2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac

The 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac has been released!
   
This is a free zine that various DCC players put together. Marc Bruner and Shyloh Wideman took the lead as organizers this year, soliciting articles, matching authors with editors and artists, and arranging to have the whole thing laid out, printed up, and given away free at Gen Con. The original print run is funded by donations, and everyone involved donates their time.
     
If you didn't get physical copies of the zine at Gen Con, you can get it in print or pdf on Lulu. The pdfs are completely free. The physical copy is sold at-cost, just what it costs Lulu to print it and ship it.
   

cover art by Doug Kovacs

   
You can get the combined print edition here.
   
The pdf editions are available by following the links below:
volume 1
volume 2
volume 3
volume 4
volume 5
volume 6
volume 7
   
The pdf editions are also currently publicly available on Google Drive here.
   
I had several articles in this year's Gongfarmer's Almanac. Since the spirit of the entire enterprise is about publicly sharing gaming ideas, (and since I just posted the links to access the work in its entirety), I'm also going to re-post my articles from the Almanac here on my blog. You can expect to see them over the coming days. If you like what you see, consider downloading or buying the whole thing, so you can see the other contributor's ideas as well.

New Chart-Topping Songs in Scarabae

My character has a new hit single!

From the album's liner notes:
Jeremiad Street Asylum, by Traviata Maru. A tragic opera aria about a woman who visits her lover in a madhouse after he has been exposed to an unspeakable horror from the Far Realm.

This is an exciting time for Traviata!

The song is clearly based on her visit to the Heigelman Clinic, and the horrors she beheld there.

Next time you find yourself in Umberwell or Scarabae, but sure to pick up a copy on wax cylinder!

DIY & Dragons on Blogs on Tape!

Beloch Shrike, who operates the Papers & Pencils blog, has another project called Blogs on Tape. The purpose of Blogs on Tape is to act as a kind of podcast or audiobook for OSR blog posts.

The most recent entry (at the time of writing) is episode 47, where Nick LS Whelan reads aloud my post on running a campaign of avaricious decorators willing to pry up the floor boards of an ancient cathedral to make nice-looking siding for a wealthy patron's potting shed.

 
You can listen to the recording here.

Pseudo-Preview of BPBM4

Stormlord Publishing has just released the fourth issue of their Black Powder Black Magic zine. I proofread the issue, and I also wrote up a list of familiars more suitable to a Weird West or other American setting. The familiars below aren’t on that list, but they do fit nicely on the end of it, and they give you some idea of what the other alternative familiars look like.

Lawful familiars
21 Pigeon (caster can "home in" on route out of dungeon or back to town)
22 Groundhog (caster knows coming day's weather each morning)
23 Child-sized scarecrow (opponents are -2 Morale)
24 Fey school-teacher wearing glasses and elbow-patched tweed jacket, never speaks, communicates using writing slate (caster can attempt to read any unknown language as a Lawful Thief of the same level)

Neutral familiars
21 Mockingbird (caster is able to speak 1 additional language)
22 Armadillo (caster is proficient with shields, suffers no spellcheck penalty from carrying a shield, and can shield-bash as a Dwarf)
23 Tumbleweed (caster can withdraw from melee combat without opening themselves up to a free attack)
24 Fey woodcutter wearing plaid shirt, carrying axe (+1 to attack and damage against plants and fungi)

Chaotic familiars
21 Black swan (once per day, caster may reroll any natural 7, and once per day, caster may also reroll any natural 13)
22 Giant maggot, transforms into giant black housefly during combat ("skin crawling" feeling alerts the caster to the presence of disguises and shapeshifters)
23 Giant mosquito (bite attack deals 1d4 damage and heals 1 hp)
24 Miniature black stagecoach with large glass windows revealing interior casket (+1 AC and +1 to saving throws vs. the undead)

My Pointcrawl Contest Victory

Chris Kutalik of the Hill Cantons blog recently announced a contest to design a location for his upcoming pointcrawl adventure "The Slumbering Ursine Dunes."  Potential prizes included having your location included in the finished adventure, and receiving a wargame from Chris' personal collection.

The winners were announced even more recently, and my entry won second place!

You can read my completed entry by clicking the link below.  If you want to wait to see it in the finished adventure, or at the gaming table, then allow me to leave just the following picture to whet your imagination.

"Castoroides" by Charles R.Knight,via Wikimedia