Hey everybody! It’s alive. My first supplement for Barbaric! It’s got optional character generation, combat, and magic rules. Plus there’s new Traits, Combat Moves, Spells, and Monsters. A POD version should be coming in a while but till then you can grab up the PDF on DrivethruRPG.
Yes, I’ve got “big” plans for this. There’s a couple of adventures and the setting book in the works. Plus there’s a couple more ideas bouncing around inside my head.
It’s been one of those weeks but you don’t here to listen to me whine about real life. Instead I offer some thoughts on a new product for one of new favorite games, Barbaric!
I’ve mentioned that Mark over at the Crossplanes Blog has written some pretty cool material for Barbaric! and it’s related games using the Quantum Engine. Now, he’s released his own little monster book, The Foelio. No, that’s not typo. Folio. Foelio. Get it? Actually, it does kind of make sense because from what I can tell that it’s mostly a conversion of the Foe Folio for BX Essentials (now knows as Old School Essentials). Which is not a bad thing. We need more monsters for Quantum Engine.
Like I said, Foilio is a monster book and it’s pretty darned good one. I count 27 monsters in there. And it’s pretty good selection of monsters. Sure there a couple that’s some well known D&D monsters with the serial numbers filed off. I don’t think that’s any sort of detractor. First, many players expect these to show up some time. And second, the whole Barbaric and Quantum Engine community is just getting off the ground, so there’s not that much out there, yet. So it’s nice to have at least one version of that available.
There’s some original monsters too. That I think are cool. I like the Cobriath for a good old sword & sorcery monster. Sure it may just a giant snake but it’s still cool. Umbrals which basically an undead assassin and who can’t use one of those? And the Upir which are just plain weird vampires that can only feed on their own families.
Of course, there’s even some Lovecraftian monsters in there too. The most useful ones like Byahkee, Deep Ones, and Hounds of Tindalos. Once again useful monsters.
Thanks to ease of the Quantum Engine, the stat blocks are easy to read. That’s one of my personal pet peeves. Cluttered stat blocks. They also have something nice that I often don’t read. And that’s the quick little fluff blurb about the monster. These are nice and just inspirational enough that you could squeeze some more lore into your own world. The monsters overall should be pretty challenging and interesting to most parties which makes Foelio a good addition to a referee’s tool kit.
You can grab the Foelio up on DrivthuRPG.
I was going to post this next week but things have coming together pretty darned quickly on this so I figured why not post about it now?
Let’s face it. Barbaric! has been come a new favorite for lots of folks, me included. There have been lots of posts in the blogosphere and slowly additional products are being added on DrivethruRPG. So it was pretty natural for me to throw my hat into the fray.
It’s no secret that I love pulpy action-packed sword & sorcery stuff and that’s the direction I’m going. Death Stalkers of Antediluvia has optional character generation, combat, and magic rules. I’ve tried to make these optional rules as modular as possible so GM’s can use some, none, or all of them. Plus, there’s new Traits, Combat Moves, Spells, and Monsters.
Astute readers will say, “Hey, didn’t you just do a game like that?” Yes, I did. While Death Stalkers does have some of the same monsters and spells, I really don’t intend it to be a conversion of Forgotten Tales. There are mechanics and options that are in Death Stalkers that aren’t in Forgotten Tales and vice versa. Each game has it’s own tone and feel based on their own game mechanics but they share a lot mainly when it comes to background.
The long term goal is that any adventures will have a version for Death Stalkers and a version for Forgotten Tales. The same goes for the planned setting book for the World of Antediluvia.
So stay tuned. This one should be coming out soon!
Let’s face it. Barbaric! from Stellagamma Publishing is becoming a favorite of my folks including myself. But being a new game, there aren’t many resources for it, yet, and most stuff is written for the d20 based games. Never fear. I did a little thinking and digging and here you go.
On the blog side, Eric over at Swords & Stitchery and Mark over at Cross Planes have done fine job of brewing up some monsters for Barbaric! and Cepheus Atom. There may be more out there but these two just happen to be in my Internet sphere. Yes, I have to get off my butt and do some posts. Trust me. I’m working on it.
The most obvious resource is to pick up Sword of Cepheus. It’s basically the daddy of Barbaric! Sword of Cepheus uses the full blown Cepheus Engine rules so it’s more complex in many fashions. The monster stat blocks are more involved but can be easily converted. There’s a more detailed equipment list plus a bunch of new or expanded random tables to make a Barbaric! game more interesting. All that is ready with little or no conversion. Just recently released is Scandinavian Legends with more monsters and spells! I haven’t had too much of a chance to go over this one yet nor have I had a chance to even look at Of Realms Unbound. And how can we forget Quantum Sorcery if you want an even lighter game than Barbaric!
Now on to a few books that I think every GM should have any way. There’s Tome of Adventure Design. Sure it says Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry on the cover but the majority of the tables are system neutral. Now, this is a pretty hefty book and it’s not really designed to used at the table but for GM prep and inspiration. Along those same lines is The Dungeon Alphabet. I’ll admit that this I had totally forgotten about. This is another great mostly system neutral resource.
I’m also cheap and there’s a couple of free PDF’s from Northwind Adventures for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Namely, the Drunken Debauchery random table and the Adventure Generator. These too are system neutral. Oh there’s more stuff on their resources page.
I know there’s more out there but I just wanted to pick out my “top” picks for stuff that I would turn to.
They Might Be Gazebos! 