u/MxFC

Indianapolis kowtows to nerds!

Check out my project over on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelputlack/attack-the-light-1?ref=13jgsq

Avenge the White Mare is a second-level adventure designed for Shadowdark RPG and is the first full zine in the Attack the Light series. Based on the Hungarian folktale Son of the White Mare, the party must explore the copper castle and stop the sárkány dragon from spreading its terrible copper curse!

I was able to playtest the adventure four times across two cons last month, and it's really helped me dial it all in. I also couldn't be more happy with the amazing hand-carved, relief print art from my pal Nick Holland. I think he really got it to fit in with the vibes of Shadowdark while still standing on its own. And of course, I've tried to adhere as closely as possible to the Shadowdark house style while writing and laying out the zine!

If you have any questions, ask away in the comments and I'd be happy to answer them for you!

Once a month we hang it over the side, to soak in the sea for a few hours. Both my wife and I forgot to haul it in. Cue the 50 knot tropical thunderstorm, overnight, and we woke up to a broken shackle at the end of the line. We launched the dinghy and motored up and down the deserted shorelines, thinking maybe it had washed up. Then we snorkeled in ever expanding rings from the sailboat. Nothing. Dreading the prospect of showing up in a new country (Dominican Republic) without a sanitation system aboard (they can turn you away), I performed one last search. I was a quarter mile away from the vessel when I saw it. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. There it was just sitting on the white sandy bottom, upright, fully surrounded by reef. The lid opening and closing in the current like some bad movie scene.

I had a great time playing in Shadowdark games that Sydney and Kelsey were running, and I was lucky enough to have Skid play in my Shadowdark session!

I also ran some of JP Coovert's Goons & Ghosts (Ghostbusters with the serial numbers filed off) as well as my own adventure, "Nyarlathotep's Liegemen & the Sea Weed" for R'lyehwatch (think Baywatch meets Lovecraft). It is always a great time exposing people to new games like these, especially ones that are off the beaten path.

If I did have to pick a nit, it would be that the the blackjack at Linq is terrible (8 deck continuous shuffle, Blackjacks pay 6:5).

Overall, I had a really great time and plan on being back next year!

Unrelated to the logo, but the trailer (an homage to the Beastie Boys), is great too. If you're into tabletop roleplaying games, this one is coming to kickstarter.

My first game of the con today here in Dallas/Fort Worth!

From left to right...

Carlos playing Zoth the Wizard, who went to 0 HP at one point and was healed by the Ranger (far right) with a healing suppository he made with his herbalism talent. (And who also brought a copy of my Shadowdark monster-making zine for me to sign, which was very flattering.)

Me, who just couldn't role a 1 on a random encounter at ALL.

Kevin, who sat down late to observe his friend playing in a group and was playing a goblin. He rolled a 1 and was smashed to death on his first turn ever playing Shadowdark.

Joel, playing Fred Binks the halfling priest, who, in the moment between pouring oil all over the carpet snake (a real old-school D&D monster) and touching his torch too it, saw his torch snuff out at the exact perfect time for the torch timer to go off. (A classic Shadowdark moment.) (Also someone who asked me to sign the Bob World Builder zine I edited, which was also extremely flattering.)

Jeff, playing Surl the halfling fighter, who tried rolling up the rug only to find that it was a carpet snake that trashed out to envelop him.

Matt, playing Slen the human warlock, who climbed into a dicy obstacle and, when the rest of the party abandoned him leaving him with no light, chose to light his own torch and chose to end the torch timer for the rest of the party (rules as written!), plunging them into darkness instead.

And Austin, the dwarf ranger, who landed the killing blow with his magic longbow, decapitating the final monster!

These guys were great to play with, and for three of them it was their first time playing Shadowdark. They approached the dungeon in the way I kind of expected while writing it, but the way they handled most of the obstacles within the dungeon was unexpected.

The playtest definitely exposed some places where I needed to tweak the adventure on-the-fly or need to moving forward, but that is the whole reason I like to playtest! Really great group who I'd be thrilled to play with again to a person.

"You dumb bastard. It's not a schooner. It's a sailboat."

It was dank and delish.

If there was ever a day to check out my pal JP Coovert's Star Borg RPG, today would be it!.

I was lucky enough to play this with him at GaryCon and had an absolute blast. If you're looking for a Star Wars experience, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not giving it a once-over.

It's very frustrating that BlueSky hasn't been working for me for about 12 hours and their status page says nothing's wrong.

Edit: It appears to be an issue with my home network as I'm at a coffee shop now and it's working fine. ugh.

Very NSFW as the chair just barely dips into the water.