Hexed Places: The Sand Coast

I've finally managed to dig my way out of other work and put together a new Hexed Places title, the sixth in the series. The Sand Coast is a barren stretch of coastline, complete with its own shipwreck and ruins.

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.

For a limited time (*), you can take a buck off the price of the Sand Coast by using this link to make your purchase.

I should also mention DTRPG's slightly confusing Complete Your Collection sale. As I understand it, if you own part of a bundle from any publisher, you can round out the complete product by purchasing the items you're missing at the bundle price. I offer bundle deals for most PBE Games products, so now's a great time to round out your One Page or Dungeons in Blue collection.

(*) Offer expires February 22, 2016

Minecraft - Housekeeping

Last week's post covered some of the changes/improvements I made to my base in my current game of Minecraft. Since then, I've been doing a bunch of random stuff, but I don't seem to have a lot to show for my efforts. Call it housekeeping. Much like my activity this past week, this post is probably going to be a bit disjoint.

A Dungeon Map

I was messing about with some black and white mapping in Gimp/Inkscape today, and this is the result. Nothing particularly fancy, just a traditional dungeon complex.

Player Version

GM Version

These maps are sized for standard letter-sized paper (8.5x11 inches). They're also scaled for VTTs, 75px per five-foot square, the same scale as the black and white maps I've published on DriveThruRPG.



This work by Mark A. Thomas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Minecraft - Home Improvements

After my somewhat disastrous trip to the Nether last report, I spent last week working on base improvements. After upgrading base power to provide more efficient ore processing and a more energy for farming, I started working on a Botania setup. This proved interesting since there have been some changes to recipes since I last used this mod. Here's how things turned out.

Clawback Crawlers

Rolling plains and prairies may look like pleasant green seas, but the head-high grass hides deadly creatures such as Clawback Crawlers. These stealthy, serpentine creatures attack from hiding and can bring down large antelope and buffalo.

Minecraft - A Trip to a Dark Place

I had limited time for Minecraft this week, but I did get a few things done. In the last post, I mentioned doing some basic automation to keep myself supplied, organizing storage, and building a quarry. One out of three ain't bad, right?

Skeletal Rangers

Necromancers that have explored the darkest depths of their forbidden art can create Skeletal Rangers. These undead creatures are more durable than skeletons raised by Animate Dead, and they have special abilities that make them dangerous foes.

Minecraft - Relocation

I've been playing my modded Minecraft world a bit since my last post, making slow progress on my base, doing a bunch of mining, and creating a bunch of handy tools using my newly built Smeltery. As I mentioned last time, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to stay put or move my base. I've decided to move, but my new base is not too far away. Here's an update on everything that's happened since my last post.

RPG Animal Companions - Dogs and Horses

As promised in this post, here are the experience and quirk tables for dog and horse animal companions, suitable for use in any OSR-ish RPG. If you're looking for mules, check out the previous post.

RPG Animal Companions

Animal companions are pretty common in OSR play. Mules carry heavy loads on long trips, dogs add a little offense and serve as an early-warning system, and horses let lowly adventurers feel like they're someone important. Why not give these lowly companions a little love and advancement.

What follows is a simple leveling system for commonly used animal companions. Adding this system to your game won't turn mules, horses and dogs into powerful allies, but it will add a little color and fun to your game. Who doesn't want a 7th level guard dog as a companion?