Latest Playtest & Other Musings

Last night I play-tested Sky ov Crimson Fire my 0-Level Funnel (formally titled Red Flame Resurrection) with +Alex Perucchini , +Clint Bohaty and +Tony Tucker on Google Hangouts.  Everybody had a good time and it was a blast.

This was the third play-test of this adventure, but the first with experienced role-players.  Being so, they were extremely cautious when it came to just about everything.  Checking doors and chests for traps, but mainly sending in Becky the Sheep to do the dirty work (who lived).  There were plenty of deaths to be had, but they managed to finish the adventure and stop the evil rites before they could come to fruition.  [Clint's 0-level Thoom the soldier, tackled the Witch, wrapping a demonic necklace around her as they tumbled off the tower only to be pulled to Hell!]

It was epic, but what did I learn?

• Less is more when it comes to baddies.  What I mean is less baddies that do more damage are better than too many baddies that do fewer damage.
• Mini-boss fights need to be brutal.
• Descriptions can be confusing, even to the guy that wrote the damn thing. (Which needs to be re-written.)
• When splitting a party have everyone roll initiative and just go down the line, switching between rooms instead of having separate initiatives between rooms.  (Does that make sense?)
• When is too much exposition, too much...
• Sheep are better at finding treasure than people are.

Overall I'm satisfied with how it went and I can't wait to run it again and get more feedback.

In Other News...

+Mythoard's latest subscription box should include a One-Page Adventure setting by your's truly!  I would love to hear a review of it if you get to read it.

I've also been reading a hell of a lot of Cthulhu by Gaslight scenarios as my play group wants me to run them in a game this October.  Though there are plenty of good ones in the books provided; there just isn't a huge selection of 1890's adventures.  This has got my brain swirling with stories that I'd like to publish (either through submissions directly to Chaosium or maybe via third party).  This is of course way down the line, but it's something I really wanna do none-the-less.

AnyHOO!  That's all for now folks!

Hoo... I mean...What! I Learned From Last Night's Play-test.

So last night I ran my 0-level funnel tentatively titled Red Flame Resurrection for a group of 4 each of whom had 6 PCs each.

Using +Jon Marr Purple Sorcerer 0-Level Party Generator I randomly made 24 PCs where the 1's on hp were re-rolled (however some of the stats for Stamina were so low that some hit points were still at 1). Out of those 24 PCs only 4 survived!  It was brutal and everyone had a blast!

So this is the second play-test of this adventure which is in its second draft.  Tomorrow I begin writing draft three.

Here is what I learned:

• Agility Challenges involving 24 PCs is pretty silly and slows the game way down.  It's better to randomly determine 1 PC from each player or maybe only the PCs with the lowest Luck score from each player and then have them roll Agility Checks.
• Random Tables of items in rooms are fun (even more so when they kill off players!)
• Making every death meaningful adds to the fun and keeps the players in a good mood even if they are being slaughtered.
• DC 10 Strength Checks for scaling walls with a rope can be just as brutal as raving mad cultists.
• Speaking of Cultists if you have a mini boss fight planned you better make sure he has more hp than a long sword can deal damage.
• Make sure your major baddie has a ton of hp to make the battle feasible.  (Amount of PCs x 10 = hp?)  That equation might seem crazy, but it works!

Overall my players (who are also my friends) had a lot of fun and said this version was better than the last.  However it is finally time to step out of my comfort zone and run this adventure with strangers.  In the next few weeks I plan on running some games online and will of course keep you all updated.  I've never ran a game online so I'm not really sure what's the best way to go about it.  I've never used Roll20 or whatever.  If you have any advice please leave me a comment.

I'll leave you with one final piece (of artwork!)

 This is a piece I commission from the extremely talented +Stefan Poag.  It will be in the back of all my modules displaying the best deaths from all the play-tests of said adventure and it's metal as hell!

A Taste of What's to Come!

I've finished my revisions for my first adventure; a zero-level funnel for DCCRPG tentatively entitled Red Flame Resurrection.  As of right now the draft is a solid 14 pages, features 2 fun random tables and 15 areas.

Here is a snip-it from the beginning:

Starting the Adventure:

It started with the disappearance of Belesa, the raven haired beauty with jade eyes, then others began to disappear.  Finally the children were snatched out their beds in the dark of the night.  Many suspect they have been taken to the ancient Keep that lies hidden in the hills of the Eastern Forest, for tonight, a strange ululation catches the wind as Red Star falls between a Horned Moon rising.

You brave souls are all the village of Reed could muster in a vain hope to save those that have been taken.  Together you steel yourselves as you trek up through the hills of the Eastern Forest where the pines sway eerily in the waning moonlight and weird voices rises and fall in unison sending chills down your spine.  

Shadowed bulbous shapes with wings flop and flutter over the pines towards the old Keep.  Soon enough a gruesome sigh befalls your eyes!  Two villagers, their flesh torn away from their bodies hang crucified at the threshold of winding and jagged stone steps that twist up and over the cliff sides to the Keep's front gates.  A grand pyre blazes in the last standing tower towards the back of the structure and a silhouetted figure is glimpses dancing around it.

Now for another couple play-tests and we'll be ready for the next phase!

HOO! is Owl Knight Publishing?

Well, since you asked... Hello!  I am Thorin Thompson and I alone am Owl Knight Publishing [OKP].  Just me, for now anyways, and those I can persuade to help in this endeavor.  OKP grew out of my addictions... I'm my happiest when writing, rolling dice, and killing PCs.  Thus I have formed OKP so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time when I come up with adventures to run my friends through.  Now I have a reason and that reason is to get it out into the public's eye.

A Little History...

I was, like many during that dark 4th age of role-playing, in search for something different.  I had grown up under my Father's wing playing the 1st and 2nd editions of Dungeons & Dragons, but didn't just want to go back to that.  I never got into 3rd edition or Mathfinder and the less said about the 4th rendition the better.

That's when I stumbled upon the OSR!  Here are like minded individuals that wanna play RPGs the old school way.  A crazy concept to be sure!  I devoured the blogs and posting within G+ communities and it was then by chance, or fate, Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG came to mine eyes.  I've been enthralled ever since!  I had to play it, had to roll up characters and monsters, but most importantly I had to do it now!

That was about two years ago.  Since then I've judged many a game and drawn many a dungeon and thought it was time I'd share these adventures with others.  OKP is the means by which I will do it!

Why an Owl Knight?

As they say in Twin Peaks, "The owls are not what they seem..."  Owls are my spirit animal (if you believe in such things.)  I've had a couple of strange encounters with owls just swooping down and landing by a branch or fence near me, staring into my soul and then taking flight again.  Dreams of owls flutter through the brain and the trees around my house.  You can find Owl totems scattered throughout my room and in my pockets.  I guess I've just always been fascinated with them and maybe they with me.

Owl was also my favorite character from Winnie the Pooh.

And since I'll be writing mainly fantasy adventures this owl of mine (who still needs a name) most certainly needs to be a knight, right?

What's your writing background?

I have a background in film, writing, editing, directing, acting, all on a low-level.  I've written several screenplays and have even gotten one produced.  A real no budget b-movie called Portrait for Hell. (You can search for it or it's other edit entitled Oil & Blood.)

Currently I've been working on a cartoon show with my writing partner that is slowly moving forward into the next stages of development.

Having always been into RPGs and board games I feel I've been destined to write gaming material.  For the past couple of years my Father and I have been working on a war game called Assault on Fortress Moon and while we wait to play-test some new ideas on that I figured I'd not sit idle and wait.

Publishing is new to me, but I'm a crazy perfectionist and so I'm going to try my damnedest to make this material look as good as it can.

What's first on the list?

For the past several weeks I've been working on a zero-level funnel tentatively titled Red Flame Resurrection, based off the very first adventure I ever ran for DCCRPG.

I have another 3rd Level adventure and another adventure (for what level I don't know) and finally a quarterly zine I'd like to develop.

So there's lots of ideas and I hope that I can get them off the ground sooner rather than later.

Now that you know HOO! Owl Knight Publishing is I hope you keep in touch and I look forward to sharing more ideas and adventures with you in the near future.