Old Skulling

Beware where you prepare your spells! Okay, let me get his out straight away. I am not an Jack Vance scholar, literature major, or real wizard. I just love OSR games, love what I’ve read of The Dying Earth Series and other Appendix N books and really like to tinker with game systems (as well as create stuff). So I’ve come up with an alternate Vancian Magic System that makes spellcasting more flexible, leveless (even though you can still use the standard spell list in your game of choice) and insert some risk in the sorcery art (which I think is essential, as we are dealing with unnatural forces). In the stories I’ve read, magicians, when they were imparting the spell energies in their minds to cast them later, would make increasingly greater effort to put as many spells as they could in their memory. There was not definite limit. Some could impart more, some less, and this could vary. They could risk filling their minds with spells, but if they pushed too hard, they could lose an...

Another full page artwork I did for the project. The campaign has ended a week ago, and things seems to be calming down from the outside. But that’s not entirely true on the inside. Of course I don’t have to worry about promoting the campaign anymore, but now I gotta plan exactly how to use the stretch goals funds. To complicate things, the conversion factor from my country’s currency and the dollar is varying a lot, and the conversion rate I will receive the dollar and the one I will use to pay international collaborators will be different (I will receive with a inferior rate than the one I will pay them with, so I have to calculate how this will affect the whole budget). Fortunately, I can continue doing my own art since I won’t charge myself anything! Editing and proofreading should be done by July or so, I believe. At least the first pass before we lay the book out and send it to a new pass. When the funds actually drop and I make the first round of payments, I can underst...

I don’t quite remember exactly when the idea for Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells hit my mind. Maybe it began to form the first time I saw Star Wars when I was a kid. But it surely took a more identifiable form after years of media consumption, including comic books, pulp literature, movies and especially games! The fact is that around 2012 I discovered the Old School Renaissance, its games and the great and diverse community around it. I fell instantly in love with it and with the endless possibilities it offered. The Appendix N literature that formed much of the backbone of inspiration for many of its games was very refreshing to me (I basically grew up believing D&D and fantasy to be simply a derivation of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth). The way many members of the community created their own stuff, shared it around, published it online and added a little bit of their own weirdness and creativity to the melting pot of OSR gaming made me feel I could finale make the game my own, ...

I am ashamed to only be doing this now, but SB&CS took some time out of my life (but it’s for a good cause, I promised). Last year, I posted about a Adventure Idea contest to give away copies of SS&SS and the Addendum . The number of copies given away would vary according to the number of contestants. However, we just had 10 entries, so that is just one bundle to give away. Before announcing the winner, I would like to post here the name of all contestants and the name of their entry. If I am missing anyone, PLEASE, let me know so I can correct this and draw a winner with all the entries. I may have missed one or two, who knows. Dan Davis - The Archway of the Oneiric Fortress Jason Marby - The Chamber in the Swamp of Death Bruno Araujo - The Chamber in the Swamp of Death Black Barth - The Tourney of the Unforgiving Warrior Diego Santos - The Battle of the Obsidian pyramid Gary Anastasio - The Orb of the Eternal Merchant Jim Miller - The Bard of the Frozen Woo...

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells is my newest RPG project and it is being crowdfunded right now over IndieGoGo. It’s a game about sword and sorcery adventure amongst the stars, based on my original RPG Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells . With a simple yet very flexible system, the game allow players to assume the roles of space adventurers in a grim universe beset by sorcerous tyrants. They can search for treasures of a glorious path, fight the tyranny of the Galactic Overlords, work for these cruel despots, or just struggle to survive. The game also comes with a incredible array of tools that let you use the setting as you need, and create many gaming elements on the spot. You can even use it with other Sci-Fi RPGs if you want . Don’t believe me? Why don’t you go to the projects webpage and take a look at the whole draft text that is available there? You can read the entire game now, for free. Need a direct link? Here it is: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-blades-cos...

I’ve been posting some of the process of creating and writing my current project on this blog for a few months and it has come the time to finally share with you the result of all that work. Well, something like that. Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells is a much bigger project than Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells was, even counting the Addendum . SB&CS has pretty much all the rules on both of these books, but now with examples to make everything clearer, and a complete setting toolkit! The rules are a revised version of the ones in SS&SS books, and we add in some psionics mechanics and vehicle battles. But where the book really shines is in the setting toolkit and feel. This is a game about sword and sorcery adventures amongst the stars. The universe is grim, unforgiving, controlled by cruel sorcerous despots. The PCs can oppose them, serve them or simply try to survive their tyranny and earn some Credits in less than honorable ways. Anyway, the full draft text ...

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells presents an universe filled with wondrous devices and advanced technology. However, much of these advancements were lost in the Cleansing Wars, or are now under the strict control of the sorcerous despots that call themselves Galactic Overlords. Technology in this game is in a weird stage. Somethings, like starships and weapons, can be quite advanced if you are lucky enough to find them. After all, they played a very important part in the past war. Other, like communication technology and the network of information, is quite undeveloped, if it’s available at all. It wasn’t in the interest of the Galactic Overlords to allow individuals to communicate with each other or acquire knowledge to understand what’s really going on. Each of the entries below describe the general role and level of advancement these technologies usually appear in the universe of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells . The Overlord can ignore or introduce different elements in th...