LotFP Web-Store: Free Shipping Sale

Raggi is celebrating the fact that he's hit 1,000 followers on his Facebook LotFP page and on his G+ LotFP community by giving us free shipping on his web-store. Here are the exact details:

Coupon code 1000YOUNG at the LotFP web-store will get you free shipping worldwide as long as Idea from Space, Scenic Dunnsmouth, Qelong, Tower of the Stargazer, Fuck For Satan, Forgive Us, The God that Crawls, The Monolith from Beyond Space and Time, or The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children are part of the order. You can add other items to your order and still get free shipping as long as the order includes at least one of the listed books. The coupon code will expire MONDAY 30 MARCH 2015 10:00 EET.

(When ordering, the place to enter the coupon code pops up after choosing a shipping method, ALL ORDERS USING THIS CODE WILL BE SENT ECONOMY CLASS.)

LotFP Magic Item Contest – The Shrink Bullets

James Raggi has unveiled the results of his LotFP Magic Item Contest and I was not amongst the finalists. As a result, I am publishing my entry on the blog. Enjoy.

The Shrink Bullets
This magic item assumes you're playing in a Renaissance campaign, which anyway seems to be the focus of the latest LotFP supplements.
The Shrink Bullets are created by black powder-inclined magicians only. Their creation requires assistance by an alchemist that has undergone training in modern chemistry, and who shall hence be paid the double wage normally expected by an alchemist. Each Shrink Bullet requires 1D6 days of laboratory work and 1D12×50sp worth of materials.

Each Shrink Bullet is worth 5,000sp (because of its magical properties; the materials themselves are worth as per above). The Shrink Bullets can only be used in a perfectly hand-crafted gun, worth at least ×10 the price of a standard gun.
Each Shrink Bullet ignores up to 5 points of armour protection, but does 1D4 of damage only. If the result is a natural '1', the bullet doesn't inflict any actual damage but releases its dweomercraft. The target must save vs Magical Device or be "shrunk" and captured within the non-exploded bullet.

Later on, the magician may use the non-exploded bullet containing the captured victim against another target. This time, upon impact, the bullet won't inflict any damage but will release the 'captured' victim, full-size, right next to the intended target. The 'captured' victim will fight on behalf of the magician, at his full strength and capacity at the time of capture, for a duration of 1D12 rounds. At the expiration of the last round of bondage, the victim will have no recollection of what happened to him after the bullet impact that captured him in the first place.

A magician is limited by his level in the number of captured victims that he possesses in his Shrink Bullets at any given time.

Captured victims are constantly and unconsciously trying to regain their freedom. Every day, there is a cumulative 1% chance that a captured victim is spontaneously released from its Shrink Bullet. When this happens, the freed victim attacks the closest creature for 1D12 rounds as per above.

Creatures only hit by magic weapons have a +4 bonus when saving against a Shrink Bullet.

Csachticz Weapons

A few commonly used weapons and protections at the time of the Blood Countess:

crossbow

maces

sword

glaives

partisan

great-axe

cannon

musket

Despite the increased use of firearms, plate armour reaches its peak at the time of the Blood Countess, and the full suit of armour, commonly perceived as “mediaeval”, is actually only a feature of this period.

plate armour

shield

What's New with Phil & Dixie

Apparently the full run of the deliciously Old School comics What's New with Phil & Dixie by Phil Foglio, which used to run in the pages of Dragon magazine, is available here.

I remember how much I used to fantasise about Dixie's pert boobs as a teenager....

Aperita Arcana Done

Ebon Gryphon Games have at last released the finalised version of Aperita Arcana to us backers — see my earlier posts for a description of the Aperita Arcana supplement for the Monsters & Magic role-playing game.

The cover art is nice, with a good balance of light and dark, if slightly too much on the dark side. I am not a big fan of 'digital' art [this is actually an understatement] but the elfin lady on the cover truly has an incredible expression, her eyes showing both surprise at the appearance of the demon and a firm will to control it. The demon is slightly less realistic but I really dig the "glow-in-the dark" pentacle.

Aperita Arcana is available in PDF format from RPGNow. I have no idea whether a dead tree version is in the works.

Edit: Aperita Arcana is now available from RPGNOW both as a softcover and as a hardcover book! Should you have bought the PDF, get in touch with Ebon Gryphon Games to redeem a $10 coupon to buy the book.

It is also available from Amazon but then only as a softcover.

Aperita Arcana Available by End of Month

Duchess Phenaella

If you don't know about Aperita Arcana yet, please refer to my previous posts, here and there. In a nutshell, it is a Monsters & Magic supplement by Ebon Gryphon Games that expands on the core M&M rules by adding new advancements, new spells and spell lists, rules for ad-lib spells, and much more. I warmly recommend this supplement, even if M&M is not your go-to system, if only for the excellent GMing advice scattered throughout the supplement, and for all the material that can be salvaged irrespective of your gaming system (e.g., the advanced ‘language’ rules).

Well, here's the good news: according to the latest KS update (12 January 2015), Aperita Arcana should be available before the end of the month!

13th Age in Csachticz − Detailed Icons, No.4: The Great Boyar

The Great Boyar is the name given to the Orc Lord in 13C. The name 'Boyar' shall obviously evoke the mysterious lands at the easternmost end of early modern Europe. At the turn of the 16th century, the historical Muscovy had fallen into a succession crisis known as the Time of Troubles because Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty, died without leaving any male heir. The land was devastated by famine and by the civil war amongst the various claimants.

In 13C, a figure has emerged from this squabble to unite all the petty kingdoms east of the Oriental Range under his iron rule. Little is known about the Great Boyar, except that he commands ruthless hordes to do his bidding.

USUAL LOCATION

The Great Boyar is shrouded in mystery, and so are his whereabouts, although he is rumoured to dwell, attended by beautiful rusalki, at the centre of a vast and foreboding marsh guarded by fearsome vodyanyie.

COMMON KNOWLEDGE

The Great Boyar being a figure shrouded in mystery, and his lands being far and isolated, little is really known about him. Some say he's far taller than a normal person, some say he's not really human, some others that he is of an amphibious nature; some others yet insist all of this is true— and then worse. Yet some argue that all these rumours are purposely spread by the Great Boyar himself to instil a sense of fear in his enemies.

ADVENTURERS & THE ICON

At the moment, the influence of the Great Boyar doesn't really extend over the Fair Kingdom, so adventurers shouldn't feel his influence (yet). However, it is rumoured that the Great Boyar commands many aquatic creatures, such as the already-mentioned rusalki and vodyanyie, and he may have started to gain hold upon the waterways and the marshes of the north-eastern borderlands of the Fair Kingdom.

Also, adventurers who like to plunder more than law may look favourably upon the Great Boyar and the promises of looting that the onslaught of the Eastern hordes might bring upon the Fair Kingdom.

A particularly interesting PC background could be that of the exiled knyaz, a wandering knight pertaining to one of the noble houses on the losing side of the Muscovite civil war. These adventurers would have a conflicted or negative relationship with the Great Boyar.

ALLIES

The Great Boyar operates on his own. He's also a big unknown because he's a recent addition to the roster of Icons. The Emperor will certainly try and manoeuvre him so that he turns his attention towards the Empire of the Crescent Moon first, and the Sultan will try and do the same but with regards to the Empire of the One Faith.

ENEMIES

No actual enemies yet. The Emperor is known to have tried to prevent the Great Boyar from reuniting the petty kingdoms of the East via his proxies there, but he has failed.

HISTORY

Little is known about what the Great Boyar was before gaining his current title.

THE TRUE DANGER

At the moment the Great Boyar is but a distant threat. However, the other Icons would do well to remember that the last time a single individual managed to unite the Eastern lands, almost all of Europe fell before the Eastern hordes. Will history repeat itself?

⁂

Should you want to run a mash-up of my Fair Kingdom setting and of the Land of Unreason from A Red & Pleasant Land, the Great Boyar could be the Twin of the Colourless Queen, or even her spouse, who manages to influence events in the Land of Unreason via its many canals.

In this case, the distant eastern domain ruled by the Great Boyar is the geographical twin of Nephilidia.