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.

Plundergrounds 6: The Black Gate

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

Character death is a part of Dungeon World and the Last Breath move is one of the game’s signature elements. But what if death were the focus of a session or three? What terrible purpose would cause characters to journey in Death’s realm? What strange things lie beyond the Black Gate? How would they escape Death’s greedy clutches?

Journeys into the underworld are as old as literature, literally. Gilgamesh enters the land of the dead hoping to bring back the secret of immortality. Odysseus, desperate for advice, sailed to the edge and poured out libations to the seer Tiresias. Finding himself lost in the dark valley, Danté navigated the rings of hell to find a way back out. And those are just a few stories from Western culture. Look up Yudhishthira, Izanagi and Izanami, the hero twins of the Maya, Kaknu, and King Gesar!

“Appendix N” works for this issue are:

The Earthsea Trilogy (books, 1968-72), Ursula K. Le Guin. In Earthsea, dead spirits go to a dark valley under strange stars. That was my starting point.

City of the Singing Flame (short story, 1931), Clark Ashton Smith. I have always loved stories about magic portals and this story haunts me with its alluring, immolating column.

The Passing of the Grey Company (chapter in Return of the King, 1955), J. R. R. Tolkien. The tone of Aragorn’s ride to call out the oath breakers is so freaking awesome!

What You Carry (200 word RPG, 2017), Evey Lockhart. First line: “Awaken and fall through the bottom of your grave.” It’s amazing; read it and others at https://200wordrpg.github.io.

To purchase this issue, visit the Plundergrounds Back Issues page.

PocketMod Games

PocketMod is a one-page, book fold format. It's a little tricky to work with at first, but the format is really pleasing for writing microgames. Here are some folding instructions and a couple of PocketMod games I made.

Space Trucker
http://www.rayotus.com/jsg/pnp-spacetrucker-pm.pdf
Space Trucker is inspired by 70s "trucker" stories/music - with a dash of Kung Fu, Space Opera, and Funk thrown in. The system is Minimal d6 by Norbert Matausch. The format was inspired by Sean Wills' Thronelands.

Flash Fantasy
http://www.rayotus.com/jsg/pnp-flashfantasy-pm.pdf
This game is an expression of the Minimal d6 system, by Norbert G. Matausch, suitable for playing OSR modules. Or at least that was my goal; you can decide if I succeeded.

Extra Funk, a Little Punk, and Disco Hobo Drunks
http://www.rayotus.com/jsg/pnp-spacetrucker2-pm.pdf
Space Trucker fan Greg Gelder created this cool supplement. It includes more characters, more trucks, more maniacs, more minions and monster, more planet names, and more missions! It also has a list of cool truck stops, a Galactic Citizen's Band radio jargon glossary, and a list of Swag/Style elements. Greg's purpose here is to expand on some of the promise of Space Trucker that didn't fit into the original PocketMod, specifically to add some funk, punk, disco, and hobo elements.