Matt Finch's "World of Jordoba" Comes to Backerkit

It's crowdfunding season (not that it ever ends...), and I'm not sure how many rulebooks, supplements, and adventures I currently have hanging out there. My debit card will let me know, I'm sure...

But here's one more I'm tracking...

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Matt Finch is well-known and regarded through OSR-land. As co-author of OSRIC and author of Swords & Wizardry, he brought a couple of the early retro-clones into the scene. Plenty of us have pored over his "Old-School Primer" essay, whose adages (e.g. "Rulings, not Rules") for RPG play have been dissected and argued over since its original publication. And many swear by the ideas and inspiration held within his Tome of Adventure Design editions and its companion volumes. 

So, for those of you who'd like to add another volume to the Matt Finch/Mythmere games shelf in your library, Matt will be releasing his "World of Jordoba" setting via Backerkit in August. 

The prototype Jordoba campaign was one of the first "actual plays" that I watched, way back in 2018. Matt ran a grotty crew of adventurers through the ancient ruins underlying the city, as well as the surrounding desolate lands. The campaign world was influenced by Mediterranean cultures and geography, with much of the city campaign including forays into the buried ancient metropolis and catacombs underlying the current city. Accordingly, the setting had a substantial history of past cultures, lost objects of power, and holy retribution and destruction. The PCs explored the undercity and its weirdness to recover loot and knowledge, as well as hopefully thwart the plots of various baddies residing therein.

The live play often acted as my soundtrack while running from job sites to lab to gym or home. And no Roll20 here. All adventuring play was done with minis, handmade terrain, and a small camera pushed along the hallways of the dungeon. The viewers and players were seeing the same perspective view, and there were plenty of moments of real tension as the PC-eye view of the camera turned a corner to discover a potential encounter. 

The playlist of the original campaign can be found here, replete with some excellent old-school strategy, PC deaths and near-deaths, and the general shenanigans expected from a handful of chaotic players and their equally chaotic PCs. I highly recommend it.

A Return to the Abbey of St. Martin

So we were at the brewery a couple of weeks ago, and as is often our habit, the wife and I were doing our creative things. She was doodling in her sketchbook, and I was scribbling up some map content. In the back of my notebook I found a filled character sheet and a short adventure. So I handed her the sheet and asked, "green or purple?" (dice). And off we ran.

Jax is a human barbarian that the wife rolled up via the OSE Advanced Fantasy Characters supplement. She's all about long walks on the beach, looking for helpful herbs, and being somewhat sketched out by magic.

And as she was on her own in this adventure, I gave her the option of a buddy.

"Do you want a hireling or a war dog?"

"War dog." (I should know this already.)

Meatshields provided "Goober" from Central Casting. Above average hit points, and a "rescue" dog. Although we weren't sure if he had been rescued, or performed rescues. More on that later. As I've done before, many of Goober's responses to commands or situations were determined, in part by a 2d6 reaction roll.

Spoilers, of course

Jax entered the old abbey, stepping carefully over the detritus of the entryway. She avoided the doorway to the left, continuing in and inspecting the floor mosaics. Jax felt that the pulpit area seemed a bit sketchy, so only gave it a cursory inspection (avoiding deadfall). The open door to the southwest was intriguing, and Goober was sent ahead to scout. Goober paused at the door and sniffed (2d6 reaction roll, neutral). Listening and peering in, Jax saw a large black furry lump. Recognizing it as a bear, she left it to its slumber, backing away slowly.

Moar Minotaur. And the Shaman class!

Well, figured I should give my minotaur the Advanced Version of ye olde game treatment, and give them a little class, or classes, as well. So here's our bovine friend kitted out for 1e/OSRIC/OSE Advanced Fantasy/etc. 

Download Me

Gave them the fighter and thief, of course, because apparently anyone can do that. And barbarian, because uncivilized. But felt like I needed a bit of a spellcaster too. Not being satisfied to just toss them the cleric/druid class, I wanted to perhaps give them something a bit hybrid. So the shaman class came to be. Now I know that there are likely plenty of shaman/witch/druid/nature-priest classes out there, but why not one more? 

Besides, I had this guy for inspiration:

www.deviantart.com/eoghankerrigan

Swords & Wizardry box set review

I've enjoyed the Swords & Wizardry ruleset and books pretty much since I found my way back to gaming and, specifically, into the preserved and remastered rulesets made possible through the OG.  I initially grabbed the free pdf, then picked up hardback rulesets.

I own two versions of the all-in-one hardcover rule sets (Erol Otus cover and Kaos Nest cover). I like the system for its OD&D simplicity and hackability, and a large number of my scribblings have used the system as a base. 

So when the Kickstarter for a digest-sized boxed set was announced, I jumped in for the 'wood grain' style box. Because nostalgia of original white box/45th +/- year anniversary (not that I owned the books or played in that milieu - I started with Holmes). I also appreciated the idea of the presentation of the multi-book digest format.

The project funded in March 2020, right about when other newsworthy events were happening. The planned fulfillment was October 2020, with the actual fulfillment occurring in the Spring 2021. Kudos on the team for their periodic updates and not going dark on the supporters during this time. The books and boxes were to be printed and prepped overseas, and delays occurred with production and shipping. 

So yes, I was pleased to receive it, even if somewhat delayed.

The box in its glory

The product consists of 'wood-grained' box reminiscent of the 1974 box set containing four softcover books: the Player Book, Spells & Magic, Monsters, and Referee's Book. Also included were a thank-you note from Matt Finch, character sheets, a set of dice, and a bookmark. Non-physical rewards included digital copies of the books and other player/GM aids. The reward add-ons included a book of additional monsters, a GM screen, and an intro adventure. The box is large enough to contain all items with room to spare.

The contents

So what's my takeaway? Well, it's a good product. But not a great product.

Build-A-Bear, err... Monster!

December? Where'd the year go? Anyway... 

Someone on Reddit OSR asked about crafting up a monster if you didn't have access to a bestiary or similar, or perhaps to homebrew up a monster. Of course, there is always the most excellent advice of "Everything is a Bear"

But I haven't tinkered for a long time, and figured I could make a "Monster Cookbook" pretty quickly. 

(two weeks later) 

For old edition-style critters, I've often leaned on Swords & Wizardry's Challenge Level model for modding critters, such as adding an ability or effect to a "stock" monster for appropriateness for a scenario. 

So I took that as inspiration for making up a quick and dirty point-buy system based on a theoretical Hit Die monster. 

Roughly, with 2 points per hit die, distribute points to various attributes of your generic monster template. I included five very basic templates that should encompass most types of foes (Humanoid, beast, "monster," ooze, undead, abyssal). And a shopping list of available attributes for the different types and how to cost them for making up a foe. 

This hasn't been exhaustively stress-tested, but it seems to work in many cases. Some critters seem underpowered, and some end up with a surplus of points. But it's a starting place for experimenting, and as in all things old-school, it's a guideline.

Click to download

Here are a few examples I ginned up: 

Type: Abyssal, 5HD (“Nightfall Demon”) 10 points total 

Buy 

1. +4 AC (4 pts) 

2. Multiple attack (2 x 1d4) (1pt) 

3. Extra damage (1 pt) 

4. Special movement (fly) (1pt) 

5. Weapon resistance (silver/magic req.) (1pt) 

6. Spell Effect (Fear) 1/day (1pt) 

7. Spell Effect (Darkness) 1/day (1pt) 

Generic Stat Block: AC 5/14, atk 2x(1d4+1), Movement: Fly; Special: Fire resistance, Immune to mundane weapons (silver or magic required), cast Fear and Darkness 1/day each 

Type: Monster, 12HD (“Dragon”) 24 points total 

Buy 

1. +7 AC (7 pts) 

2. Multiple attack (2 x 1d4) (claws) (1pt) 

3. Extra damage, multi attack (2 dice size) – 4 pts 

4. Additional single attack (1d6) (bite) (1pt) 

5. Extra damage, single attack (2.5 dice size) – 5 pts 

6. Special movement (fly) (1pt) 

7. Intelligent/language (1 pt) 

8. Spell Casting (2pt) 

9. Breath Weapon (6xd8) (2pt) 

Generic Stat Block: AC 2/17, atk 2 claw (1d8), 1 bite (1d10+1), Breath weapon, 3x/day, (6xd8); Movement: Fly; Special: Language use, 12 points of spell levels 

Humanoid, 5HD (“Snow ogre”) 10 points total 

Buy 

1. +4 AC (4 pts) 

2. Extra damage, single attack (2.5 dice size) – 5 pts 

3. Resistance (cold damage) – 1 pt 

Generic Stat Block: AC 5/14, atk 1d10+1, Special: Cold resistance

Beast, 4HD (“Of Course It's A Bear”) 8 points total 

Buy 

1. +3 AC (3 pts) 

2. Multiple attack (2 x 1d4) (claws) (1pt) 

3. Extra damage, multi attack (1 dice size) – 2 pts 

4. Additional single attack (1d6) (bite) (1pt) 

5. Special attack/continual damage (hug, 1d6/round) – 1 pt 

Generic Stat Block: AC 6/13, atk 2x(1d6),bite (1d6); hug damage (1d6) after successful dual hit

Finding a forgotten project.

Was cleaning up my writing files a few days back and considering expanding on a prior project when I noticed a rogue document with an April date. Looks like I started working on infesting one of Jackson's map, then dropped it when work got crazy. Appropriately - it looks like one of his "CoronaCon" maps. Forgot where I found it. Welcome to my brain.

So I revisited the map and started revising. Shifted a couple of features about and set up to finalize. And then I noticed three more rooms. Welcome to my brain.

That said, I'd started down a 'four elements' path, so better shoehorn in Air and Fire, since I'd already addressed Earth and Water.  And there's a totally unrelated statue of a jolly fat guy in a red suit... I'm sure it all makes sense...

Original

And of course there are mushrooms.

Never Enough Monkey - Matt's Map Mutilated...

And here we are, with another quick populating of a Jackson creation, this time his recent "August Quickmap," a compact "five-room dungeon" for the PCs to seek or stumble upon...

I went through a few iterations before settling on what lives in the depths of this unnamed cavern, set in a simian-infested jungle. Statted using a bit of 1e, a bit of S&W, and a lot of monkey.

Download it here, ya heathens.

And remember...

Four Trips into Malkara Caverns

It's been a while since I took one map and wrote multiple settings/adventures off of the single space - my '4 Scenarios' exercise. So, I grabbed one of Daniel's maps, this time the Malkara Caverns:

I borked it up with four one-page scenarios, each suitable for a session's play as a side-trip or destination. The cavern has some good geometry, with a scary bridge across a cavern, some side caverns, a subterranean pool, and a secret stash... The little quests are stuffed into a single document for ease, and use the Swords & Wizardry rule-set (but use whatever you like to run). Enjoy, and feel free to hack and comment.

Ella helped.

Download it here

"Sinking Temple of Gorth"

Hi all! Back from a fun weekend at Dragonflight 40, killing monsters and taking their stuff. Played with some familiar faces, met a few new folks, and didn't realize I was rolling with another local blogger until after the fact - good to meet you, JB - your "Random B/X Headgear Generator" is required for all my char-gen.

So, another quick statting of a Daniel Walthall map, this time his "Sinking Temple of Gorth"

So, a couple of design notes- I renumbered the rooms, as the original sequence is out of order (to me). While I populated it with only one set monster and one puzzle/trap, the time pressure of the flooding chambers should provide some good tension (along with whatever wandering stuff tunnels in at an inappropriate moment). And you never know if/when the water flow into the temple will increase...

So take a look, feel free to play/comment/tweak.  Statted out using Swords & Wizardry, but playable/adjustable for any old-ish system.

Come on in, the spores are fine!

Matt released his "Lair of the Mushroom Baron" out into the wild.

Wild mushroom hunting... hmm.

So there are rumors or discoveries of oddly-synthesized or rare potions associated with a local forest. Who is this mysterious alchemist that is cooking up these oddball concoctions contained in gourd containers?

Maybe we'd better take a look, and see if they are the amicable type... click below...

Welcome to the Lair

(statted out generally using Swords & Wizardry and/or a few things ganked from 1e).

Exploring "The Abandoned Mine of Delko"

Hi all -

Thanks to MeWe, I discovered a new mapper this week, Daniel F. Walthall. Daniel crafts up generally compact maps of 10 encounter areas or less, suitable for a one-shots, side-quests, or destination adventures, as well as small hamlets, and other locations. A nice feature is that the map layouts include numbered spaces to outline the room contents, as well as a table with suggested challenges at varying party levels, random treasures, NPC names, or adventure seeds.

So go peruse his tumblr of released maps, and support his Patreon if you are so inclined.

I grabbed his "Abandoned Mine of Delko" (one thing I like is that his mines look like mines...) and ripped the map into my own format.

(Original map)

A crew of contract miners has failed to report in from their mountain prospecting, and their employer is eager to discover their fate, and even more eager to recover the ore they were sent to mine.

So grab some mooks, and go check out the goings-on in Delko...

Statted up using Swords & Wizardry critters, and perhaps a Richard J. Leblanc, Jr. spider...

The Oneiromancer Class

I really need to keep up on my writing projects.  This one languished way too long as a random list of scribbled notes, then various drafts on the drive. 

Anyway, here's an arcanist who works and plays in the world of sleep, along with a short selection of spells particular to the subclass...

"An arcane student of sleep- and dream-manipulation, the Oneiromancer dwells in the unreality of the unconscious, effecting dream manipulation, recuperative spells, augury and the potential manipulation of outcomes..."

Posted up for free/PWYW on RPGNow for your review.  Enjoy!

Back to Inktober scribbles...

Another Dyson map, another story...

... and here we go again with a bit more small dungeon-stocking, this time using Dyson Logos' "Savage Caves" post...

This time I did a bit of picking and choosing with Dyson's narrative.  A group referred to the Saurguard was evocative enough, but I discarded the evil temple bits for hopefully a bit more intrigue.  Are the PC's merely curious, are they searching the ruins with a preconceived agenda, or are they seeking the truth?

Download it here!

Written using S&W stats, with a race/NPC ganked from more recent versions of the game.

Guimond's Tower and the Lair of the Druid Lich - Another Dyson Desecration

Another of Dyson's creations filled and fleshed out.  I'll often disregard Dyson's brief descriptive narrative that he includes with his maps, but this one called for a direct translation and populating.  I mean, liches are bad enough, but add a wildshaped druid to the mix? 

And what hangs out in his proximity to harry and wear down the party as they search out the lich's lair for whatever end-game that they pursue?

download

Built out using Sword's & Wizardry, but easily bent to your favorite rule-set...

This is the first time I've crafted up a high level/final boss-style big-bad, so I'd be happy to get feedback/suggestions on rounding him out. 

"Notebook Failure Dungeon"

+matt jackson  is so kind to share his maps, even ones that he's not particularly happy with (more the medium than that content), that I figured I'd stock it up, even with its perceived shortcomings. 

"The Cirdfhin Temple complex was constructed by the dwarves a generation ago for veneration of local battle-saints.  Carved into a cliff, it was home to dwarven clergy and acolytes.  Although the temple was consecrated and in use, the deeper rooms were still under construction.  Tragedy struck when an earthquake opened a chasm through weak rock that rended the passageways.  Taking it as a bad omen, the dwarves abandoned the complex, leaving behind many of the accoutrements.  It has since been occupied by less reverent tenants…"

Download it here

Stocked using Swords & Wizardry and a +Richard LeBlanc random d30 table.

Headed Upriver. Messing Up Matt's Map

While I typically use a +Dyson Logos map for my 4-scenario dungeon stocking exercises, I decided to give +matt jackson some love, and mod up his "If you were to follow that river" map accordingly.

The map depicts a portion of a subterranean river, crossed by a bridge (natural or otherwise), with two networks of caverns, plus an island with a small structure.  In all cases, I'm assuming downriver is toward the top (north) of the map, and that the cavern surfaces soon past the map.  The bridge entry to the west/northwest is close off-map.

So here goes:

Pirate Redoubt: A good ol' root-out-the-pirates scene.

Heretics on Parade: A good ol' root-out-the-heretics scene.

Wyvern Kin: A good ol' root-out-the-wyvern scene.

Secret Seer: A good ol' figure-out-what-the-hell-is-up-with-the-seer scene.

Everything is built out using Swords & Wizardry, but I'm not picky, play however you want :)

Mucking up a Dyson Map: The Banshee's Tower

It's been a while since I populated a map, so I finally got around to deciphering my disjointed and illegible notes for Dyson Logos' 'The Banshee's Tower.'

I built out the scenario with a slightly different 'banshee' a hidden big-bad, and an NPC party that got themselves into a bit of a pickle...

Clicky for download

Statted up for OSE, but usable by most any flavor of OSR...

Tomb of the Warrior King (a one-hour map and adventure...)

So I had to send some documents to my stepdaughter back east, and y'know, that envelope felt sadly thin.  So, knowing that she and her boyfriend enjoy various tabletop games (and she's gamed with me in the distant past), I stuffed the envelope with a copy of SWL, a few blank character sheets and a quick and dirty hand-written map and adventure...

Here it is, very slightly cleaned up and edited.  Still quick and dirty, with a somewhat uninspired title, but hopefully a passable low-level or introductory adventure, with a small puzzle, a bit of treasure and a couple of magical treats and threats...

Download here

Enjoy!

Infesting Malleth's Canyon (another Dyson Map Desecration(tm))

Populating another Dyson Logos map, this time Malleth's Canyon, a clutch of mini encounter areas/dungeons that he made up a few years back.  I figured that the separate areas had the potential for factions or multiple adventure threads/challenges.  I've poked at it on and off for the last couple of weeks.  Of course, a couple of the elements got away from me, taking on small lives of their own.  And in a couple of cases, items found in the canyon may lead to further adventures and/or complications for a party with them in their possession...

Written up with S&W Complete or Light in mind, but generic enough for other system use.  Enjoy and modify to your heart's content...

Source

House:  Overlooking the drainage is a surprisingly intact abandoned house.  The door opens easily, and although empty, the house does not show the expected depredations.  Dust and cobwebs cover the few remaining pieces of furniture, and nothing of value is found.  Even the roof seems mostly intact, a luxury. It doesn't appear to have been raided, odd, considering the neighborhood.

Well, except for that pesky ghost. Anyone resting in the house overnight will be harassed with a whispered "story?  Story.  Story!" It may be turned by a cleric as 4HD undead, but will return in two hours, still demanding a story.  Other turn attempts will be unsuccessful.  PCs will not be able to rest/recover while it is present.  Perceptive PCs will recognize the spirit to be a ghost-child.  Telling it a bedtime story (best if player role-plays, heh) on nearly any topic will satisfy the spirit and it will leave the party alone. The spiritual presence dissuades wandering critters.

Free RPG Day Fun: One Map, Four Adventures...

Good Morning!

Realized that it has been a while since I've done the exercise of creating multiple scenarios for a single map, so I gave myself the deadline of Free RPG Day to write up a few scenes.  Dyson's Grizzly Eye Cave made for a very evocative space, appropriate for a number of small encounters and challenges...

The adventures were all written up with Swords & Wizardry Light in mind, although they are neutral enough to other systems...

1. Nemar's Truancy:  A prince has retreated to the cave, shirking his official duties - set up as a non-lethal roleplaying opportunity (and bear-wrestling).

2. Ale's Well That Ends Well:  A tavern's stores have been looted and the miscreants appear to be holed up in the cave.

3. Trakohr's Bath:  An ogre must be eliminated, just don't disturb his bathtime...

4. Sand Trap:  A mysterious creature prevents would-be rescuers from entering the cavern to release a pair of hostages.  Using a modded critter from one of my favorite modules.