OSR rule for Consumables

I was breezing over the rules for The Front today, as I'm thinking of writing another scenario for the

system. Actually I was looking for a mechanism to hang a scenario on (that's a little tip for anyone wanting to get into scenario writing). I found my attention drawn to the "consumables" rule.

This rule is a way of tracking anything that can be "consumed", be that rations, bullets, grenades, or hot water. Its very handy for bullets, as in modern games tracking bullets-left can be terribly burdensome, way worse than arrow counting in your average fantasy game.

The core rule is that a consumable is allocated a die, for our example lets assume the players bullets are assigned a D6. After each round firing, the player rolls the consumable die. If he rolls a 1-2 then the die is reduced to the next smaller die, so in this case it would be exchanged to a D4. If you roll 102 on a D4 then that's it, you've run out of whatever it is. The assigned consumable die can be any of the standard polyhedrals, so the companies ammo supply might start with a D20 consumable. Then each time the company is engaged the referee can roll the die and reduce it through the all the dice 

D20 > D12 > D10 > D8 > D6 > D4

I think you could steal this rule and drag it back into fantasy games too. You could track arrows, oil flasks, food, water. Also if you want to stretch it a bit you could use the same mechanism to track the energy supply of a broken down horse the players are relying on. Its cool for this because everyone can see the die roll and will be bought into watching the bones slide across the table.

OSR has a problem with Levels

So I've had a bit of annoyance with OSR games for quite some while, and nearly all of them are guilty of it! I remember when I was a nipper and looking over the old old Basic D&D rules I ran into the problem that everyone knows. Levels. The word, not the implementation.

Levels is used to describe character progression, and that's all fine and dandy. BUT, its also used to describe spell usage, such as "Magic Missile is a first level spell". This re-use of the same term for two different things in the game confused the heck out me, and I've seen it do the same for every new player I've dragged kicking and flailing into a game.

Its retarded to use the same word for two different things in the same manual. If you came across that in a washing-machine manual you'd be rightly pissed at its lack of clarity. If I came across this confused nonsense in a boardgame rules set I'd get righteously angry over the stupidity of it. Yet in game after game, especially in OSR games the author does the same thing. Pulling out the tired confusing , patently stupid, dual usage of "levels".

No more, I say! Its time to move on. I've got a few options you might consider:

• Circle (sounds nice and magical, and I think they use this in Earthdawn)
• Ring
• Rank
• Grade
• Stack
• Power

Please, authors, especially OSR authors, don't Dual Wield Levels.

Nerin Returns to the Goblin Dungeon

Once again we return to our solo Scarlet Heroes game. This time with the freshly named 2nd level halfling Nefin Tossmeadow. He's been to the dungeon twice and been beaten back twice. here's how it went...

Nerin decides to return to the goblin cave, he concludes that there's only the big goblin left and leaving him alive is leaving an enemy with a grudge. Better to leave no enemies to curse your sleep.

Nerin sneaks up to the goblin cave hoping to spy out but trips and falls out of cover into view of anyone in the cave entrance. (1-2 Goblin is there,5 no goblin). Fortunately the goblin is not there.

Moving into the entrance with his bow out and ready  Nerin moves up to edge of the pit trap. He's concerned that the goblin might appear as he edges past the trap, but sees no option except to grimace and bare it. He puts the bow up and edges past the trap.

Spear at the ready he edges up to the T-junction, (1-2 Goblin is there,3 nope) its clear and so he moves up to the doors. He listens at the door's crack (1-2 Goblin is there, 2 yes) and hears knocking or banging. he sneaks through the door and spots the big goblin using a mace to smash at the constructs in a destructive rage.

Nerin quietly edges out his bow lines up the shot and lets fly but arrow misses and cracks into the wall. The goblin looks up, grabs his halberd and charges!

Nerin stands his spear against the charge but the goblin sweeps it aside with a blow that sends our hero bowling across the cave floor.

Rising to his feet Nerin meets the goblins next charge only be sent tumbling across the floor but fortunate in not being further injured. 

The goblin comes in, over confident and Nerin takes advantage with jab into it arm pit.

The goblin is wary now and they circle each other, and then with a swiftness unlooked for, the goblin jabs with the halberd and smashes Nerin into the wall. It screams its delight!

Nerin levels his spear quickly to keep the beast at bey, and they circle each other again.

The goblin jabs again but Nerin has seen that before and knocks the thrust aside with his shield.

Nerin reverses the circling movement and gets his back to the doorway. The change in direction causes the goblin to misstep and Nerin thrust his spear in under the goblin's chin, it drops dead.

With a sigh, he drops to the ground and tries to staunch the bleeding (+2HP).

He thinks the place is empty but isn't sure, so he edges into the next room where he first encountered the big goblin. Fortunately the place is empty of foes, but the bodies of the goblins he killed last week are laying around partially consumed.

Nerin looks around the room and sees an interesting chest. He ponders if it might be trapped, goblin are evil like that. He nips back to the big goblin,  grabbing its halberd and comes back and starts using the halberds great weight to smash the chest from a distance. 

With it splintered apart he find it contains 400gp, 326cp, 168sp and two glass bottles (smashed on 1-3, 5,1) one of which is smashed. He pops the lid to sniff one and it smells foul. It may be magical. He takes the gp and sp and the bottle. Back at the body of the big goblin Nerin removes an engraved golden ring from its finger and returns to town.

Cowpunchers, Western RPG

Cowpunchers is a straight Western themed RPG. With a PDF running to only 25 pages its clearly on the RPG-lite end of the game spectrum. This base game is entirely "straight" that is to say, there's no "weird", there's no Cthulhu lurking in a cave.

The system itself is quick and easy to get into, I see it as perfect for a one-shot game, or for anyone that doesn't want to be looking up rules for every situation. Generating a PC is quick and easy with only 3 characteristics  Vigor, Finesse, and Smarts which are each rolled on 3D6.  That covers the physical and mental aspects of the character. As with most OSR type games the value of each stat is associated with  a bonus. In most OSR games that would be a +1, or +2 to a die roll, but as Cowpunchers is D6 based, the bonus effects the number of D6's you get to roll when making a check against the stats. 

There are a number of skills in the game, and starting characters buy skills and they're about ready to go.

Skill and Stat checks are all rolled by trying to roll a number of successes, with each 5 or 6 on a die being a success. This simple straight forward system is again an appear to new players or those who just want the system to get out of the way.

I mentioned one-shots, but Cowpunchers provides character advancement, by gaining levels the character gains new or improved skills. Its worth noting here too that each level gets the PC an extra Hit Point. That's important as it means that characters stay squishy. These PCs are not becoming super heroes but they will become crack shots on a par with "The Man with no Name". And talking of shots, there are enough gun stats in this book to keep the gear heads happy too.

The end of the book includes a scenario to get you started, but I have published the first supporting scenario for the game, called Pink Gold.

The art is evocative and on-point, drawn/painted by the author Jonathan Torres a.k.a. "The Basic Expert" 

Fallen Justice, RPG

Fallen Justice is an OSR inspired RPG where you get to play the part of a vigilante, not a super hero, but a real person who's willing to put two-fisted justice into the gaps left by the officaldom.

I picked up the 84 page PDF from DriveThru and I have to say, I'm impressed with it. The comic book style art on the cover is used throughout the book and creates a ambiance of the gritty violent bloody mood the game presents. This mood is supported by the included fiction extract, that features blood and teeth shooting everywhere as fists, bats, and bullets take down the bad guys.

Being a OSR game is has the expected standard six stats from every OSR game, but has an additional one called "Infamy" which represents the notoriety of the PCs vigilante character. 

Characters also have to track Stress that the PC encounters. This is important to the game play, as increasing stress pushes the character towards their "Breaking Point". If the PC breaks through the break Point they pick up a behavioural trait, which might be have a Mindless Rage, or turning to substance abuse.  In this way the Stress can become a kind of "Alignment".

Your character can be one of ten classes, including "The Crusader" who's out to clean the streets, and "The Marksman" who uses guns over fists. Each class has a number of special abilities , for instance "The Colossus" class has a "Granite Chin" that can turn critical hits suffered into normal hits. 

For money the system uses $, but I found the various costs of the hero-equipment were really cheap. Only by reading further into the rules did it become clear that this is not real world money prices. For instance if your PC were to take a hit-job from one underworld criminal to hit another the fee would likely be in the many thousands. But that kind of money would allow you to buy up all the game equipment. So if you are refereeing a game keep this in mind, and the money supply low.

This game is gritty. You play the part of someone who's been wronged, badly wronged, and the justice system has failed. Your character is driven by a revenge motive that will likely evolve into a desire to clean up everyone out there doing wrong. Play should include lots of descriptive play, When you smack an NPC with a baseball bat, make sure all the players know what it sounds like. Keep it visceral and unpleasant and you'll be on-target for the mood the game wants you to have. I liked everything I read in this book, it was on-target and meaningful.

Scarlet Heroes: Solo session 2

This is my second journey into a solo play of Scarlet Heroes, using the same PC, returning to the same dungeon.

Halfling spends a week lodging at the inn for 3gp, and heals back up to full HP.

Halfling decides to return to the same dungeon. 1-3 chance the goblins have replaced the guards, no guards. 1-5 goblins have armed the pit trap, they have armed it. Halfling attempts to edge past trap, success. He deactivates the trap.

Halfling turns right and tries to sneak through the double doors, success. The 10 goblins are still there. Rather than leap into the fray like last time he plans to knock one down with his sling, then retreat back outside and sling any others he can see. He takes his shot, hits but does no damage. He sprints for the exit and runs over the trap and stops just outside.

The goblin mob charges after him, he gets a shot off and misses.

Halfling stabs at a nasty looking goblin but misses, but while laying about himself he knocks down two gobbos. The goblins swarm our poor hero but he fends off all but one attack and takes a point of damage.

His aimed spear attack misses again in the next clash, but he unintentionally takes out a goblin with the spear butt as he pulls it back. The goblins keep swarming, they wont give up as they are defending their home, three of them hit him!

Badly hurt but determined, Halfling strikes running his target right through and stabbing another goblin behind! Shocked at the horror, only one goblin manages to hit Halfling and the blade just slides off his shield.

With only three goblins still on their feet Halfling shouts his war cry and stabs one goblin through the throat  and slicing open two others with a wild swing on the spear.

Gasping for breath Halfling binds his wounds (+2HP). He searches the dead and gathers up 7 daggers that he slides out of sight under a bush, and 19gp that he slips into his purse.

Halfling heads back into the cave and through the doors to where he encountered the goblins and find 3 Hobgolins coming at him! (Actually I misread the room, these should have been mixed in with the goblins, lucky for Halfling!)

A hobgoblin dodges his spear thrust, but the trusty shield-bash took out another. One of the two remaining goblins smashed its mace into Halfling's armoured arm nearly breaking it.

Angry and in pain Halfling quickly spears the hobgoblin that hit him, and slashes the other one.

Halfling rests up again (+2HP), stashes the three maces and finds another 8gp. He goes back into the cave to search the goblin's cave. He sees some constructs but nothing of interesting so follows the tunnel that extends beyond.

He finds himself confronted by 5 relaxing goblins waiting for the stew to cook! he jumps 'em. One is speared before he can get out of his cot, and another dies as Halfling stomps him through the bottom of his cot. The last goblin, a sneaky git(!) stabs Halfling under the armour. Halfling can't bring the spear into line in time, so shield charges and crushes the goblin against the wall.

Spending another minute or two he binds the wound from the goblin (+1HP) Rifling a few filthy pockets he turns up 11gp. He decides he doesn't want any more of the goblin daggers so leaves them.

The tunnel goes on so Halfling sneaks along as he can hear goblin voices. At the corner he dares a peek and sees a big goblin in a chair, and two more, one of them looks like a shaman.

Halfling prepares a sling stone and steps round the corner and fires at the shaman, he hits the shaman right in the spell book doing no damage! The big goblin and his pal charge. The large one is wielding a dangerous looking halberd that's bigger than Halfling.

Halfling drops the sling and wades into combat. He tries to take out the big guy, but the second goblin takes the blade in the chest to protect the big one. The huge goblin attacks but catches his pole arm on the roof. The shaman fires off a magic missile that hurts Halfling.

Halfling attacks back, but the big goblin blocks the thrust, but fortunately the shaman leaves himself open and pays for it. The huge goblin sweeps his weapon above Halflings head.

Halfling's thrust goes uselessly between the Goblin's legs, but it does throw off its aim.

Halfling swings wide in his next attack, missing and the goblin does likewise.

Halfling makes a weak thrust as he tries to back off missing his target, but also getting clipped by a halberd swing!

Another spear thrust goes wide of its mark but the goblin smashes a blow in Halflings Armor drawing a gush of blood.

Finally Halfling gets a solid strike into the goblin's leg, but at the desperate cost of another serious wound. Halfling's nerve finally gives, and he streaks for the door.

Goblin will pursue on 1-2, does not follow.

Halfling stands outside gasping for air, holding a sling in case the beast chases, but it soon becomes apparent he's not being pursued. He binds his wounds, picks up the daggers and maces before heading back to town.

Halfling sells the daggers/maces for 1gp each. As he sits down to his first meal at the Inn, he realises he's got his second XP and is now 2nd level. He's very happy and he's now worthy of being given a name!

I decide a level 2 character does indeed need a name, thus I dub him Norin Tossmeadow. I also spend some of Nerin's gps to upgrade his sling to a short bow.

Two sessions in and I'm really enjoying the experience of using the Scarlet Heroes for solo play in combination with Basic Fantasy. There is still that large goblin in the cave, so perhaps Nerin might head back when he's healed up.

Scarlet Heroes: Solo session 1

I played a mini solo game to learn how Scarlet Heroes plays out. I created a Halfling fighter (no name as he's level 1 and level ones are so prone to death in OSR games it aint worth the effort of naming them). Wearing scale armour with shield and spear. 

I decided to hit up ”Gold in the Hills” from the Basic Fantasy Adventure Anthology 1. I'm also using the implied background of Basic Fantasy as I haven't read the background material in the book yet.

Halfling approached the cave entrance sneaking up on the two goblin guards, they spotted him and fired arrows one of which hit the mark. Then Halfling was in among them and took out one with a spear hit and the other with the Fray die. Going through pockets and pouches got Halfling 6gp and two daggers for loot.

Halfling spotted the trap and edged around it and got to a T-junction. To the east double doors, to the west a tunnel leads to a big hole in the floor. Opting to clear the western room before opening any door Halfling went down that way. The hole was uninteresting, so it was back to the doors.

Listening at the door our hero heard sounds of digging and goblin voices. Halfling slipped in through the doors and saw 15 goblins across the way. Being the “heroic” sort he decided to sneak up on them before jumping into their midst. 

He speared one goblin, and Frayed another (perhaps smacking a goblin in the face with his shield). The remaining 13(!!!!) goblins drew daggers and dived at Halfling, more than a few stuck their pins in. 

Halfling bloodied but not downhearted struck back. 

He ran another goblin through with his spear, and Frayed another two (a shield into the back of one head, and spear butt into the crutch of another). Then the remaining 10 goblins attacked. Many missed but not enough. Poor halfling was reduced to 1 HP. 

Brave Halfling ran for it!

Having returned to town Halfling earns 1XP, and sells the two daggers for 1gp each giving him a total loot of 8gp.

Here's Halfling's stats...

Halfling STR16 DEX 15 CON 12 INT12 WIS 12 CHA 16 HP 9

Traits: Halfling stealth, Popular cook, Twisted firestarter, Make your own comfort

Camp gear, rope, rations 3 days, lantern, 2 oil flasks, waterskin, backpack, scale armour, shield, 8gp, 8sp.

Scarlet Heroes: First thoughts on the rules

I picked up the Scarlet Heroes RPG because of its touted awesomeness for single player OSR style roleplaying. A few years back another GM ran me (my character) though a single adventure. it was really a learning experience for him, but I remember having a good time.

Anyway back to the present day, and I now have a soft back copy of the game myself. Reading the rules for the first time certainly made it look suitable for solo play. In fact it IS designed for one player and a GM, but I think it could easily handle two players. However I would have to think twice before moving to three or more, I'm not so sure that would work, and here's why...

At first level your PC is a bit of a bad ass able to leap into battle with as many as ten goblins. It'll be close, but you'll likely win. With a second PC, you'd wipe the floor with them. With a third PC it wouldn't even be a challenge and I'd be surprised if it lasted beyond a single round of combat. 

So what would you do as a GM to increase the interest level for these three PCs? Adding more goblins would seem the obvious choice. But this leads to a huge number of gobbos to track and a bucket of dice, which would bog the game down. The next option would be to place beefier monsters in the dungeon to batter the PCs. BUT the players PCs are pretty squishy without a large number of hit points. One, maybe two hits from a bigger monster could lay them out dead. So that seems like a bad idea. Maybe there's something else to do, but it escapes me for the moment.

The rules of the game are presented first and only take up about a third of the book, with the remained being the well laid out background for the world. The rules are based in an OSR framework and indeed you can use these rules to play in any OSR world, not just the one presented in the book. I have done this and will make a separate post about that.

There are two main changes away from your average OSR title that make you're PC a bad ass, and that increase the single-PC dynamic preferable. 

The first is that hits your PC does to the monster, are done to hits Hit Dice (HD) rather than its hit points (it effectively does not have hit points). Therefore one hit point of damage done to a 1HD monster kills it. Whoa, don't panic. you roll your damage as normal, for instance 1D6 for a spear, then reference the result on a simple chart. A 1 on the D6 does no damage at all, 2-5 does one point of damage and 6 would do two points. Thus, a result of 2-6 would kill a 1HD opponent, and a result of 6 would be able to kill a 1HD or a 2HD opponent.

The second bad-ass trick is the "Fray" die. This is like secondary damage. In each round of combat you roll this extra die and check the number of damage the result does on the same table. These "extra" points of damage you can allocate to other opponents of your level or lower that are in the same combat. If your PC is in combat with ten goblins, you roll to hit one on them, perhaps skewer it with your spear, BUT you also roll well on your Fray die scoring two hits, meaning in the same round you also take out a couple more goblins. The Fray die results represent the general melee that takes place around and close to the main target.

I've run a couple of mini solo sessions, and I'll be posting about them shortly, but the TLDR of those sessions was "Nice!".

(Your Name Here) and the Argonauts

This is a quick video examination of "(Your Name Here) and the Argonauts" which is a free print and play game. You can download the files from its page on Board Game geek.

A board game idea - "hotel"

So the idea of this game is for a two or three player game that I know I will not have time to develop, unless someone wants to pay me to do it of course.

Players take the role of a general dogsbody in a hotel. If a guest needs a pillow you get it, If a room has a water leak, you fix it etc etc.

The board is made up of a cutaway profile of the hotel with three or four rooms per level. A stairwell and elevator give access to the various guest levels from the lobby, which is where the players avatars start. Carefully secreted around the hotel are special rooms that supply the things your avatar might need, such as pillows and blankets in the linen closet, tools in the basement and so on.

Each turn cards are draw from a deck of cards, perhaps one per player. Each card has a guests "need" that the avatars must fulfill. The "need" might be an extra pillow, fixing a water leak, coffee, whatever, and each card has an associated tip that the avatar will get for providing the need. The card is placed on the board in a room space.


To fulfill a "need" the avatar must be moved to the location that has the required item, such as pillows from the linen closet, and then moved to the room that has the need. The player then takes the card.

Tips can be spent to purchase upgrades to the avatar, such as roller skates that allow them to move quicker. At the end of the game the player with the highest amount of unspent tips will win.

Another feature of this unfinished idea includes take-that upgrades, that allow you to slow your opponents by setting banana skin traps, locking the supply room etc.

Well, that's the idea. Unfinished, unpolished. Now it's out of my head, hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Another Leg End Mary game

I've been pondering another Leg End Mary (Legendary) game this time based on the classic TV series "Sapphire and Steel".

So I've been mocking up card layouts .

I've thinking of having a base set of cards, and then "assignment packs", with each assignment pack providing the location, enemies, events and additional cards for the Sapphire and Steel mini decks that are only used in that mission/assignment. Other mini decks too, for Lead and Silver etc.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

I've launched a Kickstarter! Mecha Strike Force Omega

I've launched a kickstarter to raise funds to purchase art for a card game I've designed. I could go on about how great it all is, but what's the point! Check out the Kickstarter page, watch the video and see if you'd like to help getting this project off the ground.

It's got Mecha in it!

The Kickstarter Link

Leg End Mary: Encounters

I just published a free to download print and play game based around The Princess Bride. Details on one of my other blogs....

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Solitaire play throiugh of Memoir '44, Montelimar

Another of my solo plays of Memoir 44. Not many left in the base game, then I'll have to move onto the scenarios in the expansions...

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Hogarth's Heroes - a Traveller scenario

Hogarth's Heroes is a Traveller one-shot scenario for 1-5 players. Designed to be played in a single session. The PCs find themselves as part of a mercenary company.

The job looks simple, foward observation and the direction or Ortillery (orbital artillery). Then things start to go wrong. A mysterious light in the sky, comms failing, an enemy convoy, hunting dogs, and swarming militia. The party must escape and evade.


Available from : DriveThruRPG

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Solitaire play through of Memoir '44, The Liberation of Paris

 Here's the next in my video play-through series of the official Memoir '44 scenarios.

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Space Hero Memoir 40K : Actual Play

 Here's an actual play of the game I presented in my last post. A mashup of Memoir '44, Space Crusade and Heroscape.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Space Hero Memoir 40K

 I was looking at my collection the other night when it occurred to me there was a natural mash up just waiting to happen, so I went ahead and did it.

Here's the game set up for the first play-through...

As you can tell, all you need to play this game is Space Crusade, Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie (maybe two sets if you want four walls like me), and Memoir '44.

The idea was for the Emperor's best to find the Artefact Glyph and take it off board. Alas the forces of Chaos were to intervene.

After the first turn, the yellow squad were already in trouble, with chaos marines kicking their butt.

Sadly for the "good" guys things went from bad to worse very quickly, although they did take out the Dreadnought very easily.

It went very well considering I spent all of ten minutes working out stats.

The following stats are :

Move spaces, Melee Attack Dice, Range, Ranged Attack Dice, Defence Dice, Area Effect

Standard Marine 3,3,5,3,3
Close Combat Marine 3,5,2,2,3
Hvy Weap Marine 2,3,5,4,3,Yes
Ork 3,2,6,3,2
Gretchin 2,1,5,1,1
Android 3,3,6,3,3
Dreadnought 2,3,5,5,5,Yes
Genestealer 3,5,0,0,3

Moving onto higher terrain does not cost move points but you can only climb one level for each hex moved. When shooting at a lower target range is +1.

Players each get four cards in hand and can play one per turn and draw a replacement at the end of their turn.

All moves are completed before combat.

The Memoir cards in use are restricted to the following: Attack, Recon, Assault, Probe, General Advance, Recon in force, Pincer move, Counter attack, Direct from HQ, Firefight, Ambush

Area effect weapons hit the target hex, and one adjacent hex. Both hexs must be in line of sight (although you don't have to hit two if you don't want to. You make separate rolls for each hex. You can not target an empty hex you have to target an enemy.

Next time I might add in the Devastators from Space Hulk... or maybe the Ninja from duck! duck! Go!...maybe not that last one. 

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Solitaire play through of Memoir '44, Toulon

The sun came out for an hour or two yesterday allowing me to wheel out the video camera for another solo session of Memoir '44, this time the 10th scenario from the base game, Toulon.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Decopedia Volume 2 released

I'm proud to announce the release of the second volume in the Decopedia series. This book has been written for use with the role playing game Traveller. It's designed to give the referee "drop ins" for their game. Each entry is separate and self contained so you can take it and squeeze it into your own game. Inside you will find, 10 planets, 10 alien animals, 10 people of interest, and 10 story seeds.

The planet descriptions highlight cultural, political and religious elements that make the system interesting to visit, this isn't just a string of statistics. The animals are all designed to inspire or be a part of an interesting encounter. the people of interest are individuals who have made a mark on Imperial society for good or bad, and each story seed is a core idea for generating an entire scenario.

This product was designed for use with Mongoose Traveller, but is compatible with all versions.

Currently available from DriveThruRPG 

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

The Experiments - a Traveller scenario

I've just published my first Traveller scenario!
 

The Experiments is a Traveller one-shot scenario for 1-5 players. Designed to be played in a single session the PCs find themselves in a horror survival situation. Convinced they were about to start a new life on a new world as part of the first wave of workers, they instead wake up in an underground facility on an operating table. With the lights failing, water pouring down the walls, and strange dangerous creatures coming up from below, this was not what they expected.

PDF available from: DriveThruRPG

A5 Booklet available from: LuLu

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Playtesting time again

I've been working on a game themed on  The Princess Bride ( non-commercial) . It's a re-working of the Legendary Encounters:Alien game system with a re-theme of the cards and the contents. I finally got around to running the first play-test today. It was a loss. :(  That darned princess was not rescued.

Sorting the cards into seperate decks...

Ready to play...

Game over man, game over.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Going Ashore released

Cover

The WWII Pacific campaign has captured the imagination of history buffs for generations. The island hopping battles between the hearty U.S. Marines and the dauntless Japanese form the cornerstone of that fascination.

Going Ashore is a solitaire deck building game where you play the part of the Marines carrying out a series of battles as you hop from island to island. You must defeat all of the enemies on each island before you can move to the next. Clear the enemy from five islands to claim victory, any other result will re-write history as a loss for the allied forces!


Currently the game is available only as a Print-and-Play package via WargameVault.com but in the next few weeks it will also become a real tangible game you can purchase via GameCrafter.com

Example attack

This zipped up Print-and-Play package includes rules, the cards, morale tracker and turn sequence chart. The cards are presented in three ways giving you the maximum printing options. One PDF uses a larger format card, another "hobbit" sized, but you also get all of the card images in hi-res, allowing you print the cards in any way you see fit (see the readme.txt file before you print anything).


This is my second solitaire deck building game, and expands both the mechanisms and the number of cards  over those that appeared in "Wipers Salient".


Buy now from WargameVault.com

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

A Party of Wizards

I've just released a little RPG/story-telling game. In this game all the PCs are brand new wizards kicked out of the wizard school with an empty spell book and a basic understanding of magic. The main feature of this game is the generation of your own spells. There is no long list of spells to pick from, but instead there is a mechanism for creating your own spells!

So you take, quill, ink, spell-book, and dagger and wander into the wild world to discover and create your own spells as you battle the forces of evil (or good if your PCs are evil, you know, a lot of wizards seem to go evil, maybe it's the magic that does it).

Anyway, if you fancy giving it a try, you can get it from DriveThru for a buck-fifty.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

TRON - a session report

Last night I ran a TRON game using the Fate rules. The game was set in the "Tron Uprising" time-frame which is between the two films. If you've watched Uprising then I can tell you it's more specifically between Tron imprisoning Cyrus and meeting Beck.

I'd written some "boxed text" to read at the opening of the session but had to quickly rejig it because one player (Ruby) was late .

You're all gathered at Tron's headquarters in the wastes. he stands at the window looking out at a data storm raging across the landscape. With his hands resting on the glass and his back to you he starts to speak.

"I'm glad you could all get here this cycle. All that is except Ruby, late as usual. I've some questions for you."

Tron's head drops in what looks like despair.

"Why. Why do I surround myself with encrypted idiots? Why do I trust programs so blatantly incompetent? Why do I trust the rebellion to such audit ridden functionaries as you lot?"

"Ruby (Matt)! How could she let Seeker to get derezzed?"

"Dedar (Justin)! Why weren't you there with his cycle baton, what were you doing?"

"Motive (Stewart)! You! You! You blew the bridge before the team were across, what were you thinking?

"Tan (Robert)! And as to you, what should I do with you? A program seen talking to Lieutenant Paige, Tesla's second in command when you should have been coordinating these...these useless dropped bits!"

"I'm going to give you one more mission to prove yourselves. Succeed, or don't come back."

Without turning he tosses a data chip to the floor at your feet.

"Take that. Get out!"

Yeah, Tron is kind of a dick. The data chip held a map of the city with a series of points with red dots in a circle around the city. A single red dot with a hovering question-mark was placed dead center of the city.

They jumped on their bikes and headed to the location of the nearest red dot. What they found was a building site, where foundations were being laid. A little tom-foolery was indulged as the group distracted the ever-present guards so one of the team could slip inside the cordon for a closer look. This confirmed that the foundations were for something big as the foundations went deep but weren't that wide, so big and tall.

The three team members split up to survey the next nearest three red dots before meeting outside a bar near the center dot. This went off without incident and they confirmed that the same building operations were taking place at each site.

After a swift drink they headed over to the location of the big red dot. This was based on  a public park, but the park had been cordoned off. A powered anti-program ribbon circled the place at waist height, and was quite capable of derezzing anyone who touched it. Many guards where also present along with a number of tanks and a large command truck. The main feature however was a tall thin pyramid being constructed in the park. Parts for the pyramid were being off loaded from the elevated train track that ran through the park.

Having taken a look around they headed back to secret-tron-base-hq-hideout to meet up with Ruby-late-as-usual, and discuss what they wanted to do.

After protracted discussions which involved everything from blowing up the train tracks, flying a chopper into the train, getting "the people" to attack the train and getting the local mobster to raid the train they settled for simplicity. They also did some research and contacted their friends and associates in an attempt to find out more info. What they found was vague. All the energy storage in and around the city had been bought up and the only name associated with it was Farad, a name that was either whispered or made people close their mouths tight.

After purchasing a chopper and equipping everyone with chutes, flash bangs and limpet bombs, they flew over to the central site. The chopper was set to fly off into the wastes on its own after they jumped.  Their jumps didn't all go according to plan instead of landing on target they were scattered all over the building site.

One landed on the top of the pyramid and then made a second leap for the control truck but dropped short. He was spotted, and guards started converging on him. He raced to the cab of the truck.

One landed on the train station and quickly and quietly slid to the ground while planting bombs on the stations supports. He took out one of the nearby guards and stole his disk thus becoming camouflaged before slipping in amongst the guards converging on the truck.

Another dropped between two tanks, was spotted by a tank commander who tried to warn the nearby guards before our hero derezzed the fellow. He then jumped onto and into the tank and KO'ed the two crew. He had no idea how to drive the thing but gave it a gallant attempt, starting by rolling backwards over the other tank behind him.

The last one's drop went off without a hitch, straight inside the pyramid right next to a terminal where he got to work. He quickly discovered that the towers being built around the city were part of a massive project to steal the power from every program in the city (which would derezz them all) and store it in the pyramid. He also found that the main control unit for this machine was in the truck. This was the last information he got before being locked out and the alarm raised. He clambered to the top of the pyramid and jumped for the truck, landing on its roof.

The truck was started by one hero and kangaroo-ed dues to inexperience at driving. Our hero on the roof was nearly thrown off, but burned his ID disc into the roof as an anchor. The back doors flew open and a program looked out confused about what was happening. The captured tank rolled after the truck running over guards that got in its way.

The disguised PC jumped for the open back of the truck, missed, but her outstretched hand was caught by the program in the back who pulled her inside. She however wasn't that grateful and smashed him to the floor and held her two discs to his throat.

A tank was drawing a bead on the truck and it fired.

The die result here would have exploded the truck most likely killing all on board, but Fate points and planning came to the rescue. The truck jinked and the explosives on the train station were detonated distracting the tanker thus reducing the damage to minor.

The truck and stolen tank rolled towards the power ribbon that surround the square, but our heroic driver tossed one of his explosives at the ribbon generator, dropping the killer ribbon before racing through and onto the road.

They sped for the wastelands and discovered that the prisoner in the back of the truck was none other than the evil scientist Farad, and that this truck was the one and only such truck in existence.

They took Farad's ID disk leaving him to slowly lose his mind and used the tank to blow the truck before heading back to Tron's secret base.

There ended the game. The entire city was saved!

Once again the session went nothing like I imagined it would. The attack on the truck and pyramid was supposed to be the first of a series of attacks to bring down the great plan. The players spent longer than I had thought they would, planning. I'd expected a simple quick "Charge!" , and then onto the next part. Having said that it was an unexpected twist, they pulled it off awesomely creating a very cinematic ending.

So what did I do wrong? I shouldn't be too hard on myself as I think dropping Farad into the scene worked really well, and the players still went from investigating through to the big finish, so that was cool. But. There is always a but.

When the players jumped from the chopper I wanted time to think about where each landed and what the effects of the bad rolls they made would do to their landing site. So I went through each player's landing one by one, and my brain rushed back to the 90s and I carried on the scene with this initiative order thing in my head. Instead of letting the players just tell the story, I constrained them to taking turns. Yuk! Sorry guys. When I realised what I was doing I broke out of it and we got back into the flow. Hopefully lesson learned.

You can download the scenario from my Black Dog of Doom blog

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Mecha Mice released

Yesterday I released another of my little PocketMod RPGs...

On the island of Searbay mousekind has reached levels of technology undreamed of, but the thousand enemies that have always existed and always will are still just beyond the wall. With the invention of the Mecha Suit mousedom has a chance to survive, and the tools to hold back the darkness of dissolution and barbarism.

Join the Corp, become the Paw.

Mecha Mice is a story telling game of heroic mice armed with the latest technology fighting a thousand enemies a thousand times larger than themselves. The game is only 8 pages long and provided in standard PDF form and in "PocketMod" PDF. You can print the PDF version on a single sheet of paper and fold it into a pocket size booklet.

Available for only $1.50 at DriveThruRPG

I've started collating supporting articles at the Mecha Mice blog

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Paint the Town Yellow - A Judge Dredd session report

Last night was another Judge Dredd one-shot. Three Judges started out by being called to "robbery in progress". They arrived at the Fresh Yums eatery.

The first Judge on scene stayed back to get the lay of the land and ID'ed the getaway driver in a van outside the place. The second Judge pulled into the car park next to the van but when he pulled his lawgiver on the driver, the driver raised his hands revealing a device in his hands, with a single button which he pressed. The Judge's Lawgiver immediately switched to High Explosive mode. The third Judge arrived but couldn't stop his bike, it had gone haywire! He was well past the eatery before stopping.

Next the driver was put down and the boot of the van opened by Judge Speed, as Judges Stormvolt and Wessel closed in on the door to the eatery, one to either side. In the boot of the van a device was discovered, quickly disabled, and Judge Speed's Lawgiver went back to behaving.

Two armed perps burst out of the eatery. Stormvolt put his lightning line into one perp and took him down as Wessel stuck with his dagger (they had all set aside their Lawgivers as unreliable at this point), knifing the bad guy in the arm. The perp struck back at Wessel but his own weapon was turned on him and a rifle butt to the face put him down.

A quick peak into the restaurant showed three more bad guys barricaded behind tables. A stun grenade was thrown in and settled the business. Inside the owner was discovered dead, with the patrons hiding behind the bar. Questioning revealed that no attempt at robbery had been made. This left the Judges puzzling the motives while waiting for the support vehicles to turn up.

Judge Speed was sidetracked by a bunch of youths who tried to hit him with a catapult launched paint ball. He managed to get them under control as another call came in, reporting an armed attack on a nearby block's armory.

The judges jumped on their bikes only to discover the air lanes above being sent into spinning chaos by wing-suit-gliders illegally flying through them. They tracked the fliers to the ground and arrested them. They were about to set off to the armory when they witnessed another crime. Some punk dragged the driver out of an air car and climbed in. Judges Stormvolt and Speed would deal with this crime while Wessel headed off towards the armory (Damn him, seeing straight through my distraction plan!!!!).

The air car started taking off, a judge put a round through one of the fans and it crashed to the ground - crushing the legs of the victim. The perp made a break for it. Of course the perp was taken down, and a heroic effort lifted the car clear of the wounded citizen.

Judge Wessel meanwhile was heading to the armory but decided to visit the scene of a traffic problem which had been mentioned in the morning briefing. Here he found tek-div working to fix the problem. The cause of the trouble was a transmitter just like the one they discovered at the Fresh Yums.

When Wessel arrived at block where the armory incident was happening he found the blast doors open and a couple of block militia dead on the ground. He sneaked through the blast doors passing under an active robotic defence gun. Further into the badly lit interior he found bad guys using noisy cutting equipment to work on the high security armory doors that protect the nukes.

The other judges arrived, Speed heading for the side door while Stormvolt worked on the computer system where he managed to shut down the defence guns and lock down all of the other doors.

With all three judges inside they coordinated to shoot out three devices that the perps had brought with them (purpose unknown but guessed), quickly following that up with a storm of rubber richochet that put all of the perps down. They moved in and started questioning the perps and learned that they were sent here by "Big Jim", who lived in the basement of a nearby block. Judge Speed was compelled to get over there quickly while the other cleaned up the scene.

In the basement Speed found only a single apartment door. He blew the door and burst in to find himself in a spiral painted cylindrical corridor with another door at the far end. Blast doors slammed behind him and the corridor started rotating, then spherical drones popped in and started rolling around flailing at him with buzz saws. He dodged them, opened the door, found three crawl spaces, and dived into the middle one.

Wessel and Speed arrived. Wessel decided to take out the blast doors and with his bike laser while Speed sought another way in by taking a lift to a lower basement.

Wessel burnt through the doors and took out the drones with a trick shot before rushing to join Speed in the tunnel. Further down Stormvolt found an access panel in the ceiling of the sub basement.

Half way along the tunnel they found the tunnel widened out in to a 10 by 10 room, Speed realised it was a trap with both trigger and doors that would lock them in the room. He disabled the traps and they moved through the next tunnel until they found a  sheet covering the exit.

Stormvolt swung himself up to the hatch and got it open.

Lifting the curtain Speed found a man working at a bench with electrical tools When he challenged him the perp lifted his hand revealing a device with a big red button. The perp started his monolog and threatened to press the button. Speed lived up to his name and quickly put a bullet through the perp's wrist severing it. The hand dropped to the ground and tipped through the hatchway falling past Judge Stormvolt.

Thus was "Big Jim" and the Kill-Dart gang taken down.

As the referee I was really impressed with the players reactions and thought processes. Once again they surprised me at at every turn. I expected the perps at the eatery to give them some real trouble but their high tech gadgets quickly blew through them. At the armory I'd had this idea that there would be a big battle that would grind them down but once again they out-thought my scenario. Judge Wessel seeing through my list of distraction-crimes designed to make the Judges miss the armoury incident all together was an awesome moment for me. I knew I was out-foxed.

All the players gear usage was clever and original, they all made their characters shine exercising their aspects and skill base to make a great story.

Now for the bad bits, and they were all on me. I have a strict time window for play, three hours, that's it, no more. My timing was poor. I'd tried to include too much in the game and ended up having to rush through the final scenes rather than make them the big deal they should have been.

I could have skipped the distraction crimes, I should have. I did check the clock and thought I could squeeze it all in, but I goofed. I was too in-love with the idea of distracting the PCs and that cut a good five to ten minutes that I really could have used at the end. How can I fix that in future? I guess I need to make all the drop-ins appear later in the game so that they can be discarded based on time. Most importantly I shouldn't have used them mid-game just because I liked the idea of it. My selfishness here, ruined the big-finish these clever players deserved.

You can download the scenario we played here.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

A FATE based DUNE session report.

Last night I took a couple of excellent players through time and space to a desert planet, the desert

planet, Arrakis, also known as DUNE. We were playing an adventure using the FATE rules and the brave heroes were a native Fremen and an Atreides who had escaped the Harkonnen trap. It was set during the Sardaukar pogrom, around a village so insignificant it did not even have a name.

The Fremen troops were temporarily living in a small cave fairly close to the village when the troop's leader came to our heroes and gave them a mission. The Harkonnen overseers of the village had nearly caught some Fremen out on the sand the day before, and he had decided it was time to take that thopter away from them. Thus the PCs had to get that thopter.

They took to the rocky ridge overlooking the village and spent the day in observation. The thopter returned in the evening bringing the workers back from the factories. The Harkonnens kicked the villagers out and one of them slowly opened the big door on the Harkonnen bunker before rolling the thopter inside. A short while later they observed one of the Harkonnens stomp into the village and drag a couple of resisting women back to the bunker.

They hatched a plan.Sneaking into the village they found the people were not happy with their situation but at the same time were scared of reprisals should they do anything. When they found the husband of one of the taken women, they worked on him for a while and managed to solicit his willing help.

Our Atreides had his best roll of the night when he disguised himself as the villager. A Harkonnen walked into the village and blew a horn to summon the workers to their duties.Our hero joined the throng and boarded the thopter before it jumped up out of the village and left for the factories.

Our remaining hero accompanied by the troop's pilot snuck down behind the Harkonnen bunker and settled down to await the return of the thopter. His Fremen nature was challenged part way through the day when one of the Harkonnen troopers walked round the back of the bunker and peed his life's water into the sand!

During the heat of the day when everything was quiet he sneaked around to the front of the bunker and sabotaged the keypad that was used to open the big door. As the time for the return of the thopter came close, the Fremen moved around the bunker to an elevated position  from which they could watch both the main door and smaller door. Then the waiting continued...

The thopter returned, landing in a cloud of sand dust. On board were two Harkonnen guards, the pilot, a bunch of villagers, and our Atreides in disguise. The two guards literally threw the villagers out of the thopter. The small door to the bunker opened and another Harkonnen was coming out. The Fremen pilot fired her mauler pistol and the Harkonnen froze, shocked by the sudden attack. The Fremen PC leaped to the ground and buried his knife in him, then smashed the keypad seizing the smaller door.

In the thopter the disguised Atreides was the last villager about to be kicked off, when he jumped forwards and kicked one of the Harkonnens out onto the ground. The Harkonnen pilot joined the guard in the back and they both engaged our Atreides.

Outside, the Harkonnen on the floor was quickly despatched as the two Fremen rushed to the thopter.

Inside, the Atreides was wounded as he fought two Harkonnens but one of them was taken down and the other two Fremen leaped into the back of the thopter. The last Harkonnen was suddenly surrounded he took a step back, but the Atreides was in a rage and leaped at him knocking him out and down to the ground. The Fremen PC dived out and pinned the Harkonnen and the Atreides quickly finished him off.

The thopter started readying for lift off and they climbed back on board and took off just as the big door of the bunker started opening. They flew up over the ridge and the two PCs were dropped off before the thopter was  flown south.

The PCs took the time to see to their wounds and damaged stillsuits, no point in dehydrating to death! That done, they decided to return to the village, taking the carbine they had liberated from the thopter. They were thinking of protecting the villagers from any Harkonnen repercussions.  As they arrived in the village three Harkonnens were marching into it from the other end. They were blowing horns and summoning the villagers. The villagers were scared, this was unusual and anything unusual the Harkonnens did was always bad for the villagers.

The PCs hatched a plan, the Atreides would take the carbine and shoot a Harkonnen as the Fremen simultaneously attacked from behind. But the Atreides couldn't wait for his pal to get into position (compel) and shot one of the Harkonnens. The other two bad guys flicked on their shields and met the Fremen hand to hand. The Atreides PC threw away the carbine and ran into the combat.

It was bloody, and FATE points were drained from the PCs. It ended with a villager on the Harkonnen's knife, the Atreides bleeding from a serious wound and the last Harkonnen all but beheaded.

There ended the session with the mission a complete success. The thopter was stolen, seven out of ten of the Harkonnen were dead and the remainder cut off from outside help.

The players were great, both thoughtful and inventive. They were not afraid to dive into the action when the time was right. One PC was almost killed in the final fight, but in the end seven for one would have been a good exchange wouldn't it. :)

Scenario and Char-Gen

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Judge Dredd, session report (It Aint Christmas)

On Friday night I ran my second one-shot Judge Dredd session using FATE as the rules system. The scenario was called "It Aint Christmas" and featured an investigation into a murder and a series of related human mutilations.

It always amazes me how players deviate from what I expect them to do. I plan a scenario, a particular scene, and I even work out how they might resolve the issue, and then when play starts, off they go in a different direction!

I started the game by throwing the players into some action. A militia tank driver had gone nuts and started killing people. His tank was in a secure position just in front of a bunker with ferrocrete and fire barriers to either side of it. When the PCs arrived the tank had already blown up another tank and mown down a swath of people on the street. It had also started firing its main gun into the blocks opposite.

When I had thought-up this scene I fully expected the judges to make use of the cannons or lasers on their bikes, but no! They had a much cooler approach. :) One brave judge deliberately rode his bike across in front of the tank drawing its attention while another sneaked up and lobbed a riot-foam grenade at the tank. This immobilized the turret and allowed the judges to move in.

One Judge raced to the main gun and slipped a grenade down its barrel just as another blew the doors off the back. The barrel blew apart as it fired and a Judge dragged out the perp. Nothing whatever like I had imagined. :D

The heroes were then called to a body in a park on the 30th floor of a block. I had this investigative part of the session planned, laying out the investigation step by logical step...but they didn't go the way I expected, of course. They split the party and managed to leap a couple of steps to start questioning one of the guilty parties almost immediately, clever sneaky players!

This lead them down to the sub basements of the block and to the bad guys, a large group of Troggies that had tunneled into the basement. The basement was poorly lit, troggies nipping in between and over the stacks of crates that stretched off into the dimness and the players soon found themselves surrounded. However they were amongst the stacks of war supplies kept by every block. So out came the hardware. RPGs and machines guns. Bullets were sent shooting through the dark while explosives were piled into the tunnel the troggies were using to enter the block. As the Judges blew the explosives and ran for the exit.

There were so many cool moments created by the PCs, the craziness of the yodeling being played over the P.A. in the dim basement was great. The moment of switching to I.R. vision was very Aliens-like. Setting off the fire suppressing gas to suffocate the troggies was an expression of genius.

The final scene had the three Judges standing outside the block discussing what the perp should be charged with. When the explosion they'd set off in the basement had the whole block collapsing behind them. They watched the collapse, adding charges based on what the collapsing building destroyed as it fell. Comic genius.

Players like these make my day.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

It Aint Christmas - a scenario for Judge Dredd

This is a scenario for any Judge Dredd RPG. I played it with FATE and had a very successful session

(its a one-shot). It was played through with 3 Judges but the difficulty can easily be ramped up or down. It features two main combats, one at either end of the session, and a fairly simple investigation.

It's called "It Aint Christmas" because the new craze introduced is "Block Sledding" where citizens use wheeled sleds to race down the outside of blocks.

Basic stats are included for FATE (but the scenario is generic).

Download the scenario

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Skylanders as a boardgame

My son has been collecting the Skylanders figures for quite some time, and I love the look of these

things, I've wanted to come up with a board game for them for the longest time. Well I finally pulled

Sample card

my finger out and started what promises to be a long term project.

The card image on the right is my first stab at creating a character card for the game. What follows are my first thoughts about the game rules. These are not finalised, not even play tested, just the results of a brain-dump.

The playing surface needs to be a 6cm grid to fit the figure bases, perhaps with stand up terrain in some squares to block line of sight and add interest.

• The "Allies" in the top right corner might say anything and indicates some kind of affiliation.
• The 1 in the orange circle is the cost to "buy" the figure into your army, a process done before game play starts, players take alternate turns buying figures up to an agreed amount.
• The text at the bottom is usually flavour text, but may describe a special in-game ability.
• The stats in the blue box are, Melee Attack dice, Defence dice, Range of attacks, Health.
• Melee attack into adjacent boxes, roll 1 D6 for each Melee Attack point, all 5s and 6s count as hits.
• Defence, used when attacked, roll 1 D6 for each Defence point, all 5s and 6s block one incoming attack point.
• Range, this indicates the range over which you may make attacks, Ranged attack are different to Melee. They can not be made into adjacent squares (that would be melee). The Ranged value indicates the number of dice you attack with, but reduces with each square of range between attacker and target.
• The Health number, indicate how many points of damage you can take before the character is killed (removed from the game).
• All figures may move 2 squares.
• Blood tokens will be placed on a characters card to indicate hits.
• The board will be sprinkled with 3D "crates". Moving into a square allows the character to pick up the crate. Each crate may be burned (discarded) when the players wants, to do one of the following things. Heal one point, move two additional spaces, add two to Range, Melee, or Defence score for one turn.
• There may be terrain effects, such as height or cover.

Well that's all my thoughts from a first session of brain storming. There are a lot of possible additions to such a simple system but to be honest, I want it kept simple.

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Rise of the Shoggoths

I had an idea last night for another game. I have too many ideas, and don't have enough time to make all of them into reality. The idea was to base a game around the uprising and rebellion of the Shoggoths against their "Elder Things" masters.  This theme is Lovecraftian and if you google those terms you'll get some interesting images to show you what they look like.

My first thoughts were that this would be an excellent solitaire deck builder, but I'm wise enough to know that the reason I think that, is that I'm working on a solitaire deck builder right now. Thus there may be a better implementation for the theme. If it's to be a two player game it can be asymmetrical powers, with the Elder Things having technology and bio-engineering, and the Shoggoths being sneaky and having brute force.

This theme seems really good to me, strong, with an appeal to Lovecraft fans. I have a bunch of ideas for sub themes and various mechanisms but... At this point I suspect I'll never be able to progress the game because I don't have a ready supply of the required art. :(

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.