Brett & Fentress
Gods of Egypt, Traunecker
The Garamantes, Idjennaden A couple of shows on Amazon Prime. The Sahara and its Peoples, Scoones
Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia, Welsby Ancient Churches of Ethiopia, Phillipson
and about three or four more e-books on Ethiopia I really don't want to transcribe right now. I also got to trade a couple emails with Dr. Pankhurst, which was awesome. Sometimes, I love the internet. The World of the Swahili, Middleton
This led me to a separate pile of books on 13C India, but I haven't dug into those yet. Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum, Burstein
The Empire of Mali, Thompson
Africa in the Iron Age, Oliver&Fagan Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Fagan Plus, I'd read a lot of wikipedia, then check the references for those pages, pull them up on Google Books when I could, to take notes. Wikipedia was never my primary source, but where I would hunt down leads to then chase in other books. And shows on Africa on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Channel. There was The Ghost & The Darkness and I have the written account by the hunter (played by Val Kilmer in the movie). I'd also ask the NYPL online reference desk, and they'd help sometimes. I'm sure I'm missing some sources in there, but that was a quick look-photograph-and-transcribe of my Africa shelves. In a lot of cases, what multiple books on a topic would provide me was more detail or confirmation of a story, because for the Ars Magica books, I needed to be as accurate as possible. Trying to find the names of the governors in Iberia in the 13C, because they were related to the Sultan, and I needed to know that information, was an adventure. -Ben.
The bibliography is large, but I'd be happy to contribute a list of what I used. I'd previously worked on two books for Atlas Games set in North Africa, so I had a lot to begin with, and that expanded for this. I'll hunt some down and post tomorrow. -Ben.
We're a go! We hit one stretch goal and now it's time to fire up the experience! :D Thanks to everyone who's supporting us or coming along for the ride! -Ben.
I'd have a lot of fun with a Wasted West anthology really delving into the ruins and aftermath of the war there. A Tales of the Glyph Stair -Ben.
It's a long way from it began, and still a long way from where it go, I'm sure. :) Good luck on this next adventure! -Ben.
Do you miss the days of Open Design, or did you never get a chance to try it? Want to learn about the RPG Freelancing Business? Check out Design Camp! A new project from me -- Ben McFarland, as well as Jason Sonia, and Brian Suskind. Design Camp is a hands-on look behind the curtain of the RPG design process. As a Patron, you will get a front-row, behind the scenes seat as the designers work. Along the way, you will be able to comment and suggest changes to the manuscript, and you can even pitch and write up your own ideas for inclusion in the final document. The first project for Design Camp is The Celestial Host. Return to the wonder and majesty of Deities and Demigods with a pathfinder conversion of three real world mythologies chosen by the Backers! With Wolfgang Baur’s blessing, we have launched Design Camp to follow in the footsteps of Open Design. An epic, patron-sponsored series of projects, Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design taught hundreds the “in’s and out’s” of the design world and launched the careers of many award-winning RPG writers. For those who would enjoy a return of the days of Open Design, we proudly present Design Camp. You can find the kickstarter here. We've broken the 50% mark so we're steaming forward to greenlight. Come check us out, I have the feeling folks in this particular forum would be interested. -Ben
Do you miss the days of Open Design, or did you never get a chance to try it? Want to learn about the RPG Freelancing Business? Want a say as to what is in your next RPG purchase? Check out Design Camp! A new project from me -- Ben McFarland, Jason Sonia, and Brian Suskind. Design Camp is a hands-on look behind the curtain of the RPG design process. As a Patron, you will get a front-row, behind the scenes seat as the designers work. Along the way, you will be able to comment and suggest changes to the manuscript, and you can even pitch and write up your own ideas for inclusion in the final document. The first project for Design Camp is the Celestial Host. Return to the wonder and majesty of Deities and Demigods with a pathfinder conversion of three real world mythologies chosen by the Backers! With Wolfgang Baur’s blessing, we have launched Design Camp to follow in the footsteps of Open Design. An epic, patron-sponsored series of projects, Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design taught hundreds the “in’s and out’s” of the design world and launched the careers of many brilliant RPG writers. For those who would enjoy a return of the days of Open Design, we proudly present Design Camp. You can find the kickstarter here. -Ben
This was contracted, playtested, paid for, and off to layout, as I understand it. It will be a part of the completed project. -Ben.
So voting is open to the public so if you can spare a moment please vote for the Southlands Campaign Setting. Here's how!
-Ben.
Thank you, Liz.
Congrats on the Ennie nod! -Ben.
Southlands has been nominated for Best Cartography and Best Setting! Congratulations to everyone who contributed, way to go! Now here's hoping we can win the categories! -Ben. (See all the nominees here.)
The art from Chapter 3 or 4 (I believe) was nominated for an award! This is the announcement from the kickstarter page: **BEGIN**
Congrats to Marcel from all the kobolds on a great piece, and thank you to all the backers who made this book possible. You can see more of Marcel's work in the Southlands hardcover and Bestiary, of course, as well as at www.marcelmercado.com. The winners will be announced at 5 PM on Thursday, August 18, at the Chesley Awards ceremony at Mid AmericanCon II, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Congrats to Marcel and here's hoping Southlands wins! -Ben.
and it's on the blog!
Open Design and Kobold Press are the same company, so I think combining them is absolutely the right thing. Kobold Quarterly was never the name of the company - it was the popular magazine that Kobold Press/Open Design produced ... What Marc said. I've freelanced for them since 2008. It never stopped being the same company. "Not combining" the two entries is clearly inaccurate. -Ben.
I had a lot of fun working on the setting. I think it is pretty cool, too. I helped a bit with this, but not really substantially. I was more advisory and helped hammer out some sections. -Ben.
And Endzeitgeist review this today, here. Suffice it to say, I'm rather pleased. If you've any questions about bits or whatnot in this book, I'm always happy to give a try at them. -Ben.
I have a mass of raw data (emails) going back from June 2012 to early 2010 which I could share. Send me a note indicating where you want it and I'll send it. Plus there was this post from LPJ here and I did a personal analysis of the Aug 17-Sept21 2013 range which I could share... I'm sure the Paizo store account could fill in the gap from July 2012-October 2014, but that'd be a crazy project, and they've got more to do than forward emails. (Anyone else an obsessive hoarder of email?) -Ben.
I checked the indiegogo campaign page and it mention way different schools, two base classes (contender and onmyoji), cross-over with psionics, and a plethora of archetypes; but in the book description there is no mention of any of that. What was retained from the indiegogo campaign pitch? We didn't hit complete funding, and so didn't end up covering all of the points noted in the pitch. What we ended up creating was a set of martial schools and techniques usable for any character. We created sample NPCs for those schools, magic items, story seeds and boons. It wasn't entirely the book we hoped to write when we started out, but with less funds available, we had to make some decisions, and focused on the schools and techniques. -Ben.
It's an early Christmas present! A 5-star, seal of approval, top-10 candidate review for the Martial Arts Guidebook by EZG! I'm totally thrilled to see he completely got the direction we were pursuing and it was well received. I can't say how pleased I am with this. I hope you pick it up and share your thoughts. -Ben.
And Malwing's is sent! -Ben.
I'll take over one of the days for you, because I agree. If you tell me the winner for one of the days, I'll fulfill the PDF. :D -Ben.
Great story, I love it! :D -Ben.
Great to see this compiled and posted. Thanks!
This is totally awesome, and he's got a patreon, where he is now planning on putting together PbtA rules for playing in the universe. I sacked my Obsidian Portal subscription and picked that up. -Ben.
Oh! I have Pirates of the Western Ocean, I didn't realise there was a Journeys to the West book too, and I'll definitely pick up Bosun's Booty. Journeys to the West is about the Western Ocean, on the west side of the Southlands, and perhaps a bit north of it, but it's a big space and we didn't place a number of those islands on the map on purpose (because they're supposed to wander around), but it's got adventures you can play with as well, and more pirate crews, islands, etc. -Ben.
A "RPGDB" site isn't a bad idea. I should add it to my list of things I'll never get around to making. ;-) RPGGeek.com pretty much does this. -Ben.
Rite Publishing has converted Breaking of Forstor Nagar into Pathfinder, 5E, and 13th AGE. It was originally done in Pathfinder, each iteration is a new book. I think the new iterations are only on DriveThruRPG. All of the new iterations have been pretty well received, except for one group who said, "We don't like action movies. Now, let's talk about this action movie." The Black Monks of Glastonbury was done, in the same book, as an Ars Magica adventure and a d20 OGL adventure. In fact, Atlas made three of these kinds of adventures in their Coriolis line, for Feng Shui, Unknown Armies, and Ars Magica. Tyman's Taunting Tower was a bonus download from KQ and in Crusader#17, in PFRPG and Castles & Crusades, respectively. You can get the PFRPG one on DrivethruRPG. There are also the various Kobold Press conversions of OGL/PFRPG/4E adventures-- Halls of the Mountain King is done in all three systems. There were definitely encounters we needed to seriously revise between OGL and 4E, but in almost every instance, I was limited to reusing the same cartography, which meant encounters could not be fundamentally too different. The same held true for Courts of the Shadow Fey. These are not in the same book, but it could have been done-- it would have meant a much longer production window, and a much larger final text, which would have translated to a higher cost for the consumer. -Ben.
You can get the Midgard setting and a few additional supplements in the current Bundle of Holding. The setting, 8 adventures, a gazetteer of the Margreve Forest, and the players' guide to the Crossroads, all for $9. That's a great deal if you find the Midgard pdfs too expensive usually. While you pay at Bundle of Holding, you fulfill through drivethruRPG. -Ben.
My and Brian's research material included 13C Mali, Ethiopia, Great Zimbabwe, Zanzibar Pirates, the Kilwa Sultanate and the Swahili Coast, a skosh of the Zulus. There's some elements of Prester John. The sub-Saharan elements certainly influenced several of the regions. We didn't necessarily keep them all in the same places, the way northern Midgard does, but many of the elements are. Makuria and Kush, for instance, aren't far, but Siwal is totally shifted from its analog and the influence of the Garamantians is probably not recognizible. In many ways, I like to think of it as if you put the "fantasy blur filter" on and smeared it across Africa. My bibliography is available upon request. If you want it to include the Maghreb, Egypt, and Sahara references, that's a much bigger list. I also design for Ars Magica, and that's set in the mostly historical Mythic Europe. What I'm saying is, I read a lot of history books about the 13C, and my two projects before this one were in the neighborhood. I was certainly prepared when they asked me to write a PFS adventure in Rahadoum. As long as you stick to around the 13C, I'm pretty familiar with the place and the vibe. ;) -Ben.
True this. -Ben.
There's also Flying Buffalo's Citybook series. I use that to fill in gaps.
|
