New Year's Eve

Yes, I am a sad excuse for a human being. I'm celebrating New Years Eve with a boat cruise in Minecraft.

I'm in a boat!

Happy New Year to all my readers and all the folks that have supported PBE Games over the last (almost) two years. Many thanks.

The Wilds - Old Bones and Old Stones

Back in the saddle with the Wilds, at least for one turn this week. Holidays always wreak havoc with the turn schedule, and no one likes holiday travel!

PBE Games - Last Call for 2014

The end of the year is Coming Soon (TM), so I thought I'd better put out a final update on PBE Games releases before 2014 winds down. I've published close to 150 products this year, about triple last year's total. Here are the latest.

Tile of the Week #44 - Big Time

This is the latest Tile of the Week entry. I recently started building tiles with triple-wide corridors, so I thought I'd throw a few examples out here. This is a formal-looking intersection / chamber complex, maybe a tomb or vault.

Tile of the Week 44 - Player Version

Tile of the Week 44 - GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle, if you're feeling lazy.

Wilds - Move On. Nothing to See Here

With the basic nature of the flying foes in Nest Tower discovered, the party decides to avoid a fight with flying foes and seek riches elsewhere. After a quiet night, they pack up and head back to the hirelings and guards. Once reunited with the others they pack up everything, head for the Needle jump to the Fridge, and recover all their supplies, a series of tasks that takes quite a while.

Once everything is reorganized, the party heads northwest, threading the gap between Nest Tower and Corpse Hill, making a beeline for for Tragor's Hold. Once again the group discovers how painfully slow it is to travel with heavily laden mules. Dusk finds the party just a handful of miles northwest of FOB1 (which was undisturbed since the party's last visit).

[November 10] After a quiet night the party continues traveling northwest into thicker forest, good cover but slow going. They cross a narrow creek that marks the transition from oaks and maples to pines and cedars. They also stumble across old bones (not that old, perhaps a few months) along the creek's banks. They appear to be humanoid skeletons mixed with those of pack animals or horses, all hacked, scattered, and gnawed. "I don't like the looks of this," says Rawon.

"At least it isn't us," answers Ohwatoo.

"Should we bury them?" asks Durego.

"We don't have time for that nonsense. We just spent weeks dealing with a corpse. I don't want to waste more time on these unknowns," says Ingvild.

"We wouldn't have wasted that time if we'd done the right thing in the first place."

Maro sighs and shakes his head, eyes on the surrounding woods. Raúguey says, "Maybe we should search the area, see if they left anything behind."

OOC

I know you guys have a good plan in place, but with the holiday coming I thought I'd give you something to mull over along the way.

• Visit the game index.

Tile of the Week #43

The latest Tile of the Week entry. This is the fourth and final of four quarter-sized tiles, each with a cross-tile stream running along one edge. You can combine these by matching up the stream-sides in any combination to create short river sections. You can also pair them up with tiles #11 and #12 to create more combinations.

Tile 43 - Player Version

Tile 43 - GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle, if you're feeling lazy.

Wilds - Cloudy with a Chance of Bird-things

What really lives in Nest Tower?

Wilds - Clear and Free

With the legal situation cleared up, the party is free to leave Auslaug and head back out to the Wilds. During their stay in town the group decided they needed to do something about the flying denizens of Nest Tower. What that "something" is remains unclear to the humble GM, but it probably involves fire. This turn was a transition back to wilderness mode; the trip out was uneventful.

Tile of the Week #42

The latest Tile of the Week entry. This is the third of four quarter-sized tiles, each with a cross-tile stream running along one edge. You can combine these by matching up the stream-sides in any combination to create short river sections. You can also pair them up with tiles #11 and #12 to create more combinations.

Tile 42 - Player Version

Tile 42 - GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle, if you're feeling lazy.

Wilds - Town Again?

By the time the group gets back to town proper, organizes places to stay, and arranges for more supplies, night has fallen. Various sub-groups settle in to various common rooms, food and drink at hand. 

Wilds - To the Gates

The party is nearing Auslaug and are ready to face judgement. At least most of them are; some seem more reluctant to reach the gates than others.

PBE Games - New Product Announcements

It's been a busy couple weeks for PBE Games, and I need to catch up on new product announcements. Here's the latest stuff, all available via DriveThruRPG and RPGNow:

Mega Tile One Preview

On the Dungeons in Blue front, I've released Transitions, a new set of quarter-sized geomorphs. Each of these tiles depicts a change-over point between two or more tunnel styles: standard and natural corridors, grand hallways and caverns, and sewer tunnels. I've also released Mega Tile One, the first of many quadruple-size tiles. The bigger canvas these tiles provide mean I can create spaces more suitable for set-piece encounters.

If you prefer stand-alone maps for the VTT, Oyarza's Lair is now available. This is a black and white, single-level, dungeon map of the abandoned (maybe) lair of the long-dead (maybe) wizard Oyarza, suitable for use in any fantasy role-playing game. The package includes player, GM, and handout versions of the map, along with map notes and a brief history of the site to provide inspiration.

I've also released the first two Hexed Places, The Gray Ribs, and Fen Fields. Hexed Places are outdoor locations and encounters based on the classic six-mile hex format and OSR sensibilities. Use these locales as a quick side adventure, to fill out your campaign sandbox, or expand upon them to create a multi-session campaign. Each includes an overview of the region, expanded one-mile per hex maps for players and GMs (PDF and VTT format), encounter and rumor tables, and descriptions of individual locations, encounters, and features within the hex.

Next up, are Bright Decay, Old Stone, and Freckle Speckle, three new Uncommon Ground textures. All three are stone surfaces, colorful, aged, and spotted, respectively. All Uncommon Ground textures are licensed for private and commercial use.

Bright Decay Preview

Finally, we come to One Page #23: Venoms and Toxins. This table details the appearance and effect of twenty unique poisons. These entries are easily adapted to any fantasy game.

As you can see, I've been busy, but there's more to come. The next couple weeks will see another Hexed Places, a new set of Dungeons in Blue Small Dungeons, more Mega Tiles, and more Uncommon Ground.

As always, thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Tile of the Week #41

The latest Tile of the Week entry. This is the second of four quarter-sized tiles, each with a cross-tile stream running along one edge. You can combine these by matching up the stream-sides in any combination to create short river sections. You can also pair them up with tiles #11 and #12 to create more combinations.

Tile 41 - Player Version

Tile 41 - GM Version

All Tile of the Week images are free for private use. You can download the images above using right-click / save as. Each tile is a 100px per five-foot square image, sized for compatibility with Dungeons in Blue geomorphs. The entire Tile of the Week Collection is also available as a pay what you want bundle, if you're feeling lazy.

Wilds - The Road Home

After a much needed rest and a good night's sleep, the group is ready to head back. Durego's regular reminders about the judgement hanging over (most of) the group's head have begun to weigh on folk, and everyone is ready to lay the issue to rest. With FOB1 unsafe, the group decides to use Needle Spire to cache their excess goods, lightening the load for the return trip, and allowing them to bring out more supplies when they return. They settle on the walled-up icy-cold spire destination as the best place to store their supplies.

Wilds - Cleanup, Aisle Z

The zombie owlbear abomination has been defeated. All that's left is to try and find the parts and pieces of Locky that remain, and get the hell out of here.