Monday, December 20, 2021

From the Foot of the Mountain 17 December 2021

 

Hi there! Welcome to my first shot at creating a newsletter. Let's see if this is something I can do each week, and whether or not it's something y'all are interested in. I have some ideas about what I'll be writing but let me know what you'd like to see more or less of and I'll try to make it happen.

In my games this week

One of my two 1e AD&D groups is playing through Through Ultan's Door Issue 1 and is really enjoying it. I'm currently coordinating with one of the players in my other game to run a series of games as a guest DM. He's going to be running Gratkil - The Citadel That Crawls from Dissident Whispers which is a great-looking adventure as well.

Prep Ideas

The idea of patrons for PCs has popped up a few times recently, and I think this approach will fit well with my Friday group. I'm working on a trio of potential patrons along with hints that will point toward them., and maybe a direct invitation to "the Heroes of Saltmarsh". One idea I want to steal is to treat the patrons as semi-competitive (or fully competitive) factions with resources, goals, and a regular roll to see how they move forward. I want to make those rolls player-facing to help them see changes happening in the world. Next week, I'll share a write-up of one of these patron write-ups.

What I'm Working On

Magic Candles I'm going to be posting a series of twelve pairs of magic candles for my patrons. I'll collect these, along with a couple of other related bits, to create Four and Twenty Candles, a Zine I'll put on itch in January. Here's an example:

Cursed Candles

These candles are indistinguishable from other magical candles and might appear as a specific kind from the list above. When lit, they affect the individual lighting them as described below. Anytime the possessor of one or more cursed candle(s) takes out a candle to light, they will pull out a cursed candle that will take on the appearance of the one they mean to light.

Candle of Monster Summoning When lit, the candle will summon monsters as per the Monster Summoning IV spell. The monsters will be hostile to the summoner, and will remain for 1d3+1 turns unless placated, killed, or driven off.

Self-editing pass on zines

As I was using Vade Arcanum and A Woodland Path recently, I found some errors in the text. This pushed me to start proofreading pass on them. I've put both of them on itch in an attempt to fund hiring an editor, until then, you're stuck with me. I want to post a new release of each in January.

Podcasts

I've got a line-up of podcasts I listen to regularly. There are a couple of actual plays, some about gaming mechanics, and some reviews of books and adventures. Here are a couple that I'm focused on this week.

I'm listening to Fear of a Black Dragon - The Ghost of Mistmoor more or less on repeat right now as I work on a ghost story adventure for Kinopea (and maybe one for Høglund while I'm at it). Jason and Tom do a great job making me think about how I DM and how I create adventure settings.

Yum DM's first podcast, a fireside with Black Dragon Games and Manticore Tale. They do a great job talking about world-building and their approaches to gaming. I'd love to sit at a table with any or all of them to chat and play. You might also want to look at Yum's d12 zine - it's a great collection of tools, tips, and ideas for all editions of D&D.

Tweets & Blog Posts

Dungeons & Possums has been working on Dicevember prompts this month. One of his posts includes a full-on adventure with several fun little wrinkles - Forest. Check it out.

Black Dragon Games is super inspirational. I love it when he posts spells, monsters, and magic items. His play reports are good reads as well. I think his recent thread about the knock-on effect in world-building is a good example of the kind of thing that happens when you really dig in and start building your world. To my mind, it's the best kind of game prep.

Games & Stuff

There is a ton of stuff coming out for Mausritter right now. ManaRampMart has release a set of NPCs and an oracle for solo play. In fact, you should just go and check out his main itch page for all kinds of gaming goodness.

Cairn is also seeing a lot of love. with an oracle (again from ManaRampMatt) and an Adventurer's Guide. I'm looking forward to running more Cairn in 2022 and stuff like this and

I should also mention that I've got a sale running right now on my Vade Arcanum and A Woodland Path zines. You can get the pair of them for just a buck. If that sounds like too much, there are community copies available too.

 

Happy Gaming!

Pat Eyler Foot of the Mountain Adventures

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