You know the character type. He knows a “guy” who knows a “guy.” He’s got friends in every city and every walk of life, and everyone bloody well owes him a favor. He’s the face man, but he’s also the fixer. He can find the guy you need for the job or the diamond-tipped industrial […]
Continue readingTriple Threat – Rat-Thing Swarm
Note: Rat-Thing’s are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Rat-Thing Swarm Rat-Thing swarms are a writhing mass of normal rats and actual Rat-Things (which “control” them) – they are the epitome of fear for a musophobe. Eight or more Rat-Things (and hundreds of rats) constitute a swarm. Any Campaign Setting… ST: 8 HP: 48 […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: The Old Ways
Writing The Old WaysThe Old Ways was perhaps one of my favorite articles to date. I’d been writing pretty steadily at that point, but I previously had a gap where I didn’t submit anything or had written anything noteworthy. The last issue I appeared in had been Pyramid #3/49: World Hopping and I’d gotten my […]
Continue readingTriple Threat – Wraith
Note: The following is a monster of my own creation and is a composite of multiple legends, fictional sources, etc. It originated in a nightmare I had, and like I always do – I share my fear with others. Enjoy. Wraith A wraith is a particular type of corporeal undead. In life it used some […]
Continue readingAlien Menace Session 1 – Musings
I’m not going to try to cover the game session from last Saturday’s Alien Menace campaign – Doug and Peter did that pretty well already. And to be honest, I’m not going to recap those sessions because that’s too much work and the way I view it a GM’s task. Instead, I’m going to get […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Using Magic to Target Hit Locations
Targeting hit locations with magic is fairly straightforward in most cases: If the damage type of the spell can’t target the location – then the spell can too. But what if you want to target a hit location with a spell that doesn’t allow it or specify a damage type (like many spells in GURPS […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits For Casters – The Necromancer
“In glamoury that necromancer held his hosts of phantoms and of wandering ghosts…” – The Lay of Leithian, J. R. R. Tolkien In a previous post, I talked about various “wizardly” archetypes and how you might create them using RPM. In this post (and successive ones if it continues to prove popular), I’m going to […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Character Point Debt
Character point debt…hmmm. It can be annoying and it can be a wash, depending on the GM and the player. First, in case you’re not familiar with the concept, there is only one mention of it in the Basic Set (p. B295) and that is: The GM might opt to let you pay for your […]
Continue readingTriple Threat: Death Mauler
Note: This creature is directly inspired by the monster of the same name from Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Death Mauler The Death Mauler is an earth demon that dwells deep within the network of subterranean caverns of the Burning Hells. They are well protected by a hard shell bristling with spikes and a thick, […]
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Boil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic, Wishes, and Permanently Granted Traits
Inspired by +Peter V. Dell’Orto‘s posts about Wishes (you can read them, here, here, and here), as well as this post and this thread (which ultimately didn’t pan out for the reasons I discussed in there), I got to thinking: What would a “wish” spell look like in Ritual Path Magic? It almost certainly would require […]
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