Here's a sad story in six words. FOR SALE: RPG SETTING, NEVER RUN As bloggers, we have reams of loreposts and toneposts and appendices N and classes and bestiaries and all the things which a game is built  on- but a dearth of games. There are settings which exist solely as ideas in heads, lauded though they may be, awaiting the day they hatch from the skull that holds them. Look at all these settings from  The Nothic's Eye . Of the twelve of them, I think about three of them have ever been run. Three others have absolutely no mention outside of this chart. This isn't a specific callout post, just an easy example. Although Locheil does owe me thousands of dollars from the ill-fated Ashes to Ashes: the Motion Picture project, I expect this to be mediated by my various eastern European thugs. Anyways, the trouble with many of these great works and passion projects is that if you don't know the person who wrote it, it's extremely unlikely that you'll get to play it ...

The bandit is an underrated sort of monster, because it's a real monster. There are few fire-breathing dragons in our world. There are, however, a great multitude of people willing to do harm in order to get something they do not have. Read a history book. Mere men are capable of terrible things. It's our oldest trade. Unless stated otherwise, all stats are as follows: HD 1 (4 HP ), AC as leather , 7 morale Movement: As man. Morality: As man. Intelligence: As man. Attacks: +1 to hit , one weapon (damage as weapon.) The average bandit is poorly equipped. Their armor is piecemeal, their weapons well-worn. Murder may not be their first resort, but it's higher on the list than it is for most people. It's rare to find any who aren't willing to negotiate, even if it's on uneven terms. They are never, ever  alone. Want to generate a gang on the fly? 2d4+2  is a good minimum. Solitary bandits tend to have a very short career in a world where there are people who can eat...

Frankly, if we were all stranded on a desert island, we'd be eating each other alive before the boat even left the shore. Unrelated to any brutal power struggles,  n ominations  too I guess  Best Dungeon Post- Castle Delusion   by Louis Garamondia. A perfect summation of his work: horrifying, brutal, and aesthetically immaculate. A classic dungeon: the trap-laden funhouse of a sicko fuck wizard. It's Conan in a giallo film. Best Class Post- The  Cōs  by the inimitable albeit soggy Locheil Nothic's Eye. The goodness of it is self-evident, as befits a Paladin. I like the implied setting of the item list, and the abilities are nice and straightforward. Best Monster Post- The  Dwarrowyrm , another work of the decadent sicko Louis du Garamond, came to mind immediately. I usually find the idea of a monster as a moral allegory or as a sign the natural order has gone wrong to be cheesy Captain Planet bullshit, but this one is great. I do so love a horrible tra...

The Presbyter  taught that there was no mercy in this world save but that which we gave one another, and for this, he was killed mercilessly. No wound or cruelty on this earth could dim his brilliance; even in death, his words kindled the world, and he shone like a midnight sun before he ascended into the heavens. The Presbyter said: "Recognize what is before your face and that which is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest, nor buried which shall not be raised." The Presbyter said, "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same." The Presbyter said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?' , say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest t...

 The thrill-seeking gambling addict wizards of Level Die  get a missive: To the sorcerers of Level Die A challenge: Come to Caesars Atlantic City and I will kill you. I have a spectacular Roman cage cup dating approximately 100 years before the fall of the Republic. Its value is incalculable. Since I only charge using vessels I make myself, you are welcome to it. Come to the Toga Bar. I will be waiting there to take your skulls. If you survive the goblet is yours. -Your buddy, Three Bear The danger is self-evident. And for the Entropomancers of  Level Die , so is the appeal: Tarma , the racer, is fixated on the thrill of the near-miss, the feeling of death rushing past you. Played by me. Caroline , the robber, wants to rob dangerous people and get away with it. Played by Magnificentophat . Klayman , the gambler, is there to do exactly what you think he's there to do. Played by Lithobraker. Vanessa , the brawler, just likes a good fight and expects nothing less from the sk...

 The First and Last populated the world with many things, and set many people to rule them. The first were the bright-eyed djinn, born of fire, but God does not work with fire alone. The most populous are the humans, and perhaps the most beloved, but they have not filled every space and set foot in every land. There are more people than you could count, more types  of people than you could count. Lost cities, brutal desert plains, sunken continents, phantom islands; they call these places, and many more, home. Arragousets  It's an old story, but not so old as you'd think. In isolated places of the western coast, they tell of the little men of the sea, cruel raiders with barbeled faces and needle teeth who come marching up from the waves with whalebone spears and shell-bladed clubs. They kill those who fight and make spouses of the survivors, and they stay for a generation before marching back into the sea when old age bids that they should die. Their children are human i...