Black Pudding 3 Print Edition Out Now!

Printed editions of Black Pudding are now available to order.

Copies may also be ordered from the Squarehex site using the following link:

https://squarehex.myshopify.com/products/black-pudding-issue-3

B/X Monster Reference Kickstarter Final 48 Hours!

There's just under 2 days left to run for the B/X Monster Reference Index Kickstarter. The project is also closing on the next Stretch Goal with just £90 to go. If you've not already seen it, then please check out the project page here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/b-x-monster-reference-index

If we can hit the Stretch Goal, which adds 4 extra pages, it will make this a reference with a whole lot more than the 500 monsters it contains. Backers that pledge for 2 copies or more also get extra loot in the form of B/X bookmarks and Business Card Character Sheets.

B/X Bookmarks

I designed a B/X Bookmark several months ago and went ahead and ordered a test print-run of them. They are really intended for a future Kickstarter project, but as I'll need to print them in larger quantities for that, I've decided to add them to my current B/X Monster Reference Index Kickstarter as a little bonus item along with some of my B/X Business Card Character Sheets.

If you would like to get one or more of them, take a look at the Kickstarter page for more details:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/b-x-monster-reference-index/description

Combat Cards

I took a dozen packs of these to the UK Games Expo and sold all but a couple of them. They were a last minute item that I added to a non-gaming stationery order simply to reach the free delivery price point. Here's the blurb about them:

A pack of 20 Combat Cards intended for use with any edition rules of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Combat Cards provide a neat way to track wounds, damage, healing, foes defeated, and treasure gained during a single game session. These double-sided cards are the same size as a standard business card (85x55mm), they have been professionally printed on sturdy matt cardstock.

They can be bought from squarehex.co.uk and, for people who just want a pack of these and nothing else, they are also on ebay with cheaper UK postage.

Character Sheet Pad Update

Our Advanced Character Sheet Pad campiagn on Kickstarter is just past the halfway point of its 30 day run.  It's currently at 74% with just an additional £78 required to reach the goal.  I think we can manage this in the two weeks remaining.  If we can get £100 extra, then the stretch goal unlocks a free pad of B/X Character Sheets for every backer that signs up for two or more of the primary design.

If you haven't already done so, please take a minute to visit the project page here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/advanced-rpg-character-sheet-pad

New Oubliette Rewards Added

I've added a couple of new pledge options at £10 and £12 to the Character Sheet Kickstarter Campaign.  These get backers the same reward as the £7 pledge (2 pads of Advanced sheets and, if we hit the stretch goal, 1 pad of Basic OSR sheets), but they also include PDF back issues of Oubliette.

The £10 pledge allows backers to select any 4 PDF back issues of Oubliette (worth up to $10.50).

The £12 pledge gets backers a full run of all 8 PDF back issues of Oubliette (worth $18.50).

That means that if you were thinking of picking up a full set of 8 issues anyway, for about the same money you could also get up to 3 pads of character sheets including UK delivery (+£5 for overseas).

FREE Character Sheet PDFs - 1st Ed and B/X

To help promote my Kickstarter project for pads of printed Character Sheets, I've decided to make the PDFs of both designs FREE to download from RPGNow.  Here's direct links to them and the Kickstarter project:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/110487/1st-Ed-Advanced-Character-Sheet
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/110488/A5-B-X-OSR-Character-Sheet
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/advanced-rpg-character-sheet-pad

1978 Advanced Character Sheet Redux

Finished!

This character sheet is a reworking of a D&D character sheet produced by Games Workshop in 1978.  I've remade it from scratch in Scribus and exported it to PDF.  It is a great sheet, but a few things struck me as strange whilst I was putting it together.  Firstly, there are no sections for recording Saving Throws or  Movement Rate.  Also Magic Attack Adjustment (Magic Att. Adj. on the sheet) is listed under both Wisdom and Constitution so I removed it from Constitution.  Finaly, there are spaces to record 15 languages and 15 weapon proficiencies, which seems to be overly generous on a sheet that is missing arguably more important sections.  These are not major issues though, as the Notes section can take care of any extra details.  I may take another look at the framework of this sheet in the future.  It would be interesting to see how it would look if it were reworked for Labyrinth Lord and/or the AEC.

Backers of the OSR Character Sheet Campaign will get a copy of this emailed to them at the weekend.  I will also include the PDF as one of the extras in Oubliette Issue 9.  However, as that is a long way off, if any Followers of this blog email me (oubliettemagazineATyahoo.co.uk), then I'll send them the PDF when I do the other emails this weekend.

Can You Tell What it is Yet?

Spent a few minutes setting this out earlier today. It was suprisingly easy to mimic the 1978 version. I think a couple of hours work should see it completed.

B/X Characters Rules PocketMod

One of the extras that I am producing to go with my OSR Character Sheet Pads is a PocketMod containing all the rules required to roll up a 1st level B/X character.  The folowing images show what it looks like so far.  It is amazing how much you can get on to a single A4 sheet of paper.  The PocketMod not only has all the basic rules for creating characters, but it also has a combat table, a saving throws table, weapon damage and even missile weapon ranges.  I had planned to produce 2 PocketMods one for character generation, and a second with equipment lists.  However, I surprised myself by finding space for basic equipment in addition to all the character generation rules.  I will also be adding lists and descriptions of 1st level cleric and magic-user spells on the back so the sheet can be unfolded to look at them.

A copy of this PocketMod will be sent out with every pad of OSR Character Sheets that are currently running as an Indiegogo camapign here: http://beta.indiegogo.com/projects/110891 Even if the campaign fails to meet its funding goal I will still email a PDF of the PocketMod to all the backers.  Next week I will start on my rewoking of Games Wokshop's classic 1978 Character Sheet which will also be an semi-exclusive item for my Indiegogo backers.

Character Sheets Update

I am planning to spend a bit of time this weekend working on extras to go with my printed pads of Character Sheets.  The campaign for the pads is running on Indiegogo - it has still got a good way to go to reach its goal, but it would only take another 25-30 backers to get it there.

Anyway, here are the extras that every backer will get in print and as a PDF.  Plus, as an extra incentive I will email the PDFs of these to all backers regardless of whether the campaign reaches its goal.

1. Printed Pocket Mod containing everything required to create a first level B/X character including full 1st level spell descriptions.
2. Printed Pocket Mod containing an expanded list of equipment complete with descriptions.
3. A reworking of the classic 1978 Advanced Character Sheet (see details here and here), originally produced by Games Workshop.

The Cheapest Character Sheets in the World?

Following on from my last Character Sheet post the bidding on the 1978 shrink-wrapped pad of 50 sheets ended at £132 ($208).  In 1978, Games Workshop sold them new for £1.50, giving the seller a return on the original investment of 8,700%!!!

However, another bidder just manged to snag these Character Sheets for just 99p.  They are actually photocopies of the same ones mentioned above.  For my money, the fact that they are photocopies makes them even more Old School, as that's what most of my Character Sheets were back in the day.

As soon as Oubliette 8 is out next week, I'll devote some more time to the Indiegogo Character Sheet Campaign.  I'm going to include a bonus PDF with the sheets as well as a few additional printed materials.  More details next week, but I will be sure to include a newly-created PDF version of this 1978 Sheet.

The Most Expensive Character Sheets in the World?

I don't know if these have already set a record high for a pad of Character Sheets, but at £114 ($180) plus shipping, they are certainly headed that way.  If you are not prepared to spend quite so much on some Old School Character Sheets, why not head over to my Indiegogo Campaign and grab a pad for a fraction of the price?

In fact, for $180 you can have 3,000 of my OSR Character Sheets.  However, I can't guarantee they will bring quite the same rate of return should you decide to put them away for 34 years before listing them on ebay (if they did though, they would be worth over $6,000!).

Indiegogo OSR Character Sheet Pad

I've just launched a new campaign on Indiegogo.com for printed A5-sized pads of OSR Character Sheets.  Full details can be found here:

OSR Character Sheet Campaign on Indiegogo.com

The sheets are designed for use with B/X rulesets of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game, and retroclones versions such as Labyrinth Lord.

This is a small project to test the water, but if it succeeds, I have several other, larger projects in mind for the future.  A PDF of the character sheet is already on the site, so please help yourselves to a download (in the Gallery section of the project page) if you like the look of it.

If you want more detailed character sheets, the set I designed in 2010 for use with Labyrinth Lord's Advanced Edition Companion rules are also still available as free downloads on RPGNow.com.