As a kid, whenever I went to visit my relatives over the summer, I mourned the hours missed playing D&D with my friends. My salvation came in the form of choose-your-own-adventure type game books. Whenever I wasn’t visiting elderly second cousins and great-aunts, I’d spend hours immersed in solo adventures, battling alone against dragons, giants, and the undead.

Open Design has recaptured the fun of solo play with the new Party of One PDF series, beginning with adventure BB1: Kalgor Bloodhammer and the Ghouls Through the Breach. As a young dwarf seeking entry into the famed Iron Shields, Kalgor find himself tested in ways he never imagined as his city is invaded by the hungry dead! All you need is the PDF, some dice, and paper to guide Kalgor to heroic victory or ignominious defeat.

This adventure also includes Pathfinder Roleplaying Game character sheets for Kalgor at levels 1 and 3, so you can bring him into a Pathfinder game. Download Party of One BB1 at the Kobold Store.

Minion #7, leader of the Journeys to the Western Ocean project, has been called up to the big leagues! Yep, I’m pinch-hitting on the Kobold Quarterly magazine staff, batting for Editorial Assistant Christopher Bodan in KQ #21! I can already hear the roar of the crowds as I step up to the plate—or maybe that’s loud booing I’m hearing. Ah, either way, it doesn’t bother me. You can’t keep a good kobold down, after all. Heck, I’ll take your thrown tomatoes and make salad! So, ha!

Actually, you may already have been privy to a bit of my handiwork, as I did some pinch-editing in KQ #20. The Overlord just didn’t want you to know about it. He said something to the effect that he didn’t want an all-Christina issue of the magazine, so he omitted mention of Minion #7 in the mast. Can you believe that? To that I asked: What’s wrong with an all-Christina issue? Really? I just don’t see the problem. So now, as payback, I’m plotting to overtake the Kobold Courier for an all-Christina issue while the Overlord is not looking. But, hey, keep that between us. I don’t want him to know about that. It’s going to be a big, shocking surprise.

Continuing with our preview materials, the patrons of Journeys to the West have finished generating items and spells, and now we’re heading full sail toward playtesting—presuming the winds of creativity and the authors’ muses are generous! In the meantime, patrons are looking over material, plus they’re looking for mechanical or grammatical concerns (and hoping to pick up a bit of bling while they’re at it).

Speaking of bling, here’s a fine piece of headgear for performers and duelists. Take a look at two more items that might keep the ship busy and headed on a course away from Barsella for now! Here’s hoping you find a fun use for it in your campaign!

—Ben McFarland

The patrons of Journeys have been hard at work brainstorming, collaborating, and creating material for an island-hopping expedition of legend. And with that comes not only the sort of item certain to save your hero’s hide as the ship sinks beneath storm-tossed seas, but the sort of creature locked within a giant brass monkey head, just begging for a greedy crew to unleash upon an unsuspecting officer corps.

With that in mind, the patrons of Journeys into the West are pleased to present the Island Survival Manual, which is sure to provide anyone who washes ashore with the barest form of subsistence. We also reveal the rum gremlins. These creatures can gleefully leave your crew in a state where the ship’s about to founder and your characters are about to need a copy of that Island Survival Manual.

So enjoy! And remember not to open any giant brass monkey heads!

—Ben

We’re running the Seize the Tin Crown contest, and entries are due in by March 9th! You can take a look at the contest rules and guidelines here—it’s a pretty open contest in terms of what sorts of things you can enter, though the entries must work well with the Zobeck Gazetteer. So, go peek at the rules, and see what sorts of fun mischief you can add to the setting!