Pick #98: Wobbly arrows...

For all those of you who ever wondered why a flying arrow from a longbow seems to wobble: it does! And if you're wondering why it hits target, this video by "smarter every day" explains beautifully. And there's a sheriff with longbow skill 10.

I'm not sure whether this knowledge is much good for role playing games, but maybe describing the sight of a snaking arrow coming toward you is kind of scary and cool.

Santiago Joe Adventure RPG

For a limited time, the Santiago Joe Diceless Pulp Adventure game is available again for Pay What You Want. Always wanted to watch and play your own B-Movies, and never have the time to play except during short breaks? This may just be the game for you.

I fashioned the game originally for a 24-hour challenge, because I often want to play a fast game even when I don't have dice ready. I also tried to build a mechanism where you quickly make up the premise and heroes of the adventure together as a group - somewhat like in Fiasco, but again without dice. As players (STARS) and game master (WRITER-DIRECTOR), you take turns adding elements to the title and credit lists of your own movie, and then start playing the acts. Idea is to play fast - and keep the action rolling while ad-libbing the story. Players and game master just describe what they do, building on what's already described. As long as the action is new and fresh, and fits the hero, it succeeds - but the game master can think up a new challenge. Conversely, each time a player (or the game master) falters and hesitates to make up how to win a challenge or solve a conflict, their hero (or the game master's villain) fails in their actions and the opponent wins.

Also, I added the ten commandments of the pulp story game, to keep the action going - and a secret eleventh one for the game master. In the back of the book there are lists of settings and ideas to get you going.


Donations appreciated, and with enough interest I'll do a kickstarter for an extended version with extra adventures, ideas, random lists, and enhanced artwork. Be sure to let me know, and just leave a comment to motivate me ;-)

Eighteen Heroes and an Adventure

My new supplement for The World Beyond is now available in print. The sleek booklet is full color, with 18 ready made heroes which you can play out of the box. Each hero has their own sheet, front and back. I loved doing the artwork on each of the characters, trying to give each of them something special. Hope you will enjoy them too.

After counting pages I figured I had a few pages left, so I added a short adventure. It features a murder mystery on Samaris with a rather... Lovecraftian twist. I playtested the adventure a few times at the Dutch Role Playing Guild, and we had a lot a fun - even with quite large parties.

Each of the heroes is featured with their own three special contacts in the city of Samaris, so they are instantly usable in the Samaris setting. If you don't have the Samaris hardcover (yet), you can use the short descriptions and the extra map I've also included, instead.

Update: You can now order the 48p full color print from DriveThru or RPG Now!

The World Beyond hardcovers published!

Yes, just before the new year, both The World Beyond Basic Game and Samaris Game Companion are now available in full color print and pdf from DriveThruRPG. And at the same time you'll find three 48page full color softcovers with additional material:

- Shadow of the Haunted Keep (a classic adventure),
- Unpleasant Encounters (25 adventure capsules), and
- Eighteen Heroes (full page illustrated prefab heroes for your games, with a full adventure and a Southport map).





If you're still doubting, you can get a full color 48 page sampler - enough to build a hero with and taste the system - for a ridiculously low price. You can also get it in full color print for a bit more.

The forerunner of the World Beyond was Dark Dungeon 2nd edition. All older books have been updated with dozens and dozens of full color illustrations, layout and rules were revised, and for the basic game three short adventures were added.  Even if you are a lucky owner of the older DD2 ruleset, you may love the new expanded full color versions and rules tweaks.


Moreover, you'll find three Sangreal Games card games for print on demand on DriveThru too! And that's including the classic WysaertZ card game and its expansion Destrucktion Decke, fast, funny, silly, ande very addictive. Yes. Really.

Pick #97: four pilots from the makers of "The Gamers"?

Would you like to be part of not just one, nor two, nor three but FOUR new pilots of new series to be made by the makers of "The Gamers"? Then have a look at this kickstarter before the end of the month and decide whether you have some cash to spare.

If you can't remember The Gamers, you've been missing out - have a look at the third Gamer movie online here to see what I mean. Really!

Map South of Holmeston

Update: This Holmeston map is featured in Unpleasant Encounters - with 25+ adventurelets for OSR games, or for The World Beyond.

Original post: Finally, the new color print files have been approved by the printer - proofs are ordered and on the way. Looks like five The World Beyond books (formerly Dark Dungeon) will be available in full color soon!

If you were one of the buyers of a black & white version, you'll receive a free color pdf update.

Meanwhile have a look at the small map South of Holmeston - featured in Unpleasant Encounters. That's one of the books now available, with 48 color pages with 25 miniature adventures in an old school vein.

French Foreign Legion employs Dwarves

Actually, just joking of course... but the resemblance of the ceremonial sapper uniform to that of a steretypical dwarf is striking in my humble opnion.

photo courtesy Wikipedia (sapper)

More Art in Progress

Here's a few samples of the interior of Unpleasant Encounters - a 48-page story sandbox with 25 mini-adventures. Thought I'd do something fun while waiting for more print proofs of the new color hardcovers of the Samaris companion and the Basic Game. Enjoy!

Art in progress...

Been drawing and paintshopping a cover for a new supplement today. Now I have to do the lay out of the inside :-)

Pick #96: Game Poems

Sometimes the world is just beautifully weird. Game Poems are almost Zen-like short games, often games akin to role play and story telling, which you can set up in no time and play in... like 15 minutes. Perhaps they are more for people who also like Fiasco than those who like D&D, but I guess they are worth checking out just for the mind-jarring effect the idea has. Be sure to try some links to get your head around them.


Marc Majger devoted a whole blog to them at Gizmet Game Poems, and made a book too. This blog is a fine place to start.

"[Game poems] generally address some specific mood or emotion, or focus on one particular notion, but not all of the games here strictly adhere to that definition. First and foremost, a game poem is just there to be taken in and experienced with a friend or group of friends for a few moments, and then those moments are over – and hopefully, something small and wonderful will happen in the process."

You can find more about game poems on the Norwegian Style Blog,  The Story Games forum, or here at Board Game Geek. The idea of the roleplaying poem seems to be Norwegian in origin, I figure. Be sure to check out the crazy Children Monks: role playing poem by Bryan Hansel, too.

If you're in for a weird experience, or like things like theatre sports, this may certainly be for you.

Pick #95: PlaGMaDa archives

Have you ever wanted to get rid of your old gaming notes, scribbles, hand-drawn maps and doodles? Or are you instead intrigued by the scribblings and sheets of others? Do you want to see the real originals? The PlaGMaDa archives may be something for you then.

PlaGMaDa stands for the Play Generated Map & Document archive, and it takes any kind of paper and digital donations, as long as they pertain to paper & pen role playing games. So there's lots of old character sheets and hand-drawn modules that belong there.

You can surf through scans of the archive freely, and there are plans to have real life exhibitions in the future. PlaGMaDa even published a few shirts and books, including one by Ken St. Andre, game designer of Tunnels & Trolls. As I write this their shop is down, but it should be up in a week or maybe two if all is well. They also have a blog, and you can help fund them if you like the initiative.

We moved to The World Beyond

The Dark Dungeon 2nd Edition blog has moved to The World Beyond!
Well... it's got a new name. And a new banner. :-)

And soon, I hope, comes more news.

Pick #94: Yet Another Dark Dungeon!

Dark Dungeon is a wonderful name - so wonderful that there are various games bearing it - sometimes to my chagrin, as they are confused with my own Dark Dungeon. Still, most are good games in their own right, and this site is dedicated to Dark Dungeon in many forms, so... here's another one!

This Dark Dungeon is a fairly recent Flash implementation of the game you might know as "Rogue" or "Hack!" which used to be played on Unix mainframes in the 1980's. Actually it's nice, and plays smoothly. Enjoy.

Change the Name of the Game?

 The full color print proofs of the new rulebooks are in, and look cool! Apart from the color illustrations on nearly every page, there's one other big difference with the black and white edition... the name of the game. It used to be "Dark Dungeon 2nd edition".

Now I'm rooting for Angels & Dragons. Why? Because there are at least three other games with nearly the same name, and at least one this game is quite often confused with. The other games are nice in their own right, but this one is very different and deserves it's own attention. Hence a new name: Angels & Dragons.

But I'd like to ask you too, before I release the revised full color version on DriveThru.
What do you think? Is Angels & Dragons a good new brand name? Let me know!

And for all of you who bought the earlier edition, yes, you'll get a free pdf update in full color. Of course!

New Rulebook in Color?

Against my planning, I found myself redoing the whole Dark Dungeon The World Beyond rulebook in full color. Here are some samples. Would you think you'd like that?

Update: You can now buy The World Beyond in full color luxury hardcover & pdf indeed!

Pick #93: Star Wars meets Reality

Suppose the soldiers, creatures and droids from Star Wars appeared in our own reality. What would that make for a picture? That's what the work of French photographer Cedric Delsaux is about in his Dark Lens series.

If you don't know about it and you're a Star Wars fan, you might be jarred. If you like documentary photography, you may be jarred aswell. Enjoy in wonder, and join me in a nother thought: what would a Star Wars role playing game be like if we allowed it to mesh in with our reality? Naturally, Star Trek regularly went into its past, into our own time, but Star Trek has a different feel. What about Star Wars? Boba Fet in a parking lot, Imperial troops in Iraq and Shanghai, Darth Vader in Dubai. What intriguing stories can you spin from there?

Pick #92: What does a real sword weigh?

Have you ever wondered what a real suit of plate weighs, and whether you can move around in it if you're not like Lou Ferigno? Or have you ever wondered whether two-handed swords were really as cumbersome and heavy as the older GM guide said in Dungeons & Dragons? Thirty pounds for a sword seems rather hefty to use - that's about the weight of a bicycle. Because, what's the use of a big weapon or powerful armour if it badly slows you down?

Well, here are a few writers who bust the myth. They just tried it on and did their historical research. Plate armour was really made to be easy to carry. Maybe it's not as comfortable as spandex tights for the X-men, but it's surely workable. And two-handers? The well-balanced ones were easy to wield, they say, if you know how to. The less balanced ones were probably never meant for fighting, and if these were used at all, they would only have been used at executions. And how much do they weigh? A few pounds.

Check out what I Clausewitz and J. Clements at ARMA have to say about it. You might also have a look at the extensive information by the Metropolitan Museum in NY or laugh about the Dragon Preservation Society take on this one. If you're not handling swords every day, they may give you a few eyeopeners. They did for me, when I first read them!

Drawing by Urs Graf, borrowed from Dragon Preservation Society, picturing what a true 30 pound sword would look like.

Role Playing 101 #15: Story Gaming in your Dungeon

Last issue I discussed how you can see a Story game as a particular kind of Dungeon. Of course, you can also see the dungeon as a particular kind of story. Even better, you can combine the two different game types - sparking one of the other.

You might already be doing this of course, putting story elements in your dungeon, or perhaps little dungeons in your story. Even if you do, doing this consciously can make it much easier running your game.

Quests: a Story in your Dungeon

If you are more comfortable with dungeon, endless corridors with dangerous denizens, and fiendish subterranean complexes, you'll probably want to start there. Your party would explore a mythic under-earth place, perhaps with some sort of overall goal in mind - perhaps not. Often, you'll just delve toward the deepest level like in a game of "Dungeon Hack" or its modern variant "Diablo".

Stories typically enter such a setting as little "quests". In a room you may chance upon a patron asking your services, or on a dying creature with a treasure map, or even an enemy demanding something special before you may pass. Each of these encounters may spark off little stories, or puzzles, depending on how you use them. These are quests.

Quests only become stories once you also insert scenes. Computer games do this all the time, as "cut scenes" between the action. But these are seldom giving any choice to the heroes, or their players. What you want in a game is some freedom of choice, and choices that matter.

Scenes are a kind of Encounter

Your quests will be small stories, with a beginning and an end, and some developments in between. Each development is a scene - and each scene, is a kind of encounter taking place somewhere. A story can take different paths, and you might want to think up new scenes as you go along - but they can all take place in your dungeon. You just need enough space to have your story in.

Suppose your heroes encounter a band of orcs, who have a prisoner. That's your opening scene for the quest - a encounter with the orcs. Once the heroes freed the prisoner, and either killed, captured or chased away the orcs, the prisoner is very thankful and reveals he was searching a treasure here. He had a map, but he had to hide it while the orcs were chasing him - that's scene two. The heroes may now navigate to where the map may be or first do other things. But once the heroes get to the point where the map is, you can trigger scene three: it's now guarded by a horrible wandering monster, or perhaps it has fallen down a treacherous chute. Once the heroes have the map, they will be able to study it, and this might be scene four. It could be for example, that the heroes now recognize the area of the map, and realize it is a very dangerous area they have run away from before. This may spark of an interesting discussion of whether they want to go there at all.

And so you could spin your little story on further, while in between your scenes the heroes explore the dungeon and have their regular encounters. You may find that your players live up every time a new piece of the story appears, and that it gives new direction to your adventures.

Scenes are Challenges

Each new story element should pose some sort of choice, or challenge. Perhaps the heroes find that the prisoner they freed was part of a team he betrayed, and that that team is also out looking for the treasure. Suppose they now encounter that other team - whose side will they choose?

Also, each scene could end differently, and the story could bend in many ways. The map could end up damaged, or stolen, the prisoner wounded mortally, the orcs might return later in greater force. You don't have to tie down the storyline beforehand (better not!), and you don't have to be strict about where things should take place either. You can also insert a new development of a quest whenever you feel the game slows down, or the players need some change of pace.

An Overall Storyline

Once you are comfortable with quests, or perhaps before, you may want to have an overall storyline to your dungeon too. This may be a main quest, that drew the heroes into your dungeon in the first place. Perhaps they look for a long lost treasure, a long lost race, or a prisoner that was taken in deep. Perhaps they want to defeat an ancient evil that hides on a deep level, and now sends out it's minions to terrorize the world above - this is naturally the classic dungeon theme.

An overall storyline would have at least one opening scene - but you might have one for each new session you start, just to remind your players why they are there. An opening could be an encounter with the minions of the evil mastermind - an assault, a surprise attack, or even a negotiator, or a victim.

During the game, you would have developments. The heroes might beat an important minion, or lose a good friend. They might find a special weapon to fight their enemy, or discover a map proving a new route to his lair. They might befriend new allies in their quest, or free prisoners with new information. Each of such scenes will not only add spice to your dungeon, it will give direction to your game and your players. Most importantly it will enrich your game and make it more fun.

Pick #91: 24-Hour RPG Competition

Have you ever contemplated writing your own role playing game? Chances are, if you've stumbled upon this blog, that you have. Have you ever considered writing one within 24 hours?

With some regularity, the guys at 1kM1kT have a competition to do just that. In fact, there is one now, as I write this during November 2013. You can win 30 sterling in vouchers to meet "your gaming habit needs", and all you have to do is lock yourself up for 24 hours somewhere and write that game.

If you think it's not possible - you may be surprised - I participated four times, and I was both proud and surprised of what I could do in such a span of time. It's quite a boost to see what concentration and time-limits can do for your creative brain. Later versions even became full fledged commercial games of which I'm proud - like the cooperative card RPG Ringworld Zombie.

Even when you don't feel like participating, or if you have no time to do so - you might want to look at the results of others' efforts, and be amazed with at least some of them.

Role Play 101 #14: Story Telling for Dungeon Builders

At times it may seem there are two kinds of role players, the dungeon-type gamers, and the story-gamers. Two styles of play that are worlds apart. Dungeoneers may feel lost in a story type game, story gamers feel underestimated in a dungeon. But the styles may have more in common than it may seem, and in fact you could write a story as if it were a "dungeon".

The Difference: Story vs Dungeon

Dungeon gamers generally love Dungeons & Dragons in one form or another, Story gamers often don't - and instead prefer more "open" games where character and story are more important. The first group likes to just get into the action, and let any stories unfold as they do, if at all. The second group likes to get into their roles, and want to feel their heroes lives unfold in a story resembling an exciting movie or book - something with a plot, or at least something with some real depth and if possible a beginning and an end.

Often there is no dungeon whatsoever in a story game, just like there may be no story in a dungeon game. So what do these game have in common? Well, they're both games - role playing games. They just have different frames of reference. One has rooms for building blocks, the other uses scenes.


The Similarity: Scenes are a kind of Room

When you frame your game either as a dungeon or as a story, you are very much deciding how your game world is delineated. Are you moving from room to room, or moving from scene to scene? Rooms or scenes are your borders, your frame of reference in which you can move around. Sure, you can break down walls and make new rooms in a dungeon, but basically each new room is a new game situation. In a way, each new room is a special sort of scene.

In the same way, scenes are building blocks of a story. Sure again, one scene may flow over into another, but each scene is a separate, limited game situation. And just like every room has walls, exits, and stuff or even creatures or people in it, so every scene takes place somewhere, with someone, at sometime, with some central action and theme. You can almost think of a scene as an "encounter" with someone, or something. A scene is a sort of challenge, in a way. It can be a fight, a chase, a briefing, sneaking past the guard, breaking into a house, and so on.

A scene is limited - almost like a room. And like a room has exits, a scene has different "story exits", or leads, to other possible scenes in the story.

Connecting Scene "Rooms" into a Story

A role playing story is formed during play, and not during preparation. The choices of the players are just as important in how a story develops as what the game master may have thought up beforehand.

Dungeoneers often complain that they feel railroaded in a story game, much the same way all gamers would feel railroaded if they were in a dungeon with just one route to take - and no going back. Nobody would like that - and yet that's what many earlier modules looked like - and may still look like.

So the trick in any story game is to provide enough choices. Somewhat like a dungeon with many routes. Every scene should have several "story exits" to choose from, each leading to another scene. Thus you could have a map, or a flow chart of scenes - much like an abstract sort of "dungeon". But you can also just have a list of potential scenes, on a sheet or index cards maybe, and think of possible links on the spot, while you're game mastering.

Thinking in such scene exits may sound a bit more difficult than just drawing a new corridor or door on your map, but it doesn't need to be.

Scene Exits

So, what would a scene "exit" look like? Some typical exits could be:

- follow the villain - tracking him down, or chasing him,
- follow a clue or lead to a new location or contact (typical for mysteries),
- run away from danger,
- travel to a new location on route to a quest goal,
- rest and prepare for the next day or scene,
- follow an invitation from a patron or friend,
- get captured by enemies or the guard,
- go and shop for necessary supplies or special gear,
- go do research about the adventure goal, or about the antagonist,
- go get help from friends or authorities,
- and so on...

Whenever you are in a scene, it makes sense to think ahead to which new scenes the players may want to move. If there are no obvious choices, you should provide some. If they didn't find the clues you wanted them to find? Make a new scene exit for them, and throw in some new clues pointing in a useful direction. Are your players going another way than you expected? Either go with the flow, or throw in a "random" encounter  that becomes a new scene with new choice exits. Are your players bogged down, and not sure which way to go? Throw in a new friend, enemy or patron to give them new options. Also don't be afraid to just skip time, and say: "ok, you spend about three days in town, and then the next thing happens…".

Story Entrance and Climax Chamber

No innuendo intended. Just like a dungeon has some sort of main entrance - or multiple entrances - so your story should have a starting scene, with enough options to continue. Opening with a raid by the villains minions is classic, and so is a dying man's delivery of an important message. But there are many other options - you could even start with the "ending" of a never played adventure, much like the openings of Indiana Jones movies.

The ending of the story or session should also be special. As a dungeon may have a special treasure room, or the master bedroom of the villain, a story also needs climaxes. One often used in video games is the "boss level", but you need not make it so corny. A major confrontation with the villain would make a good end scene, as would a major rescue, or a break neck escape from danger.

As you may see, dungeons and stories have more in common than it looks at first glance. Perhaps, if you are a hard core dungeon gamer, thinking of a story as just "a sort of dungeon", will make playing a story game sound more attractive. And the other way around too - both styles can show new worlds to each other.