Blueholme Journeymanne is released, and some stuff about wights

So two major kickstarters I backed (Blueholme Journeymanne and Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2e) have matured, and their combined weight has crashed One BookShelf, preventing me from getting my copy. I would seriously link to them, but like I said, DrivethruRPG and RPGnow have crashed, so I can’t.

FYI, blueholme Journeymanne can be acquired whenever OBS gets its shit together for $9.99 for the advance PDF (some artists aren’t done yet) and AS&SH is on sale for less than the kickstarter price due to a site wide sale on games that include their own setting, for $12.75, instead of $19)

The third big kickstarter I backed, Dungeon Fantasy RPG (now strangely no longer available for pre order at warehouse 23) has been mailed out, and my copy has suspiciously been sitting on a post office truck out for delivery for three days.

On this continued topic of Things That Suck,  I have been probably overusing the Wight Template from GURPS Fantasy.

The first time I used it, after hearing about them being used by Peter Dell’Orto, was to merge the template with that of the Gargoyle from DF 3 to make the Flying Deaths that circled over the Island that contained the Library of Flax.  Those were fairly easy to dispose of, as I hadn’t tried to make them unkillable with an Achilles Heel of silver or pussiant magic weapons. On the other hand, it was Gorgath wielding the Doomrazor who took most of them out.

The second adventure that included them is still running, a foray into a cursed abbey that was lost when the abbot fell in with a succubus, and is now overrun with doomchildren and Wights. Luckily for that group, they have as a member Haskell the Crafty, who owns an ugly, rusted, and pussiant shortsword. Mostly that group fireballs the wights, or has the barbarian ogress flatten them, leaving Haskell to finish them off. (I require at least HT damage be done with the silver or otherwise enhanced weapon, but at -5HT, the wights are in a state of torpor, which I calculate they would otherwise rebirth from in just under three months time, given that they need to recoup 6xHT at 1 hp /12 hours.  A modest restocking rate.

The use of wights that cost me players, between frustration with lack of posting by one of the players, was on an undercity expedition to establish a vending space (yes, verging on the fabled Tavern Level of Felltower) for Vilgar the Half-ogre’s fighting arena.  In this case, a long ago group of explorers abandoned one of their fellows to a slow death at the hands of Giant Maned Rats (From DF 10). These beasties are normally annoying fodder, but their quills, which get a free attack if you engage them, are also poisonous.

This caused our hapless explorer to rise as a wight, and exact his revenge on the rats. As wights, that quill attack becomes Straight damage + Poison damage+_FP drain. It got ugly quickly, and none of the characters on the mission had silver, so they retreated. Their boss offered them the use of some silvered weapons (mostly cheap, excepting one magical weapon) which they could choose to purchase after use, or owe him a debt.

Rapidly, they moved in and started to do some damage, but I lost most of that group before they could take down the quill covered human wight at the end of the run.

One option they could have taken, but refused, was The Butcher’s Blade, a blunt tipped and blackened Pussiant+1 Broadsword that gradually gives its owner the Bloodlust disadvantage, and increases the rate at which self controll rolls are made for that disadvantage.  The weapon, therefore is cursed, but the character who would have been the likely recipient of it was hated by the character collecting the weapons, so I am surprised she didn’t saddle him with it.

Now here is something that doesn’t suck: I had a piece of artwork exclusively commissioned by Venger Satanis for his most recent Alpha Blue supplement, Save Yourself From Hell (also unlinkable due to DrivethruRPG crashing), which you can get for only $4, and the adventure merges The Black Hole, Event Horizon, Hellraiser and the Gate. It is worth picking up, especially since it is the only place you can see that particular piece of my art.