13 Days 'Til Halloween: H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep (2001)

Art from The Horn of Roland, A Lords of Creation Adventure

Here's a several scans of art from The Horn of Roland, the first adventure for Lords of Creation. They were drawn once again by Dave Billman. Soak in the mad science fantasy goodness!

[Mystery Men!] Mr. Samuel Weir, Mystic Defender of Old Town

Here's a character for John Stater's superhero RPG Mystery Men! (More info for the game at his Land Of Nod blog.) Old Town is a neighborhood in Shore City, the sample setting created for the game. But feel free to use him in any run down neighborhood that could use a little hope.

Mr. Samuel Weir, Mystic Defender of Old Town

Mr. Samuel Weir has always lived at the Belvedere Hotel, 13th Floor, 13th Room. Even long time employees can't remember a time when he didn't. Urbane and witty, Mr. Weir is a well known fixture of Old Town. One can find him taking him taking in a cabaret featuring the soulful singing of Dena Aveltine, or laughingly shooing away the Down 'n Out Kids as they run down the street. A smile always plays across his face as he walks through out the neighborhood.

The criminals of Old Town tell darker stories, of when Mr. Weir's smile goes away. They tell of strange things and strange events that plague those who take too much away from the hard working folk of Old Town. They also tell of Mr. Weir dealing with horrors that even hardened gangsters are afraid to tangle with. Some even say that when Shore City is invaded by outside forces, Mr. Weir stands alongside its heroes to fight the darkness.

Like his younger brother famed doctor (and wielder of the Purple Claw) Dr Johnathan Weir, Samuel Weir has been touched by the supernatural. Mr. Weir has chosen to remain in Old Town and protect the neighborhood from threats supernatural and supernormal. While he knows that he alone cannot stop the decay that is gripping Old Town, he can at least help those who are trying to help themselves.

Mr. Samuel Weir
Neighborhood Defender

Level 10 Sorcerer

Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Constitution 3
Intelligence 9
Will 5
Charisma 5

Hit Points 29
Defense Class 10
Attack Bonus +4
Speed 2
XP: 15,200

Powers: Regenerate (3000 XP), Sorcery Pool of 50000 XP (25000 XP), Super Intelligence+6 (6000 XP)

Gear: Walking Stick [Potent Attack] (800 XP)

Flaws: Regenerate only works within the borders of Old Town. Sorcery cannot be used to directly damage another character. For example, Mr. Weir cannot cast Call Lighting to fry a drug dealer. He could cast Mirage to cause the drug dealer to swerve and crash into an abandoned building.

Notes: Dr. Johnathan Weir and the Purple Claw were created by an unknown writer and artists Ben Brown and David Gantz. Both are believed to be in the public domain, and are used as such.

And why William Powell? Watch The Thin Man movies. William Powell is the Man!

Art from Lords of Creation

It was a mild snow day (of course, on a day I was off) today in Milwaukee. So I had some time to take my copy of Lords of Creation and scan some of the artwork by Dave Billman from Tom Moldvay's unsung classic. Enjoy.

Fight On! #10 is Out

Fight On! #10 is available for release at Lulu in both Print and PDF editions! I've recommended Fight On! in the past but this issue is special. Why, you may ask? Because one of the tables I wrote on this very blog is in this issue! Tom Moldvay is celebrated in this issue, and my table is a tribute to the mad genius that he introduced me too. Check issue 10 out!

Lords of Creation Talk on Dragonsfoot

This may be a topic that only Jeff Rients and I may be interested in, but here goes. A Lord Fluffy is detailing some interesting ideas on revising Tom Moldvay's classic RPG Lords of Creation on the Dragonsfoot RPG Forums. I don't follow Dragonsfoot regularly, but I will keep up on this one.

Check it out at: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=41720

The Moldvay-esque Adventure Helper!

Everybody has his or her favorite authors and game designers. For me, Tom Moldvay is one of those game designers who influenced my role playing and my writing. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson may have opened up the dungeon for me, and I started playing the Red Box Basic D&D edited by Frank Mentzer. But for lost cities, islands of dinosaurs and Clark Ashton Smith in my Dungeons and Dragons, that was Tom Moldvay .

And then there was Lords of Creation.

Every gamer has their guilty favorites. Lords of Creation is one of mine. I bought it for $10 at a long gone toy store at a lone gone shopping mall. This was the deep immersion to the zany world of Tom Moldvay. This game awoke my appreciation for the weird and bizarre in RPGs. One of the best descriptions of the game is here.

Submitted for your approval is a table designed to add a little Moldvay feel to any scenario. Roll a couple times on the table and let the fur fly!

The Moldvay-esque Adventure Helper!

Roll a d20

1 A portal opens to a random elemental plane: Roll a d6:

1. Earth
2. Air
3. Fire
4. Water
5. Elemental Blend
6. GM created elemental plane.

2 The Wild Hunt attacks! 1d3 Hounds and assorted beasties per player.

3 Anachronistic devices added to treasure-troves.

4 Strange prophetic dreams begin for the most intelligent player in the party. They can be useful, terrifying or both.

5 The vehicle the characters are traveling in is intelligent or a transforming robot.

6 A portal to the Plane of Shadow opens! Roll a d6:

1. Terrifying visions
2. Players take cold damage per GM choice
3. 1d6 Shadows attack
4. Shadow maelstrom! Everyone sucked into the Plane of Shadows
5. A random player becomes haunted by an Schattendoppleganger
6. Nothing, just some trippy descriptive passages

7 Ghouls attack! 1d6 Ghouls attack the party.

8 Random famous historical or fictional character interacts with the PCs.

9 Different versions of a creature or character meet and fight!

10 Genre mash. Add an unusual genre scene in the scenario. Think gun slinging orcs, cyborg elves, biotech dungeons, and haunted graveyard in a post apocalyptic city.

11 A portal to a parallel earth opens! GM Choice where it leads. Nazis are probably involved. Fricking Nazis.

12 A mysterious benefactor and/or their adversary choose to use the PCs are their representative in a grand conflict.

13 Random gates are littered through the campaign world.

14 A portal to the Realms of the Gods opens. Roll 1d12 for Mythos:

1. Greco Roman
2. Egyptian
3. Chinese
4. Japanese
5. Babylonian/Sumerian
6. Celtic
7. American (North, Central, and/or South)
8. Vodoun (The Loas)
9. Pick a lesser known Earth Pantheon
10. Animal, Plant, or Elemental Lords
11. Lovecraftian Entities. This is not of the good.
12. GM Created Pantheon or Neutral Ground

15 A portal opens that leads to a planet across the galaxy

16 Suddenly, dinosaurs attack! I got nothing. Throw a bunch of them at the PCs.

17 Have a sense or section of the scenario that is a tribute/homage to a popular book, movie or TV show.

18 Take every monster book in your RPG collection. Pick 5-15 monsters and sprinkle them throughout the scenario however you can.

19 A portal to a world based on a fictional setting opens. This can be an exact simulation of the setting, or one that is darker or lighter than the actual setting.

20 GMs Choice. Get as weird as you want. Some of my favorite moments in the Lords of Creation are scenes in the modules that make you say "WTF?"