#027en - october 2023 TTRPG newsletter
The monthly TTRPG newsletter from Xapur
End of campaign, pause and preparation with a new game system!
Latest articles published on the blog
As always, my posts are written in french but there is a translation widget on the blog
On the blog this month, you can read about the end of my Adventures in Eriador campaign for Adventures in Middle-earth (D&D 5E). Ten reports for fifteen play sessions, from the Shire to Angmar!
I'm still behind on my mega-dungeon creation so I've only now published level 8, while 9 is drawn but not yet described (there are 44 rooms!), and 10 just sketched. But I'm working on it!
And finally, I've discovered an utility, VTT Token Maker, for creating, you guessed it, tokens that you can then use for your online RPG games (because for the tabletop ones, there are other alternatives, in my opinion).
What's new at my gaming table?
My D&D campaign, Adventures in Phandalin, came to an end after more than two years of play nad 67 sessions. The group struggled to overcome a lich threatening the Sword Coast, but finally wiped out the menace. And we parted, temporarily, with regret. But it's time to move on to something else, another universe, another game system... (reports will be posted regularly on the blog, and 5 have already been published).
While I was thinking of switching over to AD&D and Greyhawk, as I've talked about previously here, we're finally going to start playing in my Danaé sword and sorcery universe on the basis of Basic D100, modernized as Mythras. On the open-table principle, I'm hoping to get several groups active for one-shots or mini-campaigns - and that'll happen on my Discord. In the meantime, this month has been largely devoted to preparation...
Readings and inspirations
On the role-playing front, I've received my PDF of Monsters of the Dungeon, a crowdfunding release from Cawood Publishing which has also released other monsters compilations (nearly 700 spread over several volumes). I'll do a full review when I've read it in detail, but there are some interesting creatures and equivalents for D&D5E, Pathfinder 1 & 2, OSE and Dungeon Crawl Classics.
OSE is by the way at the Taverne d'Onos blog, where the Sunday coffee is good and the proprietor, a little gruff but very friendly, talks to us about OSR or Old School Renaissance/Revival to find out more about these young/old (or vice versa?) systems. Perhaps he'll even host a game?
In comics, not much apart from a few issues of the Thor series (2020), which I may well abandon shortly. My review of the first episodes is online on my dedicated blog.
In novels this month, I finished Claire North's Gameshouse trilogy and then moved on to french authoress Audrey Pleynet's Rossignol. Gameshouse is a great source of inspiration for JDR, and I may even do a blog post on it.
Creations, tips, shop…
Publications of the month
This month, I've put together a Halloween map for free download on Ko-fi or DriveThruRPG. There are also a few adventure hooks with it.
And I'm continuing with The Old Mine, with 4 levels to date, and an extra exclusive one will be available for my Ko-fi subscribers!
Current projects
Upcoming releases include level 9 of the megadungeon, The Old Mine and at least one of the planned D&D supplements.
Follow me on the web
follow me on Twitter and/or Mastodon and/or Bluesky
Buy me a coffee, or a tea, or a beer! Explore my shop and become a dragon!
my TTRPG blog (in french - with a translation widget), my english small website
That’s it for this issue, see you soon!
And do not hesitate to leave a message or comment below or answer to the email to let me know what you think of this letter.