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

16/11/2022

Hey guys. Sorry for the long delay. Moving houses and we all know that's an endless arse-pain.
Is anything interesting gaming stuff happening with you? I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the third Crow Land book and that fatigue is kicking in. The usual things - self-doubt, of course, any creative's imp on the shoulder. Boredom, fatigue, that whole thing, we've all been there.

I know a few of you have written books. What's your technique for really throwing off these doubts and really getting to 'the end?'

18/10/2022

Hey guys.
Our next books iike Wickerpunk but for cosmic horror and our book after that is going to be an actual campaign setting.

Now, I actually run this setting in Basic Roleplaying. It's much more capable of running Low Fantasy. And the setting, based on one I've run before, is more a pistols and rapiers and tricorn hats than medieval platemail and barbarians. I use the Basic Roleplaying rules, the ones for Call of Cthulhu.

If we kickstart this book, and you can be honest, if we broke away from D&D, would you be less likely to back it? In short, are you D&D 4 life? And only D&D? Or would you be interested in other rules that more closely capture a setting's intent?

Love to engage with this.

04/10/2022

Looking at some regular equipment for a non-D&D fantasy thing we'll be doing next year. Basic Roleplaying System. SUCH a relief to be away from the fussiness of DND.
But.
Tell me about a cool bit of kit from your campaign.
I once stole a talking, sardonic, A.I gun from a book that was fun.
'Madame, asking me to shoot to wound demeans us both.'

I tried to steal Stormbring from the Elric books once, but Stormbringer moans in pleasure a lot and... I think we're adult enough to see where that went. 'I stroke the hilt. Does it moan?' Dead embarrassing, really. And I stole that cool chain from the Vlad Taltos novels.

How about you? Any fave weapons? Magic devices? SF kit?

29/09/2022

Anyone back this? We've been doing something similar but these cats have resources we.... do not.

A Soulsborne and Lovecraft inspired setting for 5e. Fight Nightmarish Monsters, Survive the Madness, and Join The Hunt!

16/09/2022

What's an RPG product you wanted but never got?

Many years ago, I would have killed for a really strong 'here is what an Vampire adventure can look like'. As in, 'GMs, do this and that and this.' Solid, practical advice I could just plug and play.

For Call of Cthulhu, I'd love to see more historical settings. Could you do a caveman CoC adventure? Would that make sense? Or a setting book in some grimy Eastern European 1960s Brutalist nightmare? I don't know I'd run it, I don't want to write it, but I'd love to see people's ideas on them. (Though I just looked it up and apparently there is a sourcebook to play as agents of Stalinist purges which strikes me as... questionable taste.)

And I'd kill to see a really great proper high level DnD setting that really takes advantage of the world. I've always wanted to do it myself but I'm just not enough of a nuts and bolts cat with 5e. 'Netheril' was fun, but not quite it.

I still can't believe the Marvel films don't have a really fun cinematic system. And I'd loooove to see Fading Suns with a really clean set of modern feeling rules.

06/09/2022

Does anyone know if this 'Lord of the Rings' 5e thing will be OGL? Like, can I design for it? Or too early to tell? I've been holding off doing wickerpunk design work using 5e rules as is... but I heard The One Ring was a brilliant 5e hack, but it ain't OGL. I mean, I could just rip it off, but that's not cricket, is it?

05/09/2022

Forgive me if this sounds back-patting but part of why we wrote 'Wickerpunk' was an attempt to predict a genre. This film, which is, you know... uneven... is exactly what we predicted. A clash between civilisation and the wilderness told through supernatural forces.
And a super creepy forest shaman. So if you are brining in wickerpunk ideas into a game, use this to sail to the city of Inspirado.

A pagan village, founded on the bones of both innocent and foul, is deeply rooted within the heart of an ancient Eden. When a balance of flesh and soil decay...

29/08/2022

This sounds weird, but I think a big part of being a GM is emotionally manipulating people. To put them into a certain state. This can be excited or it can be scared or angry or confident.

I've run soooo many games of the last years that I don't always recall individual sessions, but one of my favourites was a 2nd Ed D&D in a cursed forest. The right music, the right imagery and one of the players had to ask me to lighten up! I didn't feel great about making her uncomfortable, but I was pleased the sequence had been so effective.

Another time, in Vampire, and I played a looot of Vampire, an ally of the PCs died, blowback from their plan to use hostile werewolves. She was a French high fashion lady, and I think they liked watching me play her. But when she died, they were very displeased, with themselves, but also legit sad to see the NPC die.

Getting that balance right, between looking after your people but also creating an effective mood is, I think, one of the high points of the GM's art, and I do mean art.

What about you? Have you run a session or played in one that was really emotional? As a player, do you like it when it all gets intense? And as a GM, what tools and techniques did you use?

25/08/2022

I think someone was talking about this the other day. I prefer the more narrative games to the harder stuff, because I'm old and my brain has turned to cheese.
But narrative games are hard to sell to players sometimes, no one wants to play FATE with me at least... and... I dunno... I always thought GURPS was a bit... flavourless. Convince me.

https://www.troikarpg.com/

TROIKA! is a science-fantasy role-playing game where you and your cosmopolitan group of fellow travellers explore the ends of multiverse. You will fly on mystic barges, help dying gods, solve confounding crimes, plunder dead worlds, and meet strange & wonderful people. 

19/08/2022

Because I love you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emZeMwKXHdE&t=39s

Adventurers in Japan, get ready to roll for initiative as we bring Dungeons & Dragons to Japan this year! As part of our commitment in growing a truly global...

18/08/2022

I'm curious about this. I'm not really the world's greatest D&D fan. I mean, I like it, I just... I'm a big soppy narrative GM at heart. But both the dungeons and the dragons are the Show and the game's... fine.

But can this sort of constantly evolving One Edition really work? It strike me as a bit inspired by vidya, and impractical.

Sell me on it. Tell me how this works.

https://www.ign.com/articles/one-dnd-reveal-dungeons-and-dragons-5e-dndnext

Hot on the heels of the 5e reboot of Spelljammer, the team at Wizards of the Coast has revealed One D&D, which markes the beginning of "a new generation of Dungeons & Dragons."

09/08/2022

I've rarely found magic, or psychic powers which is how we say magic is scifiese, really *evocative* in RPGs. D&D has a confusing and unintuitive series of ranks and levels. It's better now but playing any casting class is often like playing another.

Mage, and its boring older brother Ars Magica, is fun, dealing with paradox and all that, but its freeform system often found me as a GM having to negotiate with players what they can and can't do.

Call of Cthulhu, well, I wrote a book about freshening up the magic system for Chaosium so...

I always wanted to like Amber Diceless and its odd powers and abilities but it was too focused on trying to simulate novels to really blow my mind. Most games just make magic a resource management minigame.

I rarely feel that magic represents forbidden knowledge, dark rites, something hidden and powerful and dangerous to be near or use.

How have you spiced up or modified or even straight up invented your magic or psychic powers?