The Hook
After an encounter with a grumpy magician, you are left cursed with good luck. Yes, cursed, because while everything you do seems to come off flawlessly, everyone around you suffers terrible luck to compensate. Somewhere out there is your opposite and to end the curse you must meet.
Suggested Systems
Unknown Armies, Mage the Ascension, D&D, Pathfinder, Legends of Anglerre.
Art by Raquee Najmuldeen
You can get a lot of stuff on RPGNOW, and some of my freelance work is up there too. If you buy using these links, I also get a kickback, which is helpful to me! So worth pimping some of these out! Plus, I wrote them, so you know they’re cool. I’ll get a kickback if you use this link to purchase anything from there, so if you want to help me out on a more regular basis, you can bookmark that link and use it whenever you go to RPGNOW!
Like a hell of a lot of other game designers, I did a lot of stuff for D&D 3.5/Pathfinder. Amongst those, I wrote a good chunk of CITY OF STORMREACH for Eberron, bringing the setting from D&D Online (which I was in the position of having played) into tabletop. It was a bit of a challenging project with far ‘too many cooks’ making it hard to coordinate, but people seemed to like it!
Books of feats and other rules faff were a plage on 3rd edition, and I did more than my fair share of spreading that plague, but always with an eye to making things fun rather than just making things for the sake of it. I did a couple of Unorthodox books, RANGED COMBATANTS and MONK FEATS.
Louis Porter Junior is a rapid-fire powerhouse of OGL material and I worked with him on two things. One of these, the underdeveloped Pirates of the Bronze Sky, had me fleshing out races such as the KAYLATHEON and TOCARRA. With a little work these might even make interesting character races for Starfinder.
Much more complete was our horror/post apocalyptic setting ‘Obsidian Twilight’ over which I had a lot more influence. There’s a lot of material available for that, some of it free. So do check out the OBSIDIAN TWILIGHT CAMPAIGN SETTING and other material like THE WELL OF DEAD FLESH, OBSIDIAN APOCALYPSE, and more.
I also wrote an unusual adventure ‘Cross City Race’ for 4e in DUNGEON, but easily adaptable to other versions. That was good enough for me to win signed copies of the 4th Edition core books. Cool then, a source of eternal shame now!
For 5th Edition I’ve written a couple of third party products, freelance, for Asatania. THE PRISONER OF SPUR ROCK and THE NEW MINE MASTERS, which have been praised for accessibility and atmospheric writing.
Way back in the mists of time, when men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures were called halflings, I wrote a d20/OGL PUBLISHING GUIDE. Some of this is out of date, but since the OGL is still being used it’s not quite as out of date as it could have been. You may still find it useful.
Outside of D&D I’ve written material for lots of people. Not all of it is still available, it seems, or I’m not listed as a contributor, but of those that do there’s still plenty.
For Victoriana I contributed material to FACES IN THE SMOKE and FAULKNER’S MISCELLANY. I always preferred a more grounded type of Steampunk, so you may find the parts I wrote – at least – suited to other Steampunk games than the Victorian Shadowrun that Victoriana brings to mind.
While my relationship with the SLA Industries team has become a little fraught since Gamergate they still make very good stuff, and Dave Allsop is an artistic genius with a mind for horror that is unparalleled in games media, in my opinion. More recent material the publish with my name to it include URSA CARRIEN and HUNTER SHEETS 2.
If you’ve like my other fiction, you might enjoy the story I contributed to the DARK HARVEST collection, a number of stories set in the Legacy of Frankenstein RPG setting.
Some of my stuff has been republished in nicer format by Chronicle City, where I am still partnered with keystone of the UK RPG scene, Angus Abranson. We hope to get back into production there eventually, meanwhile you can buy the following things there:
FOREVER SUMMER: You play as a gang of children solving mysteries in the town Oceanview. If you liked Goonies, Monster Squad, Explorers, Eerie Indiana or even Stranger Things you might find something fun here.
@CTIV8: This is the second edition of my activist game, drawing on influences such as Anonymous and Global Frequency, it’s about ordinary – but skilled – people, making a difference in the world. This second edition is much tighter and more playable.
ARS GOETIA: If you’re after an ‘old school’ magic system that isn’t just the same old ‘whiz-bang’ Vancian magic or similar, this is for you. Based on the Goetia, a ‘real’ book of magic, this allows you to create a magician whose power and skill derives from his pacts and command over demons, angels and spirits – and whose soul is always at risk. This would work well with RPGPundit’s Lion & Dragon, with a bit of kitbashing.
100 SEEDS: I still publish most of these myself, but several turbocharged editions were created for Cubicle 7 and the rights have since moved to Chronicle City. So if you want the more professionally laid out versions of 100 FANTASY, 100 SCI FI or 100 HORROR adventure seeds, you know where to look!
Buy it HERE
If you – like most Games Masters – run out of ideas for adventures – then the Fistful series provides plenty of fodder for you, sparking your imagination and giving you a situation and several possible interpretations to run with. This can be all the spark you need to wing the rest of the session and end up with a good adventure for everyone.
You can find hundreds more adventure seeds HERE
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
Drive, He Said: A pair of ‘fast and furious’, car-oriented gangsters to drop into your modern or crime games.
Flirty Fishing: Sex sells and can even be used to sell religion. Cults know this and will use this most obvious human failing to their advantage.
Fat on Bread: The cops are just another gang to the people on the street, but who is really running the show amongst the bent cops?
Meth Hunters: The days of driving really fast in an old muscle car to escape the law are gone. So are the days of moonshine. These days its meth and guns – and rednecks know guns better’n Cooter knows engines.
Hero Cop: Hero, vigilante, gun-wielding psychopath, all three? The hero cop can be an ally or an enemy – or both.
Buy it HERE
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
Head and Heart: There are more kinds of ‘vampire’ than the sparkly kind and some are truly bizarre and disgusting.
Small Town America: Ghost towns may be haunted, but it’s not always by ghosts. Isolation can make people crazy and town pride can get out of control.
Burn Baby Burn: Its not always the vampires that are the predators or humans the prey. Challenging the status quo is dangerous for any man – alive or not.
Stitched Up: Taxidermy, especially the strange and creative side, is a dying art. Here’s why.
Wandering Souls: What lengths would you go to for companionship if you were the only one of your kind in existence?
Continuing in the tradition of the 100 Adventure Seeds books and Fistful of Fantasy, comes Fistful of Horror, five one-page game inspiration ideas with the legend, the truth and three or more story ideas for your games.
In this booklet:
The Seven: An horrific circus with seven rings, one for each circle of hell.
She Keeps Her Council: Something evil and manipulative squats in a squalid sink estate, a no-go area where the police will never investigate. Its power grows.
Beauty Never Fades: Most strip clubs are tacky, horrid, disappointing places. Not this one, but what could motivate such beauty to work at such a small, hidden place for – seemingly – little reward.
Hand and Fist: A pair of demon hunters, on the run from the law – who don’t believe the occult even exists. These men are heroes to the occult underground and rely on them to support them and hide them, but they’re not what they seem.
Windows to the Soul: What if madness is contagious? What if the murderous impulse is alive and has a destructive will of its own?
You can get it HERE.
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your fantasy campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
Gladiators of the Stone Heart: An underground arena, a fabulous prize, a hidden motive. Enter the dark and battle for your life!
Take it With You: Tradition has it that great leaders are buried with their most loyal soldiers and servants. Some take this a little too seriously and if they are thwarted can become extremely dangerous.
Last Breath: A strange mask, an assassin’s legacy with a power – and a desire to kill – all of its own.
A Broken Band: Wandering bands of heroic tomb robbers can’t be the only kind of adventurers out there. What do things look like from the other perspective?
By Candlelight: In a war against the undead the bones of holy men take on a special value. They’re also heavily protected from the various unscrupulous forces that might seek to take advantage of the situation. Can you recover them and who will you give them to?
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your fantasy campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
Oh, that’s just Offal!: Poor city planning places alchemical and magical shops near to the butchers. With horrific results…
Behind, with a Dagger: The King’s fair queen is behind him all the way, but perhaps it is only so she can more easily stab him in the back.
All that Glitters: Just how DO you get a big dragon into a dungeon when all the corridors are so small and how does he get out?
When the Levee Breaks: Weather magic can be a fearsome weapon in the wrong hands, as can the otherwise laughable tribes of the swamps. Less ‘Hell Comes to Frogtown’ and more ‘Frogs Come to Helltown’.
Fort Graven: The greatest fortress ever made was said to be protected even from death itself. To be truly impregnable nothing can get in… or out.
RPGNOW Exclusive – Get it HERE
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your fantasy campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
A Wand for the Everyman: What if the power to smite could be put in the hands of every peasant with a steady aim, without decades of study and the power of the blood?
Kingdom of the Blind: The Witch Queen keeps her people in check by literally keeping them in the dark. What does she do with all those eyes?
Wulfkin: There are more ways to become a shapeshifter than by being bit. What kind of person would call that curse onto themselves?
The Living Word: A desert temple, guarded by a mummy. Not everything is necessarily as straightforward as it seems though…
Life & Limb: The city is the most secure in the world but it takes power and daring to keep it that way, sometimes at the cost of its poor and vulnerable.
RPGNOW Exclusive – Buy it HERE
From the author of the ‘100’ series of Adventure Seeds books, a new, shorter form source of inspiration for Games Masters. They might be adventures, non-player-characters, monsters, places… all ready to be dropped into your fantasy campaign, regardless of system.
In this booklet:
The Dragon’s Head Inn: Augury to the masses and site of the Blue Moon Festival. A wild stopover for travelling adventurers.
The Blackberry Wilder: A different kind of dryad with a thirst for blood and the thorns to get it.
The Shrieking Tomb: Not every vampire can escape its grave to bring terror, but then again, maybe it doesn’t need to.
Fimble Finesmoke: Halfing tobacconist, herbalist and fan of experimenting with the inhalation of substances.
Elesha the Exotic: Immortal elven companion looking for interesting and exciting places to be to distract her from the boredom of centuries of life.
Buy it HERE
BUY IT HERE
Postmortem Studios 