This site no longer maintained

 Please go to rayotus.itch.io to find my games.

Plundergrounds 7: In One Bite

    

Plundergrounds is a series of theme-forward zines devoted to Dungeon World adventures. Each 24-32 page issue features a new and different setting with enough content to keep a group of players happy for 1-5 sessions.

This one is a special double-issue, an adventure and an actual play account, both 32 pages.

In One Bite features a super hard opening frame (everyone is on a sinking ship) but then flows (pun intended, as they are washed down the gullet of a Leviathan) into a modular bio-dungeon. The focus is on puzzle-like rooms, some body horror, and general strangeness.

I did all the art for this one, as I did for Beyond the Black Gate, but I used a different style this time. I hope that's a good thing. I'm pleased with the results at any rate.

I also included lots of GM advice. (Way more than I usually would.) It was initially written to run as a one shot at cons to introduce new players to Dungeon World, and I have tested it as such. My largest group during the testing phase was 7 and I finished in 3 hours, including character generation and teaching the game. (Only one person at the table had played Dungeon World before and that was in the previous con session that morning.) I recommend 4 hours, though; 3 is pushing it. At the same time, In One Bite, could easily be played as 3-5 sessions. You should find it to be really flexible.

To purchase this issue, join my Patreon. (Or later, you will be able to get it from the Plundergrounds Back Issues page.)

You can get the Actual Play for free. 

Plundergrounds 7.5: In One Bite - Actual Play

No you didn't miss #7! It will come out next month. Issue 7 will be a con scenario, a bio-dungeon, a teaching zine that helps Dungeon World GM's run the game, and more!

Issue 7.5 is an actual play record of the first time I ran the material that will appear in issue 7.

Tell your friends about it, because it's free.

Download: Screen - Booklet*

* As always, the booklet is ready to print. Settings should be US Letter, landscape, double-sided, short edge binding.

Books & Bullets v1.0

[Rules update log below downloads. Last update 2/6/2019 11:01 am GMT-8.]

Books & Bullets is a Cthulhu adventure game that shoots the line of complexity between Trail of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Dark, and which avoids the Insanity death spiral without taking the sting out of the Lovecraftian horror.

The game includes three single-sided play sheets.

Players – introduction, story hook, character sheet, character generation rules, dice mechanics, and rules for insight, mythos checks, and helping/hindering.

Mythos Master – your agenda, insanity & death, scaling mythos checks, running adventures, and an introductory mystery

Resources – (for everyone) tech by era, word lists, name lists, equipment list, sources of inspiration

This game is FREE to everyone and released under the CC-BY-NC-SA license. You are encouraged to link others here to get the game.

Download

Rules Updates:
2/6/2019 - Ver 1.0 public release (removed A4 and RTF formats, avail. to patrons only)
1/24/2019 - Ver 1.0 patreon release

Road Wars

I had totally forgotten about this game design until someone brought up playing with Matchbox tanks on the floor with their son. This is a race game I designed to be played on the floor with any kind of vehicle toy, but especially with ones you make out of plastic building blocks.

One of these days I may dust this off and try to improve it. For now, here's the download.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/33789024@N03/3780750008/in/photostream/

There and Back Again

[Rules update log below downloads. Last update 1/31/2019 8:57 am GMT-8.]

This is a small game I have been fiddling with for some time. The inspiration came from two articles about how the 1937 edition of The Hobbit differed from its more commonly read revised version and what kind of world was implied by that edition, sans Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. The articles probably explain it better than I can, so I linked them below, but here is the introduction text to the game.

You are an adventurer in the world of The Hobbit. Specifically the world as it appeared in the 1937 edition of that book. Anyone can be a wizard with the right knowledge, trolls turn to stone in the sunlight, animals or magical objects can speak, elves aren't always nice, and the wild is full of terrible creatures like goblins, giant spiders, and even dragons!

(Art © William McCausland, used with permission.)

You need 3d6 and the rules (link below) to play. When you print the sheet, set it horizontally/landscape, two-sided, binding on short edge. And don't let the printer scale it down. Then fold it accordion-style so that the title is on the front and the character sheet on the back. (Fold it once more if you want to stick it in your pocket.)

Rules

Articles (one is linked inside the other)

Rules Updates:
11/24/2018 - Ver 0.4b clarified player facing rolls, reorganized, added example dangers
11/23/2018 - Ver. 0.3 clarified how toughness works, failures, dangers, monsters.
1/31/2019 - Ver. 1.0 changed version number; no other edits.

Plundergrounds 6.5: Plundered Pages 1 (Free!)

Download: Screen - Booklet 

This 32 page zine compiles all the extra materials for Plundergrounds released to date, with revisions and lots of new content.

Inside you'll find:

• Items, locations, monsters, NPCs, and effects that supplement the themes in issues 1-6 of Plundergrounds. 
• Maps for Ape City and Kazarak, drawn after those issues were released. 
• Fan-sourced content, like cool breath attacks and hoard curses for dragons, a plethora of dungeon doors, and three sample entries for ...
• The Alpha World challenge! A creative exercise for making up more interesting fantasy settings.
• Toolbox essays and commentary that were cut to make room for more adventure content. 
• A dwarf shrine (move, spell, and item) that was first published in The Gauntlet Codex zines: https://www.patreon.com/gauntlet.
• Brand new material centered around art that I commissioned but which went unused, including… 
• A new map-based one-shot adventure, The Giant's Rest, featuring flora and fauna mutated by a magic pool and a dead giant's skeleton.