June 10, 2013 / Wolfgang Baur / 2 comments
Today has been one of those dream days. The moment before go-time is always a little anxious. I hit the button on the project at 6:30 a.m. and said, “I sure hope everyone loves spellbooks as much as I do.”
An hour later, the doubts were gone. Your support for the Deep Magic Kickstarter has been incredible! I kept thinking, “Well, wow, that sure was an awesome start. I’m sure it’ll taper off here so I can go eat lunch” (or whatever). I’d come back and be BLOWN AWAY at the progress. Fully funded in six hours! First two stretch goals in the next 6 hours! I don’t even….
And now the Paizo blog has chimed in with some comments on Deep Magic as well! That’s just an amazing capper to a day I thought could not get any better. I don’t know what made this Kickstarter stand out to the Paizo crew, but it means a lot to me to know that they are encouraging third-party publishers to bring their A-game, and that they are fans of good work, no matter who publishes it.
Thank you all. I’m thrilled that the core book is happening, and we’re adding goodies at a great clip. This project has more amazing tricks still to summon, conjure, and enchant. A few are very shiny indeed.
Please keep spreading the word about Deep Magic. I will do my damnedest to keep making this project bigger and better.
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June 10, 2013 / Tim Connors / 2 comments
In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote a novella called Flatland, and a hundred years later, I read it with delight. The novella’s characters are squares and triangles, sliding around a two-dimensional world called Flatland. The Flatlanders have no concept of “up” or “down,” and the existence of a third-dimension is left to philosophers and clerics. That is, until one day when a sphere pulls a square out of Flatland and into Spaceland. From his new vantage point “above” Flatland, the square sees not just the skin of his Flatlander friends as before, but inside them as well. He can reach down and touch someone’s heart. He can pull someone into Spaceland, flip him over, and place him back down as his own mirror image. He can peer inside locked chests inside closed rooms and pilfer what he likes. He can teleport by moving into Spaceland at one point and out of Spaceland at another. In short, he can perform what Flatlanders would call “magic.”
As a long-time D&D player, I realized that incorporating this kind of “magic” into the game promised fantastic opportunities for players and GMs alike. Just as Spaceland granted the square “powers” beyond the comprehension of the Flatlanders, a new school of Dimensional Magic could empower a caster to skewer an enemy’s heart from afar and view the world as only the gods can. Ignorant PCs would seem like helpless Flatlanders against a villain with such novel powers. That is, until they learn the magic too.
And now they can.
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June 10, 2013 / Wolfgang Baur / 8 comments
Today the Deep Magic Kickstarter launches. It’s pretty much my dream project for RPG crunch, which is to say: it’s all about the fire spells, baby!
I’ve always loved wizards and clerics, and nothing makes me happier than fireballs coming online, that flame strike spell hitting, or (if I’m feeling especially sneaky) casting the fire shield one round before the orcish hordes overrun the front line. Yes, I’m a pyromaniac when I play a wizard. (There’s a little of that in the project video.) But I swear, hardly any structures burned down mysteriously in my youthful stomping grounds.
But this isn’t all about making things burst into flame. The Deep Magic project collects literally hundreds of spells. It offers variant magic systems. It updates familiar material, gathers new spells from a list of RPG designers you won’t believe, and it does it all at a very reasonable price. There are a lot of Kickstarters out there, but this one is already largely written and edited, and the result is a great big monster TOME of SPELLS. If that doesn’t get your heart beating faster, you clearly play fighters.
At the very least, check out the Deep Magic project page and watch me play with fire in the video. This project is going to burn it up! (In a safe, 20-ft. radius sort of way.)
Wolfgang Baur is a noted game designer and the publisher here at Kobold Press. We swear he’s even more of a pyro at the gaming table than he lets on here. Ask him about kerosene that one time in Call of Cthulhu. Or the sea of fire spell he proposed for dragon magic. You know, that spell’s probably in the book.
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June 7, 2013 / Cape Rust / One comment
Myths and Legends 1: Jason and the Argonauts
Neil Smith
80 pages, Osprey Publishing
Paperback, $17.95
ISBN: 978-1780967226
Myths and Legends 1: Jason and the Argonauts is 80 pages of awesome. When I first got my hands on this book, I thought it was a roleplaying game supplement. I love RPGs, so I was drawn to it. After opening the book, I quickly realized that this was much more than just an RPG supplement. Myths and Legends 1: Jason and the Argonauts is, as the title suggests, about the well-known and oft done mythic legend of Jason and his motley crew of Argonauts.
I know the tale of Jason and the Argonauts well, but this book brought it to life for me in a way I have never experienced it before. Rather than being a Cliff’s Notes version of the story, this is more of a highlights reel with spectacular art. The format of this book reminded me of those amazing books I would covet as a child at the annual book fair: It has a great cover, glossy pages, and wonderful page-sized art that would have made you beg your parents to buy it for you. I love a book or product that dredges up memories like that.
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June 6, 2013 / Peter von Bleichert / One comment
Gnolls have slaughtered their way to gaming infamy, and they are a favorite of gamemasters (GMs) and players alike. This article can be used by GMs to round out this age-old monster, or players can use it to create new characters. The following gnoll variant is formatted for AGE—though you can convert the material to your preferred system easily enough—and is specific to the Midgard campaign world.
Gnoll Vulturist
South of Siwal and deep in the Vulture’s Quarter exists a gnoll kingdom. This kingdom is ruled from a little-known city called Olum Kuleleri, where a gnoll said to be twice the size of any other sits upon a throne of bone. Olum Kuleleri is primarily subterranean, with vast natural and hewn Underdark levels housing armories, gnoll pup nurseries, slave barracks, and meat repositories that are guarded by trolls.
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