Update - 10/10/2022
Hey, how's everyone doing? I hope your weekend was nice, I spent it mostly working but I did have a friend come over for dinner on Saturday; we played the new Streets of Rage (last time I played a beat'em up game must have been the 90s) and then some Marvel Champions, so it was fun! I'm dying to watch the new Hellraiser film but since my partner is still not back from her trip I promised I'd wait to watch it with her once she's home. It looks so cool, I can't wait.
So this week has been pretty intensive; I've been dealing with a lot of folks who are asking me about Across a Thousand Dead Worlds, we had expected to have it done 3 weeks ago so people are understandably impatient, but fortunately it looks like Phil's back to work so I really hope we have it very soon! Honestly what is scaring me is the rising prices for printing so let's hope I don't have to take a loan to pay for the books, haha.
I've been super busy with my "small" game, Path of the Aram Thyr. It's shaping up nicely, and I basically only have 2 chapters left to finish it! Still, I don't think I'll be releasing it this month; I will be giving you guys the Sacrifice expansion instead. I think I should talk about what Path of the Aram Thyr is though, since I've been keeping it under wraps even for you, and I'd really like to know your opinion about it! The game's another D20 based RPG (although this one really deviates from D&D; essentially only the core mechanic remains, everything else is different), and you play as an Aram Thyr, a warrior exploring new lands and learning new fighting techniques from defeated foes. These are essentially spell-like abilities that you use by spending something akin to mana points. The cool thing is that when you create a character you choose one of the available starting Paths, and that determines which type of Domain your character will have affinity with. That means that you'll be able to learn techniques that share a Domain with you, and you do so by hunting down creatures of that Domain and extracting the techniques from their defeated spirit. So in a way it's like Pokémon, you go around "running through the tall grass" until you find the enemy with the technique that interests you, so you can absorb it from them! It's hex-based exploration, of course, and there are other things to do aside from improving your character, but that's the core experience. Lots of combat (I added a few extra elements that make it more interesting), and trying to increase your power via several ways. If you're familiar with xianxia stuff, you'll know what I'm talking about. The setting is strongly Celtic-inspired though, so it's a bit of a weird/different mix of ideas and influences. I can't wait to show it to you guys! It's definitely a departure from what I usually do because this is a game of adventure and exploration for the joy of it, there's no sinister plot behind it all, or a rotten, corrupted world to survive.
The game plays best as a "1 player - 1 GM" RPG, but I'm including solo rules and you can of course play it as a group as well.
Going back to Sacrifice, in case you missed it the physical copies are now available via LF OSR, so please go grab a copy of this incredible edition!
So this week I'll keep trying to finish this thing, and also wrap up the Sacrifice expansion so I can have it up here as soon as I have all the missing art! Hope everyone has a great week!