Dice Roll Zine #2 in Print & PDF!

Dice Roll Zine #2

DICE ROLL ZINE #2

Dice Roll Zine. Get yer old-school game on!

Dice Roll Zine is a 40-page, saddle-stitched, digest-sized print zine for old-school RPGs written by Steven A. Cook and illustrated by some of the best retro-inspired artists.

Visit the Hog Town Games Big Cartel store here to order a print copy. $7 USD + shipping. Ships worldwide. And to Mars. OK maybe not Mars, but I would if I could!

UPDATE! Now available for $4 USD on DriveThruRPG in PDF format here!

The second issue includes a Sorcerer class for Swords & Wizardry Complete games; 'Roll all the Dice' tables for generating fungi, plants & freaky stuff; The City-State of Kreth, a weird-fantasy city overview with history, factions, unique gear, rumors, adventure seeds, thumbnail descriptions and encounter tables for nine city districts, and more; new spells and magic items for an 'oldhammer' fantasy role-playing game; and various other cool rules options and odd things for your old-school games.

Please Note: Print buyers also get a PDF copy for free. Details are included with your print zine.

Thanks for reading! Steve C

Wastelands Map Handout on Leather

Here is another map I've drawn .. this one done with an ultra fine point sharpie on a piece of leather.

Like many folks, I've always been a fan of cool handouts for RPGs. Items that are evocative of the setting and/or genre of the game. In this case, I thought it would be a nice tactile handout for the game. A bit more interesting for the players than giving them a piece of paper.

The PCs in my Wastelands of Kreth campaign do not possess a map of the Wastelands. They will soon. At least a photo anyway...

Unfortunately, in terms of using the leather map handout, our current campaign is played via Hangouts. So the players will have to wait a while until we all get together to actually get the tactile experience! lol :-)

Wow my DM's Seat sure has Changed!

It's got screens now. WTF?!?

Yes, the Wastelands Campaign has gone online. My players and I all live in different places now, so we've had to switch up how we meet to play.

I ran my first online session in the Wastelands campaign using Google Hangouts tonight. Weird. Not used to this kind of "tabletop" gaming yet. I was pretty well prepped as far as notes and setting up my desk for use goes (I think!) but without a virtual tabletop or combat maps, I felt kinda lost at some points. I'll get used to it, I'm sure, as will my players.

We just haven't had "theater of the mind" combats in a very long time, and it showed. I think next time I'll at least have some chamber or combat maps drawn and ready to post for reference, if the players or I need them.

Overall it went pretty smoothly though, and we're looking forward to the next session during the week.

If you good readers have any tips or recommendations for running games over Google Hangouts, I'd love to read them. Cheers!

Bigger Even More Honking Random Monster Table [Wastelands]

Just a quick update to share today. I've expanded my Wastelands random creature encounter table to include more monsters (mostly from the Fiend Folio) and I folded the sublists (humanoids, giantkin, oozes, undead, and the like) into the main table.

I've also added in my other wilderness random encounter tables up front, which use some house rules like "scatter" dice as well as the excellent d30 Sandbox Companion (by Richard J. LeBlanc Jr. of New Big Dragon Games) for wilderness travel.

As with the previous version, the tables can be downloaded here (.pdf) should you good readers wish to use it as-is, or here (.docx) if you'd like to tinker and customize it.

Wastelands Big Honkin Random Monster Table

The Wastelands is a sandboxy hex-crawl style setting. As such, I needed to create a series of random encounter tables for the numerous geographical regions. I had originally drafted a d20-based table for each major region (Bandlands of Paj, Kreth Verdant, Steaming Jungles of Su'Janga, etc.), but soon realized that a d20 randomizer did not produce enough variation within each region to satisfy my personal Creature Feature Quotient--meaning I needed more monsters!

Artisan dice! https://www.artisandice.com/

So as I often do when pondering dungeon mastery-type things, I consulted the definitive work of Grand Master Gygax, the 1st edition DMG. Therein, as usual, I found my solution: d100-based random tables delineated by predominant terrain type. I have moved away from d100-based tables in recent years, mostly because they require a lot more fiddly maths and sometimes produce too many options for my personal tastes. However, for this purpose, and to satiate my CFQ--I wanted roughly between 20 and 40 possible random creatures for most regions--the good old d100 tables worked perfectly.

Thus, I reorganized my separate regional d20 tables into one big honking d100 table broken out into predominant terrain types (arctic, badlands, forest, desert, and so on) similar to what was done in the DMG. The table can be downloaded here (.pdf) should you good readers wish to use it as-is, or here (.docx) if you'd like to tinker and customize it.

The creatures on the table include a few of the regular suspects from the Monster Manual (it goes without saying that I mean the AD&D version--but I guess I just said, or wrote, it anyway!) But with this campaign setting I wanted to mine the other monster manuals for lesser-known and/or infrequently-used critters. For example, monsters such as the crysmal, kampfult, solifugid and xag-ya from Monster Manual II, and the caterwaul and skulk (and the humanoid aarakocra, grimlocks and quaggoths) from the Fiend Folio will turn up randomly in some areas of the Wastelands.

I also included the thanoi, or walrus men, from the Dragonlance Adventures book (and DL6 Dragons of Ice). Mostly because I like the idea of warrior walrus men. I never liked much from Dragonlance, but I always thought the thanoi were cool. Coo coo ca choo! Bad puns intended. ;-)