Barrowmaze Last Night

I'll save the gory details for Alex's session report but I do want to note the hightlight of the night.

After a relatively uneventful delve into the southern crypts, the PCs returned to town to rest and rearm. On their way back through the swamp they were attacked by three Pteranodons!

The war dog Sir Barksalot was eaten in one bite and the pteranadon flew away content. The second one flew in low and bit Mazakala the Magic-User for 12 points of damage. His body was cut in half. The third hovered low to bite and after many hits fell to Sol's mighty Spear +1.

So proud of their kill they returned to town and had the pterrifying pteranodon stuffed by a ptaxidermist and set him up in The Brazen Strumpet with a pint of mead (and to help entertain the kids). Even the beleaguered gnomes running to and fro serving ale were bought a pint to celebrate. God less those hardy adventurers.

Barrowmaze Dice Bag

The creation of custom dice bags was part of the Indiegogo campaign for select levels.

The concept was to have flagstone similar to the BM covers on the outside and gold coins on the inside (for the win).

Here is the first prototype. I'm very happy with the result.

1 down, 63 more to go LOL

My sweet, sweet 80s Koplow and casino dice not included :)

AD&D Reprints

Back from my sanity-break. I'm still trying to get my feet under me. I did manage to pick-up the AD&D reprints while doing some running around today.

I've only had a quick look at them so far. Love the feel of the covers. Font is a bit off but I'm pretty happy with them overall.

I have several copies of all three books that I have picked up over the years, so these were a want rather than a need. I believe at least two in my gaming group picked them up as well.

I bought these primarily to say to tell WotC to start supporting early editions and to help support the Gygax Memorial. It doesn't hurt to have an extra set of books for when I start teaching my kids to play either.

Did you get these books? What do you think?

Hiatus

[please note that I'm making this post with my ipad and it hates blogger and screws up the formatting] I'm on a summer holiday with the wife for the next week. Regular blogging will resume when I return. Yes, I'll be taking a draft of BMII with me for revision and editing :) Here's a couple BMII tidbits to hold you over: I've decided to extend the numbering of the barrow mounds from BMI to BMII. So instead of 16 being the Barrowmoor (in BMI) it will now be a mound on its own and then there will be 35 additional barrow mounds in BMII, for a total of 50 mounds overall. Huzzah! Many of these have multiple rooms. I'll also have a new hex-map of the barrows so your players can hex-crawl through the mist before getting eaten by ravenous monsters. LOTS of interesting coolness including additional hidden points of entry for higher level characters, a new mound type, treasure, etc. I haven't seen a copy myself (yet) but rumour has it Jim Holloway is very pleased with his color painting for BMII. I can't wait for The Reveal! Have a great week.

Reminder: Barrowmaze II Spell Contest

Just a reminder of the Barrowmaaze II Spell Contest outlined below. There are some excellent entries so far. Feel free to enter more than once.

A recent OSR post brought the Jack Vance "Dying Earth" spell name generator to my attention.

This thing is magically delicious: http://generators.christopherpound.com/#dyingearth

I'd like to run a "Create a Spell Contest" for inclusion in BMII. I've already have a bunch of my own (including Baltron's Effusive Bloodboil and Fennril's Exquisite Strangulation to name two) but I thought it might be fun to run a contest. The winner(s) will receive a free pdf of Barrowmaze II. If you are already getting BMII I'll send you some extra custom dice. Cool?

Here's how you participate:
1. Go to the spell generator and pick a spell name that bleeds classic fantasy adventure.
2. Create a spell to fit the spell name. Don't be functional, be creative and feel free to elaborate.
3. Post it in the comments section of this post.
4. Help spread the word.

I'll choose the winners on August 1, 2012.

Let me know if I've forgotten anything.

Barrowmaze Last Night

Last night's session was pretty interesting. initially I was going to audio record it. I didn't, but I should have. The party had been following the pulses of the Fount of Law in an attempt to find the Pit of Chaos. They came across a set of large sealed double doors. Thinking this the possible entrance to the pit, they entered but instead found it to be the Vault of The Chosen, Nergal's elite clerical sect. They 10' foot poled their way east after knocking down a bricked-up wall. They came to a room and, despite tapping the floor, the body weight of the cleric Cromwell and the dwarf Kelg made the entire floor giveway in a trap. After landing on their asses a great abomination of bone came forth with a antlered deer skull and four arms! Winning initiative it hit Kelg and Cromwell who were prone. Cromwell attempted to cast the next round but this was wasted by a strike from a scimitar. Kelg was hit several times and drank a Potion of Extra-Healing to keep himself alive as the halfling Snake Pliskin fired sling stones and the fighter Sol stood agog holding a rope. Kelg and Cromwell were hit several more times and it looked like curtains for the two of them. Kelg decided to drink his Potion of Growth. With several sling stone hits by Snake, and three double damage hits by Kelg, they managed to drop the dreaded Bone Golem. Then the action began lol Employing the "One More Room" approach, the party entered the other bricked-up room. Sol poled around the walls of the room and returned safely. They noticed that the ceiling of this domed room appeared to sparkle like star constellations. Cromwell, the fifth level cleric, stepped into the center of the room for a closer look and...fell into a bottomless pit! Oh yeah, did I mention he was carrying The Fount of Law? The game certainly has a way of keeping things interesting...

Interview at This Just In From Gencon

I was asked to Interview for The One Cool Person to Meet at Gencon Interview Series a few nights ago. It was fun. It's good and short (9mins). If you are interested in having a listen you can find it here.

Topics include:

•What drew Greg to OSR play and Labyrinth Lord
•How Barrowmaze developed organically in play
•The reasons behind the layout of the Barrowmaze dungeon
• The success of the Barrowmaze II kickstarter
•Finding the right balance in scheduling your Gen Con
•Greg is excited to check out the OSR booth at Gen Con

Barrowmaze I Hi-Res Maps now up on RPGnow

The new Barrowmaze Hi-Res maps crafted by artist Cory Hamel are now available on RPGnow at the address below. You'll get both Classic Blue and Black/White maps in both PDF and JPG formats for maximum awesomeness!!! Staying in tradition the maps are Satanically priced.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/103565/Barrowmaze-Maps-%28Hi-Res%29

Barrowmaze I Map Look-See

Cory Hamel and I are putting the finishing touches on the Barrowmaze I map. I'll anticipate putting that up on rpgnow as soon as later today/tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a first look-see snippet at the map in classic blue and black/white. I have these printed out on 11x17 and they are pretty swank. Of course these snippets don't do the map full justice and show all the dungeon-delving action to be had, but they'll give you a good idea of what we are shootting for.

Cory is also working hard on the BMI and II combined map for the Indiegogo campaign (when I'm not distracting him with art requests :))