"Underport" Update

I am on the HOME STRETCH to complete the mega-dungeon, Underport: Abyssal Descent! Currently there are 198 separate encounters, a pirate port, underground town, small keep, and a deep race dwelling adjacent to a vast subterranean land.

I had hoped to be all done by this month, however, since it is now December 31st, that is not going to happen.

Underport is my top gaming priority right now and I expect to have it finished early in January. The wait will be worth it as this dungeon is suitable for starting out a 1st level party or shuttling in your high-level characters in search of a challenge on the edge that represents significant chances for character death... (AND commensurate rewards!)

"Krull" Map Available on DriveThru!

"Krull" Circa 1979-80

In eager anticipation of "Underport: Abyssal Descent" (available December 2014***) the original wilderness map for our "Krull" campaign is available at DriveThru RPG! The campaign started several years prior to the 1983 movie of the same name and featured a plethora of cities, towns, inns and encounter areas all plotted on "TSR Hobbies" hex paper to the old Judges Guild scale of 5 miles per hex.

This map has been annotated for legibility, but is otherwise a copy of the campaign map we used for play - beer spills and all! "Krull" can be used as a centerpiece for ongoing adventuring through "Underport: Abyssal Descent" and other forthcoming dungeon and city scenarios compatible with Knights of the All Mind and other OSR/d20 rule sets.

Another scenario from the "Krull" campaign world, "The Crack at Garn's Canyon," was featured in Habitition of the Stone Giant Lord, a collection of DIY modules from tabletop fantasy gaming's early years published by The Hutchingsonian Institution in collaberation with PlaGMaDA in 2013.

Also included with the "Krull" wilderness map is a map to the town of Elktree, the last "civilized" outpost heading west and is situated on the banks of River Aston 35 miles east of Underport. The town is intended for adventurers to rest and resupply from their excursions.

(*** Uuuhh... Winter 2015)

Wow, two-years-and-a-day ago I was setting out to establish some workable system for psionics. I'll have to check into my notes and where I left off. Psionics were always an interesting twist to our 1e games and useful for a magic-like ability for sci-fi creatures and races. But damn if we didn't have to look up and argue over the rules just about every time!

My idea was to have a rare ability (psionics) with an attribute score that would provide some powers at a base level. If a character wanted to increase psionic abilities the character would apply levels from experience points just like a multi- or prestige class.

Ha, I could use a little break from transcribing "Underport," so maybe I'll hammer something out.

I also have bothersome life intruding on my fantasy multi-verse (har, or is it all multi-verse???). The next couple weeks will probably (hopefully) contain more free/discretionary time than I'll have afterward.

I have made serious headway to publishing the first "Knights of the All Mind" mega-dungeon module!

Underport: Abyssal Descent is a new edit of a dungeon I wrote between the ages of 14 to 16 that I ran at least a half-dozen times between 1979-81. Underport started out as an underground pirate village and I kept adding stuff on.

Interesting peek into my psyche during those times: 1st level is based on Pirates of the Caribbean from Disneyland and by the time you get a few levels down (down = moving forward in time) there are magical 'shroom patches.

Good grief!

Excellent news! Direbane Publishing now has a publisher's page up on DriveThruRPG. I lost my ability to store and make available PDFs online when I dropped my paid "direbane.com" website. I decided to used DriveThruRPG as a repository for my gaming creations on the off chance that something I create achieves some measure of popularity. (Ha! But you never know...)

I am still trying to figure out the best free platform (Google Drive, DropBox?) for hosting one-offs.

I will be making available original game scenarios suitable for use with Knights of the All Mind rules (and really any 1e through v3.5 and probably the Next).

Since I am running a current game using these hybrid rules I figure it will be simple to make "Direbane Publishing" versions of sub-adventures from the campaign into somewhat of a campaign-neutral format for others to make use of as they will.

Ha, of course the cupboard is pretty bare right now. Wait until March, I have a Hell Spiral location and the Torture Chamber of Sir Fang just to polish up...