Crow Land Publishing

22/03/2023

I've got to say, about 2/3rds of the way through the 3rd Crow Land book and, man, it's good to be working in 'Call of Cthulhu' or 'Basic Roleplaying' or whatever you want to call it. Mechanical assumptions about the world, so everything you design, are baked into D&D. It's hard to describe correctly so have an overly dramatic analogy: it's like a black hole, deforming all gravity.

If I was trying to write an adventure that fit, round peg into a round hole, that D&D style of 'do a mission, 'explore explore fight fight fight fight' it would be fine but outside that very narrow focus... and I'm not talking modern-day or SF, even other subgenres of fantasy... rules shape your creativity.

Anyone had problems with this? A ruleset intruding on your vision? And if you did, was it entirely a bad experience?

17/03/2023

Railroading: often considered one of the cardinal sins of GMing, I think it's more of a problem that players create for themsevles.
And here's why! Oooh. Controversy!

Go on, give it a thumbs up and comment! Great for the Al Gore Rhythm.

Railroading. Bit of a cardinal sin with ttrpg, eh?But is it? Come with your poorly lit narrator as talk about this classic GM error, and discuss why its ofte...

06/03/2023

https://startplaying.games/

Gming for cash seems somehow... it's just not cricket, is it? But a good way to earn ciggie and beer money, I suppose.
Anyone done this?

The number one site for finding games and professional GMs for any game system and any virtual tabletop. Play D&D or any other tabletop roleplaying game online today!

27/02/2023

I borrowed a copy of Starfinder over the weekend. Pathfinders 'this ain't your daddy's D&D!' answer to Spelljammer.

It is just me or Starfinder, in fact, absolutely terrible. Just a whole bunch of concepts from space opera welded together and thrown into a bad version of Star Wars? Very disappointed.

But maybe I'm just being picky and other people really liked it. How about you? Read it? Did you like it?

23/02/2023

I absolutely *loved* Regency Cthulhu.

Ever watch those Jane Austen movies? I've not read the books to my shame. They're always saying things like 'Mr Bonchester is worth ten guineas a year!' and 'And I say the man's a cad.'
There's fantastic rules, this means, for playing landed gentry and the idle rich and maintaining a good social reputation. I've rarely seen such clever use of mechanics to emulate genre, not since maybe, hell, 5 Rings?
I love that stuff, that non-combat solving problems with your words stuff. So these rules will be really useful going forward in any game. I think you'd be able to use these rules in a lot of games.

Big thumbs up. What about you? Got any recommends?

22/02/2023

So I've been having a great time designing in FATE, because you use language as a design element. Writing HANDY WITH A BLADE or ADDICTED TO BLACK LOTURS or HIGH ATLANTEAN MAGE has mechanical implications.
But it's just not a big enough sales and it seems to have a really bad reputation is certain area.

So, back to 'Call of Cthulhu' where I made me bones. Got a pretty fun take on it. This won't be a trad. CoC game where you're on a train in Istanbul going mental.

Do you guys like the Basic system, the simply percentile system? I know some people think its long in the tooth, just a bit old fashioned and I see that. But it just... makes sense to me. And it's easy to design in. What about you, though?

12/02/2023

Any issue you cats think I should cover in the videos? Obviously the main winners are D&D related but I really don't want to talk about those guys for a while. I'm rather, as the kids say, salty about them right now.

10/02/2023

New video up, this time in using symbolism in your games.
I look terrible in this one.

Symbolism, the use of an recurring image to encapsulate a whole set of complex themes, is one of the oldest literary techniques our species has. And we can u...

03/02/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60tzws5ZJYI
First video in a very, very long time. A postmortem on the launch of 'Wickerpunk.'

03/02/2023

First video for a very long time

18/01/2023

Anyone used the Cypher System? Numenera, the Strange, all that ish?
Looks simple and easy but maybe a bit... bland?

08/01/2023

Hey guys, appreciate some feedback on this.

Dunno if anyone's been following the OGL for D&D drama but... if it's true, we're officially out of the D&D business. We have to tell daddy how much we make. If we went huge and made of 750K, whch is very unlikely but not, you know, out of the bounds of possibility, 25% royalty.

On top of that they have a 'we can end you if you say something offensive' clause so wide that its clearly not about protecting minority voices but, in fact, a wide bludgeon to beat anyone they like with.

And worst of all, they have the right to literally just take anything they like and present it as their own idea.

Even if they do redress the concerns, I'm not interested in any kind of relationship with a company like that. So.

Is there a modern OGL game that's easy to work in? I'd rather avoid OSR and retroclones because I don't like that basic D&Disms enough to want to work in that space if I don't have to.

I really like Basic from Chaosium but I see it often referred to as creaky and done better by more modern systems. FATE is often brushed as as a 'story game'. Powered by Apocalypse seems to have the same rep. as FATE.

Cypher looks interesting.

06/01/2023

https://kotaku.com/dungeons-and-dragons-dnd-fifth-edition-one-dnd-1849884812
I'm not exactly married to 5e. I'd really much rather design in Basic, FATE or the Blades in the Dark system. But it's the big dog and no one can really ignore it.

But how do you wring more money from the old dog? Video games using proper systems would be my idea. There's the film. Probably get a telly show out of D&D. More books? Swimwear?

I'm not a business cat, but is it just me or is a bit of a pipe dream?

In an investor meeting, Wizards of the Coast’s CEO expresses a desire for ‘the type of recurrent spending you see in digital games’

31/12/2022

Any favourite memories from this year? For me, just finishing the follow up to Wickerpunk.

Any plans or ambitions for this year? I'd like to get a regular face to face group, so if you're in Melbourne Australia...

23/12/2022

Hello.
What rpg goodness do you want for Xmas? I'd like a copy of Mordheim, Wolves of God by Sin Nomine, Chaosium to play ball with a project I've pitched them, and for the Henry Cavill 40K show to be Eisenhorn.

14/12/2022

Anyone get or getting New Dragonlance?
I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised there's still a market for it. With its childish, Mormon view of morality and, honestly, I'm not exactly Team Kender. Although the walrus people are kind of cool.

Am I out of touch or ashamed of my 80s nerdy roots or is this simply an exercise in the poison: nostalgia?

12/12/2022

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=790955&products_id=368529

Aw, someone really likes us!
Just remember, cats, one of the most practical things you can do to help is give them a good review. Smaller the outfit, the more it helps.

Time to move to 5e for something a little more flavorful. One of my favorite themes is the struggle of paganism vs the rise of monotheism. The dark twisted child of this struggle is Folk Horror. This new book looks like covers a little bit of all the above.

21/11/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTMOErTZN54

This is a cutscene from an old game, 'Diablo'. The context is the hero is piecing together how the great demon bastard Diablo got into the world. I really like the atmosphere of it.

I will sometimes do 'cutscenes' like this. Cut away and spend a small amount of time narrating something the characters might not actually know but I like the players to know.

Yes, I suppose there's a risk of 'metagaming', characters acting with knowledge the players have. But I find it sometimes really enriches a game.

Anyone else use these kinds of techniques? I recommend them.
Don't take too long, no more than two minutes of narration, GMs shouldn't hog the spotlight. But I think it can really add value to the narrative elements of the games.

Diablo II Resurrected: Act III Cinematic