What's Next for Halls of the Nephilim Publishing?

The Nephilim is doing pretty well. I've sold 10+ copies since last week (and I know some of the buyers weren't friends because they were international). If you've not picked it up and like OSR games, consider dropping 99 cents and checking it out. If you do, reviews are appreciated.

The Nephilim was designed for Swords & Wizardry Complete, I think I'm going to do a Nephil racial class to cater to B/X inspired OSR games, like Labyrinth Lord or Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

+David Coppoletti is still working on Portsmaw art (and other projects), so the Portsmaw sourcebook is still chugging along.

The other idea I have was given to me by Kevin Watson of Dark Naga Games. I'm going to do a collection of campaign (or at least campaign arc)-worthy villains. My idea is 10 total. Each entry will be 4-6 pages and include the villains history, motivation, schemes, minions, stats, etc. I don't have a name for it yet.  Like The Nephilim, this book will be designed specifically for Swords & Wizardry Complete, but compatible with most OSR games.

Who doesn't love a memorable villain?

Ash Wednesday - Troll

Name: Hunter Troll

Motivation: Kill, Eat, Repeat
Critter Type: Troll
Attributes: Str 10, Dex 3, Con 10, Int 1, Per 3, Will 2
Ability Scores: Muscle 24, Combat 13, Brains 9
Life Points: 120
Drama Points: 5
Special Abilities: Attractiveness -5, Can Smell Christian Blood, Increased Life Points 30, Light Vulnerability (take 10 LPs a turn in direct sunlight, once all life points are gone they turn to stone), Regenerate 10 LP's a turn (except in sunlight or from fire/acid damage)
                         
       Maneuvers
Name                   Score   Damage               Notes
Dodge                    13        -                 Defense action
Pound                     13       20               Bash

This troll is an amalgam of D&D trolls and the trolls of the film, Troll Hunter.

Monstrous Monday - Armor Thrull

Armor Thrull

Armor: 15,  HD: 3 (12 HP), Movement 12, 1 spine rake (1d6 damage) Morale 8

While they are considered living creatures for the purposes of living sacrifices, armor thrulls were bred to be killed for there  hard flesh. Breeders and their servants kill and hollow out armor thrulls, using you their carapace for armor.

Thrull Armor
Base AC: 15 Price: Can't Be Purchased
This armor is extremely light weight and doesn't impede spellcasting, which means magic-users and elves can use it without hindering their arcane talent.

Succubus Sunday

The Little Succubus by NachoMon

A Little Less Sixteen Candles... A Little More Buffy?

Nothing profound in this post, just sharing a music video that always makes me want to play some cinematic unisystem, Fall Out Boy - A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me"

This is the music I listened to in my early 20's so I tend to associate it with things like Buffy. Going to be honest, I also love this video because it features Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco as a sexy gentleman vampire.

Because I'm the Dungeon Master....

 I had to share my newest pin. It's part of a limited run by Pop Rob!. I picked up up on eBay a few weeks ago and I'm quite pleased with it.

Giants and Sky Castles

I want a fortress in the sky adventure with giants, but I can't decide which one to pick up. I've heard great things about both Castle Gargantua and Broodmother SkyFortress. The reviews I've read have mentioned that they are both Lamentations of the Flame Princess-esque. Well, Castle is LotFP-esque, SkyFortress is actually a LotFP adventure.

Castle Gargantua seems like a dark take on the classic Jack and the Beanstalk tale. It even (potentially) has a godsdamn beanstalk. By contrast, SkyFortress has giant elephant-shark-man-things and apparently some Jack Kirby influence.

To be honest, both sound like they have a lot of potential. I just can't decide which I want more. Hell, I'll probably get both, but which do I pick up first?

Do you own or have you played in either of these adventures? If so, let me know what you think.

Ash Wednesday - Lizardfolk

Name: Lizardfolk Hunter

Motivation: Survival
Critter Type: Lizardfolk
Attributes: Str 4, Dex 4, Con 5, Int 2, Per 3, Will 3
Ability Scores: Muscle 14, Combat 13, Brains 10
Life Points: 46
Drama Points: 5
Special Abilities: Attractiveness -4, Amphibious  
                         
       Maneuvers
Name                   Score   Damage               Notes
Dodge                    13        -                 Defense action
Spear                      13       15               Slash/stab
Spear (Thrown)      13       12               Slash/stab

The Nephilim for Swords & Wizardry Complete is Now Available

Today my first official rpg product went live on OneBookShelf. The Nephilim is a short supplement written for Swords & Wizardry Complete. This pdf includes player stats for nephilim. Big humanoids with bigger emotions, these angel blooded folk excel as fighters. For DM's I've included stats for a typical nephil as well as three off shoots. Seers are ancient nephil that act as oracles and commune with fate. Blackhearts are nephil twisted by their peoples treatment by the gods of law and their servants. Finally Ogril are a degenerate crossbreed of nephil and ogre. The pdf ends with a handful of magic items tied to the nephilim and their angelic parents.

I wanted to give a special thanks to Kevin Watson of Dark Naga Adventures and +Timothy Brannan for the layout help and advice. This pdf may not seem like much to some, but it means a lot to me and I wouldn't have been able to make it with out them. This is the first of hopefully many rpg releases. If you want to add some Biblical mythology to your game, you can grab The Nephilim here for 99 cents.

I'm a happy man right now. ;)

Monstrous Monday - Basal Thrull

Basal Thrull

Armor: 12,  HD: 2 (8 HP), Movement 12, 1 claw (1d4 damage) Morale 8

Stronger than blood pets, basal thrulls were the first successful thrulls. Created by mixing alchemy and necromancy, these hideous wretches were created for ritual sacrifice. They can be used in any ritual that requires sentient sacrificial victims. In addition, magic-users can perform a short ritual sacrifice using a basal thrull in order to regain one use of a previously 1st or 2nd level spell. Once the ritual is complete the magic user has a 5 in 6 chance to regain a 1st level spell and a 3 in 6 chance to regain a 2nd level. This ritual takes 1 round to complete.

White Box Gothic

White Box Gothic by Barrel Rider Games is everything you need to bring Hammer Horror into your White Box game.

The book starts with an introduction to horror and then gives us several new classes.  These classes are:

Monster Hunter - Like Captain Kronos or Van Richten, these fighting men (and women) are trained to track down and destroy the creatures of the night. Each Monster Hunter picks a specialty.
Metaphysician - This is a man of supernatural science. They learn forsaken lore, get some spells, and can turn undead.
Spiritualists - These individuals have a connection to the dead. They can interact with the spectral and turn incorporeal undead.
Wanderer - These nomadic folks are survivors that use luck, trinkets picked up, and eventually a bit of magic to stay alive.
Dhampir - This class is for the children of vampires and mortals. Want to play Blade? Now you can.
Reanimated - Ever wanted to play Frankenstein's Monster? If so, this racial class lets you do just that.

The second chapter is short, but to the point. It has rules common in horror games, mainly corruption, dread, and curses. The third chapter includes a small selection of spells. Some of these are perfect tools for those fighting against the darkness. Others make the servants of darkness even more powerful. There are also several new magic items suited for horror games. My favourite is bottled courage, which basically gets you drunk, but makes you immune to fear. Many of these items can be used by all classes, which makes them quite useful.

The final chapter includes 15 new monsters. Most of these are classic monsters and opponents, like cultists and werebats. We're also presented with the vampire lord and bride stats, for those of you that what Dracula. Another particularly nasty monster is the plaything, which is like Chucky from the Child's Play films.

If you play White Box or any version of Basic and love horror, this is a book you need. It's a nice tool box. Again, if you want Hammer Horror in your games, get this asap. Here's a magic item I created after reading it: Killer's Caress.

Succubus Sunday

Succubus by Venlian

White Box Zombies

White Box Zombies by Bloat Games is everything you need if you want to include a little thing like the zombie apocalypse into your White Box game (perhaps as the result of Death Frost Doom).  At 48 pages this is a pretty meaty pdf (especially at the current sale price of $2.00).

The book begins with zombie infection rules. These are pretty deadly but it's essentially get bit/clawed by a zombie with it, make a save or die and become a zombie. This is pretty intense, but no one said zombie apocalypses were for the weak.

We are then presented with a the Classic White Box Zombie and a brief discussion of why it's different than one of the new infection causing zombies. After this we get into the Infected Dead. Stats are given as well as a suggested pack size. These are the infected (with a brief description or what they remind me of):

Living Dead Zombie (classic Romero shamblers)
Groaners (tougher classic Romero shamblers)
Walkers (weaker Romero shamblers, similar to Walking Dead zombies)
Runners (Dawn of the Dead remake)
Rage Zombies (28 Days Later)
Fleshless Zombies (the Tarman from Return of the Living Dead series)
Screamers (7 Days to Die, they have a scream that can paralyze players with fear and attrack other zombies)
Bone Zombies (Dry Bones from Mario, skeletons from Castlevania)
Mutated Bone Zombies (what happens when multiple Bone Zombies combine)
Boss Zombie (Dawn of the Dead remake, but stronger and more cunning)
Legend Zombies (unique intelligent infected)
Melting Zombies (advanced decayed zombies that have acidic goo)
Zombie Children (Cooties)

After the special zombies we're treated to a page with demihuman and monster infected zombie rules. This is followed by a collection of demihumans and monsters. We get (living) stats for the monsters, as well as two infection zombie variants (from the group mentioned above). The demihumans/monsters presented are bugbear, centaur, dwarf elf, cloud giant, firbolg, fire giant, frost giant, hill giant, stone giant, storm giant, gnoll, gnome, goblin, hobgoblin, kobold, lizardman, ogre, orc, and troll.

I just picked this up recently and haven't used it, but I'm very happy with the pdf. It's a lot of great material for a cheap price. Infected zombies are pretty deadly, but that's to be expected (especially in the OSR).

If you want a preview you can check out the (by request) Dark Elf Zombie. This includes White Box stats for Standard Dark Elves and stats for Legend Dark Elf Zombies and Screamer Dark Elf Zombies.

Ash Wednesday - Orcs

Name: Orc Warrior

Motivation: Waaagh!
Critter Type: Orc
Attributes: Str 5, Dex 4, Con 4, Int 2, Per 2, Will 2
Ability Scores: Muscle 16, Combat 14, Brains 9
Life Points: 46
Drama Points: 5
Special Abilities: Attractiveness -3, Dark Vision 
                         
       Maneuvers
Name                   Score   Damage               Notes
Dodge                    14       -                 Defense action
Big Ass Axe          14       25               Slash/stab

Light City - El Hijo de Lobo Plata

Here's another version of El Hijo de Lobo Plata, this time using +Jonathan Linneman's Swords & Wizardry Light Brawler class.

El Hijo de Lobo Plata
Level 1 Brawler

Real Name: Salvatore Nochez
First Appearance: Los Misteriosos #23
Str 15 (+1)   Int 10
Dex 18 (+1) Wis 10
Con 13         Cha 13
1 HD (6 HP)
AC 8 [11]
Attacks: 1X Unarmed Strikes, +2 to hit, 1d6+1 damage

He's definitely not as powerful as his Mutants and Masterminds or Guardians versions, but he looks like a good low level luchador and it fits with the low powered golden age of comics. The only important thing this version is missing that I think is vital to the character is that his unarmed attacks don't count as silver. Also, if I were to run Light City I might follow Guardians starting HD method and start all pc's at 3HD instead of 1 HD.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1 Kickstarter

The mad genius, +Mark Taormino, is at it again. This time he's got something monstrous in mind. Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1 is an OSR monster manual with a healthy dose of mayhem. What kind of mayhem you ask? How about a about huge sexy demon woman (inspired by Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman)? Sounds like a mayhem causer to me. Then you've got the Tiny Terrors which are awfully similar to the little dopplegangers in one of those movies about with that guy I post about weekly. If they don't cause mayhem, then I don't mayhem. And let me tell you (even though I'm not supposed to talk about it), I know mayhem.

The material is already written and ready to go to layout. In less than a day the project has tripled it's $500 goal. Also, originally envisioned as a pdf, Mark has heard the cry of the people, and is offering a print version too. If you like fun and oddball humor in your games, check out Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1. Don't play 1e or OSRIC, this one won't be hard to convert to other versions of D&D.

New Guardian - El Hijo de Lobo Plata

Lucha Underground has been added to Netflix and I've fallen in love with it. I grew up watching wrestling and fell away from it (though I still follow it a bit because of friends). That being said, I've always been in love with lucha libre. As far as I'm concerned, people like Santos and Blue Demon were real life super heroes. I've decided to convert the only Mutants and Masterminds character I've actually played, El Hijo de Lobo Plata, to a new supers system I've fallen for, Guardians.

El Hijo de Lobo Plata (Salvatore Nochez)
Exotic Super-Agent (1st level)
Str 14 (1) Int 10 (0) Wis 12 (0) Dex 18 (3) Con 13 (1) Cha 13 (1)
Gifts: Gadget Points 2, Occultist, Super Star
Powers: Super Jumping
Features: Surprise Attack, Dark Fighting, Skill Combat Specialty: Martial Artist
Limits:
Issues: Duty, Enemy
Gadgets: Lobo Plata Mask [2 gadget points] (Mind Shield, Silver Strike (Claws/Fangs feature), Detect Supernatural, Light Armor)
Equipment: Backpack, cell phone, tool box
HP: 23 EP:  ST:12  AC 15
Languages: English, Spanish Profession: Maintenance Man

Monstrous Monday - Thrulls and Blood Pets

I originally started playing Magic the Gathering around the time of Mirage. I was living in Muskogee, OK and picked up a deck at KB Toys at the local mall. I can remember essentially buying a booster box of Fallen Empires at the time too, because they had the booster packs on clearance. No one talks about that set anymore and most people weren't a fans of it when it came out (it was the only set that I know of that had multiple art pieces for cards in the same set). I really liked it though. One of my favourite creature types introduced there was the thrull. These were mismatched, stitched-together creatures powered by dark magic. They were weird, gross, and I loved them. I've decided I want to stat out the thrulls for the OSR and since they're weird and twisted, I think Lamentations of the Flame Princess would be a good system for them. 

I'm going to start with my favourite thrull, the blood pet.

Thrulls (Overview)

Thrulls are creatures animated from dead flesh. However, the process of creating a thrull is different from necromancy. Due to these variations in animation, they are living creatures and not undead or constructs. While originally created for ritual sacrifice purposes, they have been bred for many purposes, including growing armor to be harvested, assisting ritual magic, combatants, and assassins. While thrulls may have common purposes, each is a unique monstrosity. 

Blood Pet

Armor: 12,  HD: 1-1 (2 HP), Movement 8, 1 scratch (1 damage) Morale 7

The blood pet is one of the most basic forms of thrull. It's primary purpose is ritual sacrifice. They can be used in any ritual that requires sentient sacrificial victims. In addition, magic-users can perform a short ritual sacrifice using their blood pet in order to regain one use of a previously 1st or 2nd level spell. Once the ritual is complete the magic user has a 3 in 6 chance to regain a 1st level spell and a 1 in 6 chance to regain a 2nd level. This ritual takes 1 round to complete.

Light City #1 - The Brawler

+Jonathan Linneman has an exciting new project. He's using the very awesome and simple Swords & Wizardry Light system to do supers. His inaugural release for it, The Brawler, is available now on RPGNow. Pick it up (at no cost) here. I know he has several other Light City releases in mind and don't be surprised if some of my work shows up in Light City, as well.

Succubus Sunday

Art by Svetlin Velinov 

Gaming Inspiration: Gif Edition

These are some recent gifs that have showed up on my Facebook feed and I'd like to share them with you folks, because I think there's some great gaming inspiration here.

New Gaming Shirts

I wanted some new stuff to wear to Origins. so I recently picked up a couple of new gaming shirts. They are pretty damn cool and I wanted to show them off. Purchase links in the captions.

Dwarf Pin Ups!

She Persisted ConTessa Shirt

Ash Wednesday - Kobolds

Statwise, kobolds are really damn close to goblins. I've actually altered their stats to make them a bit more different.

Name: Kobold Trapper

Motivation: Make the best traps, serve dragons
Critter Type: Kobold
Attributes: Str 1, Dex 5, Con 2, Int 3, Per 2, Will 1
Ability Scores: Muscle 8, Combat 15, Brains 10
Life Points: 22
Drama Points: 5
Special Abilities: Attractiveness -3, Dark Vision
                         
       Maneuvers
Name                   Score   Damage               Notes
Dodge                    15        -                    Defense action
Dagger                   15       2                    Slash/stab
Show Bow             15       4                    Slash/stab

Also holy shit A Gnome Named Gnorm was actually a thing! I discovered it looking for artwork. 

The City of Talos Kickstarter Ends Soon

The City of Talos is funded and only has four days left. It's going to be a great project and you can read what I thought about it here.

Supernatural Handbook (M&M 3E)

The Supernatural Handbook is a 152 (with OGL) supplement for the third edition of Mutants and Masterminds. Let me start by saying this is a really useful book. However, I think it has a major flaw. It's called the Supernatural Handbook, but I think Horror Handbook would be more appropriate. If you're looking for far out Ditko-inspired mysticism, you're not going to find it here. However if you want Predator, Marvel Zombies, or John Carpenter's The Thing, this book is for you. The book is divided into five chapters.

The first chapter is  entitled A World of Horror and is definitely designed with GM's in mind. It discusses different styles of horror campaigns (many of which have nothing to do with the supernatural) and how to play them at various power levels. A discussion of horror through the ages is also present.

The second chapter is The Player's Guide to the Supernatural. One of the early ideas is redesigning character creation with the monstrous in mind (with complications and the like in mind). Supernatural hunting equipment and occult tech is also addressed. The book presents 7 archetypes. I have a big complaint with one. The Infected Hero is a great concept. However, except for complications, it is pretty much the same as the Speedster archetype in the core book. This is a wasted opportunity.  This chapter also includes Monstrous Templates which help players and GM's create a plethora of archetypes.

Mastering Your Fears is chapter three. This is an depth discussion of horror from a game master's perspective. Different types of fears and what causes them are presented. In addition, classic horror game concepts: corruption and madness.

The fourth chapter, Misadventures in Horror is really useful. It starts with a super-handy-no-matter-the-M&M-game critter builder.  It has 8 monstrous villain archetypes that are just damn creepy or cool. The Alien Trophy Hunter is the Predator! It also includes adventure/series ideas in the Clippings and Case Files section. These are all pretty interesting and contain npc stats (including deep one stats). My favourite is the Blood Cult. It's a Dracula-led organization that recruits society's elite.

The final chapter details ARCADE, which is a bump back against the night organization. Due to mystic powers, only 200 folks can know of ARCADE's existence. To me, this makes them hard to use, unless players are members. Oh yeah, and their leader's name is a Predator reference, and that makes me smile.

If you're coming for 70's Dr. Strange you're going to be disappointed, however if you want some John Constantine and BPRD, this book has you covered. Honestly, I think there's enough in this one to make it useful for all M&M game masters. It's worth the price of admission for the monstrous templates and build a critter section. You can order your copy of the Supernatural Handbook here.

Nephilim for Swords & Wizardry Preview - The Ogril

I am hard at work on my Swords & Wizardry Light Portsmaw release with +David Coppoletti, I've also started working on my Nephilim release again. It'll be rather short. Right now I'm looking at seven pages or so (cover, racial profile, 2 pages of monster stats, 1 page of magic items, and OGL).  It's either going to be 99 cents or pay what you want. All of the artwork I'm using will be public domain, but given the biblical and mythical nature, I think it seems fitting.

Here's a brief example of what's in it. This is what happens when a nephil lowers its' standards when looking for a mate...
-------------------

Ogril

Hit Dice: 5

Armor Class: 4 [14]

Attacks: Weapon (1d10+2)

Special: Rage

Move 12

Alignment: Chaos

Challenge Level/XP: 5/240

Occasionally a degenerate nephil, unable to find a mate among its people will couple with an ogre. The unfortunate crossbreed of such a pairing is known as an ogril (plural ogrilim). These brutes tend to be stronger and smarter than their ogre brethren and often chieftains. Like their nephil parents, they are emotional creatures. However, all emotions tend to make them angry and hateful. Any time the ogril is targeted by an emotion based spell, they ignore the normal effect and fly into a murderous rage for the duration of the spell.

-------------------

I hope to have the first draft done by the beginning of next week. 

Ash Wednesday - Goblins

Now that A-Z is over, it's time to get back to the regular features. Here's another monster for our manual of creatures to be used with Ash vs The Keep on the Borderlands.

Name: Goblin Sneak

Motivation: Cause mischief and pain
Critter Type: Goblinoid
Attributes: Str 2, Dex 4, Con 2, Int 2, Per 2, Will 2
Ability Scores: Muscle 10, Combat 14, Brains 10
Life Points: 26
Drama Points: 5
Special Abilities: Attractiveness -3, Dark Vision
                         
       Maneuvers
Name                   Score   Damage               Notes
Dodge                    14        -                    Defense action
Dagger                   14       4                    Slash/stab
Show Bow             14       8                    Slash/stab

What's Next For Portsmaw?

Thank y'all for stopping by and getting to know Portsmaw for the April A-Z. This thing has really been a labor of love.  I'm not done with the setting yet.  My next step is to flesh a few things out and compile the setting into a document. My gaming brother, +David Coppoletti wants to team up with me to do art for the pdf. Dave has a great style and considering he spent many years living in the area that inspired the setting, I'm super excited and think it's going to turn out great. To learn more about Dave and see some of his art, check out this interview I did with him last year.

Banks of the Ohio - Gangstagrass feat. Alexa Dirks - Director/Animator: Robin Steele from Robin Steele on Vimeo.