27 March 2010
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED
[SS&S;] The Process
MAR 26, 2010 07:18P.M.
Ok, I know neither James nor I have been particularly talkative about
Shadow, Sword & Spell. It is not because we are lazy, or because we
have lost interest. It is because of the way James and I work. When faced
with the choice of discussing the projects we are working on, or working
on said projects, we always choose to work on our projects. The thought
of taking time away from writing and designing, to write about writing
and designing, is well, counter productive. Still, I see how the lack of any
discussion about this game can leads many to think we have lost interest.
That can be further from the truth. There is a process at work here, and
now that we are nearing the end of it, I have time to talk about the game
in depth.
Back Story
Let’s get into the history of this game first. The game, in one form or
another, dates back to 2006/2007. When James and I were forming
Rogue Games, we talked about the projects we wanted to do. We had
the idea of three types of games – sci fi, historical supernatural horror
and Fantasy – and these three types of games encompassed the genres
and ideas we had as joint creators and individual creators. While
Colonial Gothic and Thousand Suns were being worked on, we
talked a lot about fantasy. Neither of us could agree on what we wanted
to do. Since this was true, we moved fantasy to the back burner.
Late 2007, while James was finishing up Thousand Suns, and I was
finishing up the book that would become Colonial Gothic: Secrets, I
turned my attention to our fantasy game. I worked on some rules, and
begun testing concepts with my players. This filled my time until the
spring of 2008 and when James and I were ready to get to work on the
game. It was then that we hit the key concept: fantasy inspired by pulp
fantasy. The name of the game came out of our discussions, and we went
with it. We were not sure if we wanted to use 12° because we had an idea
of doing Shadow, Sword & Spell as a – here it comes – d20 game.
Yeah, you read that right. I went to work on the rules, and by mid
summer, we killed the game. The reason? The game sucked. So once
again, the game was put on hold, and I went to work on a host of
projects, and James I did more thinking about the topic.
Come late winter 2008/2009, inspiration strikes again. All the false
starts we had on this was a blessing, in that it allowed both James and I
to ponder and come to terms with the type of fantasy we wanted to do.
All throughout the spring of 2009 James and I talked daily over the
phone about this game, as well as swapped a ton of email. We rejected
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everything we had worked on before, and started from square one. The
first square? Use 12°. The reason for this was simple, we loved the rules,
and the amount of work we both did on for Colonial Gothic and
Thousand Suns, taught us a lot.
The Work
By the start of summer 2009, we had a plan, and announced the game at
GenCon 2009. By this time I was already fast at work on the rules.
Unlike the other things we have worked on, we did something different
on this project; actually we did a lot of things differently.
The first thing affected me the most, I worked with my net. I outline
everything I work on. An outline helps me focus, and helps me plan for
the writing. My outlines are long, details and often block out the page
count as well as the art needs. Instead, this time, I went with my gut, and
worked off the most current version of the 12° rules I had. While this was
going on, James and talked about themes and style, and the inspiration
behind the game. We both read and researched, and the amount of books
devoured went into making the game better.
July 2009 I started the first playtest sessions of the game, and that is
when my real work really started. Rules were written, rewritten, thrown
out, re thought, rewritten, tested, and then finally rewritten. The phone
calls became numerous, and the discussions lengthy, but all of this went
into making sure James and I were working on the game we both liked.
We also broke up the work, in that I built the rules – with much input
from James – and James would come in and deal with gamemaster
advice, player advice and the detailed discussions on what we mean by
humanistic pulp fantasy,
The Results
October 2009 we opened the public the playtest, and while this was
underway, we were working on the non rule portions of the game. Now
with March nearly over, the game is nearly done, and other than James
finishing his portions, the game goes into editing come next week. Art for
the game is underway, and a clear vision is in mind for what we want to
do next – Shadow, Sword & Spell: Expert and Advanced do not
count these are planned – as well as what support we want for the game.
Shadow, Sword & Spell: Basic is a full game. Everything you would
need to run a campaign of starting characters is here. We call the game
Basic, because the game does not deal with having characters are
leaders and powerbrokers (that is what Expert covers). The book has a
setting, similar to what James has done with Thousand Suns meta
setting, as well as a full adventure. The first follow up will be a new
adventure for the game that if all goes well will be out when the game is
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
released. Said adventure will be a PDF, and we hope to have further
PDFs out in a regular basis.
Shadow, Sword & Spell is a game that has had a lot of work put into
it. I have done more writing on this project then I have for any other. I
have rewritten large portions of the rulebook at least five times. All of
this was done to get this right. Shadow, Sword & Spell means a lot to
James and I, and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get it right. I
am pleased as hell with the work we have done. Judging by the reactions
from our playtesters, all the work has been worth it.
What’s Next?
A lot. We are open to building this game and supporting it. We have
ideas in mind for future products. One that we want to do is a campaign.
I have an idea for a magic book. I also plan on doing a supplement
dealing with urban pulp fantasy.
What would you like to see? Heck, what do you want to know about the
game? There will be more regular posts about this game as we approach
the home stretch. Now that the hard work is done, the fun part begins; I
can talk about the game.
ROGUE FEED
Realms and Remembrance
MAR 26, 2010 12:59P.M.
Former TSR designer Jeff Grubb has posted a list 31 interesting facts
about the early days of the TSR-published version of the Forgotten
Realms. As with his previous post on the “secret origins” of the Marvel
Super Heroes RPG, there’s a lot of interesting stuff here, most notably
(for me anyway):
13) I contributed Festhalls to the Realms. Ed’s original city
maps had a high population of brothels, which made them
inadvisable to publish. Our choices were rename them or
rekey all the maps. I came up with the festhall name, which
by definition spread out to handle a multitude of sins (feasts
of both foods and flesh, and a bit of day spa added as well). I
am very aware when someone else uses them in a fantasy
novel.
I’ve always considered “festhalls” to be a perfect example of the kind of
sanitization of D&D that frequently drove me away from the game in the
late 80s and throughout the 90s. I understand the logic behind it, but it
bugs me and, worse yet, it contributes to a false impression of what the
Realms is actually like. To be clear, I don’t blame Mr Grubb for this
either, even though he’s the immediate cause of the existence of festhalls.
I certainly don’t think he should have “made a stand” back in 1987 over
something as comparatively trivial as this, even if I think the decision on
the part of TSR’s management was a poor one.
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27 March 2010
Thanks to Dan at Sword and Board for the heads-up on Mr Grubb’s
post.
ROGUE FEED
Fantasy is Frightening
MAR 26, 2010 10:55A.M.
In RuneQuest, there is a race of beings known as Broos or goatkin. In my
second edition rulebook, they’re described as
Human-bodied and goat-headed, [they] ... are tied
irrevocably with the Rune of chaos. They are given to
atrocities and foul practices, and carry numerous loathsome
diseases.
Broos have the ability to procreate with any species, intelligent or
otherwise, with the resulting offspring taking characteristics from both
its Broo and non-Broo parent. Most Broos in the Dragon Pass area (the
area of Glorantha originally most detailed in RQ‘s early materials) have
the heads of goats and other herd animals, hence their nickname, but
Broos come in a variety of types, depending on their parentage.
Anyway, during the RuneQuest Renaissance of the ‘90s, a product was
put out for RQ3 called Dorastor: Land of Doom, which detailed a Chaos-
tainted land to the south of the Lunar Empire. As I’ve stated several
times before, I never played much RuneQuest at any time, but I was
often interested in it. Just before Avalon Hill was purchased by Hasbro
in 1998, the company was selling off its stock of RuneQuest materials in
very cheap — and hefty — bundles. I bought them out of curiosity and it
was then that I first read Dorastor. The supplement included a NPC
known as Ralzakark, leader of Dorastor and king of the Broos.
For reasons I can’t fully articulate, I found Ralzakark quite frightening.
Perhaps it was because he had the head of a unicorn, a creature normally
associated with purity and goodness. Perhaps it was because he was an
urbane, sophisticated creature unlike his subjects. Whatever it was,
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
Ralzakark frightened me. I don’t mean scared in that ooga-booga-
monster-in-closet sort of way; I mean in some psychological/emotional
way. Ralzakark was a disturbing NPC — and fascinating too. For all I
know, I may be the only person who finds the Unicorn Emperor of the
Broos unnerving, but I suspect not. I know of many people who find the
Broos more than a little creepy and Ralzakark’s inversion of many of the
known facts about these creatures probably does unsettle people besides
myself.
This got me to thinking about how the best fantasies, the ones that really
stick with me, are frightening on some level. Shelob, in The Lord of the
Rings, frightens me and so does Gollum, come to think of it. They both
touch on things within my psyche that I’d rather not think about and
force me to confront them. Most of us, I imagine, need to do this from
time to time, which is why I think it’s healthy for children’s stories to
include frightening elements. It’s the same reason I think RPGs
shouldn’t shy away from being frightful. That’s not all they should be, of
course. Still, I think they’re a lesser entertainment than they can be if
they neglect to include things to unnerve us from time to time.
ROGUE FEED
Design Team
MAR 26, 2010 09:58A.M.
The people behind Colonial Gothic.
Richard Iorio II
Born in Connecticut, Richard lived in such far flung and exotic locales as
Pocatello, Idaho and Mauston, Wisconsin.
Richard has been a librarian since 1998, and has come a long way from
the days when he was the librarian for Harley-Davidson. He spent the
first part of his career as a law librarian and worked in two Chicago law
firms where he learned a lot about the law and about law firm culture.
This is what drove him to the halls of academia. It was academia which
drove him to leave the profession, and now he works in the publishing
industry.
Since 1996 Richard has been a freelance writer and designer and has
written for Atlas Games, Guardians of Order, Hogshead Publishing, and
Zeitgeist Games (just to name a few). In addition he designed two the
card games Geek Wars: Battle for the Con and World Championship
Dodge Ball for Goodman Games.
Currently Richard lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife, cat and library
of books.
James Maliszewski
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27 March 2010
Born in the Netherlands, and growing up in Baltimore, James attended
university in Annapolis, Washington, D.C., and Toronto.
Originally he believed his calling was to teach the world about the
wonders of medieval and early modern philosophy, but soon realized he
could just as readily be ignored by working in the roleplaying games
industry—and have more fun in the process.
Since 1999, he has contributed to many gaming products, most notably
various d20 lines (including Star Wars and Iron Kingdoms), the Dark
Ages lines, Exalted, Fading Suns, Gear Krieg the Roleplaying Game, and
Hunter: The Reckoning.
He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with his wife, two
children, and a Captain Kirk action figure.
Graeme Davis
I was born in Isleworth, near London’s Heathrow Airport, in 1958, and at
school I was mostly interested in ancient history and creative writing.
In 1979, I went to Durham University to study archaeology, graduating
in 1982. I started research for a Ph. D., but spent increasing amounts of
time playing and writing for tabletop roleplaying games and never
finished my thesis on Neolithic and Bronze Age burial practices in
North-East England.
In 1986, Games Workshop offered me a job developing a roleplaying
game in their Warhammer fantasy setting, and I became line editor for
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay until 1990.
In the 1990s, I moved to Denver, got married, and freelanced for White
Wolf and other tabletop game publishers before returning to the UK for a
job with Microprose near Bristol. That lasted for a year or so, and then I
returned to the U.S., working for Magnet Interactive Studios in
Georgetown, DC and then returning to Colorado in 1996.
Since then, I’ve remained in Colorado, gone through the ups and downs
of three startups that didn’t start up, got divorced, and kept on writing.
While making most of my living writing for electronic and tabletop
games, I have also published one fantasy novel and several magazine
articles on historical and archaeological topics.
I have also consulted with museums on interactive exhibits, worked in
publications for three local nonprofits, and volunteered at a wildlife
hospital. My favorite assignment there was to take an injured box turtle
swimming to help keep him in shape while his shell healed.
For fun, I walk in the Rockies (note the verb - hiking is far too energetic
for me), browse in museums, coo over cute furry creatures in zoos and
wildlife parks, and read folklore from all over the place. I’m also trying to
teach myself to play the Irish tin whistle.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 27 March 2010

ROGUE FEED
Graeme is the Line Developer of Colonial Gothic, as well as the writer of
numerous upcoming books and ebooks for the game Templates
MAR 26, 2010 09:51A.M.

With the release of Colonial Gothic: Templates we’ve introduced the

ROGUE FEED concept of templates. Templates are designed to make hero creation
easier, but they also help GMs come up with supporting cast quickly.
Physician Here is a new template you can use, and in the future, new templates will
MAR 26, 2010 09:53A.M. be added to this list.

Physicians are an increasingly common sight in the Colonies, although • Physician

not everyone can afford their services. Recent advances in the
understanding of anatomy, pharmacology, and infectious diseases have
made colonial medicine safer, though not necessarily less painful.
Anesthetics are unknown, and few drugs are available beyond opium and ROGUE FEED
quinine. As educated men, physicians belong to the upper levels of the
middle class, and are welcome in all levels of society. Modern medicine is Background
winning patients over from folk remedies and superstitious cures—at MAR 26, 2010 09:49A.M.
least among those who can afford to pay for treatment. Very few
physicians specialize, and dentists are considered to be craftsmen rather Colonial Gothic is set during the dawn of the American Revolution.
than physicians, often following another trade to supplement their There are many little details, which can be used in your games to give
income. Paul Revere is a dentist as well as a silversmith. them a little touch of believability.

Background: Urban Colonist, Immigrant Sections

Primary Ability: Reason
Skills: Empathy (Body language), Heal, Language (Latin, Greek), • Ballads, Poems & Writings
Medicine (Diagnosis, First Aid, General Medicine, Pathology), Observe,
Profession (Doctor), Study (Anatomy). • Books
Possessions: Medical kit with implements, bandages, and drugs (cost
varies with contents). • Colonists

Fates • Card Suits

A Marked Man: The character treated patients who had been injured in
a riot, only to be charged with aiding and abetting rebels. There is a • Currency
reward for his arrest, and he can no longer trust the wealthy (and pro-
Tory) clients who once provided him with a living. • Disease

Local Medicine: The character has cultivated friendly relations with • Education
nearby natives, and he has learned something of their traditional
medicines. He knows of several local plants with medicinal properties. • Equipment

Incurable: the character recently lost a patient to an ailment that he was • Government
unable to identify or treat. This might be a previously unknown disease,
or it might be magical in origin. • Groups

• Libraries

• Maps

• Printing & Publishing

• Religion

• Templates

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 27 March 2010

• Transportation

ROGUE FEED

Really Old School Dungeon

Tiles
MAR 26, 2010 09:21A.M.

While searching through my old issues of Dragon yesterday in a quest to

locate something for Mike Monaco, I cam across an ad from a company
called Kabal Gaming Systems. The company was selling “Dungeon Floor
Modules,” like those picture above — sheets of paper/light cardboard on
which were printed rooms, corridors, staircases, etc. to be cut out and
used in conjunction with miniatures.

I never owned these or indeed saw them, but I did have a similar product
from Heritage USA, called “Dungeon Floors,” if I recall. They came in a
small box (like most Heritage products) and were made of rather sturdy
cardboard. Unfortunately, I only ever owned one set, so, even when I did
use them, I had a limited range of shapes and sizes for my dungeon
layouts. They certainly don’t hold a candle to the Hirst Arts blocks we use
nowadays.