You and your companions are trapped underground in a lightless hell with miles of lethal traps and hungry monsters between you and the surface. Betrayed… lost… your situation seems hopeless. But each of you has unique abilities: ways with the blade, the spell, and the fist that set you apart from other adventurers. Those abilities [...]
Welcome to Colin McComb’s Now, the Twist. A dangerous journey that will force him to take a long, hard look at game design.
Join him, won’t you… in his ongoing struggle to pass Go.
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Ah, the dreaded introductory post. Let’s make this fast and painless, and then we’ll get to the meat (no points will be awarded [...]
“A man of conviction and piety will walk the fanes at least once in his life. To walk the fanes is to tread in the footsteps of the saints; it is a test of faith. A test where the righteous are rewarded and the false are punished.”
The Faneway of Air straddles the highest mountain of [...]
And thus concludes our live broadcast from Monster Island! Thanks, and…
What’s that? Who won? Oh, that’s right… YOU haven’t voted yet! Well, let’s fix that right now. Go to the KQ Forums and vote for your favorite entry from King of the Monsters 2!
Here we are at the end of our second tournament to discover [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the broodiken is random finalist 10 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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Sailors familiar with the [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the eye of tricks and traps is random finalist 9 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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The [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the vapor lynx is random finalist 8 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.comstyle. Let the fight commence!
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The great cat pads forward [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the thistle is random finalist 7 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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(Oh, and you thought pixies [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the andrenjinyi is random finalist 6 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.comstyle. Let the fight commence!
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This gigantic, black-headed snake is over 60 [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the hooded hunter is random finalist 5 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.comstyle. Let the fight commence!
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A small figure in a dirty [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): Ohsoram the Shattered King is random finalist 4 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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The Unlucky Lord of [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the horahk is random finalist 3 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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In the deepest recesses of [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the palaver is random finalist 2 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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This pale snake has three [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters 2 finals (see the list of finalists): the vital necklace is random finalist 1 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exceptions that all submissions are posted with an image and are standardized to KoboldQuarterly.com style. Let the fight commence!
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A delicate [...]
The monster apocalypse has returned! In just a few short sentences, you’ll discover the identities of the 10 finalists of our King of the Monsters 2 Contest. But first…
We would like to thank each and every one of you that sent an entry in. We couldn’t have done this without you.
The judging was not easy. There [...]
What’s that looming out of the misty waters of the arctic sea? Icebergs? A maelstrom? The World Serpent? No, it’s… the commission goal!
That’s right folks, we’re about to sail over the rainbow bridge and cross into the greenlit fields of Asgard—Frozen Empires is almost commissioned. True, there’s always room for another strong back heaving on [...]
Welcome to Greg Vaughan’s One Too Many (Voices in My Head). His last, best chance to exercise those pesky demons. In his column you’ll find… I really have no idea, but he gave me $20, so… all yours Greg!
(Actually, this is a very special recounting of his Gen Con experience this year.)
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My name is Greg Vaughan, and [...]
Among warrior cultures, the Norsemen created one of the richest selections of battle-tested and war-dedicated weaponry ever seen in a single culture. Spears, bows, seax, langseax, long swords, broadswords, short swords, and of course, axes. While an axe can be a tool, the Vikings clearly distinguished between axes used as common tools and those used [...]
“Encounter Codex” presents individual encounters that can be quickly slotted into any adventure. They are system neutral and easily adapted to any edition (and other games for that matter) with little effort—just add stats. [Previous Encounter]
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An arched, 10-ft.-wide corridor stretches far into darkness ahead. Wispy cobwebs drift on the chilly air, gliding along deep shadows that [...]
The corridor you have been following opens up into a large square room. In the middle of the room, a large circular shaft extends downward with a diameter of 20 ft. Another corridor connects to the room, much wider than the one you followed, the corridor rises upward at a low angle. The corridor has [...]
The latest free issue of the Kobold Courier has shipped to Kobold fans. You can sign up to get one (for free!), and get news on designers, contests, project releases, links to KQ.com’s free monsters and articles, discounts, interviews, previews, and more. We send the Courier out roughly once a month, sometimes twice. This one [...]
To support the “Ecology of the Tengu” article in the just released Kobold Quarterly #14, we bring you more feathery goodness.
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“There are masters of combat, and there are masters of one’s own destiny; I know which I am but I am unsure of you. Choose a masterly path wisely.”
The winged karasu is an esteemed combatant [...]
We’ve nearly hit the greenlight for Streets of Zobeck!
What does this mean?
It means this might be your last chance to get in before the price goes up and the brainstorming starts in earnest. That’s right, our brainstorming has been pretty light up until now. We’ve limited ourselves to a few preview items and practice pitches [...]
Hurray, get your monsters in for King of the Monsters 2! Time’s almost up!
Adam Daigle, Jason Bulmahn, Logan Bonner, and Wolfgang Baur are anxious for the fight to start. The blood starts today, on a very special Friday the 13th.
Send your entries to kotm2(at)koboldquarterly(dot)com. Now!
To support the “Ecology of the Tengu” article in the just released Kobold Quarterly #14, we bring you more feathery goodness.
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Sojobo, Tengu King, and Myths of the Far East
The tengu pervade early Japanese legends as tricksters and deviant beings whose intentions were not always pure of heart. Though once known as baby stealers and kidnappers, they [...]
The magic of the Frozen North is vibrant and savage—much like those who practice it. Spells are not invoked by tongue-twisting arcane formula but by mocking rhymes and shouted challenges. It’s magic with a price that’s never paid lightly; men hang themselves to learn runes of power as Odin did. Grudge magic harnesses the pain [...]
To support the “Ecology of the Tengu” article in the just released Kobold Quarterly #14, we bring you more feathery goodness.
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A disproportionate number of tengu become adventurers when compared to the other races. As they enter adulthood, a drive to “leave the nest” sends many young tengu on an adventure, a quest to come into their [...]
To support the “Ecology of the Tengu” article in the just released Kobold Quarterly #14, we bring you more feathery goodness.
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Naro wrenched his blade from the still warm corpse of the tengu assassin. Strangely, the ambassador did not seem to be pleased.
“What seems to be troubling you ambassador?” Naro bowed, inwardly smirking at the man’s [...]
As we slowly return to normal after another wonderfully successful Gen Con, we would like to take this opportunity to say, “Welcome!” Meeting so many fans at several recent conventions, we realized that for all of you that have long been following us, many of you are just discovering KoboldQuarterly.com.
So, for all of you that have been here [...]
With Gen Con over, it’s time to turn our attention back to the cold, hard realities of everyday life. Monsters. Monsters don’t exist on their own. They need you.
We here at KoboldQuarterly.com believe strongly in monsters, and we support them every chance we get. This is why we established the King of the Monsters contest. [...]
I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that we won the Gold ENnie for Best Blog, yesterday, and I wish I could have been at Gen Con this year for it. I mean, we always try to put the best content forward that we can, but the competition has gotten so amazing! Gnome Stew, Critical [...]
(Photos by Wade Rockett)
Gen Con is a great place to meet your fellow gamers and play tricks on them, or at least make them smile and laugh. A popular booth can get a steady stream of visitors, and that’s great. But let’s face it, many game designers, editors, and artists are loners in their freelance [...]
(Photo by Wolfgang Baur)
Most gamers get a remarkable amount of exercise at Gen Con Indy, walking along the halls, stairs, True Dungeon, and over the skyways to the various hotels. Imagine, then, the typical Kobold Purveyor of fine adventures, design projects, and magazines who stands and chats and meets old friends and makes new ones [...]
This article presents a direct adaption for 3.5 Edition/Pathfinder Roleplaying Game of the new article in Kobold Quarterly #14 introducing a new type of magic for 4th Edition that arises from the accumulation of treasure. That monster’s treasure hoard is now just as deadly as it is precious! Check out the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly to learn [...]
This article presents a direct adaption for 3.5 Edition/Pathfinder Roleplaying Game of the new article in Kobold Quarterly #14 introducing a new type of magic for 4th Edition that arises from the accumulation of treasure. That monster’s treasure hoard is now just as deadly as it is precious! Check out the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly [...]
(Photos by Ben McFarland)
Indianapolis, IN: The first thing you learn about booth setup is to pace yourself. The kobolds arrived in Indianapolis on Tuesday night, got the badges organized, and found some of the booth materials already in place at #2439. Kobold-in-Chief Wolfgang Baur (your humble narrator) and Chief Cryptoanalyst and Booth Monkey #1 Wade [...]
In our “My First Gen Con” guest blog series, we’ve heard a lot from the game designer perspective. But what’s Gen Con like for the “Mad Men” of the magazine publishing industry? Industry veteran Johnny Wilson takes us behind the scenes to a glamorous world of expensive meals with powerful men, steamy encounters in hotel [...]
The tunnels are complete! The kobolds are now loose inside the Gen Con Exhibit Hall, feverishly building their booth. Hopefully their journey to Indianapolis was easier than the one Jess Hartley describes in her contribution to our “My First Gen Con” guest blog series.
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Getting to my first GenCon was an adventure. Terrorist threat messing [...]
The new issue of Kobold Quarterly is now available, in pdf and print. The articles provide a crazed selection of material from across the spectrum: new class options, the ecology of the tengu, new treasures (and new uses for treasure), an entire mini-adventure, and more!
Most people think of kobolds as small, but when the Summer Gen Con issue [...]
It’s Tuesday, which means the kobolds’ tunnels to Gen Con are near completion. Soon they will emerge from the depths and overrun the fair city of Indianapolis! In the meantime, Jeff Tidball has a memory to share in the latest of our “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts.
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I learned about Gen Con in [...]
Shadows sweep across the land, black shapes under a steel gray sky. Wings dark as thunderclouds and armor flashing bright like distant lightning, the valkyries are riding out in search of heroes!
Welcome to the edge of the world, brave adventurers of Midgard. Frozen Empires: Glories of the North is the latest patron-lead project from Open [...]
It’s the big week! Gen Con! Gamers from all over the world are flying, driving, busing, tunneling and teleporting to Indianapolis! With all these exclamation points, it’s fitting that Stan! should share his memory of his first Gen Con…
(Photo taken by Ed Healy.)
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Weird as it may seem, I don’t remember my first Gen Con, or [...]
And now, we are pleased to announce the Grand Prize Winner of the “My First Gen Con” Essay Contest. The competition was intense, but one essay stood out because… well, just read it.
When Zachary Houghton arrives at booth #2439, he will be hailed as a conqueror and given lavish gifts: $100 in store credit [...]
Thanks to all of you who submitted stories for the “My First Gen Con” Essay Contest. We’ve hugely enjoyed reading them, and hope you will come by booth #2439 and say hello.
Gen Con Indy 2010 will be runner-up Janet Brock’s first Gen Con! When Janet comes to the Kobold Quarterly booth, she will receive $50 [...]
Jeff Grubb sets the Wayback Machine to the golden age of RPGs with his contribution to our “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts.
My first Gen Con was in 1978, at the University of Parkside campus, Kenosha. I regret that I missed the Playboy club the year before, but the idea of capturing an [...]
The Streets of Zobeck are calling you…
Danger lurks in the back streets of Zobeck. Places where you’re just as likely to find a knife in the back as the fence you sought to hire. Places where you might just want to remain unnoticed when you see who’s waiting for you.
Like the scoundrels in those [...]
Thanks to all of you who shared your Gen Con stories—we’re reviewing the entries now and will announce the contest winner on July 30th!
Now, Erik Mona shares his memories of meeting the Gods of Gen Con…
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In May of 1995, a year from graduating college and back home in Minnesota for summer, I was desperate [...]
The Streets of Zobeck are calling you…
Danger lurks on the back streets of Zobeck. Places where you’re just as likely to find a knife in the back as the fence you sought to hire. Places where you might just want to remain unnoticed when you see who’s waiting for you.
Like the scoundrels in those [...]
In this latest in our series of “My First Gen Con” guest posts, indie game designer Luke Crane shares his Gen Con memories.
Thanks to all of you who shared your Gen Con stories—we’re reviewing the entries now and will announce the contest winner on June 30th!
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In March of 2003, I found a thread on the [...]
The first time I went to Gen Con was in 1987 when Mark Rein•Hagen and I had just launched our new game-publishing company, Lion Rampant. Our plan had been to sell copies of our new RPG, but the game was behind schedule, and the only thing we had to sell were $3 packs of “Whimsy [...]
My first Gen Con was particularly exciting because I “had” to go. Fresh out of college, I’d been an intern at the offices of Iron Crown Enterprises in the summer of 1990. In early August I was offered a full-time position as an editor starting in October, but my manager, Coleman Charlton, said that I [...]
This horrible monster resembles a gigantic crimson leech slithering upright on four muscular black tentacles. At the top of its writhing trunk rest several quivering feathered antenna surrounding a great lidless eye that glows with baleful orange light.
One of the most dreaded monsters of the underworld, strangling watchers (also known as urochars) have long plagued [...]
The latest free issue of the Kobold Courier has shipped to Kobold fans. You can sign up to get one (for free!), and get news on designers, project releases, links to KQ.com’s free monsters and articles, discounts, gallery shows, sneak previews, and more. We send the Courier out roughly once a month, sometimes twice.
Did [...]
“Blessed Lord, I was at the window today looking into the streets.”
“Foolish insect, keep your face from the window, I cannot risk losing another house to the flames.”
“I beg forgiveness master, but my eyes were drawn to the steeds men use, and it gave me an idea…”
A trusty mount of many an adventurer, the horse [...]
This very site — KoboldQuarterly.com — and the Open Design Podcast have been nominated for ENnie awards in the Best Blog and Best Podcast categories, and Open Design has been nominated for Fan Favorite publisher.
We’re honored that the judges choose to recognize KQ and the Open Design work of the last year, and we’re thrilled [...]
In his My First Gen Con post, Colin McComb cryptically hinted at a secret assignment to spy on Gary Gygax. At last, the truth can be told…
In early August of 1992, I was summoned to the executive area of TSR. I was constantly concerned about my job (a quirk that would lead to a memorable [...]
Just half a year ago, you witnessed the crowning of Kobold Quarterly’s first ever King of the Monsters: the spark and its designer Adam Daigle took on all comers and stood victorious. However, Monster Island is a dangerous place, and its rulers never last long…
Behold the King of the Monsters Contest, the greatest and most [...]
Colin McComb shares his Gen Con memories in the “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts. You’ll find Colin’s essay on designing combat systems in the Kobold Guide to Game Design Vol. III: Tools & Techniques.
Tell the story of your own first Gen Con (even if this upcoming one is your first), and [...]
The monstrosity appeared like a 50-ft.-long crocodile careened above the otherworldly battlefield, soaring on rigid leathery wings and coming to an awkward, upright landing among the scattered bodies of angels and fiends like. It charged straight into the celestials’ siege tower, both tails whipping wildly. Belviss fled in abject horror.
Some minutes later, the gnome archivist [...]
One of Open Design’s favorite cartographers wrote recently to let us know about an event he’s putting together — an art show for fantasy maps!
Says Roberts, “I’m pulling in professional fantasy cartographers and very talented amateurs and I’ll be showing my own work as part of the show.” Readers will remember his work from Sunken [...]
“The bear, falcon, and wolf are merely three of the totems a barbarian may revere. Every totem offers a small background as well as rage powers that fit the totem’s theme. And even their physical fetishes, the objects that focus their veneration, can bestow upon those worthy the primal magic of these creatures.” [from Part [...]
Chris Pramas of Green Ronin shares his Gen Con memories with us in the second in our “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts. Tell us the story of your own first Gen Con (even if this upcoming one is your first) in our My First Gen Con contest!
It was 1989, and I was [...]
Another man would have given up by now, but Goreg was no ordinary man. His blood pounded with rage-fueled adrenaline, and his nose twitched, catching the sour scent of retreating orc. Goreg bounded forward, his muscular legs driving him through the snow. Each step tore through ice and frost as he closed in on his [...]
4th Edition D&D designer Logan Bonner shares his Gen Con memories with us in our “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts. Logan will be leading Open Design’s newest project, The Lost City. Tell us the story of your own first Gen Con (even if this upcoming one is your first) in our My [...]
Following on Courts of the Shadow Fey, its second adventure compatible with the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game, Open Design is announcing a new D&D project launching immediately: the Lost City project. Leading the project is former Wizards of the Coast designer Logan Bonner, lead designer on Arcane Power and author of the [...]
In the old days, giant killer scorpions didn’t throw lightning bolts and fireballs. They had to rely merely on bone-snapping pincers and flesh-melting venom. Pine for those simpler days of bloodshed no more!
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Nature DC 15—Giant scorpions hunt at night, using their large claws to hold prey while injecting paralytic poison. They typically eat prey live, [...]
The ENnie Awards have announced their nominations for this year, and they include two nominations for Open Design!
This site is nominated in the Best Blog category, so congratulations to Scott Gable and all the authors who have blogged, posted, and contributed crunch, stories, and reviews here this past year.
In addition, the Open Design Podcast [...]
What are reviewers saying about Kobold Guide to Game Design, Vol. 3 (print/PDF), Open Design’s source for game design?
… As with the first two volumes, if you’re an aspiring pro this book is a must. If you’re a rules hacker like me, this stuff is solid gold. If you’re just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill gamemaster who [...]
Ed Greenwood, legendary game designer and best-selling author, shares his Gen Con memories with us in the second in our “My First Gen Con” series of guest posts. Tell us the story of your own first Gen Con (even if this upcoming one is your first) in our My First Gen Con contest!
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My first [...]
“Inspiring Terrains” looks at encounters—fundamental building blocks that bring together PCs, conflict, and environment. With a little inspiration and a few mechanical bits, it’s easy to make the terrain in an encounter just as memorable as the foes. [Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part4]
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For the fifth installment, we leave the wilderness to explore a shadowy, refuse-strewn alleyway.
Betwixt [...]
Yark! Gen Con Indy is on the horizon! To celebrate, from now through the end of July we’ll be running a series of guest posts by some well-known people in the games industry, writing on the topic “My First Gen Con.”
But we also want to hear your stories—so we’re running a contest! Send your “My First [...]
What are reviewers saying about Sunken Empires (print/PDF), Open Design’s source for exploring underwater civilizations for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game?
It’s not so much a setting as it is a toolkit for building an underwater setting for your own game. It discusses Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu as worldbuilding examples, and goes on to a walk-through of creating [...]
Born of malice and contempt from corrupted magic, this vile dragon scours the landscape, attempting to sate his unwavering hunger.
General Xaldraxis is an ancient dragon commander, having survived since the dawn of man. With a temper forged in a violent age, he emerged victorious after defeating entire swaths of foul creatures, beasts, and monstrosities. For [...]
Kobold Quarterly #13 has been out for over a month and there are still reviews steadily pouring in. Find out what the buzz is about.
I love Kobold Quarterly. It’s true. I gush with abundant gamer love for this magazine, more so every issue. Yet, as a reviewer I’m always looking for something critical to say, [...]
“Just thought I’d drop a quick word and let you know, I just got my copy of Imperial Gazetteer, and I’m so glad I did. What an amazing work. Reminds me of old Ravenloft. My favorite was the description of Lord Mayor Rodyan. Keep up the great work!”
—Ronald Corn
KQ—Thanks, Ronald!
Get your own copy of Imperial Gazetteer [...]
Wolfgang Baur (left) and Sigfried Trent (right) manning the Kobold booth at Paizocon 2010.
An awesome spread of loot (you can’t even see the traps), dire weasels safely hiding under the table, backs to the corner to keep an eye on everyone, a “secret door” behind for easy escape when (not if) things go badly: it’s [...]
There’s a flip side to chronic injury. The same experiences that permanently wound adventurers also mold them into superior combatants. Even the most fumbled attack by a paragon-tier PC deals some damage.
Below are several feats open to paragon tier characters that reflect this expertise.
Ache of Wrath
Prerequisite Cleric or Invoker
Benefit If you miss with an encounter [...]
Sometimes, Kobold Quarterly does silly things. This time, it’s Darren Calvert’s fault. Well, his fault and also Canada’s fault. Because it’s important to blame celebrate Canada on certain occasions, such as July 1, which is Canada Day.
“This actually came out of the campaign I’m playing in… We spoke to an NPC who asked us to [...]
Frequent kobold contributor, Ben McFarland, wants to help your game. How? He has pulled together his list of influential works—or the Golden Scrolls of Dungeonmastering—that could drastically improve your enjoyment of this game we all love, from Monte Cook’s “Game Theories” column that runs in Kobold Quarterly to Robin Laws’ Robin’s Laws of Good Game [...]
“Encounter Codex” presents individual encounters that can be quickly slotted into any adventure. They are system neutral and easily adapted to any edition (and other games for that matter) with little effort—just add stats.
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Patches of ochre fungi illuminate this yawning cavern with preternatural moonlight. A waterfall tumbles from a fissure in the high ceiling, splashing [...]
There’s treachery afoot on the streets of Zobeck, and I’m excited!
You see, I love cities and all their characters. I always have. I’ve run most of my games in them and spent a lot of time thinking about them. In the fantasy genre you’ve got the stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Eberron’s [...]
It’s really an excellent time to be a GM; companies are falling all over themselves catering to us. The recent releases of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 by Wizards of the Coast and the simultaneously retro and forward-thinking GameMastery Guide by Paizo are both excellent sources of advice and tools for running a game, full of [...]
Gleam shards are small splinters of the massive crystal found at the blurred edge between the Abyss and raw chaos. They are 3-ft.-long crystalline structures that shift their coloration every few seconds, hurting the eyes of witnesses as they do so. They are content to serve and die for other beings, as long as it [...]
Here it is from 3.5 Private Sanctuary, a video montage of PaizoCon 2010 complete with musical accompaniment!
According to videographer Ryan Costello, “Don’t mind the mysterious five minutes of black at the end. There’s no easter egg, it’s just a glitch.”
By paragon tier, PCs have made it out of the neophyte stage and are professional adventurers. They walk with a confident strut, and their words carry the weight of experience. However, one thing always gives away an accomplished adventurer: the numerous scars.
In fantasy games, wounds are often a transitory condition, represented through the abstract concept [...]
As one of the freebies we like to do around here, the latest Kobold Courier has gone out! You should find it in your mailbox, if you are a KQ subscriber or an Open Design patron.
This is #4 of the intermittent series, and includes news on RPGs, some background on the new 10′x10′ Toon weekly [...]
With all the talk of epublishing in general, I figured it was time that clever kobolds figured out the Kindle. I’m happy to say that as of today, all three Kobold Guides to Game Design are available from Amazon.
Better yet, if you have a Kindle, you can pick them up for the Kindle-standard price of [...]
We’re recovering from the convention, sorting out cardboard boxes, new subscribers, and shoveling through inboxes. And I’m thrilled we went—it was a great convention in so many ways and we’ll definitely do it again next year! I just want to share three highlights with you, and a couple more shaky-cam pictures, behind the jump.
Colored in various shades of gray, mauve, and olive, this fungal nightmare resembles a towering gargoyle or demon with many horn-like growths sprouting from its body to form vicious teeth and claws.
Mold devils are sinister and twisted plant creatures that inhabit dense forests, waterlogged swamps, and large underground mushroom patches. While its normal form [...]
For a long time, I thought the late Frank Frazetta’s paintings were the final word when it came to fantasy art. Ok, part of me still does (if you have a better polar warrior than this one, prove me wrong!).
So what I’m saying is that when designer Dan Voyce said it was time to [...]
The first day of PaizoCon 2010 is in the history books, and the kobold crew has to say: We like this convention. Friendly, small, well-run. Also, full of chatty people who like the Open Design projects and the magazine.
We should totally do this every year. Oh yeah, we do; lucky us!
If you’re at the [...]
So the setup is complete, and either we are ready or we’re woefully unprepared, but the time has come for the small horde to descend on the dealer room. Super Genius Games and Hero Labs share the space with us and Paizo.
We’re releasing the print edition of the Kobold Guide to Game Design today, [...]
Amethyst: Foundations is a cross-genre roleplaying game supplement published by Dias Ex Machina and Goodman Games. It is set in a version of Earth where technology-disrupting magic has returned to a world where humans struggle to survive the fall of their civilizations. The game is based on the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons [...]
Ok, there’s only so much excitement one can have about setting up a booth at a convention, but we’re pretty much pushing the limit.
Wolfgang, Shelly, Scott, Anne, Sigfried, and Adam will all be staffing the booth for a while, and Brandon Hodge may do a signing of From Shore to Sea and Sunken Empires [...]
Do you want the ability to “juice the combat”? Do you want a mechanic to smooth over the rough spots, increase PC interaction with the game world, and avoid the occasional character death?
Here you go! These five variants on the action point rules—fate points, hero points, kickers, player biscuits, and short takes—are ready for play, [...]
“Inspiring Terrains” looks at encounters—fundamental building blocks that bring together PCs, conflict, and environment. With a little inspiration and a few mechanical bits, it’s easy to make the terrain in an encounter just as memorable as the foes. [Part 1][Part 2][Part 3]
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For the fourth installment, we endure the stinging winds of the preternaturally flat playa.
Trapped [...]
Power. Few mortals can resist its lure, yet power is ever elusive. Those who’ve grasped it always seem to lose it eventually.
Trapsmiths, on the other hand, do not grab power; they trap it.
The Orb of Champions (Trap CR 7)
In the middle of a perfectly circular room, a marble pedestal stands 3 ft. high. A golden [...]
This doglike predator is covered in a jigsaw of thick brown scars. Three razored tusks jut from its lower jaw. With an ungodly thunder crack, the creature shreds itself into two identical beasts, each swiftly loping forward to encircle its prey. Then each beast divides again…
The homely splicer beast can tear itself into duplicates, creating [...]
What are reviewers saying about Imperial Gazetteer, Open Design’s source for the legions of the dead in Zobeck for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game?
… authors Wolfgang Baur and Scott Gable go to great lengths to give each faction within the empire a face, detailing many specific undead nobles’ and generals’ personalities and motivations.
I [...]
What are reviewers saying about Monster Chronicles: The Inevitable?
… the text details a rather interesting origin story of the first inevitable, Zurvan, the Iron Angel…
… also somehow manages to squeeze in information about the more common inevitables (the kolyarut, marut and zelekhut) and some examples of unique or named inevitables (all of which can [...]
Several weeks ago, Ryan Costello made us laugh with his Friday Funny: Charisma Penalties and Dirty Looks. Well, a fan loved the random list so much, he created a randomized Excel spreadsheet for it:
Charisma Penalties & Dirty Looks spreadsheet (and an xls version)
If you hit F9 when the file’s open, it’ll “re-roll.”
From it’s creator, [...]
When it comes to skill challenges, failure is not an option.
“Of course,” you say. “No one wants to fail a skill challenge.” But this means something else entirely. Skill challenges are generally meant to represent situations or tasks which move the story forward—nonviolent encounters which carry just as much importance as those dealing with combat.
Combat [...]
If the gods and the mortals that worship them had their wish, each and every one of the deceased would receive a proper burial. None would be left to decompose, face down, in sloughing mud or shifting sands. None would have their naked limbs picked at by the myriad scavengers and ghouls that roam the [...]
What are reviewers saying about the recently released Sunken Empires (print/PDF)?
If you’d like to drop your campaign into Atlantis or Mu you should get this book.
You get new Pathfinder monsters like the Coral Drake and the Goblin Shark. New spells like Barnacle Armor and Sea Legs (which would have come in handy when I was [...]
The hulking black creature, ever so vaguely humanoid in shape, rises from the tar pit. Its small eyes glow red, its body covered with all manner of items—tree limbs, leaves, carcasses of small animals, and even a few weapons.
The incorrectly named tar fiend—for it is an elemental, not a fiend—lives in tar pits. It forms [...]
“As a designer, your work enables new experiences in play for others. If you are doing it exceptionally well, you are inventing new game genres and new play styles; that is, entirely new methods, styles, and systems of play. You use technology, art, and your own vision of what it means to play to create [...]
Frequent kobold contributor, Ben McFarland, is very busy. Aside from having a review of Hexographer up this morning right here at KoboldQuarterly.com, he has also decided to take a deeper look at the rules of torture introduced by Hank Woon in KQ#11.
Check out Ben’s article “Torturing Player Characters” at the blog Dungeon Mastering.
In summary: Hexographer creates a map with a more old-school feel, a format familiar to anyone who played TSR modules like Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun—those trying to produce a more illustrated map will find this tool inappropriate for that task. The price is lower than Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, or Fractal Mapper, and it includes [...]
PaizoCon 2010 is right around the corner. We’re going. Are you?
Here’s our seminar schedule:
Breaking Into Game Design
Evergreen Room, Saturday 05:00 PM – 06:00 PM
Speakers: Wolfgang Baur, Brandon Hodge, et al.
Learn about the roads into the games field for aspiring game designers: organized play, blogs, small press, magazines, and patronage projects are all doors [...]
Mimics are among the most hazardous creatures an adventurer is likely to encounter. Surviving on trickery and cunning, instead of brute strength or raw magical power, the mimic inspires fear for its ability to fool and ensnare the unwary. Typically, you encounter a mimic on its own, proving little threat to an experienced adventuring group. [...]
This terrible creature resembles an imposing knight wearing baroque full plate formed from some sort of calcified resin. Its helm is a blank gray oval without eye slots or mouthpiece, and it carries a glistening greatsword composed of dozens of slathering fanged mouths in its gauntleted hands.
Eaters of dust—or yakat-shi as they are sometimes [...]
“Master!”
“Wait a moment, vile thing, I am engaged in describing the bowels of the Gorge of Misery and Flame.”
“But master, I have something for your players, something that plays upon their superstitions…”
“What use would such a chart be, least-thing?”
“Why, to confuse them, master!”
30 Unsettling Moments, Asides for the Worrisome…
Sometimes, having unsettling [...]
Kobolds love gadgets, even ones that don’t include hidden poisoned spikes or triggers that drop you into pits. So we’re happy to announce that we’ve gotten our claws into the newest shiny gadget on the market. Behold!
Yep, you can now buy The Kobold’s Guide to Game Design, Vol. I, at [...]
What could be the harm? It’s only a book.
If the Blind Idiot God has its way, you’ll be holding The Red Eye of Azathoth before you know it. This adventure anthology, guided by the superbly capable hands of Joshua Stevens, is Open Design’s very first Call of Cthulhu patron project, featuring a senses-shattering series of [...]
“Inspiring Terrains” looks at encounters—fundamental building blocks that bring together PCs, conflict, and environment. With a little inspiration and a few mechanical bits, it’s easy to make the terrain in an encounter just as memorable as the foes. [Part 1][Part 2]
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Stagnant Water, Sucking Mud
Fen, bog, marsh, swamp—whatever the name, standing water and thick mud define [...]
As you turn a corner, the corridor you are following widens dramatically to a width of 40 ft. Ahead 200 ft., four continual flames, placed evenly apart on both sides of the corridor, form a 40-ft square section. Beyond this lit area, the corridor connects to a roughly circular cavern. A huge statue, aglow in [...]
(Art by Eli Arndt)
From the darkest depths of forgotten seas, an ancient evil has been pulled into the light.
The venerable sailing bark The Lusty Elf has made an unexpected catch while weighing anchor off a nameless isle. The four hale and hearty sailors who manned the anchor windlass, struggling mightily to reel in the heavy [...]
Over at Critical Hits, the Dungeon Master Guys have released a new podcast.
Wolfgang Baur, King Kobold himself, discusses using published adventures with Enrique the Newbie DM, Phil the Chatty DM, and Dave The Game.
Check it out.
At the end of the path, diverging from the road, there sits a homey looking shack. It smells of hearty stew and delicious bread. A pleasant sort of kindness fills the air, and the scent of the food is mouthwatering, making it hard to resist the inevitable pangs of hunger.
Two old hounds lie wearily [...]
What are reviewers saying about Monster Chronicles: The Inevitable and Monster Chronicles: The Nightmare?
… you have a cult on your hands. A cult, in this instance, which believes that the universe runs like clockwork and anything, anyone who might interfere needs to be dealt with. Permanantly.
There is plenty packed in here, feats and modifications [...]
Mida gasped and let out a shriek that chased the crows from the treetops.
“Give her back, you hobgoblin!”
Icarus cackled, holding the wooden doll—a ballroom dancer—just out of Mida’s grasp.
“Give her back, give her back, give her back!” Tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
Icarus scurried to the edge of the well and dangled the [...]
“The Last Map of the Cartomancer” presents a series of magical maps introduced through the escapades of Lan Su’Vavock and Kai Geyser, two sages on the trail of interconnected clues left behind by an ancient cartographer of legend.
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
___
“Oh, this I do not [...]
Wrapping up last week’s celebration of the release of Sunken Empires is a brand new monster, ready to terrorize PCs visiting the Underdeep.
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(Illustration by Hugo Solis)
This small creature swims in playful circles, appearing as a cross between a child and a manta ray. Its large, unblinking eyes and incessant smile give [...]
This week sees the release of Sunken Empires, and already bursting at the seams, there was simply too much material for its pages alone. It was packed to the GILLS! Ha! Ahem, anyway… this week, to celebrate, Kobold Quarterly presents new gaming bits, complementing what’s already packed within Sunken [...]
This week sees the release of Sunken Empires, and already bursting at the seams, there was simply too much material for its pages alone. It was packed to the GILLS! Ha! Ahem, anyway… this week, to celebrate, Kobold Quarterly presents new gaming bits, complementing what’s already packed within Sunken [...]
This week sees the release of Sunken Empires, and already bursting at the seams, there was simply too much material for its pages alone. It was packed to the GILLS! Ha! Ahem, anyway… this week, to celebrate, Kobold Quarterly presents new gaming bits, complementing what’s already packed within Sunken [...]
This week sees the release of Sunken Empires, and already bursting at the seams, there was simply too much material for its pages alone. It was packed to the GILLS! Ha! Ahem, anyway… this week, to celebrate, Kobold Quarterly presents new gaming bits, complementing what’s already packed within Sunken [...]
This week sees the release of Sunken Empires, and already bursting at the seams, there was simply too much material for its pages alone. It was packed to the GILLS! Ha! Ahem, anyway… this week, to celebrate, Kobold Quarterly presents new gaming bits, complementing what’s already packed within Sunken Empires and all from the [...]
Another Kobold Courier, our very own roughly-monthly email newsletter, is now out. If you didn’t get your copy, contact us at subscriptions@koboldquarterly.com, and we’ll add you to the list.
Stay up to date on everything we’re up to—news on upcoming patron projects, new releases, exciting promotions, and more—by signing up today.
Ahoy there, mate! Are you ready to shed your lubberly ways, haul anchor, and explore the mysteries that lie beneath the waves? Ready to wield a lightning spear or a Lemurian coil weapon against the terrors of the Underdeep in search of a king’s ransom in gold?
Excellent! Because Sunken Empires [...]
This man of gears and steel plates stands 10 ft. tall. A green metallic eye stares from the tip of each of its four wings.
Angel of Knowledge and Truth
Inevitables tasked with enforcing the laws of truth, metrons seek out and punish those who use deception to attain wealth, power, or advancement. They target dishonesty in [...]
Monster Chronicles: The Nightmare just released and reviewers are posting their comments. Find out what the buzz is about.
Forget bad dreams and wild horses, this is something quite different and—in this interpretation—a LOT more scary!
There’s an amazing amount of detail crammed into the 8 pages of this book, a fine example of [...]
Charisma does not simply measure one’s force of personality—your confidence, your presence. It also measures physical attractiveness. A high Charisma means smooth-skin, coifed hair, symmetrical features: that you’re a real looker. A low Charisma, on the other hand, means something is… off.
Well, what’s off, exactly? Now, you can find out. Below is a list of [...]
There’s something strange about those woods.
Tales of the Old Margreve, one of the current patron projects, is progressing beautifully. This adventure anthology, guided by the capable hands of Tim Connors, features an eerie series of adventures set in a distinctly Old World, folklore-inspired package right in the city of Zobeck’s backyard.
Tim recently sat down to [...]
What are reviewers saying about Imperial Gazetteer, Open Design’s source for the legions of the dead in Zobeck for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game?
Above ground and below, this book provides a wealth of resources, places and people to bring undead—well, I was about to say “to life” but that doesn’t sound right—into prominence in your [...]
“Inspiring Terrains” looks at encounters—fundamental building blocks that bring together PCs, conflict, and environment. With a little inspiration and a few mechanical bits, it’s easy to make the terrain in an encounter just as memorable as the foes. [Part 1]
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Deep, Foreboding Mines
Mines have been part of fantasy literature since its earliest days. In the game, [...]
For years, the conversations have gone like this:
“Wolfgang, where’s the map of Zobeck?”
“Well, there are maps in the sourcebooks, and in certain issues of Kobold Quarterly…”
“No, where’s THE map?”
“Oh, you mean the one big map? A detailed, full-color map of the Free City of Zobeck, destination of caravans from a dozen lands, [...]
This crystalline automaton is crudely sculpted, with only the vaguest humanoid features. As it shuffles forward on wide, stump-like feet, thousands of tiny salt crystals fall from its body, creating a glittering cloud.
A salt golem has a crudely formed humanoid body made of crystalline salts. It wears no clothing or armor and carries no weapons [...]
“Master!”
The creature hops spastically onto your shoulder and grasps your ear, glancing around before whispering “I have an idea…”
“What is it, slugling?”
“Master, I know you have toiled to make an answer to all the biggest questions in tonight’s tale, but what about the more mundane? Surely not everyone in the village is aware of [...]
Sunken Empires releases in mere days. I’m excited!
Why, you ask? There have been other patron projects, you say? That’s true, but they keep getting better. Each new patron project ups the ante. The patrons come back again and again, increasing in both number and talent. The sheer volume of ideas generated this time around could [...]
“Shut your mouths.”
Nyx licked the blade of her punching dagger and slid against the wall. The cracks in the masonry felt icy.
“Do you hear something, Nyx?”
“I said hush, damnit!” Nyx peeled back her halfling braids, put a finger to the back of her ear, and held her breath.
The rest of the group exchanged confused glances [...]
“The Last Map of the Cartomancer” presents a series of magical maps introduced through the escapades of Lan Su’Vavock and Kai Geyser, two sages on the trail of interconnected clues left behind by an ancient cartographer of legend. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
___
With a grinding protest, the vault door blew open.
“It’s [...]
Pallid heralds spread fear and chaos, terrorizing areas as small as strategically important villages or as large as entire countries. Intelligent and cunning, these monsters immerse themselves fully in their missions, never allowing themselves to be distracted from their goals. Varying in methods, some pallid heralds prefer acting as figurehead for an assaulting wave of [...]
Every so often, we lose our minds at Kobold World Headquarters and launch a new product just because we feel like it. Well, we’re off into the wild frontier again with the Monster Chronicles PDF series for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Monster Chronicles provides ecologies and variants for lesser-known monsters as well [...]
Welcome to 4th Edition week here at KQ.com. All this week will feature wonderful material designed for 4th Edition (while still being inspirational for any edition).
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Door? BOOM! What door?
Born from the union of a human and an ogre, the half-ogre is a wretched unwanted creature hated by its parent races. Those born of human [...]
Welcome to 4th Edition week here at KQ.com. All this week will feature wonderful material designed for 4th Edition (while still being inspirational for any edition).
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Skill Challenges are the “other kind of encounter.” Some players hate them, some love them, and many just don’t know what to think of them. There’s no reason [...]
Want to hear Wolfgang talk about all things Open Design and Kobold Quarterly? He recently did a podcast with Gamer’s Haven. Check it out.
(Here’s the direct link to the podcast.)
I’m minding my own business, walking to lunch, and I think, “Would devils give player characters STDs?”
That was probably the moment I decided that, yes, perhaps Courts of the Shadow Fey is pushing things quite far. This adventure overturns certain default assumptions about 4E combat and the presumed monster mixes. It includes information as treasure [...]
Kobold Quarterly #13 just released and reviewers are posting their comments. Find out what the buzz is about.
Great artwork, interesting articles, loaded with fun…
Tom Allman gave it 5 stars at DriveThruRPG.
And…
[Monte] Cook, the famed havoc mage, rambles for pages on his theories of the Unknown, and ought to fascinate even the [...]
Welcome to 4th Edition week here at KQ.com. All this week will feature wonderful material designed for 4th Edition (while still being inspirational for any edition).
___
The encounter is our fundamental building block, bringing together PCs, opposition of some sort, and the environment. Although 4th Edition with its emphasis on movement during combat underscores [...]
The kobold couriers have just sent KQ’s very own Kobold Courier newsletter. It should be in your inbox now.
The short newsletter will keep you up to date on everything we do, from projects to web articles—along with any other devious schemes and promotions we’re hatching.
New issues will be sent out… well, whenever the [...]
Welcome to 4th Edition week here at KQ.com. All this week will feature wonderful material designed for 4th Edition (while still being inspirational for any edition).
___
Found most often in abandoned kobold warrens, trap wisps maintain the snares and pitfalls left behind. Retaining only shadowy memories of their past lives, they are both cunning and cruel. [...]
The Kobold Guide to Game Design continues to be a hit.
The Kobold Guide to Game Design is the single best resource I own with regards to adventure building. Volume 2 is also very good, and, even though I’m not an adventure designer, I think it’ll be useful as a tool for critique. And if [...]
Rare to the point of being almost mythical, the children of malignant symmetry are never encountered individually within the Abyss. They are only found en masse when a large group of their kind besieges and lays waste to a demonic settlement or party of travelers. Survivors of such encounters are even rarer, and demonic lords [...]
After much travail and careful reworking of the 3.5/OGL material, the Pathfinder Imperial Gazetteer is finally complete and ready to unleash on the world. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the deadly lands of the undead, the principalities and the realms subterranean.
The vampires and spectral knights long ago claimed the surface countries of Morgau & Doresh [...]
“The Last Map of the Cartomancer” presents a series of magical maps introduced through the escapades of Lan Su’Vavock and Kai Geyser, two sages on the trail of interconnected clues left behind by an ancient cartographer of legend. [Part 1] [Part 2]
___
“The worst map so far? Why do you ask?”
“Well, as long as we’re stuck [...]
Enock stumbled through the forest, the bite wound on his left leg burned. He continuously scanned his surroundings for his catlike assailant. There was a startling black flash to his left, and he raised his crossbow. There it was, peering around a tree. Enock lined up his shot, but the cat brazenly stepped out of [...]
Kobold Quarterly #13 just released and reviewers are already posting their comments. Find out what the buzz is about.
Phillip Larwood’s “Ecology of the Shoggoth” for Pathfinder for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game… Besides describing the Shoggoth’s maddening mentality, plastic physiology, and vast vocal range, it gives variants of the primordial creature, new [...]
Your desk groans under the weight of hefty tomes, journals, maps, papers, and librams. The floor is littered with the rolled husks of half-considered ideas and mistakes. At last, you sit back in your armchair, your work done. The adventure has been crafted to your satisfaction, all the major encounters detailed, every option considered.
Every option?
Suddenly [...]
Q: Does a suggestion spell leave the subject any way to evade the spell’s effect? Once the subject fails the save, the spell works continuously and the subject seems to have little recourse. In a recent session, a player character gave an opponent (an active combatant in an encounter) a suggestion to “stand still and [...]
Dwarves are not all hammers, shields, and axes. They possess a strong—some would say almost divine—connection to earth and stone. Wielders of ancient magic, dwarf spellcasters manipulate stone as if it were clay, and their rituals reflect this. Chasm to the Abyss and Seal the Ways protect the halls from beasts and creatures crawling up [...]
Trapsmiths only take two levels of security into consideration while working on a project: adequate and excessive. Experienced rogues can attest that “excessive” is the most common level of security.
Collapsing Corridor Trap (CR 14)
Two adamantine doors seal off a long corridor.
The adamantine doors are locked and barred (hardness 20; 80 hp; break DC 32). The [...]
The new issue of Kobold Quarterly is now available, in PDF and print. It is by far the greenest cover we have ever done. The articles provide a crazed selection of material from across the spectrum: new classes, an ecology of the shoggoth, encounter tips and tricks, a whole mini-adventure.
Dark, humorous, and wildly original, I’m [...]
“It’s gonna be a good haul this year!” Morant shouted to his partner as he clubbed another seal to death, blood spilling to the snowy ground below.
“Yeah, they’re plentiful this…” Morant’s partner’s response became a scream as one of the seals unhinged its jaws and then chomped down on the man’s arm, severing it.
Morant stared [...]
And though we hide within the very depths of this plane, fearful for the revenge of both our enemies, their spawn, and our own kind, brooding and waiting, we have seeded the depths with children of our own, and it is they who will prepare the way for us.
—Hymn of Sanguine Harmony, keketar protean of [...]
Over the river and through the Margreve…
Another patron project very recently got the green light: Tales of the Old Margreve. This anthology-to-be, guided by the capable hands of Tim Connors, features an eerie series of adventures set in a distinctly Old World, fairy tale inspired package right in the city of Zobeck’s backyard.
So how does [...]
I’m licking my chops and looking forward to NorWesCon this weekend (obligatory con schedule link). Partly, I love it because it’s always a good show for both gamers and non-gamers. It’s heavy on costuming (my daughter’s take was “Look at all the princesses!” last year). Partly, I’m looking forward to it because the gaming track [...]
“The Last Map of the Cartomancer” presents a series of magical maps introduced through the escapades of Lan Su’Vavock and Kai Geyser, two sages on the trail of interconnected clues left behind by an ancient cartographer of legend. [Part 1]
___
“Well, we always knew this day would come. Like those who went searching before us, we’ve [...]
Sir Dryw knew something was wrong when the duergar team halted midway through their charge. The leader held up a mailed hand and snarled something in their strange tongue. Sir Dryw shook his sword and shield. The wizard behind him started to say something but fell silent when the duergar turned tail and ran.
“Do [...]
Every so often at Open Design, we send out review copies. At the moment, we have an excellent spring lineup coming along, and I’d like to add some reviewers who have already published reviews of RPG books or magazines. If you qualify and you’re interested, contact me with your information.
Send in the following:
Your name
Where [...]
Very soon, I sense there will be some very wet PCs!
Why? Because hot on the heels of the Open Design/Paizo joint project From Shore to Sea is the sourcebook Sunken Empires. Uncover the secrets of Lost Azlant with the first and tailor your own underwater world and characters with the second.
Well, we want to give [...]
Ancient tomes speak of an age when magic was feral, where magic-users wielded nearly unimaginable and insurmountable power—provided they survived their first forays into spellcasting.
One such power was that of disjunction, or the separation of magic into its most base elements. While this ability was harmless on its own—and, in fact, valuable to early practitioners [...]
This is a well of souls, built by fell religions as a prison for their failures, heretics, or worse. A place where Good dies and is reduced to a form of currency. A well of souls is a place where many traps come together.
Four stairways lead down to a well of sorts. A greyish substance [...]
Steggar stayed behind while his fellow hunters returned to the village. Despite their warnings about the dangers in the swamp, Steggar knew he must return successfully from the hunt or face dishonor from the elders. As he thought about how he’d rather die than return empty-handed, he suddenly found himself knocked off his feet, face [...]
Smoldering Host of the Risen
“This is not what we had planned to create,” sighed the Archdaemon of Wasting. “This is not what I wanted.”
“Can you call it a failure?” Her consort and servitor asked in return with a wry expression of pride.
“Yes Trelmarixian, I do.” The reply dripped with a curious mixture of ownership, disappointment, [...]
“The Last Map of the Cartomancer” presents a series of magical maps introduced through the escapades of Lan Su’Vavock and Kai Geyser, two sages on the trail of interconnected clues left behind by an ancient cartographer of legend.
___
“That’s not a map.”
“It most certainly is.”
“No, it’s a potion—and probably a dangerous one at that.” …
Wolfgang Baur has been invited as a panelist and speaker at NorWesCon 33, this April 1 to 4 in Seattle. The convention panels will include a number of RPG luminaries from the local game industry whose brilliance rivals that of the local favorites from Open Design, including some worthy gentlemen from Green Ronin, Paizo, and [...]
At first glance, it looks to be nothing more than a sword rack, masterfully carved from a single piece of dark wood, holding weapons in stylized arms. However, approaching the sword rack, it comes to life as its arms unfold to wield the sharp payload. It bounces menacingly towards you, flourishing the blades with an [...]
Instead of leaves, the gnarled black tree grew sharp, metallic slivers, ringing out like a thousand tiny bells in a constant trickle of wind. Stronger gusts often cause a razor or two to disconnect, falling lazily and slicing blades of grass in its descent. The accumulation of dismembered birds that lay by the tree in [...]
The shopkeeper looked at the leopard-spotted dog sitting outside his shop, and he found himself oddly compelled to leave his shop so he could pet the sad-looking animal. The dog sat there while he consoled it and asked it where its owner was. Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded to his left, and the dog trotted [...]
Trebuchets are the dominant siege engine in parts of the world. They have advantages over many other weapons, including longer range, the ability to throw a variety of objects, easy maintenance, and variable power.
Trebuchets include a frame from which a long, unbalanced arm (virga) swings. The virga is attached to the frame by means of [...]
“The door was thick—made of stone, I think—but I could still hear it. Damn my soul, I could still bloody hear it.”
The priest sat in silence, casting a long frown over the ninth bowl of oatmeal the warrior had ignored this week.
“When it first touched my ears, it sounded like a barrel of rancid [...]
Though he’s too modest to brag about it himself, our Web Editor Scott Gable has launched a dual-edition set of Spirit Magic that I think is the most promising new company launch in ages.
Now I might be slightly biased, but if you’ve seen Gable’s writeups in Kobold Quarterly, you might not be surprised. This is [...]
There is always room for improvement. This is a basic fact known to trapsmiths. The only limits to improvement are time and money: usually clients only want “reasonable” protection or warding. Trapsmiths offer a plethora of reasonably priced enhancements to improve standard issue traps, making them something special and unique.
Many traps are that much more [...]
Kobold Quarterly has just been announced one of the first two recipients of a Gen Con Indy Marketing Fellowship!
To encourage and reward deeper engagement in marketing their presences at Gen Con, we are awarding marketing fellowships to carefully chosen companies that have submitted A+ level marketing plans demonstrating their preparation for attendance at Gen [...]
It’s that time of year… Happy GM’s Day! And there’s a sale…
Until the morning of Monday, March 8th, Open Design will be taking part in the annual GM’s Day Celebration Sale at DriveThruRPG. All Design Guides, Gazetteers, and issues of Kobold Quarterly are 25% OFF—that’s “1/4 off for the Fourth.”
Celebrate GM’s [...]
Insular to the point of xenophobia, the peacock spawn interact only sparingly with outsiders, trading for weapons or magical items, but always with disdain as if they believed themselves superior to other beings even in the face of their own often desperate tribulations within the Abyss.
Habitat & Society
Continually wandering, with no set layer to call [...]
When we launched the Kobold Quarterly Adopt-a-Soldier Holiday Contest, we heard some perspectives on gaming in the army from Ed Healy and in the navy from Rich Baker.
SrA Ian McGonigal, one of our two contest winners (along with civilian Jospeh Kramer), recently gave us some insight into gaming among those who slip the surly bonds [...]
Kobold Quarterly #12 has been out for over a month and there are still reviews steadily pouring in. Find out what the buzz is about.
(We were even able to fool those grumpy gnomes.)
Wow, that’s really a nice piece of writing; it’s all practical and no joke. This article alone is worth the [...]
Trapsmiths try very hard to impede, disable, and destroy intruders, but sometimes, trapsmiths wish that tomb robbers would just destroy themselves. The undead druid known as the “Thing at the Soul of the Mire” (see Kobold Quarterly #3) was one of the first to develop the painful lure trap: a trap where intruders cause their [...]
I’m happy to announce that Tales of the Old Margreve has reached the commissioning goal and is moving into design! The project has strong direction from the supremely talented design duo of Tim and Eileen Connors—and the raw horsepower of a hundred sharp and crafty GMs and designers, including RPG Superstar semi-finalist Jim Groves and [...]
Tim Connors and the patrons have already brainstormed more than 50 forest monsters for Tales of the Old Margreve, and they are winnowing the list to the best dozen or so for use in the adventures. Just as a sample of how these are not exactly typical forest denizens, here’s the smallest [...]
The first (of 5!) playtests is complete. Here’s what designer Tim Connors had to say (without spoilers!) on changes to the design introduced as a result of playtest feedback.
Added event-triggered flashbacks designed to encourage camaraderie between the otherwise opposed Viking and monk investigators.
Based pregens on Cthulhu Dark Ages to tweak/balance things like armor/weapons [...]
A manifestation of twisted freedom and self-devouring depravity taken to their most horrific ends, the Abyss contains virtually uncountable numbers of fiends, perhaps bordering upon the infinite. But while its labyrinthine depths swim, choked by its fecund natives, its resident demons are not the only creatures hungering for blood and slaughter for their own sake. [...]
Continuing from last week’s lesser curse with more than 40 new minor curses:
Loses all sense of hygiene
Loses all sense of modesty
Large warts (-1 charisma)
Acquires a rare, but harmless, skin disease (-1 charisma)
Drools constantly
Stutters constantly
Enlarged body part (e.g. ears, nose, chin, feet, hands)
Becomes a pathological liar [...]
The Tales of the Old Margreve continues to gather patrons very quickly, and the brainstorms are gathering both amazing spells and monsters—plus a certain amount of silly fun. Frankly, there are so many rich forest myths and legends here that we can afford to choose just the very best, and develop them for both playability [...]
Some trapsmiths believe in the tried and true “bigger is better” in trap design. However, some of the more offbeat trapsmiths prefer complexity in their designs.
Many of these traps comprise multiple smaller traps, and the CR of each is determined separately. Stages should be treated as separate traps (e.g. requiring separate Perception checks). If only [...]
In a clearing dominated by an enormous tree, a pair of large monkeys sat lazily on a branch until they noticed three men entering the clearing. They shrieked, and the men, seasoned warriors all, ignored the warning and approached the tree. The monkeys dropped to the ground and ran towards these new foes, who drew [...]
Once upon an average day in a bleak and all-to consistent village, there was a young girl helping her mother with chores.
“Because Pappy and the boys are out slaying those darn rats in the field for Mr. Hibbins, Mrs. Hibbins is rewarding us with some freshly churned butter. Sally, I need you to go and [...]
With a fling of spittle and a forbidden gesture of the hand, the victim receives a subtle and annoying minor curse. Effects vary and are not terribly debilitating, but the effect on the superstitious and those in the public eye can be devastating.
Everyone’s heard of “the gypsy curse” or the “evil eye.” Country folk have [...]
Some projects need time to grow slowly and flower into a display over months or years.
Tales of the Old Margreve is not one of them; it has rocketed along toward a full commission status faster than any other project to date. While the project is not yet at a green light status, it is now [...]
The best kind of trap is a trap that can hide in plain sight, perhaps even be on display:
Upon a blackwood table stands a glass cylinder with something inside. Two everburning torches set behind the cylinder cause the object contained in the cylinder to cast a long shadow across the room. The shadow twists and [...]
Bred to exterminate all sentient life in the natural world, nihilimentii were created as living weapons in the ancient cosmic war between the gods and the primordials. The psychic vibrations of intelligent creatures cause nihilimentii physical discomfort, driving them to a solitary existence. In fact, other creatures’ perceptions of the nihilimentii create painful psychic feedback [...]
Entangled is a condition that represents a creature dealing with something stuck or entwined around its limbs (if it has any) and body. An entangled creature takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls and a -4 penalty on Dexterity, can move at only half speed, and cannot charge or run. Sometimes, an entangled creature cannot [...]
As the Open Design experiment has expanded and won critical and publishing success, a few people have clearly shown just how great collaborative adventure design can be. Tim and Eileen Connors are right at the top of the list, and I’m happy to announce that Open Design is commissioning a project that they will lead: [...]
Wouldn’t it be great if your dice never fell off the table? What if every attack roll came with a sound effect, and your character’s damage, marks, and every other condition were all tracked for you? It would be the perfect gaming table, no?
Well, stop wishing because it exists and I saw it in person [...]
The taking of mortal lovers by succubi is a legend that many dwellers of the Material Plane are familiar with. Fleeting paramours by nature, succubi are fabled to seduce men and women only to achieve petty, shortsighted ends.
However, it is less known that some succubi take a single partner for extended periods. Those chosen for [...]
Every trapsmith knows that a trap is little more than a complicated piece of furniture or decoration until it springs to life and reminds people why no one comes down this way. That is why, over the years, many clever trapsmiths have found ways to bait their traps or even install traps into tempting targets [...]
As soon as you lay eyes on this ancient crone, images of the deaths of all those you’ve loved and lost flood your mind. In these visions, you see the crone’s withered hand repeatedly lash out with an elongated pair of terrible shears to sever the gleaming, silver threads rising from your loved ones’ heads. [...]
In many cities across the Great Desert, Selket’s cult festers. These are cults of humanoids who have been infiltrated by Selket-worshipping priests who poison their flock with their debased dogma. They promise Selket will protect and aid her followers in ways other gods cannot or will not. Priests target slums and other places of desperation, [...]
Anyone like winning stuff? Well if you do, head on over to the blog Dorkland. There just might be 3 free Open Design books in it for you.
The shifting desert sands mask weathered pyramids and ruined temples dedicated to fallen deities and demons best forgotten. Some are blessedly buried so deep beneath the dunes and so far within the recesses of our collective memory to be all but lost, perhaps never to be revived. Others, unfortunately, continue to poison mortals with their [...]
The derro are masters of ritual magic. Their mad insights and devious, malignant nature allow them to craft rituals unknown on the surface world. Derro rituals reflect the intellects behind their inventors and grant the ability to torture other creatures, lay better ambushes, and protect the approaches to their home caverns.
Clever or daring adventurers might [...]
Adapted from Scott Murray’s “Spiked Pits, Poisoned Arrows, and Healing Words” from Kobold Quarterly #12.
As discussed the previous article, traps can impede a party in more ways that just a poison arrow or a snare. Boon traps are generally magical devices that provide bonuses rather than penalties. They may not target adventurers intruding on their [...]
The ghastly humanoid cadaver jerks and shudders forward with shocking speed. Rotting skin flaps back from its grotesque carcass, uncovering insects scuttling over moldering sinew and gristle. Entrails dangling from its abdominal cavity writhe about, as if grasping at things unseen. The corpse screeches an open war razor along the floor as it comes, and [...]
In Kobold Quarterly #11, Marc Radle presented his new Pathfinder RPG base class, the spell-less ranger. Just as it sounds, this ranger variant strips the spellcasting abilities from the ranger while expanding on its other abilities.
Along with the new class, Marc also designed character sheet pages—usable with the standard ranger or the new spell-less ranger—that [...]
As one of the oldest races, dwarves are intimately familiar to experienced players. Even if you’ve never rolled a dwarf, you probably have a basic concept in mind when you think dwarf: a long beard, surly attitude, a love of hammers and axes, and a penchant for beer.
With the 4th edition introduction of the primal [...]
Discovered by noted man of science Dr. Belmont Breslin of Yornica, steel of spell refraction is an alloy formed from a naturally occurring ore with unusual properties. While it is an excellent conductor of vibration and sound—hence its use in superior musical instruments—steel of spell refraction is nonmagnetic and distorts arcane energy that washes over [...]
A small subset of the trapsmithing community looks at nature for inspiration. One of the early successes was the development of the box of brown mold.
Box of Brown Mold (CR 2)
Type mechanical; Search DC 22; Disable Device DC 16
Trigger touch (opening the box); Reset automatic
Effect 5-ft. cold aura (3d6 nonlethal cold damage)
Market Price 3,000 gp
The [...]
The thing appears to be a small lump of green or pale pink vegetable material with two thin stalks protruding from its central, ball-like mass. The surface of the ball is wrinkled and creased. Despite its appearance, it… it is irresistible…
Brainstalk Fungus (CR 2)
XP 600
N Tiny plant
Init -5; Senses blindsense 60 ft.; Perception +8
Aura psychic [...]
Over at The Core Mechanic blog, they’re busy wrangling the 375 nominations they received for inclusion in the Open Game Table anthology.
KQ.com has 8 articles nominated…
Kobold Quarterly #12 just released and the reviews are steadily pouring in. Find out what the buzz is about.
Your mom. She’s going to LOVE KQ#12. It’s not only because your Mom Loves Kobolds.
Moms are always on the lookout for wholesome, kid friendly games… James Jacobs where he recounts he experience at da Vinci Arts Middle [...]
Thanks to the support of gamers worldwide, over $50,000 is already destined for Doctors Without Borders and their efforts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As many of you likely already know, DriveThruRPG’s servers took a huge hit, but really, it’s heartwarming to know that it’s because people are just anxious to help. Don’t worry, though, [...]
Brilliant and malevolent, rakshasas are nefarious outsiders who cherish power and cruelty above all else. In their far-ranging quest for pleasure and worship, rakshasas often pay little heed to the lives they destroy. One of the more indulgent of this race has left its mark on your family.
Class Skill Disguise
Bonus Spells alter self (3rd), detect [...]
<<zzztt>> Bow down before me, your <<crackle>> new master. I will lead us <<zap>> to victory over the lavamen! <<ZZZTT>>
Get… outta me… you tiny… electrical despot! Argh. The last thing I remember… Hey, back off sparky!
Now, while I’m here anyway, I am ecstatic to announce the winner of Open Design’s first ever King of the [...]
Gamers want to help Haiti and the Dominican Republic in their hour of need, and DriveThruRPG is helping to make this happen with a giant pdf bundle filled to the brim with amazing content donated by a ton of RPG publishers.
With a simple donation of $20, every penny of which goes to Doctors Without Borders [...]
This is your last chance to vote for the King of the Monsters. Make sure your voice is heard, for tomorrow at noon (PST), the winner is crowned.
What kind of king do you want to rule, to hoard, to slay, to represent your general PC-harassing interests?
Tell us by voting in the forums.
As promised in Kobold Quarterly #12, here are more diseases to throw at unsuspecting adventurers.
Iron Rot (Level 3 Disease)
Rusted metal of all sorts, from old sword blades to discarded nails, carries iron rot. The victim’s joints slowly stiffen until movement of any kind, even speech, is impossible…
This creature looks like a large, emaciated jackal. Its blood-red skin stretches tight over its bones. Its eyes gleam with malevolent cunning, and blood drool drips from its fang-filled maw and fat, lolling tongue.
Blood jackals are vicious hunters and scavengers that creep across the desert at night in search of warm-blooded animals to feed upon. [...]
The blog Abstract XP calls Kobold Guide to Game Design from Open Design recommended reading.
And it is the writing style as much as the content that makes this publication work. It reads like a learned favourite uncle (Uncle Wolfgang in this case) has sat you down and spun you some home truths about writing fantasy [...]
Kobold Quarterly #12 just released and reviewers are already posting their comments. Find out what the buzz is about.
Telkari, Inevitable of Death… A corrupted marut inevitable and biomechanical plagues redolent of Hellraiser and Tetsuo: Bodyhammer. Awesome article…
The Holy Remix… Pathfinder Cleric Hacking! Like clerics of different deities being distinct from each other? You’ll love this. [...]
Kobold Army: ten-HUT! At ease!
We are happy to announce the Grand Prize winners for the Kobold Quarterly Adopt-a-Soldier Holiday Contest.
Before we do that, we’d
like to thank each and every person who participated by blogging, podcasting, twittering, and signing up for the program. If you’re in the military, we have a bunch of new gift subscriptions [...]
Here we are at the end of our first ever tournament to discover the King of the Monsters! Who will win, standing in glorious triumph before your accolades? Who will be left battered and bloodied, dreaming of vengeance? You, the fans, will now decide.
There are 10 finalists, each already a winner. The one that receives [...]
Kobold Quarterly #12 is now available.
KQ is proud to ring in the new year with a brand new issue. Time to warm yourself in front of a warm, crackling computer screen reading about the game you love. (And the print version has been released from its cage , too. It should be tearing up mailboxes [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the zaglossus is finalist 10 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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This dusky quadrupedal creature [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the wendigo is finalist 9 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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A far more horrific [...]
Need clarification on some mechanics in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game? You’re in the right place. Take a seat with veteran game designer Skip Williams.
Not sure how a spell works? Curious why that monster does what it does? Trying to get your feats to play nicely together? Skip has the answer.
Post your new questions for Skip [...]
The dwarf cantons of the Iron Crags are so successful, one might be forgiven for believing subterranean life is easy, no harder than a surface dweller’s existence on the farm or in a city. Of course, dwarves are not solely an underground race—they cultivate the land and hunt and fish in the sunlit world—but most [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the treacle is finalist 8 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
______
Nerves steeled against the [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the spark is finalist 7 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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This large mote of [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the polydoros kin is finalist 6 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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Quid non mortalia [...]
(This week’s column uses 3.5E rules. The next one, however, will be the first to use the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules.)
Spell descriptions contain a great deal of standardized nomenclature that helps explain what each spell does. The questions presented here involve a few of them.
Aiming a Spell
Aiming a spell involves choose exactly where a spell [...]
Thanks to everyone who entered the Adopt-a-Soldier Holiday Contest and to the many others who helped spread the word. Your efforts doubled the number of Adopt-a-Soldier sponsorships in less than a month—so if you’re in the military, there’s a Kobold Quarterly gift subscription waiting for you right now. Head over to the product page and [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the hive ghoul is finalist 5 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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One bard laughed [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the grievous wailer is finalist 4 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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Neither the crunching [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the grave linnorm is finalist 3 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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Rising from the [...]
It was the evening before Christmas. Our home, decorated with a regal evergreen resplendent in ornamentation and with stockings that had been hung with ritual precision by the mouth of the fireplace, was deathly quiet. I could not sleep that night; it seemed as if the great yawning silence of the house pressed upon my [...]
Open Design Podcast has just announced the winner of Tony DiTerlizzi’s quickling sketch from the most recent podcast.
Congratulations Sean Holland, for this wonderful piece of art is now yours! Take good care of the little guy.
As this contest draws to its conclusion and the year wraps up, Open Design Podcast will be going on hiatus. [...]
Kobold Quarterly’s Adopt-a-Soldier program is open to all branches of the military: sailors, marines, airmen, and guardians are all eligible to receive free gift subscriptions from sponsors.
Sailors have relied on games to relieve the monotony of long voyages ever since oars first touched water. To get the scuttlebutt on gaming in the navy, we naturally [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the echidna is finalist 2 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
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From above the waist, [...]
Welcome to the King of the Monsters Contest finals: the afanc is finalist 1 of 10. These submissions are left almost entirely as they were received with the exception that all submissions have had minor alterations for proper spelling (not grammar), formatting, and the addition of an image. Let the fight commence!
______
Swimming over the placid [...]
The monster apocalypse is here. In just a few short sentences, you’ll discover the identities of the 10 finalists of KQ.com’s first ever King of the Monsters Contest. But first…
We would like to thank each and every one of you that sent an entry in. We couldn’t have done this without you.
The judging was not [...]
Kobold Guide to Game Design from Open Design just got called out as being one of the three best books to improve your game by The Core Mechanic.
Perhaps sometimes you don’t want to be tied to a computer? Perhaps you might prefer to sit fireside…
… books that roleplayers from all games can enjoy and improve [...]
Haven’t tried one of Open Design’s patronage projects and are curious? Already enjoy them but looking for some fun?
RevDM, on the Paizo boards, is doing a play-by-post of Halls of the Mountain King 4E.
It promises to be a dwarven airship full of fun and excitement.
Have you checked out ENWorld’s epic adventure path War of the Burning Sky? Perhaps, this is the perfect opportunity to discover what it’s all about.
ENWorld has created a 1.5 minute trailer with original music, voiceover, and artwork to promote the War of the Burning Sky Campaign Saga for D&D 4E and D&D 3.5E.
See it now [...]
Open Design’s own 4th Edition patronage project, Courts of the Shadow Fey, is all up in your stuff, stealing your babies and snorting your finest dreams. Because that’s just what fey do.
Fey Politics
The design for Courts of the Shadow Fey has a twist at its heart, like a lover’s betrayal. It begins with assassins, arcane [...]
The Adopt-a-Soldier Holiday Contest is still going strong! Civilians and service members are eligible to win some fantastic prizes. We’ve had quite a few civilians enter the contest so far but not a lot of military personnel. So if you’re in the service, this is a great time to sign up for the program—your odds [...]
Open Design’s very first Call of Cthulhu patronage project, The Red Eye of Azathoth, is shredding minds like you wouldn’t believe.
Mighty Azathoth Stirs
Azathoth, the blind idiot god, slumbering as he has for eons untold in the darkness between the stars, has been disturbed. Should he awaken and open just one of his uncaring red eyes, all [...]
Gaming blog RPG Blog II has just started their “The Best & Worst of Gaming 2009″ series. You only get one guess at who placed in the category Best Gaming Company.
Go check it out, and get the scoop on an entire year of the world of gaming’s ups and downs.
The life of an adventurer is one of unrelenting struggle and limitless sacrifice. To carry sword and symbol, without hesitation, into darkened labyrinths and abysmal grottoes betrays a resolve uncommon for mortals. Vicious monsters, lethal traps, insurmountable hazards—an adventurer must not waver in the face of such peril.
And yet, many do. Like the soldier who [...]
Trapsmiths constantly obsess about dismemberment and decapitation, always imagining better ways to cut into the flesh of interlopers. Two standard designs are the scything blade and wall blade trap.
Scything Blade Trap (CR 1)
Type mechanical; Search DC 21; Disable Device DC 20
Trigger location; Reset automatic
Effect atk +8 melee (1d8/×3)
Market Price 1,700 gp…
Wall Blade Trap (CR 1)
Type [...]
Brother Fandrus rubbed his eyes. Scribing books by candlelight took its toll. He stepped outside his cloister to get some fresh air. The sight greeting him when he returned made him gasp: a small dragon with waxy wings contentedly munching on the candle Brother Fandrus had been using. Even more remarkable, the room’s illumination had [...]
The From Shore to Sea patronage project is smack dab in the middle of its second phase with the brainstorming sessions of Sunken Empires going strong and patron submissions pouring in!
Right now, patrons are designing the creatures that lurk both above and below the waves and the bleached, ancient spires and sunken ruins of a [...]
We’re closing in on the end of Week 1 of our Adopt-A-Soldier Holiday Contest, which runs through December. Thanks to everyone who’s been helping to spread the word online! Remember, if you want your blog or Twitter posts to count as an entry for the contest, leave a comment on the original post so we [...]
(This is a continuation of yesterday’s Con Report, already in progress. Please, turn off your cell phones , and find a seat. Please, place your trash in the trash receptacles on your way out.)
Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7 (www.cubicle-7.com) were present, in force, running demos and substituting a little for Mongoose Publishing, who weren’t present. GM screens were [...]
Indiecon is a small, indie-game oriented convention in Hoburne Naish in Southern England. It’s held in a caravan/chalet holiday site, right on the coast, but before you get visions of sun, sea, sand, and sorcery, it’s held off season at the end of autumn when things tend to turn stormy and wet. So much so [...]
Every trapsmith loves poison, and poison loves trespassers. Standard poison delivery systems—part of every trapsmith’s portfolio—are the poison dart and poison needle traps.
How can something this simple be improved? With careful attention to detail and with massive overkill.
Poison Dart Trap (CR 1)
Type mechanical; Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 18
Trigger location; Reset manual
Effect atk +8 [...]
Our Adopt-a-Soldier sponsorship program has delivered Kobold Quarterly gift subscriptions to service members stationed all over the world and far from friends and family. We’ve gotten a lot of mail from them, telling us what a difference your support and generosity makes.
We’d like to really crank this program up with your help. So this month, [...]
Our illustrious leader, Editor-in-Chief extraordinaire, the Most Great High Kobold himself, our Master Mold, and all-around nice kobold, Wolfgang Baur has been announced Seattle PI’s Geek of the Week!
Please, join the rest of us kobolds in celebration.
(It’s just like we always told him, “You keep biting off those chicken heads, and you’re bound to get [...]
Hey GMs! Are you looking for that certain something to drive your power-hungry, dragon-slaying group just a bit wild? Well, look no further than Krazy Kirk’s House of Forgotten Horrors. We take all those baddies that have gone the way of THAC0 and shine ‘em up real nice for you. Your player’s won’t know what [...]
What are reviewers saying about Imperial Gazetteer, Open Design’s source for the legions of the dead in Zobeck for 4th Edition?
… 5/5 best value I’ve gotten for a while in 4E PDF products…
Read the full review at RPG Now.
We’ve got a little something for everybody. Pick up your own copy of Imperial Gazetteer.
Some gamers prefer to play using miniatures, but cost can be prohibitive. Not even hardcore collectors have every miniature they need. Including multiples, it’s easy to buy 800 miniatures at a cost of thousands of dollars and still not own the exact minis for every occasion.
There is, however, a way to own almost every miniature [...]
A new Open Design Podcast is now available, and there’s a special prize in this one. You could win a sketch by the amazing artist Tony DiTerlizzi: he’s drawn a quickling (pictured right) exclusively for Open Design Podcast and one lucky fan. Just listen to the episode for the instructions, and the original artwork could [...]
I remember the last season my family ever farmed.
That cloud—dirty crimson in color, like dried blood—drifted down the foothills like dust blown from the cover of an old book. Every crop it touched withered. The maize hardened and peeled, the berries soured, and the potatoes rotted before we could pull them from the dirt.
The [...]
For the second show in a row, Kobold Quarterly #11 graced the top 10 list of RPG Countdown. The kobolds in the mines couldn’t be happier, and we even gave them a 2 minute break to celebrate. (Time’s up; back to work!)
Make sure to tune in to each bi-weekly episode of RPG Countdown to hear [...]
Just enough time left to squeak it in under the wire, but the end is looming. Very soon, the gate closes and the judging can begin. Please, join us in celebrating the King of the Monsters Contest. Get your submission in now.
All you have to do is design your monster. The submission must…
Be sent to [...]
There’s an Open Design PDF sale Monday, November 30. Come check it out and save some cash!
All of the Kobold Quarterly and Open Design PDFs are 10% off at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.
Did you miss an issue of KQ? Are you looking for gift ideas? Are you just curious to see what’s inside the gazetteers [...]
Once, there was a long drought. All the creeks and springs dried up. The leaves on the trees turned brown and brittle. The animals were very thirsty.
Faced with a common problem, all the animals gathered to figure out a solution. After much discussion, they decided that what they needed was a well. All the animals [...]
Cowardice has a devastating effect not only on a character’s personal reputation but, also, on group morale. Successfully using a cowardly feat or skill imposes a -2 circumstance penalty to all Intimidate, Bluff, and Diplomacy checks made by you and your allies against any enemy who witnessed your cowardly action. The enemy, on the other [...]
With a mighty creak, the doors swing inward, and you find yourself at the castle’s topmost level, its roof open to the stormy sky. In a moment, you take in the scene: shelf after shelf of severed limbs and bottled organs, four great posts of steel and brass crackling with unnatural power, a hulking body [...]
Knockers try to be benevolent, but sometimes, things just don’t go their way, and they need to take action. Not blessed with great strength, the knockers have, like their kobold cousins, turned to defense, and they have an astonishing array of traps and techniques handed down from generation to generation. Some clans and individual families [...]
Water is essential to life. It nourishes plants, it slakes thirst…
But it also smothers with its icy embrace and boils flesh from bones. Never underestimate water.
One of the first water themed traps you’ll come across is the classic water-filled room.
Water-Filled Room Trap (CR 4)
Type mechanical; Search DC 17; Disable Device DC 23
Trigger location; Reset automatic
Effect [...]
This is the story of how Vaszi outran Death.
Owing to the magic boots that he had stolen from a witch and to his steel-trap memory, Vaszi acquired the job of messenger. He ran from town to town, and at each stop, he repeated all the news he heard in his travels.
One day, Vaszi learned of [...]
By sweet Chautauqua’s flow’ry banks
We love to sing and play,
But should we spy a foeman’s ranks,
We’d proudly run away!
—H. P. Lovecraft, “Pacifist War Song—1917″
There comes a time in all heroes’ lives when they must make the ultimate sacrifice and perish while saving their adventuring companions, their true loves, and sometimes even the very universe. But [...]
What are reviewers saying about Iron Gazetteer, Open Design’s source for the dwarves of Zobeck in 4th Edition?
… the authors clearly made sure that the majority of the material can be used in almost any 4e campaign world.
… really eye-catching was one of the ten paragon paths… the gearforged… in which the once living character [...]
This haggard-looking book bears a nondescript jacket of sturdy leather, the pages between filled with austerely elegant elven script. It appears to be a combat manual passed from a powerful elven mage-warrior to her much younger niece, an aspiring sorceress. Among the strict and detailed mandates that concern diet and training regime, there are several [...]
What are reviewers saying about the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly?
… Not only does it have great art to capture your attention, but the content covers everything from vampires to the myth of the Philosopher’s Stone and far beyond.
… The issue starts off with “A Broken Mind“… I love the idea of merging in sanity [...]
Notable for the soft humming it emits, a magnet stone is a polarized black mineral that has been handy to alchemists, invaluable to city defense planners, and lethal to countless adventurers. While it occurs naturally in veins beneath the mountains of the realm, magnet stones are most often encountered as jagged, obelisk-shaped stalagmites that form [...]
Behold the King of the Monsters Contest, the greatest and most glorious contest Kobold Quarterly has ever offered. It’s easy to become King of the Monsters: you design a monster and submit it for fame and prizes.
Here’s how it works: To enter the contest, your monster submission must…
Where’s the love for NPCs? Well, Ennie-award-winning designer Ben McFarland decided to offer his help with his article on incorporating John Wick’s new take on halflings from Kobold Quarterly #10, “Haffuns: Seeming Servants.” He presents several ideas for incorporating them into your own campaign.
Dismissed as unimportant, as if that’s what the “N” and “P” [...]
The hunter carried his prize, a clutch of tiny eggs, through the woods. The wind picked up around him as he walked, and he noted it had a particular bite. Wondering how the temperature could have dropped so quickly, the hunter absently felt his neck. His hand came away slick with blood. Then he felt [...]
As the third project in a series of public updates on Open Design’s current batch of patronage projects, KQ.com presents Courts of the Shadow Fey, Open Design’s 4th Edition project.
Duelists and Team Players
Back in the days when I was working at TSR in Lake Geneva, I played a wide range of lunchtime board games with the [...]
As the second project in a series of public updates on Open Design’s current batch of patronage projects, KQ.com presents The Red Eye of Azathoth, Open Design’s first Call of Cthulhu project.
The Harbinger Star Nears
The Red Eye of Azathoth project is now in full swing. The first adventure (of five) in this [...]
To celebrate this Veteran’s Day, please consider supporting one of our many troops with a subscription to Kobold Quarterly through our Adopt-A-Soldier program.
We currently have a backlog of soldiers who would love to receive your sponsership. Help send a message of appreciation and spread the joy of gaming by connecting to a soldier today.
Kobold Quarterly [...]
For those curious about Open Design’s current batch of patronage projects, KQ.com is releasing a series of public updates to track their progress. First of these, the Open Design/Paizo Publishing joint project From Shore to Sea, is in high gear.
Into the Waves
Over the last 2 months, patrons have worked closely with author Brandon Hodge to [...]
What does Critical Hits think about the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly?
… the whole interior of the publication that screams nostalgia while providing tons of new content for our favorite systems.
… interesting ideas for you to use in your games, even the system specific articles come with so much written material in addition to the [...]
Art by Marc Radle
Mass is a wonderful thing. Sometimes, even a glancing blow from something massive like a boulder, tree trunk, or swinging block of stone is enough to send a victim flying through the air. Armor offers little resistance against these massive impacts.
Swinging Block Trap (CR 1)
Type mechanical; Search DC 20; Disable Device DC [...]
Art by Hugo Solis
A crimson drake relishes death and destruction. If this killer can’t surprise its prey, it exploits its similarities to a pseudodragon to fool the unwary. The drake is indistinguishable from its cousin at a distance. Once a victim gets close enough to notice scales the color of dried blood and the murderous [...]
Do not adjust your computers. We control the feed.
In addition to my continuing role as Assistant Editor on Kobold Quarterly, I’ve taken over as the Mighty Web Editor for KQ.com. With more than a week of trial-by-fire complete, I can finally take a breath to fill you all in.
Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed our recent web-support of [...]
Kobold Quarterly Bonus Material!
Here it is! The second and final installment of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game version of the article “A Broken Mind” from Kobold Quarterly #11.
The original article details new rules for introducing sanity and mental disorders to your 4th Edition game. So now, you can break minds no matter the edition because edition [...]
Come hear the tale of the mountain! Of stone and of dirt. Of gold and of iron. Of family and of drink. The Iron Gazetteer has come!
The Iron Gazetteer is the 4th Edition sourcebook that details the dwarves and their mountain cantons.
Fighting, mining, smithing, drinking. Who would argue against the simple life? But secrets run [...]
Art by Cory Trego-Erdner
Kobold Quarterly Bonus Material!
Kobold Quarterly #11 (on sale now) offers rules for using madness and sanity, in the article “A Broken Mind,” for 4th Edition. However, fear not 3rd Edition fans, for right here and absolutely free are the the same rules built for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! Why break bones, when minds [...]
The reviews keep pouring in. And what are reviewers saying about the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly?
… I couldn’t be more pleased with this magazine. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten this many ideas out of a gaming mag. Please excuse me while I go subscribe and look up back issues.
Read the [...]
Kobold Quarterly Bonus Material!
You may already own Kobold Quarterly #11, but you’re not done getting additional content for it! Today, to accompany his “Howling Werebeasts” article on lycanthropes, the inestimable John Ling presents a brand-new prestige class. Werewolves, your days are numbered, for the hunter of the cursed is on your trail!
Gald moved through the [...]
Mycolids are sentient mushroom folks that live in the dark alongside the ghouls and their sprawling empire. You will find some mycolids detailed within the Imperial Gazetteer… but here’s a few extra to up the excitement.
The pale brown puff of spores caught us unaware, and soon, we were fighting amongst ourselves, mad with rage and [...]
Despite the vagaries of illness and uncertain guests, the Open Design Podcast has delivered another fine — and free! — show. Regular John Wick delivers his Wicked Fantasy segment with style, and yours hosts are me, Rone Barton, and Ed Healy.
Our lead guest this time out is design innovator and legend Robin Laws (of [...]
Fearsome creatures caught between life and death, trapped in that twilight hour by their own hand or by an unceasing desire for retribution against those who wronged them, ghosts are a classic staple of many horror and fantasy campaigns. Beyond their terrifying wails and incorporeality, many ghosts can hold more than a few surprises for [...]
Kobold Quarterly now has its very own official Facebook fanpage! Stop by and become a fan today.
There will be special announcements and promotions exclusive to the fanpage, and in fact, there’s one there right now for those considering a subscription to Kobold Quarterly. You’ll have to move fast, though, because once the candy runs out [...]
Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box for adventures with predominantly mad monsters, particularly in their relationships with the PCs.
Spellcasting, for example, offers you an option to introduce variations on standard events, and the variation on scrying below is offered as one such example. Others possible spells that may rip the thin tissue [...]
From beneath the murky waters it creeps ever closer to you, its unsuspecting victim. In mere seconds and with surprisingly little splash, it snags you and draws you beneath the surface. You have no time to react, and suddenly, you’re struggling for breath beneath it’s iron grasp. How long can you hold your breath? A [...]
If there is one thing you can say for certain about aberrations, they are all different. They are defined by their strange, twisting natures. Nowhere else can you find such diversity—even between related individuals. The perversity of their form and function knows no bounds.
Aberrant, Perverted [General]
This sickening monstrosity is an affront to the world around [...]
Fast and furious, terror birds run down prey with single-minded intensity, shredding and devouring warm flesh with seeming enthusiasm. These large, flightless predatory birds are often apex predators in primeval forests and grasslands. With formidable beaks and talons, both massive and razor sharp, these birds easily disembowel creatures with a single swipe.
Terror Bird Lore
Nature DC [...]
And just what are reviewers saying about the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly?
That was awesome!
They have fright rules for 4E, which is very Call of Cthulhu’esque… If your characters are plane hopping and you want to introduce them to some really [messed]-up [stuff], it’s perfect… I may introduce those rules [in our own [...]
Occasionally aberrations mate with other races to observe the outcome or to carry out bizarre and inhuman experiments to learn or simply amuse themselves. This template is the result of this terrible act.
New Monster: Stricken Aberrant [template]
It had once been a dragon—that much was certain. Its bone white flanks towered above us like an ice [...]
That’s right, folks, Skip Williams will now be answering Pathfinder Roleplaying Game questions in his regular column Ask the Kobold!
Is there some aspect of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game you’re a little fuzzy about? Did you just switch over from 3.5E and just aren’t sure how something translates? Do you just want to try to stump [...]
There’s something down there.
The waters around the sunken and forgotten City of the Nadir pollute everything that comes too close and taint all that enter its twisted ruins. Occasionally, parts of the mad city rise to the surface for a night, a month, or even a lifetime of man.
Spawned in the City of the Nadir [...]
The face, if face was the correct word, was ashen. This was no earthly creature but a thing from somewhere wrong. And as the waterspout engulfed the ship, the creature before me bowed obsequiously to its tentacled master, now rising from the boiling ocean.
This, then, was merely the slave. I began to sob as [...]
You’re gonna want the lights on for this. The Imperial Gazetteer is here! You won’t ever be the same. (And don’t think death will save you.)
The Imperial Gazetteer is the 4th Edition sourcebook that details the principalities of Morgau and Doresh and the Empire of the Ghouls.
On the surface, who can hope to withstand the [...]
And just what are reviewers saying about the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly?
I’d always thought of KQ as Dragon’s little sister… Well, I just got my hands on a review copy of KQ #11, and let me tell you something: little sister’s all grown up, and she’s looking pretty hot.
…Great artwork and interesting content, the [...]
Common in places touched by the cold grasp of shadow, shadowcreep ice is an unnatural substance that freezes in areas of darkness and melts when exposed to light. Rumored to have first dripped from the stalactites of a grotto inhabited by an undead primordial, this hazard has claimed the lives of numberless adventurers who had [...]
(Illustration by Marc Radle)
Bone-crushing boulders chasing frightened adventurers: a classic scene, usable in any campaign. The rolling rock trap is designed to enable that classic scene.
Rolling Rock Trap (CR 1)
Type mechanical; Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 22
Trigger location; Reset manual
Effect Atk +10 melee (2d6)
Market Price 1,400 gp
“I will become you!”
Prerequisite Doppelganger
While all doppelgangers are accomplished shapeshifters, some take the art of shapeshifting to new levels. These doppelgangers are able to impersonate not just the physical form of another creature, but also some aspects of their personality, experience, and knowledge, becoming in essence the very creature they are copying. Because of their [...]
Some of you may be familiar with the time-honored tradition of “going to 11.” KQ is right there with its latest issue, because Kobold Quarterly #11 is loaded with things that go right up to the edge, and then one more.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a sampling of the just-a-little-more philosophy at work:
1) An awesome [...]
Novelist and game designer Jeff LaSala is perhaps best known for his Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Transmuter’s Last Touch and his Eberron novel, The Darkwood Mask. Both of these, it is important to note, involve kobolds. Lots and lots of kobolds. In fact, it is safe to say that Jeff LaSala is a bona fide [...]
Kevin Ross is back. Miskatonic River Press is back. With a Call of Cthulhu license from Chaosium, Cthulhu is once again dreaming, and all across the world, investigators are being scared witless.
A veteran horror RPG writer, Ross has contributed to over 30 products, for companies such as Chaosium, Pagan Publishing, and Miskatonic River Press. However, [...]
Ok, I was away for a convention, and then there was launching the Courts of Shadow Fey, and shipping some Gazetteer goodness, and there’s a magazine around here somewhere that needs tending.
I swear a new framistan is on order, and we’ll have a full slate of posts and mayhem for you next week, folks. A [...]
Why should evil overlords have all the fun? Sometimes it needs to be about the minion! Ennie-award-winning designer Ben McFarland continues a new five-part series by taking a look at Richard Pett’s piece from Kobold Quarterly #10, “Ecology of the Hill Giant.” He offers a way to turn this monster into the signature foot soldier [...]
A quick interview on how to write better adventures and then how to run them most effectively, with Brandon Hodge and yours truly over at Roleplayingtips.com. We blather a bit about how to plan an adventure, how to spice up an encounter, the most useful design tools, and related topics.
From the very beginning of the order, the Servants have been preparing for the end of the world, putting contingencies into place in the event that the 5 blackest rites mentioned in the Codex of the Harbinger Star ever come to pass. Several nearly complete reproductions of the Codex exist in the Servants’ vaults for [...]
The newest Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery, brings us a slate of expert guests, including:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Wicked Fantasy’ with John Wick
* Green Ronin publisher Chris Pramas
* Open Design stalwart Joshua Stevens
* Operatic madman Nicolas Logue
We talk about game design and game mastery, including [...]
Part One : A History of Service
For over 3,000 years, they have waited patiently in the shadows, acting swiftly and silently when needed to thwart man’s destruction at the hands of unknowable horrors. They are the Servants of Man, a clandestine order zealously obsessed with preventing occult forces from bringing about the enslavement or extinction [...]
What are the differences between touch, ranged touch, and incorporeal touch attacks? What ability modifier applies to each of these attacks?
All these attacks have one thing in common, the target’s armor, natural armor, and shield modifiers can’t defeat the attack (though incorporeal touch attacks provide some special cases). Enhancement bonuses that increase armor, natural armor, [...]
Yesterday we featured the Reapervast, a sentient solo controller construct. It’s brutally tough to defeat in combat — so here’s a few options other than the straight smash-and-smash-some-more.
Are you excited about the reapervast but want to give your players more ways to deal with it? Does your group look down their collective noses at the [...]
Steel grates on steel as a steady hissing steam clouds your vision. Through the haze you see a gigantic mechanical beast surge forward.
The reapervast is the ultimate invention of Beret Tinglefoot, but alas, the gnome’s ambition outstripped his skill. While Tinglefoot learned to graft souls into clockwork machinery, the inventor did not realize the [...]
The 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction podcast gave glowing reviews to KQ and Open Design in their latest installment, Episode 46.
The show is a project of Brian Isikoff and Chris Hanranhan, an owner of the Endgame store in Oakland CA.The whole show is worth listening to, though if you are mostly interested in [...]
How would do you adjudicate an unhallow spell when is has a silence spell added to it and the caster chooses to make evil creatures immune? My guess was that creatures save once when entering, and that the spell goes away when they leave, but they need to save again when they enter again.
I [...]
As part of the Open Design projects that I design, I generally write a set of essays. Some of these have been collected (with contributors from others) into the Kobold Guide to Game Design series.
For Courts of the Shadow Fey, I have a set of topics chosen ahead of time, though I’m open to [...]
Goblins favor the ambush, because then, for a brief moment in time, goblins have the upper hand. A successful ambush is the stuff of legend among goblins, and with each recounting the tale becomes taller and pride fills the scrawny chests of the surviving goblins. Pride in one’s work is a rare and precious thing [...]
Every kingdom has its royal guards: stoic souls with vigilant eyes, strength of arm, and unmatched loyalty. The Courts of the Shadow Fey are no different. That final quality — loyalty — has forced the black-hearted nobles of the court to seek guardians from unorthodox sources.
Knowing no living shadow fey could be trusted to set [...]
Our t-shirt contest was a modest success, with a dozen entries from around the world showing gamers and KQ readers in all their finery. There’s many we remember fondly: the clockwork automaton, the drow, the dragon eating a hapless gamer at GenCon. Alas, it came down to two entries: a KQ reader and a maiden [...]
The great minds at Critical Hits have interviewed Joshua Stevens, the KQ regular and Open Design leader of The Red Eye of Azathoth project.
It’s a quick interview that covers Josh’s inspiration (hint: a bar napkin may have been involved), why Open Design projects have been so successful, and likely patron contributions to the project. [...]
I tell ya, boys, we’ve fished up and down this coast for years and never seen anything like ‘em. We’d found what was left of Ol’ Patch and his crew — washed up on the shore there, all picked apart to bones and gristle. It was bad enough seeing ‘em like that, and worse when [...]
We’re happy to say the official Paizo adventure From Shore to Sea and the related Sunken Empires sourcebook have met their commission, and the design is moving forward.
It’s still possible to sign up as a patron; if you do, you’ll see the first round of feedback from Paizo editors today.
Beret quickly hobbled down the pebbled path, unwilling to stop and look back for even a moment. Behind him, and behind the closed iron doors to his toy forge, he heard a cacophony of whirring, whining, and grinding, the sounds of the Reapervast. His finest creation was thinking for itself now, and it was not [...]
Sometimes you’ve got to end it all before you can get started. Ennie-winning Tales of Zobeck contributor Ben McFarland starts a new five-part series by taking a look at Michael Kortes’ piece from Kobold Quarterly #10, “Back and Better than Ever.” He offers a way to integrate the article’s death feats into the beginning of [...]
Open Design has agreed to design an official adventure for the Paizo campaign setting of Golarion. The adventure will be called From Shore to Sea and will describe an ancient set of ruins off the Cheliax coast.
The project’s lead designer is Brandon Hodge, whose work on Halls of the Mountain King and strong pitch [...]
In honor of Kobold Quarterly’s landmark 10th issue, here is a list reflecting on the best things about this fine magazine.
10. It’s like 10,000 spoons when you need 10,000 spoons.
9. If not for his KQ editorial duties, Wolfgang Baur would be free to walk the Earth.
8. The Ecology articles give you insight into the home [...]
I can’t believe it’s been a month, but GenCon always plays havoc with a sense of time. The latest and greatest Open Design Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure.
In addition to regulars Skip Williams and Monte Cook, yours truly and co-hosts Ed Healy and Rone Barton discuss the recent crop of ENnie Awards. [...]
One of the biggest and best RPG bloggers, Uncle Bear, recently took a look at the Dwarves of the Ironcrags book. It seems to have hit the mark:
As I was scribbling in my purple dragonskin notebook, rejecting and crossing off ideas almost as quickly as I can come up with them, Wolfgang Baur [...]
Every good trapsmith knows about the three C’s: Cheap, Crude and Cruel. Every wise trapsmith knows that goblins excel at designing traps based on the three C’s and as a result, many retain the services of a goblin as a servant or assistant. Neighbors may complain, but consulting a goblin’s expertise is usually worthwhile, as [...]
This well muscled dragon has fine scales the color of overripe lemons and strangely luminous green eyes. Its wings are short and seem barely capable of lifting it off the ground and its body is stocky and lacks the grace of its draconic brothers, yet its claws are razor sharp and its mouth is filled [...]
I wasn’t sure how the release of Tales of Zobeck to the wider public would go over. If this review is anything to judge by, though, it was the right move.
Let me just say that this is one well-deserved [Silver ENnie] award, and this ebook should go to the top of your list of purchases. [...]
To date, Open Design has been about competition between competing proposals, pitting projects and editions against one another. In an effort to accommodate everyone, we even completely redesigned Halls of the Mountain King in two editions.
While that project was huge, we’re not pursuing that approach again. We’re learning from the experience and doing something [...]
Nothing is quite so important to a trapsmith as novelty and invention in design. For in their war against trespassers, new tricks tip the balance of power in the trapsmith’s favor. This is why some trapsmiths favor the art of alchemy: in the alchemical world, innovation takes place at an extraordinary speed, providing new tools [...]
Had I not paused, I would have crushed its skull, thinking it to be a kobold. It was a kobold, and yet it was not – no kobold smokes a pipe, wears blue breeches, and carries a spyglass.
And no kobold would ever quote poetry. Or would it? And would I ever be able to hack [...]
Never let it be said that Kobolds never win! We are very pleased to announce that Kobold Quarterly has won the Silver ENnie Award for Best Website. Much to our surprise and delight.
We tried to swipe the Gold, but that went to our honorable friends at Obsidian Portal (and deservedly so). The competition was very [...]
Lay worshipers and priests of Ninkash spend much time brewing ale. Every drop of the ale they make, which has had prayers to the matron goddess of dwarven wine and beer chanted over it during the brewing, is “holy ale.” But certain ales are infused with the magic spells of the Vaer, the priests of [...]
Why in the world is the shadow walk spell 6th level when teleport is 5th level? Is seems to me that shadow walk’s travel limit of 50 miles/level is less useful that teleport’s 100 miles/level. Besides, teleport is instantaneous travel, whereas shadow walk can eat up hours of game time. Why shouldn’t shadow walk be [...]
The Origins Award nominated Kobold Guide to Game Design gets a writeup over at the WIRED blogs. Here’s what they’re saying:
So, you want to break into RPG writing? Or maybe you just want to write better adventures for your players. Could be you aren’t a roleplayer and just love the worldbuilding aspect of writing fiction. [...]
Maps do much more than tell us where we are or how to get where we’re going. Maps tell us about the world they depict and the cartographer who created them.
As RPG cartographer Jonathan Roberts says, “A good map should be functional. The primary purpose of any map is to be clear [...]
Is it possible to learn enough about a location through a scrying spell so you can teleport there? The combination of scrying and teleporting seems very potent and capable of breaking an adventure. Is there a way to limit this combination of spells without cutting them off completely?
First and foremost, trapsmiths are engineers, and not every project concerns itself with the destruction of intruders. Waste disposal is a daily concern for most dungeons and once collecting and carting it away becomes cost inefficient. Trapsmiths are contracted to deal with the problem — and sometimes they make the solution a bit of a [...]
At KQ, we don’t just care about great fantasy gaming in the Kobolds & Dragons tradition. No, we also care about style, fashion, and celebrity gossip killer traps.
Ok ok, our fashion sense sucks, but we sometimes like to wear cool t-shirts. And now we have one! The KQ t-shirt will robe you in sartorial splendor. [...]
They were once the province of the corrupt aristocracy, running down escaped slaves and tracking prey in hunting expeditions. Those days are gone, but the clockwork hounds still tick and hunt. The Praetors of Zobeck seized them during the revolt that established the Free City, and now, they operate only on the command of the [...]
Game designer Hank Woon, Jr. got his start with Demonblade, a 15,000-word adventure that appeared in Dungeon 97. The best part of Demonblade for Woon was that he got to include a new prestige class, the Keshen Blademaster, who hail from the land of Kesh and are fierce enough when encountered alone. And [...]
Kobold Quarterly 10 is making a lot of people’s lists, all of a sudden. It made it onto the RPG Countdown (a podcast covering the most popular items over at RPGNow).
It’s #6 on the Paizo bestselling games list, and it’s also #6 on the DriveThruRPG list of Hottest Small Press.
Yeah, we’re small press all right. [...]
Ralf Schemmann is a designer for ProFantasy Software Limited. Currently, he works on “styles” for Campaign Cartographer. He is also a web designer and freelance cartographer with a love for classical fantasy campaign maps.
“The guidelines I use are generally very loose, since maps vary so wildly,” said Schemmann. “The most important [...]
Steven D. Russell has written for E. N. Publishing, Bastion Press and Expeditious Press, among others. He’s worked on Monsters Evolved, Verrik Evolved and The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path. These days he focuses on being the Lord Protector of Rite Publishing.
Like many designers, Russell is first and foremost a player of games.
“I really [...]
When the sun’s rays shone through the airshaft and struck the corridor’s murals, the Maruvian caste-nobles ended their long vigil and touched the door of their father’s tomb, whispering their final farewells. The caste-nobles gathered where the corridor led out, patiently waiting for the Lifesinger priest to appear. When he finally arrived, he struck his [...]
Possibly the most awesome KQ10 review we will blurb all week comes from super-powered funnyman Wyatt Salazar over at The Spirits of Eden blog.
The Spirits of Eden: Kobold Quarterly #10 gave me some good times. We laughed together, we cried together, we wondered whether the Haffun racial power was really sexual innuendo. Do I regret [...]
Here, then, is the source of the screams. A giant that has been stripped and burned, pierced and flayed until there is nothing left but a mass of weeping sores upon sores, cankers, and wounds. This suffering monstrosity stares at you with sad, lidless eyes and snorts through the hole where its nose once jutted. [...]
So the first set of reviews was pretty good, we’re doing it again. And starting with RPG blogging legend Uncle Bear (named one of the Top 100 Geeks to Watch on Twitter by WIRED magazine).
Uncle Bear: I would use this in my own game, and I’d go out of my way to find a way [...]
As kobolds, we are used to losing. We suffer, we perish in vast numbers, it is the way of the world.
But we live in hope. That is, we believe that it would be very very very very very nice to win. Just once. Ok, maybe twice.
And so we draw your attention to the ENnies Awards. [...]
Open Design 003: Kobold Quarterly 10
Chaos and Creativity edition
Welcome to the Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery with hosts Wolfgang Baur, Ed Healy and Rone Barton.
Regular Features:
* ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams
* ‘Game Theories’ with Monte Cook
John Wick created Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea for Alderac [...]
Anyone who has gamed with me for any length of time knows I’m a bit of a dwarf-o-phile. They’re my favorite PC race, even moreso than kobolds. So it is with great pleasure that I present to you the release of the second Open Design gazetteer, Dwarves of the Ironcrags.
The book is packed with dwarven [...]
We asked a few bloggers to give us their opinions on KQ10, and boy did they ever! This was a bit of an experiment; you never know what people will say when you get out the portfolio or send out the gaming magazine and oh-so-innocently ask “So, what do you think?”.
Here’s seven short takes on [...]
The big 1-0! Double digits! Kobold has gone into the decile universe!
Kobold Quarterly hits the big Roman numeral X with our Summer issue, which features so much good stuff that Qeeg and Jiro just about had a hernia carrying all those boxes to the store:
* A Sneak Preview of the [...]
Greg Stolze has worked on games for White Wolf, Atlas Games and Arc Dream Publishing, among others. He’s a game designer with a love of streamlined rules and good storytelling.
Stolze, in the words of James Lowder, editor of the Origins award-winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best, has been “a key player in several of the [...]
Rushing water is as deadly as fire, and can carry away the largest ogre in a moment. The Passage of Devouring Waters is an elaborate defense that uses the power of water to augment a larger structure with a deadly surprise. If things go as planned, your party may never crawl into a villain’s lair [...]
We’re very happy to report that Open Design has been nominated for five ENnie Awards this year, including:
Best Writing (Kobold Quarterly)
Best Aid or Accessory (Kobold Quarterly)
Best Electronic Book (Blood of the Gorgon)
Best Electronic Book (Tales of Zobeck)
Best Web Site (Kobold Quarterly)
As always, the competition looks fierce, but that’s all to the good: great games [...]
Like many gamers, I first “met” Joseph Goodman, the owner of Goodman Games, through a Dungeon Crawl Classics module. For me, it was DCC #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings by Harley Stroh, which like all DDCs, begins with:
Remember the good old days, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and [...]
Steve Kenson is a geek—a professional geek. He’ll proudly tell you as much. Case in point: not only did he write three novels about his first Shadowrun character, he also named his company, Talon Studio, after him.
Kenson has worked on games and sourcebooks for White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, and Steve Jackson [...]
There is something unsettling about this leather satchel; how the leather has retained its hairs, how the hasp seems to be almost gripped by its leather sheath, and most of all the fleshy color of the leather, with blemishes and moles upon its pasty surface…
Some say that the word ‘safe’ is a misnomer, that a [...]
This huge monster’s long sinuous scaled body slithers through dark forests. Vast wings the color of midnight rise from its back, and four wavy black horns sprout from its evil serpentine head; its wings can fold back entirely flush with its long body.
The kulshedra’s scales are burnt greenish-orange in hue and its eyes glow [...]
It turns out that kobolds are bi-lingual. I don’t mean they have forked tongues (though they do), but rather that KoboldQuarterly.com has quietly and stealthily been posting some articles in translation.
The translation work has been done by José Montero, and we can’t thank him enough. Here’s the four articles currently available, due to his [...]
So I’ve been reading the Pathfinder RPG for a while, and there are a few things about it I absolutely love. One of them was the fact that halflings get Abyssal as a default language. The little buggers have always seemed sort of suspicious to me, frankly. Not as dour as a dwarf, not as [...]
If you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons at all in the last decade, you’ve probably run into Bruce R. Cordell’s work. And if you’ve used his gaming books or run his adventures, you’ve probably noticed that there seems to be some larger—some epic—arc connecting it all.
If you’ve ever met him at a con or online, [...]
What happens to your spells if the ability score that governs them is somehow reduced? Do you lose any spells? If your spellcasting ability is reduced to 0 or less do you lose all your spellcasting ability?
Some of these questions are easy to answer, and some are trickier. Let’s start with the easy answers:
The 3E/OGL release of Halls of the Mountain King has gone to the patrons who supported this project; these patrons both contributed to and funded its creation.
The resulting 175-page saga takes characters from 8th to 12th level as they fight a range of foes in the abandoned halls of a major dwarven holding: everything [...]
Ultimately, a traps’ function is one of protection. Many things deserve protection; it all depends on the perspective of the traps’ buyer. The altar and its various ceremonial and sacred items are cherished by clerics, and thus they often build the hand of god trap in their temples.
Hand of God Trap
“From the temples’ ceiling, statues [...]
Flying across the arid steppe is a monstrous draconic beast with bat-like wings, a scaled body and legs, and the head of a mangy wolf with a thick goat-like beard. Its scales are a uniform light brown, while its wolf head is dark brown with gleaming red eyes. The dragon-wolf flexes its vicious claws and [...]
The Kobold Diplomats have spoken: The augurs are good; the planets have aligned.
Kobold Quarterly is ready to kick things up a notch.
For the past two years, you, our readers, have stepped up to the plate for us time and time again. You were with us when we were black and white and barely 50 pages. [...]
Magic defeats magic. This simple rule explains why trapsmiths refrain from using it in their designs. If any wizard’s apprentice can detect the trap, what is the point of using it? For instance…
Burning Hands Trap
CR 3; magic device; proximity trigger (alarm); automatic reset; spell effect (burning hands, 5th-level wizard, 5d4 fire, DC 11 Reflex save [...]
The creature galloped across the outcrops and lurched before us. It was a great beast akin to some sort of huge ram or shire horse with a single great horn erupting from its head. It stood for a moment, as though considering its next move, and then, with a snort, it lowered its head and [...]
When you cast a spell as a swift action (maybe because the spell has a casting time of a swift action) can you also cast as spell as a standard action the same round? What happens if I cast a spell as a swift action while an enemy threatens me? And what if I then [...]
Clang! The grate slams to the floor, sealing the exit — and alerting every monster in hearing distance….
Most traps are active defenses, contesting every foot of the dungeon. However, a passive defense can be a valuable deterrent as well. Two entry-level passive traps are the portcullis and the razor-wire trap, which we’ll re-design this week.
Portcullis [...]
Sean Macdonald never intended to become a freelance RPG cartographer. An internet programmer by trade, he got into RPG cartography through his work as a website designer. He started his freelance cartography career in 2003 mapping the Dragonlance Campaign Setting.
Three years later he won a gold ENnie for Tasslehoff’s Map Pouch: War of [...]
The box looks like a fat, heavily pregnant woman with fangs instead of teeth. Her copious belly contains a rather grotesque image of an infant with three heads, each with an open mouth like a key-hole.
No ordinary receptacle will do for treasure in the Land of Gothic Horror.
The infuriating Ustalav Doll Casket is not one [...]
“Ye weren’t there.” Günter’s hand shook as he reached for the tankard. “They donna care what they hit. Donna care who’s in the way, cacklin’ as they fire. Cacklin’…” He gulped at the drink, spilling down his chin, then wiped foam from his braided whiskers with the back of his scarred and puckered hand.
“Ye understand, [...]
The toad, frog and newt are classic choices for a transmuting mage with an itchy casting finger and a prepared polymorph any object. However, sometimes your foe deserves something more creative or stylish. Below is a list of forms that will add some memorable panache to the proceedings.
d% Result (Duration)
1. A 120-foot-long trading carrack (1 hour)
2. A [...]
With RPG titles like Classic Horrors Revisited (forthcoming from Paizo), Seven Days to the Grave (Paizo), and Cage of Delirium (Goodman Games), F. Wesley Schneider’s work clearly runs toward the dark.
Indeed, Schneider’s writing and his tastes are downright diabolical.
“In RPG terms, I’ve always been way more interested in devils than in other fiends,” Schneider said. [...]
Welcome back to Behind the Spells, the series that provides a historical background, secret effects, and related material to classic spells of the world’s most famous fantasy roleplaying game. This 11th installment concludes our series of Behind the Spells; we hope you’ve enjoyed the series. As always, the rules (presented after the “Spell Secret” header) [...]
Every good trapsmith knows about the three C’s: Cheap, Crude and Cruel. The correct application of the three C’s while designing a trap gets you the desired result when the PCs have to decide whether they want to risk pushing on for “just one more room.”
And nothing is as cheap as a hole in [...]
“Come in the water,” the lady whispered. “I’m so lonely.” Stephan glanced around the campsite. He’d been on watch a few hours and had a few more hours to go, yet. Old Yoric and Bernard were sleeping, dead to the world.
“Come in the water,” the lady whispered. “I’m so cold.” She was beautiful—pale as the [...]
The first review of the Open Design podcast is in, from Emerson’s Bookshelf.
If you are just joining us, the previous installments of Greenweek are available: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
On average, Ed Greenwood completes three novels, nine short stories, and a variety of other projects each year, including articles, introductions, essays, and gaming products. Fortunately for his fans, he writes quickly and often. The [...]
Greenweek continues with part III of our interview with Mr. Greenwood. If you missed part I or part II, it’s easy to get caught up!
In Ed Greenwood’s The Sword Never Sleeps, the final novel of the Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy, characters rush through a series of confrontations, resolving chases and conflicts established earlier in [...]
What qualifies as “dropping” an opponent when you’re using Cleave feat? For instance, if I use the Knock-down feat and successfully trip my opponent, does that count? [More...]
Did you miss Part I of our Greenweek interview series? It’s easy to get caught up!
In the opening scene of Ed Greenwood’s
Dark Lord, the protagonist Rod Everlar awakes to a bloody winged female warrior named Taeauna falling onto his bed. Everlar is scared and confused, Taeauna begs for mercy, and the reader is hooked.
This is [...]
Early in Ed Greenwood’s novel Elminster: the Making of a Mage, the ragged knight Helm gives young Elminster a sword and encourages him on his journey. As the smiling boy heads off, the knight wrestles with his own ambivalence, thinking, “The first duty of a knight is to make the realm shine in the [...]
Fear.
Fear is a trapsmith’s ally, as nothing deters tomb robbers better than seeing a valued comrade perish in the most gruesome way possible. A trapsmith asks intruders a simple question: “Is this carnage a price you are willing to pay, to progress further?” If the trapsmith is good at his job, he will only [...]
Art by Philippe Semeria
With broad shoulders and thick, nearly translucent ivory fur, this powerfully muscled ape-man sports savage claws and wicked black teeth; dried gore stains its chin a rusty brown. A small cyclone of ice and snow swirls around its feet, and it leaves no tracks in its wake. Fiercely cold air surrounds it, [...]
Welcome back for the second part of our SKR interview, in which we finally learn the secret of lobsteak and of Paizo’s success. Also, he explains how and when he’ll be playing 4E!
If you missed Part 1, it’s easy to catch up.
Jones: You have been involved in developing games both before and after the advent [...]
Sean K. Reynolds is the developer on Paizo’s PATHFINDER roleplaying game, but he didn’t start his career there. It took him a while to land at Paizo Publishing.
In 1995, Sean left his job at a video game company to become the online content coordinator for TSR. When Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR a [...]
Attempting a grapple is a special attack that takes place of a regular attack. So, if you gain multiple attacks in a round, and you fail at your first grapple attempt, you can try again, etc. until you run out of attacks, right?
Does this mean I can convert any of my regular attacks to a [...]
Focus, intent, misdirection, quality versus quantity: these are all concepts a good trapsmith plays with to achieve his goal. Indeed, a great trapsmith does more than set a trap; he asks a question of intruders: “Is this a price you are willing to pay, to progress further?”
This week the author of the astonishing “Traps of [...]
The hill moved, which of course is ridiculous. Then I heard deep breathing and the crash of the willow coppice as the creatures—for there were two—came into view. The ychen bannog of legend: longhaired oxen the size of churches, flanks steaming in the morning mist from a night’s toil while crows danced about their horns. [...]
By day, Dario Nardi is a lecturer at the University of California Los Angeles, where he teaches classes in “artificial intelligences and robotics, personality and organizational behavior, modeling and simulation of complex systems, and undergraduate curriculum design.” He uses computer models, group simulations, and he encourages students to pursue their own interests in their [...]
I need a little clarification for gaze attacks; it seems that those attacks are always functioning. For example, a character who begins a turn within range of a creature with a gaze attack must make the appropriate saving throw.
However, a creature with a gaze attack also can take an action to force another save [...]
Welcome back to Behind the Spells, the series that provides a historical background, secret effects, and related material to classic spells of the world’s most famous fantasy roleplaying game. The rules (presented after the “Spell Secret” header) are compatible with any 3.5/OGL fantasy game, and the background weaves the spell into the lore of the [...]
…Sturmgar kicked in the door, and strode into the hall, greatsword drawn. Sir Norrick and the rest of the Company of the Wyvern filed in behind him, weapons and spells at the ready. The officers of the Iron Legion were in the midst of their evening meal. At the head of the table, General Sidion [...]
Scarrport: City of Secrets is a supplement from Reality Deviant Publications that offers a “campaign cutout”, a single city that can easily be dropped into any campaign setting. For me, Scarrport was love at first sight.
In addition to a city full of plot hooks, inventive monsters, and and even new equipment, it also had [...]
