The Martial Disciple: a pseudo-Vancian fighting class for 5th Edition

Hey folks. I realize that it seems I dropped off the face of the Internet blogging-wise. Much of the blame is other projects sucking away my time to commit. But fortunately the fruits of my labors resulted in a new book for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition! As one raised on the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, I am a big fan of options in games no matter the character concept. And while there are good parts in 5th Edition, the noncasting martial classes felt rather 'blah' in terms of things to do beyond basic attacks.

The Martial Disciple is, in short, a new system inspired by Tome of Battle/Path of War with special moves known as techniques. Techniques are akin to spells in that they are limited-use abilities which play off of the short/long rest and are grouped into 8 fighting schools based on style and thematics. There is a new eponymous class which draws off of this system as well as 5 archetypes for existing core classes to get in on the fun.

Techniques: Much like Path of War or Tome of Battle, you have Strikes which are offensive in nature; Counters, which are reactions triggered by attacks and effects; Boosts, which are 'buffs' to your abilities; and Stances, which are long-term buffs which last indefinitely but you can only choose one to use every long rest. Fighting schools represent groups of related abilities: Reaper's Field is optimized for heavy weapons and overwhelming force, Prowling Panther relies on trickery and misdirection, and Alchemic Warrior revolves around personal serums, bombs, and debilitating chemicals.

Class: The new class is the same as the book's title, meant to represent a sort of generic warrior akin to the Fighter save that they interact heavily with techniques. Unlike the Fighter they designate one of three mental ability scores as their Martial Ability akin to a spellcaster. Intelligence represents tactical masterminds, Wisdom for ascetic and hunter types, and Charisma for inspiring leaders and the like.

Archetypes for the Martial Disciple include the Avatar of War, who has a supernatural connection to a planar realm of conflict and can call weapons and figures from said realm; the Challenger, a seeker of self-improvement who can sense the strongest opponent on the battlefield and turn enemy attacks and strength against them; and the Wandering Stranger, who has a bit of a Clint Eastwood vibe with an offensive staredown and a limited legend lore used for gathering rumors said about themselves.

Archetypes for existing core class include:

Commando for the Rogue who specializes in misdirection and special operations style tactics such as being able to gain a floating tool proficiency reflecting training for specialized missions.
Daredevil for the Rogue who is all about flair and panache. Can do things like move through vertical spaces and open air as difficult terrain as long as they have rope for swinging or gambits where you voluntarily impose disadvantage on a roll in exchange for a potential boon if successful.
Path of the Destroyer for the Barbarian (think Juggernaut from X-Men), who is all about building up momentum and mobility while raging for self-buffs like freedom of movement (unstoppable object) or passwall effect (breaking through walls).
Tactician for the Fighter who can trade out a saving throw proficiency during a long rest for adapting to one's environment, adding proficiency bonus to skills related to soldiery matters, and the like.
Way of the United Spirit for the Monk who specializes in Alchemic Warrior and Trance Dancer (spirit-possessed warrior) who uses alchemy and esoteric religious rituals to push their body and mind to its maximum potential.

Hopefully I ignited your interest in my book. It was a fun thing to make for me, and I hope it is even more fun for you to use at your gaming table! You can find it below on these online storefronts:

Drive-Thru Link.

RPGNow Link.

Open Gaming Store Link.

The Core Concepts of Arcana High

The Avengers - Iron Man by theDURRRRIAN of deviantart

For the past 2 to 2.5 years there's been a particular idea stirring in my head for a while. An idea which as of now has several hundred pages worth of notes and draft write-ups the result of 2 campaign's worth of design. One of the campaigns was uncompleted sadly, yet still brought about several months worth of play. I at first decided to write up an adventure path for Pathfinder for this work, as a four-part series. This took a lot more time than I thought, so I decided to work on various side projects all the while hoping to one day see my magnum opus on the shelves of online storefronts one day (most likely for Pathfinder and 5th Edition). But like Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery, I figured that drumming up interest over time can be a great idea. As such, this blog post is the first in a series of revealing Arcana High.

Introduction

Arcana High is a hybrid four-color fantasy and magic school campaign in the vein of Harry Potter meets Teen Titans in a D&D fantasy world. For those unfamiliar with my earlier posts on the subject, the general idea is that the PCs are adolescent mages who found some magical artifacts. With these powerful relics, they can transform into alternate identities to better fight the forces of evil. All the while they must juggle their public lives as students in a world-renowned magical academy along with keeping the good people of Brancean safe from their ever-growing rogue's gallery of villains.

It was a rather popular itch I've been wanting to scratch for a while, due to the rarity of such play elements in traditional fantasy games and retroclones. When you think about it, the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons can support a pseudo-superhero style of play quite well. You have titanic dragons ravaging cities, foul cults seeking to awaken sealed evils, mad archmages brewing up new and deadly horrors to inflict upon the world, and holy forces bestowing their powers upon worthy mortals. With the preponderance of city-based campaigns and sourcebooks, diversity of adversaries, and the ever-popular appeal towards saving the world, a superhero kind of game with masked vigilantes wielding supernatural powers not for gold but for justice is not only feasible, it can work very, very well!

Major Themes

Four-Color Fantasy: Masked knights, sorcerers, and druids battle a mad alchemist atop an undead leviathan creation wreaking havoc on a port city. Thieves' Guild goons shake down storefronts and make a quick getaway on charmed manticores. A golem built by the lord-governor to fight crime goes on a  rampage due to interpreting the law in an over-literal fashion. The city's gnomish-designed printing press publishes eye-catching headlines of the PCs' latest exploits and clashes with the aforementioned threats.

A Central City of Adventure: The city of Brancean is modeled off of the real-world city of Constantinople, the capital of the East Roman Empire and then the Ottomans. As such, it is the focus of most of the setting, akin to what Gotham is to Batman and Metropolis to Superman.  It is a city of history, formed around the foundations of Highstone Academy when Aleria was but a division of independent baronies and tribes. As a principle nexus of an intercontinental trade network, it sees folk from all corners of the world (and some say of the planes). It is home to many wonderful sights, from the Colosseum where one can watch and participate in chariot races and all manner of sports tournaments; a literal Undercity home to drow, dwarves, and other subterranean beings; a 200 foot tall statue of the Goddess of Law and Civilization; and the pre-eminent Highstone Academy, of course!

Mediterranean Style Setting: The region is known as the Bowl of Levios, dominated by a central sea also called the Sea of Levios. This body of water was home to a great sea serpent of its namesake who ruled the lands as a god-king in times long past. Although in the current era there is debate as to his divinity, there is no question that he left a great mark on the land, and many of the oldest realms are seaside and underwater cities. Here are but a few lands of the Bowl:

• the Alerian Empire, home to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Brancean and the world's most famous magical academy. 
• the Al-Bahri Sultanate, a southern kingdom home to the Ridhai, who sail the seas on the back of island-sized Zaratan turtles.
• the city-state of Kremdora, which suffered a devastating cataclysm while fighting an ascendant mage-tyrant and whose domain is now located within a residual anti-magic field.
• Bristor, a northwesterly realm of small, independent kingdoms and tribes, home to knights, druids, and berserkers.
• Tabiach, a realm of merchant princes and feuding city-states.

Imagine a Venice with merfolk and aquatic elf residents.  Imagine open-air tavernas serving pita bread dips and shish kebab street food to apprentice mages on their way to school . Imagine masked vigilantes fighting a possessed toga-clad statue of a long-dead emperor. Imagine an adventuring company accepting submissions from not just honorable knights and iconic elven archers, but also fair-haired northern reavers and steppe-borne nomads with curved swords. This is the world of Arcana High.

Scaling Powers: One of the chief mechanical principles of the two Pathfinder campaigns I ran for Arcana High was the use of magical relics. Once belonging to heroes of the distant past, they could transform a wielder into a masked form which the original heroes wore themselves. Aside from the super-genius gadgeteer, most superheroes were not known for carrying around gabs of equipment to act as the primary extension of their abilities.

For that reason, instead of accumulating gold and magic items as a primary campaign concern, I more or less made the relics into scaling magic items for the "big six" bonuses (weapon, armor, shield, saving throws, deflection, and natural armor). I also let the PCs choose from a broad array of relic upgrades which could be gained once per level. They included things ranging from an elemental energy blast attack to a Green Lantern-style major creation spell-like ability of limited duration. Magic items were still a thing in the campaign, and the PCs did have access to a pseudo-Batcave where they could load up on common gear between missions, but with the versatility of relics reliance upon the "Magic Item Christmas Tree" effect was nowhere near as pronounced. Being an all-spellcaster party helped ease things as well, for they are the classes in base Pathfinder which can best replicate a superhero feel.

Conclusion

I have a lot more to say about this dream project of mine, but right now I wanted to focus on the major themes instead of losing my dear readers in layers of lore I already wrote up in various documents.

What aspect of Arcana High should I focus on next?  Talk a bit more about the magic school? Perhaps a few figures from the supervillain rogue's gallery? Sample relic powers and abilities?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is out!

Cover Art by Eric Lofgren

Six months ago this book was an assembly of notes in Microsoft Word. Even two years ago it was an idea I had; aside from Redhurst Academy of Magic for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, gaming sourcebook dedicated to magic school adventures and settings where rather rare. Sure you had city-based sourcebooks make mention of a mage's college here and there, but they were but one piece of the setting, one page in a much larger tome. Having grown up on Harry Potter and influenced by
school-based Japanese anime and manga, it seemed odd to me that such a popular and ripe subgenre was going more or less unexploited in the D&D and OSR fandoms.

As the largest book I've published yet, it is hard to describe the feelings going through me now that it is fully finished. For the last 3 days I spent 5 to 6 hours on average in Adobe InDesign, motivated by a newfound burst of energy now that I was nearing completion. As soon as I scanned the book for error-checking and made a prototype PDF which by all accounts worked, the tiredness rushed over me suddenly like a tidal wave. But within that exhaustion I felt satisfaction, happiness at a job well done. The happiness one gets at the end of a long and winding road, and as they look back they see that all their hard work led them here.

Thus the creation of this sourcebook. Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is a 100-page sourcebook full of new rules and setting material optimized for campaigns where the PCs are apprentices at a magical academy and all the crazy shenanigans which can only occur from spell-slinging adolescents and grimoires full of forbidden knowledge. It was made with Swords & Wizardry in mind, but can be a useful toolbox for other Original and Basic D&D style retroclones. Even if the magic school campaign does not appeal to you, the book is filled with options sure to please any fan of spellcasters from new spells, a cantrip subsystem, turning books into a new form of treasure capable of teaching readers new and interesting abilities, and the like.

It's available for sale on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow, and the product contains bookmarks and is watermark-free.

If this sounds interesting to you, or if you know of a gamer friend who would like this, feel free to take a look and share. I hope my work brings as much fun to your gaming table as I did writing it. But this isn't going to be my only magic-school sourcebook! I am hard at work on an adventure path for Pathfinder and 5th Edition, along with some other work projects. As they're still in the idea stage I'm afraid that I can't share much information about them as of now, but hopefully you'll be tided over with this latest offering.

To all my fellow fantasy academia enthusiasts, I wish you good luck and good gaming!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery Excerpt: Cantrips

Artist Unknown

A common trope in fantasy worlds is the idea of a wizard who can use minor magic at will. Barring rituals and high-end supernatural techniques, the creation of a simple illusion, telekinesis of a small object, and the like is something a wizard can do without expounding any significant effort. The standard Vancian system of magic as a precious resource a 1st-level apprentice can only do once per day does not lend itself to what many people think of when it comes to a magic school setting. It precludes fun scenarios like pranksters setting off minor illusions while running away from prefects, classmates using their magic to do competitive games with multiple tries, and similar things which can only be simulated by piling additional levels onto characters.

Albeit originally presented in 3rd Edition D&D in the form of Reserve feats, at-will spells became standardized in further games such as 4th Edition, Pathfinder, and now 5th Edition. Swords & Wizardry as-is does not have at-will spells (at least not in the hands of anyone but monsters), so I got around to thinking of how to transport them to an OSR framework.

Although a few are converted from other D&D Editions and clones, I made sure that they didn't invalidate already existing 1st-level spells: in Pathfinder/5th Edition the light spell is a cantrip, but in Swords & Wizardry it is a 1st-level spell. In the case of new spells, I made sure to have their effects be interesting magical gimmicks which would not unbalance the game due to indefinite use. Spellbolt works no differently than a mundane ranged weapon, but is inferior to magic missile because it has an inferior range, does not auto-hit, and the caster cannot generate multiple "bolts" for attacking in the same round.

Cantrips: Cantrips are a special type of spell mastered by dabblers and apprentices before moving on to true magic.  They require such a trifling amount of power that they can be effectively cast all day long without the spellcaster running out of magical energy (although physical exhaustion may set in far earlier!).

Any class with access to spells per day is capable of learning cantrips.  They follow the rules of typical spells, except that once prepared they never run out and can be cast an infinite number of times.  However, a spellcaster must still perform the regular rites of their class (spellbook study, prayer, etc) every day to switch them out in favor of new ones, and they can only prepare a limited amount per day.  Some cantrips can be prepared twice as though they were two different spells, granting greater effects in exchange for less versatility.

Spellcasters can prepare 2 cantrips at 1st level, three at 4th level, and 4 at 7th level.  Magic-users and classes which utilize a spellbook begin play with 2 cantrips in their spellbook.

Flash

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 1 round

This cantrip creates a burst of bright light equivalent to torchlight for a split-second.  If conjured in an enemy’s face, the target must make a saving throw or suffer a -1 penalty on all attack rolls for 1 round.  This cantrip can be prepared twice to create overwhelming sensations of any of the four other common senses instead, being potentially able to effect blind and sightless creatures.

Note: This cantrip’s use as a light source is inferior to the light spell in that its duration is too brief to allow for detailed study.

Ghost Sound

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 1 round

This spell creates illusory sounds of the caster’s choice within the range, although they cannot be any louder than a roaring lion or power saw (114 decibels).  Evidence which proves the sound’s false nature allows the victim a saving throw to disbelieve at the Referee’s discretion.

Mage Hand

Range: 30 feet

Duration: Until concentration ceases

This spell allows the caster to remotely lift and move a single object weighing up to 5 pounds within the range of the spell.  If the spellcaster concentrates on the cantrip, they can move any such object up to 15 feet per round in any direction.  Preparing this cantrip twice allows this telekinetic force to be precise enough to perform delicate tasks  such as lock-picking and surgery.

Manifest Shield/Weapon

Range: Personal

Duration: Until Dispelled

This spell causes a shield or weapon made of transparent energy to materialize in the caster’s hand, using the game statistics as said object.  The equipment must be something the caster is proficient with and be aware of its existence.  Should a spellcaster wish to use this cantrip to manifest two weapons in each hand or a shield and a weapon, they must prepare this cantrip twice.  Two-handed weapons count as one cantrip for these purposes.

Mending

Range: 10 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

This cantrip makes minor repairs to objects of up to 5 cubic feet in size.  It is capable of removing minor levels of rust, straightening out bends, fusing cracks and splits back together on small objects, and the like.  It is up to the Referee’s discretion on the extent of the repairs, but as a guideline it can equal the effort of 10 minutes worth of work by a trained artisan with proper tools or restore 1d4 hit points worth of damage.

Repeated castings on the same equipment or piece of material have no further effect until at least 24 hours have passed.

Message

Range: 100 feet

Duration: 1 turn (10 minutes)

This spell allows the caster to whisper long-range messages to a single target within the spell’s range and line of sight.  You cannot carry a two-way conversation unless the subject also has this cantrip prepared.  This cantrip can be prepared twice to affect as many targets within the spell range as the spellcaster wishes.

Parlor Tricks

Range: 10 feet

Duration: 1 hour

Upon casting, this cantrip allows the caster to perform minor harmless tricks.  These can be all sorts of miscellaneous magical effects, but are severely limited in what they can do. Here are some guidelines:

Illusions are transparent and obviously unreal, and can only be 1 cubic foot in size or less.

Only 1 pound of material can be moved, cleaned, soiled, recolored, or have its temperature mildly changed.

Created objects can only weigh up to 1 pound and are too fragile and of poor quality to be used as proper tools or be passed off as the real thing.

The effects of this cantrip, be it creation, illusions, or alterations only last for 1 hour.

Spellbolt

Range: 30 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

The spellcaster’s finger or held implement (holy symbol, wand, etc) fizzles with energy which can be used as a ranged weapon against a target within 30 feet.  It deals 1d6 points of damage, and its visual effects can be versatile (screaming skulls, acidic balls, etc) but do not deal any special type of damage and once chosen this form is always the same.  If the spellcaster wishes to manifest different kinds of visual effects with every casting, they can prepare this cantrip twice.

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery Excerpt: New Races

Negima: Collette by Ayaka Yukihiro of Deviantart

In standard Swords & Wizardry and other OSR games, the path of the cleric is often restricted to humans, and dwarf and halfling PCs are incapable of taking levels in magic-user.  In the early days of the world’s oldest role-playing game, humans were unlimited in their class choices to encourage the conventions of a humanocentric world.  Demi-human races often had level caps in non-thief classes to balance the human’s lack of racial abilities like infravision or the uncanny ability to hide from view in wilderness settings.

It may go against established tropes, but more contemporary role-playing games allow for more freedom in character concepts by lifting these restrictions.  For example, dwarf magic-users might be possible but instead a rarity due to cultural taboos.  This gives outlier PCs a good story hook for why they defied societal expectations and serves as a potential world-building tool.

Regarding humans, I suggest granting PCs belonging to this race a +2 bonus in the ability score of their choice to a maximum value of 18.  That way, they’re still an attractive option to pick even with the lack of being able to detect secret doors or see in the dark. I also recommend capping the max saving throw bonus one can receive from a race and class combination (such as dwarves and drow) to no more than +4 to avoid too large a change in probability.

Sample Races

In Swords & Wizardry, the dwarf and elf have three unique racial traits each, with half-elves and halflings two.  Overall most races in OSR games have three iconic traits when they’re not classes, so in the creation of new races or adaption of existing ones you should think of three abilities which best exemplify them.

Drow

Drow are the descendants of elves who journeyed deep underground after being exiled from the old kingdoms.  The harshness of underground life makes them more warlike and socially darwinist than their surface kin, and they’re quite fond using vermin such as giant spiders as pets and beasts of burden.

Traits: Drow are trained in the ability to use poison without error akin to the assassin class.  They have darkvision to a range of 120 feet, and a +4 bonus on saving throws vs. damaging spells.

Gnomes

Gnomes are short folk who live in hilly burrows and forested mounds.  It is believed that they have strong ties to the fey, and the ones who take up magical arts prefer spells of the subtler variety.

Traits: Gnomes gain a +4 bonus on saving throws vs. illusion spells and effects which would otherwise fool their minds or senses.  They can also see in the dark up to 60 feet.  Finally, gnomes have a 4 in 6 chance of understanding the purpose or workings of advanced technological and alchemical devices.  “Advanced technology” tends to cover items of a post-Renaissance nature or things uncommon in typical fantasy settings, such as clockwork, gunpowder, steampower, and the like.

Pixies

Pixies are tiny winged fey (around 2’ tall on average) with a connection the forests of the world.  They seem possessed by boundless energy, are fond of entertainment of all sorts, and innately magical.

Traits: Pixies are tiny in stature and thus can have a maximum Strength score of 11 (any amount rolled over this is treated as an 11 result).  They can fly at a speed of 30 feet, but must rest for 1 minute for every 3 minutes they spend flying.  Pixies can also sprinkle dust from their wings on weapons and ammunition once per day, which can inflict the effects of a charm person or sleep spell on a struck target with an effective Magic-User level equal to the pixie’s total class levels.

Tieflings

Magocracies often make dangerous pacts with otherworldly entities as a measure of preserving power.  Some of these pacts involve tainting unborn children with the spark of eldritch forces which manifest as demonic-like qualities in life.  Tieflings are the descendents of these cursed children, feared as demonspawn and changelings in some lands, revered by fiendish sorcerers and cultists for their potent bloodline.

Traits: Tieflings gain a +4 bonus on saving throws vs. effects of an elemental nature, such as fire, ice, electricity, earth, and air.  They have darkvision to a range of 60 feet, and can cast darkness 15 foot radius once per day as an innate ability with an effective magic-user level equal to their total class levels.

Vampires

Vampires are undead creatures who must subsist on the blood of the living.  They are quite powerful as undead, retaining their intelligence and free will and capable of performing terrible abilities even if not a spellcaster.

Traits: Vampires do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe as undead beings, but they must subsist on a pint of blood every week or suffer the effects of starvation.  They have a natural bite attack which deals 1d4 damage on a hit; a vampire can suck the blood out of a helpless or willing target healing 1 hit point of damage for every 2 points dealt via a bite.  Vampires can also take the form of a bat or wolf as per polymorph self with an effective Magic-User level equal to their total class levels, although they’re still treated as undead in this form as well.

Note: In typical OSR games, vampires come with a variety of powers and weaknesses beyond the template presented here.  It is assumed that the vampire “race” presented above is a fledgling barely coming into their powers; as a result they still possess enough qualities from their old life to not worry about sunlight, garlic, and the like.

If this doesn’t seem authentic, you can introduce this rule for vampire weaknesses: vampires in prolonged contact with hostile elements take 1d4 points of damage per round of contact.  Vampires reduced to 0 hit points from this type of damage crumble into dust.

My Upcoming Magic School Campaign Sourcebook: Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery

Wizard's Academy by kalessaradan of Deviantart

Note: this is not official artwork for my book

Once I wrote my Playable Monsters for Fifth Edition sourcebook, I was at a temporary loss on what to write next. I had a lot of ideas, but aside from a few exceptions most of them would have to start from scratch. But then I recalled a certain topic which I talked a lot about in the past, both on this blog and in various gaming sessions and message boards.

After gathering the necessary material together, I realized that by volume of content I had enough to make a large sourcebook, but even then I had to manage and streamline things out so as to make it presentable. I can tell that it's going to be much larger than my previous works I put out, but my passion for the genre will be the muse which helps drive me forward!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is a magic school sourcebook and hex crawl for Swords & Wizardry but can be converted to other OSR games easily enough.

Overview

The book can be more or less split up into two major sections: new rules material and the sample setting.

New Rules: The first section of the book is dedicated to material specialized for creating OSR magic school campaigns. An example is the use of treasured tomes, books which impart in-game benefits to diligent readers. They range from the mundane to the magical; a Chiurgeon's Textbook can grant the ability to heal a patient of 1d4 hit points of damage once per day, while Secrets of the Pactmaster treats your Charisma score as 2 points higher for social interactions with extraplanar beings (perfect for summoners and demon-binders!).

Another example utilizes the partial separation of race and class common to Swords & Wizardry. I noticed that the "core races" have around three dominant traits: for example, dwarves save great vs magic, can see in the dark, and detect abnormalities in interior and underground environments.

I extended that further with new playable options for more exotic inhabitants of a sorcerer's academy, such as beastfolk, pixies, and tieflings who all have three traits along these lines.

Finally, and most thematically, the adventures students may go on may differ a bit from standard adventuring. PCs may go into the deepest, darkest reaches of the forests to pick a rare flower which blooms only on the winter solstice for a valuable spell component. Arcane Lore (based on an earlier blog post) grants an effective gold piece value to treasure of a magical nature, which can be used for personal growth in magical potential in leveling up and resources for creation by "spending" it on facilities and magical research.

The Setting: The setting takes place in the lands of Frelundia, a rural barony home to a few modest cities, deadly wilderness, and a militaristic nation to the north threatening its borders. Larius Firetongue, a sorcerer of no small fame discovered through years of research that the magic ley lines of the world converge heavily in this backwater land. Seeking like-minded souls in hopes of unlocking their secrets, he built an academy and used his name recognition to recruit talented minds from lands far and wide to make a full-fledged school dedicated to the magical arts.

The PCs are assumed to be newcomers to the Academy, and don't necessarily have to be of the Magic-User class. Clerics, Druids, and other magical traditions are present among the student body. The Academy acts as a "hub" of sorts for the party, and while there's plenty of adventures and schemes going on within its halls the outlying barony has its fair share of locations to explore in true hex crawling fashion.

One week the PCs might be heading off to the Desert of the Valiant Rose in search of the Library of Mede. The next week they may head off into Direblack Swamp on the hunt for spell components to bolster their magical abilities, or hear rumors among the student body of an eternal torrent of rain above the Green Ruins threatening to flood Moonshade Forest. A few of the adventure locations may be connected, but a lot of them are meant to be stand-alone, the better to insert into one's home campaigns and to let PCs visit places which sound of interest to them instead of leading them along a linear path.





I will go into more specific detail on sections of the book in future blog posts, depending upon the factors of personal whim and reader interest. If there's any particular aspect you want to hear more about, feel free to leave a comment in the section below!

My first book for 5th Edition is out

For the longest time I could remember, even before I got into Dungeons & Dragons, I always loved the idea of being the monsters for a change. Taking on the role of a mighty golem or brooding vampire seemed appealing to me, and the limited choices of races in most official sourcebooks seemed at odds with fantasy settings populated by all manner of intelligent beings.

Official sourcebooks' attempts to do this resulted in mixed success. The truth is that a lot of monsters had abilities which would be game-breaking in the hands of players, or in some cases the options were made weak so as to discourage too much deviation from the Tolkinesque Player's Handbook races. While working with Oslecamo on Min-Max Boards on designing monster-based classes for 3rd Edition, I came upon a realization: the majority of monsters both original and drawn from folklore were known for a limited set of abilities as defining features. Harpies are known for being winged sirens whose melodies could entrance people, not their +3 natural armor bonus and racial hit dice.

Taking this idea, I boiled down the abilities of several popular monsters into a smaller framework, getting rid of extraneous mechanics. Eventually I designed Playable Monsters, Vol. 1: Fantasy Iconics & Mythology for the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. Then I made a version for Old School Monster Classes. Both proved to be popular sellers, and now that 5th Edition is out, I figured that making a version for that game would be a good idea, especially given the fact that monstrous races don't really exist as an option in most official or third-party material from what I've seen.

Here's the OneBookShelf link to the title. It was tiring yet worthwhile to make. If PC-friendly harpies and vampires sound right up your alley, then I hope my book brings more fun and excitement to your gaming circle!

It feels really good to get back into self-publishing

For the past several months, I've been hard at work on several ideas for future gaming sourcebooks. In addition to my bigger ideas and ones I've worked on for a while, I had a few smaller side projects here and there. Two of them were for systems I liked and read a lot but have yet to publish anything for...until today.

The Hacker

The first project was for White Star, a science fiction role-playing game heavily derived off of Swords & Wizardry. The classes within the core rulebook could emulate a number of space opera heroes, but felt sparse in the technical wizardry department. The gunslinger, the pilot, the robot, all mainstays of science fiction. But one other popular archetype was missing.

When setting out to make the class for White Star, I thought of the most common attributes from shows and film, and there was quite a lot to go around. Causing explosions, jacking into vehicles and robots to control them, uploading their consciousness into cyberspace, tracking down seemingly unreachable data and people...the versatility reminded me of spells, and at that point that's what I decided to go with.

A tech-based "spellcaster" who gains limited-use programs known as Exploits to pull off neat tricks useful in and out of combat. Everything else came simply after that.

New Fighter Maneuvers & Talents

My other project's been one I've been working on for a longer time. It dated back to my early experiences with 13th Age, a role-playing game made by two of the lead designers of 3rd and 4th Edition D&D. The game incorporated the best of both worlds in many cases, but there were still shortcomings here and there.

The Fighter class in particular felt limited in the options it had, but the concept of special abilities known as maneuvers learned as you leveled was a neat concept. So the idea of expanding upon that for new talents and abilities broadening the available fighting styles and some out of combat utility manifested in my next project. I used Path of War and Tome of Battle for inspiration, in that both present diverse martial styles for warriors, some of a near-supernatural nature.

Although I released both on the same day, the 13th Age one took longer due to less familiarity with the core system, resulting in more proofreading and stress-testing than usual to make sure things work. Right now I'm happy about finishing two projects after a year-long gap between them and my last. As for what the future may hold, I'm thinking of tackling adventures for old-school D&D.

Spheres of Power and the New D20 Boom and Bust

Cover Art by Ben Wootten

Within the last few months a particular third party Pathfinder product is receiving lots of attention.  Spheres of Power is an alternative to the standard Vancian Magic system, where spellcasters control aspects of reality (conjuration, fate, light, weather, etc) known and divided into "spheres."  Access to a sphere grants basic abilities, and more advanced magic can be gained via talents over the course of levels to spend on spheres.  Although non-Vancian alternatives are nothing new, Spheres of Power is notable for a well-funded KickStarter, high production values, and a growing fanbase in places such as Giant in the Playground and consistently good online sales.

Interestingly, Spheres of Power was uploaded to Drive-Thru RPG a little over a year ago, and didn't get much advertisement or word of mouth, much less reviews, in 2014.  It's good to see that a well-balanced and playtested magic system is getting the attention it deserves, but the one year gap is telling.

I believe this ties into a problem among third party publishing.  As of today, there are 1,414 products in the OSR category, and 4,828 products labelled as Pathfinder in Drive-Thru RPG's online storefront.  And the number seems to grow almost every day especially in regards to Pathfinder.  Although the D20 Boom far preceded both fandoms, online products were not as ubiquitous as they are today.  Playing around with search options, roughly 1/3rd of Pathfinder products are $3 or less, more akin to mini-sourcebooks than full supplements.

There are some products, such as Realms of Beltora, which have been up since Pathfinder's heyday in 2008 yet have no significant reviews or online discussion I could find anywhere.  And I'm not talking "30 New Sword Feats" or stuff like that; Beltora has 216 pages detailing new mechanics and setting material.  This is far above the time and effort of shovelware producers and themed mini-books which repeat the same formula.

On the one hand, it is good that the barrier of entry for aspiring creators is easy; all you need is Adobe InDesign, a willingness to write and play games, and some stock art to sell a decent RPG book without needing to worry about physical distribution and such.  But it also opens up the door to quantity over quality, where truly good works are confined to obscurity in a sea of competing products of dubious value.  There are good folk who do their part to bring to light these buried gems of their respective communities, such as Endzeitgeist or Erik Tenkar, but the open tent leaves little room for quality control or a platform to gather attention unless you already have a reputation.

Fortunately there are works which are getting their dues: KickStarter remains a great way to fund projects, Dreamscarred Press started out as an obscure company before becoming the gold standard for third party design and are well-respected, and Spheres of Power is getting its time in the spotlight.  But in spite of all this I worry that the OSR and Pathfinder fandoms are repeating the mistakes of the past D20 Boom.  There are folk I know who would ordinarily be interested in checking out a lot of books, but when push comes to shove option paralysis sets in.  When you have five necromancy-themed books all by different companies, or three desert-based campaign settings for sale, how do you know which one's the best without buying them all?

Ideas to offset a D20 Bust

Seal of Quality: During the 80s and 90s, Nintendo put out an Official Seal of Quality on approved products.  The North American Video Game Crash of 1983 was due to crappy games flooding the market, many of them untested and unfinished pushed right onto market shelves.  While the table-top fandom does not have the resources for a central committee of playtesters to comb through thousands of material as a job, having more full-time reviewers can certainly help.  In-depth analysis of the books' contents therein, like Something Awful's FATAL & Friends series, are more helpful than the highly vague "this book sucks" warning or "this book is full of neat options" I see all too often.

Engagement with the Community: Many third party publishers do not advertise their works much or interact with gaming communities.  They may not have a social media profile, don't hand out complementary reviews to get coverage, or link new products in advertisement sections of forums like RPGnet's Hype Machine.  Aside from a storefront on Drive-Thru RPG, they're more or less invisible.

A good portion of Pathfinder's popularity comes from the actions of Paizo in cultivating a sense of community among their fans.  They scooped up many 3rd Edition gamers dissatisfied with the direction of 4th Edition, and gave a sense of participation with an "Open Playtest" to let players help them iron out problems to make a new and improved 3.5 (I only feel that this was partially successful mechanics-wise, but that's for another blog post).  Furthermore, unpopular material has been retconned, the Pathfinder Society gives a sense of a shared world for participating players, and recent decisions regarding diversity and representation for minority gamers was welcomed by many.

One many not like Pathfinder's system, but they do foster a connection which feels more "real" than "corporate," even though they are just as merchandise-driven as any big company.

In short: get a social media page.  Listen to not just your fans, but see if there's any concepts or demands among gamers to seize upon ideas for customer interest.  Advertise your wares anywhere you can, and be an active participant in gaming communities.

Highlight the Good: Folks such as Interjection Games pointed out that reviews and discussion can gather enough interest in one's work to the point that it generates a noticeable sale in spikes.  Are there any products out there which you really enjoy?  Under-appreciated classics, nifty settings, cool spins on old tropes?  Talk about them, review them even if you want.  The more specific, the better; don't just say that something's good, tell people why it's good.  In the best case scenario, generating positive buzz might help the creator enough that they can use the funds to continue making even more good products.

It may sound cliche, but this is part of why I'm motivated to do reviews.  A lot of the time it's to ensure a regular writing schedule, but I've noticed that review threads on message boards (especially the bigger ones such as RPGnet or GiantITP) get very high results in search results.  So if you found a gem of an RPG and start up a detailed thread on it somewhere, other gamers can get attracted to it as well.

Conclusion

The Open Gaming License is a double-edged sword, and there's far too many products to reasonably cover or analyze.  I love OSR and Pathfinder games, and there are several companies and authors who earned their spotlight, but I do fear the negative effects this will have on up-and-coming game designers.

Quasar Knight Products are part of the Christmas in July Sale!

Christmas Image from WP Clipart

Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow have 25% off on a wide variety of titles in their stores, and my products are all part of the sale.

Here's the Drive-Thru link.

Here's the RPGNow link.

All of my current works are small, affordable sourcebooks for Pathfinder and OSR games providing extended options for both players and GMs.  I tend to go for ideas which haven't been explored much in their respective fandoms, such as monster classes based off of iconic creatures; kickass feats and archetypes intended to help underpowered martial classes do more cool stuff; and new mechanics to apply for a consistent, alignment-free game while still retaining paladins, demons, and other popular fantasy mainstays.

If you had your eyes on my selection for some time, now is a great opportunity to get your book of choice at a bargain price.  If the works of Quasar Knight Enterprises are new to you, give them and their previews a look and see if any appeal to you.

All of Quasar Knight Enterprises product off 40% for one day only!

For one day only, D20 Pathfinder SRD is holding a sale on almost all products on the store, mine included.

Although I price my work at very reasonable rates in comparison to other D20 products of similar size, at 40% off you can get a lot of content for a few bucks.  My selection is sure to please Pathfinder and OSR fans, especially folks who find the idea of monstrous PCs, cool fighter feats, and alignment-free games appealing.

If these books are new to new, I'll give a brief rundown on what each one can enhance your play experience.

The Abstract Thief is a Pathfinder base class based around the mage-thief archetype.  Basically the class is a talented person who sees the threads binding all of reality, and can manipulate said threads to steal essential concepts from others, such as luck, youth, vitality, knowledge, and more!  The Abstract Thief has a diverse skill set of roguish traits such as Sneak Attack, is a prepared caster who specializes in subtle arcane magic (such as enchantment and illusion), and has access to Abstractions which usually take the form of a ranged debuffing attack where they "steal" an intangible trait from an enemy.

A Fine Bunch of Monsters is a mini-bestiary of 12 new monsters for Pathfinder.  The game is very short on monsters of Fine and Diminutive size which aren't some variety of insect swarm, so I rectified the situation by making varied monsters for a wide range of Challenge Ratings.  It contains unique entries such as the grubalugs, gluttonous walking miniature mouths with extradimensional stomachs; animated vegetables which distract and splat against enemies; the magebeetle, every wizard's bane and consumer of arcane knowledge.

Death to Alignment is by far my most popular product.  It is a supplement with one simple purpose: to alter Pathfinder's game mechanics, from class features to spells, so that GMs can run alignment-free games without little unforeseen consequences such as paladins getting nerfed now that they don't have smite evil.  Also included are sample variant morality systems, such as evil being measured in Corruption Points or a 3-axis alignment of good/neutral/evil.

Nice Things for Fighters is intended to appeal to the demographic of Pathfinder players unsatisfied with the lack of game balance between martials and spellcasters.  The book provides a sampling of new feats both easy to qualify for and intended to shore up martial weaknesses.  For example, Dancing on the Wind allows your PC to jump vast distances by gaining an effective 1-round fly speed; Mighty Lungs and Thunderclap where super-strong heroes can blow gusts of wind with their breath and create shockwaves with a strong stomp.  Also included are new archetypes such as the Grappling Cord Acrobat and Warrior-Poet.

Old School Monster Classes is a Labyrinth-Lord Compatible Product which not only provides racial classes for iconic beings such as the giant and medusa, but also new interesting cultural details to provide setting incentives for how their societies might coexist with baseline humanoids.  Giants are the mighty descendants of a fallen empire; nagas are serpentine magical guardians of ley lines and planar crossroads; doppelgangers are sneaky hunters of forgotten lore created by a mysterious organization of scholars; and harpies are tainted human women fond of the arts who find ample demand for their natural flight and mesmerizing voices.

Playable Monsters, Vol. 1: Fantasy Iconics & Mythology is like Old School Monster Classes, except it utilizes the Pathfinder ruleset.  It also contains 2 new races not present in the former, the Boggard and Sahuagin.  Basically my monstrous variants contain the creatures' most iconic abilities, only scaled down when necessary to be balanced alongside the "core races."

I hope that at least one of these sound appealing to you.  I'm grateful for any support you can give me, whether it's purchasing my work or sharing the page with folk you know who might find it interesting.  Although my specialty right now is in Pathfinder, over time I plan on writing more supplements for other game systems, and funds I gain from sales of current work will be utilized for the creation of even more products!

I now have an ask.fm

Here's the link. The "E" is for Enterprises.

For those not in the know, Ask.fm is basically a social media site which allows you to ask questions (anonymous or by username).  It's a pretty interesting website, in no small part due to various folks in geek culture having their own profile, such as Let's Play's slowbeef or Pathfinder's F. Wesley Schneider.

I used to have an old account, ask.fm/quasarknight, but I deactivated it several months ago.  I changed my mind, but to my dismay I could not find an account retrieval option.  So I decided to make a new one.

So if you like my posts, are a fan of my work, or just feel like asking stuff, come and check it out.

Is there a consumer demand for Death to Alignment for the OSR?

Cover Artwork by Sade

I've never been a fan of alignment in general for various reasons.  First, the changing definitions over the years mean that descriptions such as Chaotic Neutral in 1st Edition mean something entirely different in 3rd Edition, confusing already contentious online arguments when nobody's on the same page for definitions.  Second, it is not a very well-fleshed out or consistent morality system, as most game designers aren't professional philosophers or theologians and go more by "feel" than a solid framework.  One only has to see what elves get away with in settings, which would land other races firmly outside the Chaotic Good camp.

It's rather common for gaming groups to house-rule away alignment, but the rules-heavy pecularities of Pathfinder meant that simply removing it meant that entire classes, spells, magic items, etc become gimped or useless.  So I wrote Death to Alignment, a series of rules changes, alternate morality systems, and mini-essays discussing how to alter or remove alignment in Pathfinder in a consistent, thoughtful way.

I often considered making an OSR version for Death to Alignment, like I did with Playable Monsters Volume 1.  But in comparison to Pathfinder most OSR games do not devote a lot of rules to it.  You might have some fluff personality descriptions, or whether the Cleric harms or enslaves undead, but aside from this there isn't really much ground to cover.  I considered focusing on the retroclones which do have rules beyond this simplistic framework, such as Dungeon Crawl Classics, but overall it seems that a simple house-ruling isn't going to have a lot of ripple effects in a game such as Labyrinth Lord.

If I do an OSR Edition of Death to Alignment, I might try incorporating system-neutral things, such as Corruption Points to represent the taint of supernatural evil warping those it touches.  I might also have a chapter for popular OGL retroclones and view how alignment interacts with their framework.

But more than that, I want to see how much enthusiasm there is among OSR gamers for such a book.

What do you think?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Quasar Knight Enterprises Week-long Valentine's Day Sale

Hello folks.  Ever since early June I cast my hand into the self-publishing business.  The wide selection of material in both Pathfinder and OSR communities meant that a lot of material had been covered, forcing me to find areas which received little coverage or appreciation in the respective games as well as ones which aligned with my own interests.  The Abstract Thief was my first book, a playable mage-thief straight from level one with no multi-classing necessary; Nice Things for Fighters was an attempt to address the martial-caster imbalance, while Playable Monsters and Old School Monster Classes granted folk the ability to play as centaurs, gnolls, and other classic fantasy staples for Pathfinder and Labyrinth Lord respectively.

So for February 12th to the 19th, I'm pricing my entire catalog at 50% off on both Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow.  Five of my books are Pathfinder-oriented, although my latest (Old School Monster Classes) should be of particular interest to fans of old-school Editions and retroclones.

If you enjoyed any of my work, or have problems processing an order, feel free to contact me on blogspot, Google Plus, Twitter, or my business e-mail (quasarknight at gmaildotcom).  I hope that my work brings joy and inspiration to your gaming table, and to continue doing so as I write more role-playing books down the line.

Product Spotlight: Old School Monster Classes

As of November 26th, I put the finishing touches on my latest book and uploaded it to the online stores.  Right now you can get it immediately on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow, and hopefully Paizo and D20 Pathfinder SRD in the near future.  Old School Monster Classes is a Labyrinth Lord-compatible supplement containing 14 new classes, all of them based off of existing iconic and mythological monsters such as the gnoll and the harpy.

I had the idea for quite a while, since last year in fact, but I never began the project proper until I was in the middle of designing my Playable Monsters supplement for Pathfinder Role-Playing Game.  There are many problems with monster PCs in a lot of D&D games: for one, lots of folk play them as-is with abilities intact, even if said abilities would be disruptive to the core of the game; who needs to adventure when the genie can conjure precious metals at will?  Another is due to the game's roots where monsters were primarily adversaries lurking at the edges of civilization, guarding treasure to be claimed and laying siege to villages.  It's no surprise that most monstrous beings are attacked on sight in most campaigns, and don't really have a lot of cultural detail in comparison to dwarves, elves, and halflings beyond the whims of individual homebrewers.

My two primary objectives for designing this book were to make the iconic traits of these 14 monsters in line with existing spells and class features at reasonable levels, and to give them interesting societies as fodder for role-play material and reasons for why they wouldn't be villified by the entire world.  Playing as a monster might be fun and nifty, but if their society is one-dimensional and uninteresting and one-dimensional it does not become a very attractive option.  Look at my previous post on my blog about gnolls: there's still room for the raider archetype, but I expanded their role beyond that one facet.  

Although this book might not be for everyone, the idea of playing as monsters for a change is a very popular idea in D&D which is sadly under-used in sourcebooks these days.  If you're an avid fan of B/X D&D and its retroclones, consider checking out my work and seeing if it's a good match for you and your gaming group.

Drive-Thru RPG Link.

RPGNow Link.

Paizo Link.

D20 Pathfinder SRD Link.

Quasar Knight Enterprises: What I Write and What I Do

I've always wanted to be a writer since I was a kid.  From Dungeons & Dragons to the Final Fantasy series, RPGs served as ample fodder for both fond memories and engaging imaginary worlds and stories.  Three years ago I started writing reviews, homebrew materials, and the occasional article on the message boards I frequented which shared an interest in science fiction and fantasy games.  After playing 3rd Edition and Pathfinder for many years, I decided to get writing on a small project in late 2013 as part of a creative writing thread on the Something Awful RPG subforum.

It was a rough start.  I had to get legal advice about the OGL to make sure I properly understood its conditions.  My computer broke down after the first month, and I had to manually extract the files to recover what I lost (thereafter teaching me to save multiple copies of everything on cloud storage and external hard drives).  I was a newcomer to self-publishing and had to juggle the writing process with finding stock art, setting up shop on Drive-Thru, Paizo, and other places, and doing the formatting myself.

After several months and a rocky start, I ended up with a finished product, the Abstract Thief, in early June, and Quasar Knight Enterprises was born.  Once that first book was released I found it easier going forward, for in 3 weeks I had another product out!  Ever since I've been working and releasing one-man projects around a monthly rate.  I've been sticking with what I know so far, which includes Pathfinder and OSR rulesets, but over time I hope to broaden my horizons by writing material for other popular games and maybe eventually my own.

When designing new projects, I always build upon potentially popular ideas which remained more or less untouched in 3rd Party Pathfinder and other OSR products.  There are boatloads of sourcebooks containing new feats, but Nice Things for Fighters was intended to appeal to those players upset with the imbalance between martial and spellcaster classes.  Death to Alignment was a rules variant which combed through existing feats, classes, magic items, and spells and redesigned them for gaming groups who wanted to remove alignment as a game mechanic (but wanted to still keep demons and paladins).  In a fandom where the number of 3rd Party Pathfinder products on Drive-Thru is 4,000 and still growing by the month, it's nigh-mandatory to make work which is original and stands out to get noticed.

My advice to would-be publishers and writers in the RPG industry is this: the first step is often the hardest.  The writing, the research, the initial fears of dipping your toes into the sea of products.  But once you get in the water, that vast ocean will seem a lot smaller.  And as a writer there's no better feeling in the world than when you put the finishing touches on your current project, uploading it to the Internet, and seeing people buy it to use in their home games.

So that's my story.  I hope that you enjoyed it.