February, 1935 With the bloody corpse of the murdered local still steaming at their feet in the trampled snow, the investigators take control of the situation. John uses his military bearing to ward off the gawping onlookers until the owner and ringmaster, Benjamin Hancock, comes to investigate, strappy roustabouts trailing in his wake. Jeremy spots … Continue reading Armitage Files 02 – The Fortune Teller
February, 1935 The Inquiry Group, led by Dr Armitage of Miskatonic University, discovers two mysterious documents, apparently written in Armitage’s own hand, that point to a failed investigation that leads to the apocalypse. Associates to the Inquiry Group are summoned by Prof. Albert Wilmarth to the Orne Library: Lt. John Dewey (Paul StJohn Mackintosh), of … Continue reading Armitage Files 01 – The Circus
Previous posts in this series Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 We’ve talked about how the graphic design and writing of scenarios can – nay, should! – be better for GMs running them at the table. Now I want to talk about how their structure should be the same. Classic … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – No one expects…
Previous posts in this series Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 Last time I listed the various lessons learned from the best OSR modules. Now I want to talk about using them for other games, specifically horror investigation scenarios. Like the mysteries in the scenarios, there are various pieces to this puzzle. The … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Kill your darlings
Previous posts in this series Part 1 / Part 2 Last time I talked about what some small-press D&D publishers1 are doing to make their modules easy to use at the table for the GMs. I believe publishers of other games – my focus is largely on investigation horror games, such as Call and Trail … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Lessons learned
Previous posts in this seriesPart 1 Last time I talked about how most published scenarios and campaigns aren’t laid out and designed in the best way for GMs to use at the table. Some of the best examples for how to do this properly are in small-press D&D products1. These tend to be focused on … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Leaders of the pack
Juggling rules, setting and scenario information, and roleplaying can make GMing a daunting activity. There are plenty of potentially great GMs either put off by the challenge entirely or from crashing and burning in their first couple of sessions. Published scenarios and campaigns are supposed to do a lot of the heavy lifting to making … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Introduction
As much as I love extremely grim and gritty games, I can also be extremely silly. That's why I seem to be one of the only people who thought it was a natural fit to mash together Cthulhu Dark, the bleak and unforgiving game of cosmic horror with Og, the cavefolk game of slapstick hilarity. So, … Continue reading Cthulhu Dawn – Proto Edition
