Orbital Vampire City is a mid-level (5 to 10) adventure provided in both 5E and OSE formats.
Adventure Description
Far out in the void, an ancient city of vampires endures. Welcome to Araveshti, a city of a thousand towers floating safely in the shadow of the world, glittering with starlight, thrumming with ancient magics, and crawling with vicious immortals.
Will you seek to destroy these bloodthirsty aristocrats? Or will you help them pursue their bizarre alchemical experiments in immortality? Or will you simply seek a way to escape their twisted and crumbling paradise?
Within these ancient towers, adventurers will find vampire lords and servants, zealots and goliaths, as well as werewolves, mycotic zombies, victims of strange experimentation, fanatical holy knights, tragic vampire hunters in black, shipwrecked dreamers, castaway aliens, metal angels, eldritch horrors, star dragons, and (of course) the vampires’ giant dragon-killing mecha suit…
Adventure Features
This is a dark sandbox. Players will explore a vast city of undead people and monsters in outer space, full of homages to classic horror and science fiction films and literature. Like what, you ask? How about: Alien, Predator, The Thing, and Akira? You know, the good stuff.
With over 40 unique locations and countless more random locations, as well as 40+ new monsters and 100+ new magic items, and a bunch of weird factions and interactive gizmos curtesy of the vampire alchemists, your players should have plenty to do.
Well, I finally did it, I created my own fantasy heartbreaker, set in my Dungeon Age world of Harth, and it’s called… Harthbreaker.
What is it?
Harthbreaker is my homebrew system. It’s what I use to play games with my friends (and my kids). I’ve been using and refining it for a couple of years now. More specifically…
Harthbreaker is a rules-light 2d6 fantasy RPG. Game content is set in the world of Harth, which leans toward dark fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, the Dying Earth genre, and similar materials. It is a skill-based, class-less Powered by the Apocalypse game.
Why did I make this?
Well, I personally like games that ride more on creativity and speed than on rules and precision. I don’t want to count squares, or read long monster stat blocks, or interpret long spell descriptions. I prefer to have the Indiana Jones experience of trying to do whatever crazy stunt seems to make sense in the moment, and letting the dice fall where they may.
So for instance, in Harthbreaker, there are many types of magic such as fire magic or blood magic, but they all work the same way. You simply describe what you want your magic to do, and hopefully the dice say you succeed. Darts, walls, giant hands, mindless constructs? Whatever you can imagine! The only differences are mechanically logical: fire can ignite things, and blood can drown things, etc.
Similarly, the Harthbreaker monster stats are very simple: how many hits to kill it, is it faster or slower than an adventurer, is it bigger or smaller than an adventurer, how does it attack, and how much damage does it do. That’s about it. The mini-description tells the GR (the Game Runner!) a few core details, like what this creature wants or fears, or how it operates (ambusher, scavenger, pack hunter). And that’s it.
Oh, also, I made this because a bunch of folks asked me if I would publish my homebrew rules. And I hate to disappoint folks. So here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
What’s actually in it?
There’s a 10-page player’s guide, including the character sheet, instructions for character creation, and descriptions of the 28 Special Skills.
Then there are 57 pages of the Game Runner’s guide, which includes 35 tables and lists to help you create all sorts of adventure content, including creatures, villages and NPCs, villains and conflicts, wildernesses and encounters, dungeons and traps, magical items and weapons, a sample adventure “A Theft in Lonely Moor”, and a lot (lot!) more.
If nothing else, you should be able to raid those tables and lists for useful gaming ideas.
I make a lot of Dungeon Age stuff. One-shots, campaigns, classes, fiction, RPGs, settings, monsters, items, you know, everything. But I want to hear from you guys about what you really want, what you really use, what really helps you have amazing games.
First up, DMs and GMs and Referees, game runners of all stripes:
I have a couple of books set in the Dungeon Age world of Harth, and the most recent one was Wayward Magicians. It’s technically a sequel, but you don’t need to read the first one. Which is convenient. Because I think Wayward Magicians is pretty darn good. And I just updated it.
When I first began creating the dying world of Harth, I had a lot of undeveloped ideas. But those ideas continued to evolve as I published more stories and more RPG adventures. And now I have a much clearer idea of this Dying Earth, Hollow World, Fantasy Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland. So now we have a new edition of Wayward Magicians to explore those ideas.
What’s it about?
Wayward Magicians is about a woman named Ziva who used to be an elderly holy cleric and is now a young magician possessed by demonic ichor (that talks to her). It is also about a man named Malachi Draas who once tried to open a portal into the “world below” and accidentally released a horde of city-devouring demons, making him the most wanted criminal of the desert cities. Ziva and Malachi don’t like or trust each other, but together they venture down into Harth to stop the demons and discover some of the strange history of their geriatric world.
What’s in it?
Hungry lizards
Chaos witches who don’t understand why people fear them
Sad ghosts
Zealous paladins betrayed by their insane metal angels
Dreamwalking highwaymen
The Sijin dream-folk, who sleep among corpses to visit the dreams of the dead
The Arbaj tree-folk, who are definitely not elves
The Vrahoi stone-folk, who are definitely not dwarves
Giant ride-able bats
The Kadav corpse-folk, who are quite delicate
Psychic Chaos wyrms
Tentacled women from the end of time
Talking dragons who play with their food
Fire-belching snails
Why am I revising and pushing it?
I’ve published 27 novels. Some are decent. I think this one might be Good. The writing is tight and evocative. Different chapters are from different points of view, but always moving the main story along. It’s got a little Howard pulp and a little Moorcock acid in it. It’s weird and tragic and silly. And the best part: the chapters are short!
Where is it?
You can get Wayward Magicians on Amazon (for Kindle, $3) or on DriveThruFiction (in multiple formats, Pay What You Want).
The Essential Classes for 5E PDF is just for you 5E players out there. I have created four (4) original character classes for you guys: the Mercenary, the Necromancer, the Occultist, and the Spyder.
The Classes
I created these four classes because they reflect some of my favorite characters and archetypes from mythology, literature, comics, film, and games.
MERCENARY, a skilled fighter, dirty brawler, and deft thief who would fit in right alongside warriors like Robert E. Howard’s iconic barbarian Conan the Cimmerian.
NECROMANCER, a conduit for Death itself, commanding corpses and spirits, creating hideous tools and structures from dead matter, who could walk the same paths as Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone or the dark sorcerers of Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique.
OCCULTIST, a grim scholar and supernatural investigator armed with countless holy (and unholy) trinkets who combines elements of the heroes in Dracula, Hellboy, Hellblazer, and Castlevania.
SPYDER, an assassin with superhuman skills who could easily be a ninja from the book The Kouga Ninja Scrolls or the anime Ninja Scroll.
Design Note
These classes feature some original mechanics that make the classes more thematic and cinematic. Features tend to be very situational. Some abilities work automatically without a roll. None of these classes use traditional spells.
These classes were not designed to be balanced with other classes (although they are very effective when they are in their element!). They were designed to evoke specific fantasy roles and heroic abilities from mythology, history, literature, and film. They were designed to be fun!
But these classes may not be for everyone, and that’s okay too!
That’s it!
I hope you’ll check out the Essential Classes for 5E on DriveThruRPG. It’s only $4 for 4 classes, which is pretty good. Plus it has outstanding art by Oleg Khachkovskiy (instagram)!
So, my attempts to get all of my projects under control have been highly mediocre. As you may have noticed, I wrote and published an entire little one-shot that was most certainly not on the To-Do list. But that’s okay!
Here are the things that are definitely happening this fall!
Orbital Vampire City
A hugely detailed campaign setting in the orbital vampire city of Araveshti, where you can explore countless ancient towers and ruins full of the best sci-fi tropes and references my aging brain could conjure (including Alien, Predator, Gundam, Akira, and The Thing).
That’s right, you can kill the Unseen Hunter and use its gear to defeat the Void Beast Empress, and then pilot the vampires’ Dragonsbane Armor to slay a space dragon, or use a shriveled psychic vampire child to figure out that the lonely dog next to the crashed space ship is a deadly shapeshifting ooze!
If that’s your jam.
Status: Currently in layout and editing. Which is taking FOREVER. Because it is LONG.
Gargoyle drawn by me
Essential Classes for 5e
Playtesting was rough! I ended up completely scrapping the original 6 classes and designing 4 entirely new classes, which are much, much better. They are the Mercenary, Necromancer, Occultist, and Spyder. They are detailed, unique, and thematically flavorful. They are not at all balanced (because who wants that?).
But they are very fun! The core mechanic for their special (very situational) abilities is that there is a 1-in-6 chance of the ability failing and causing you damage, otherwise it just works! Easy peasy.
Status: Currently in layout and editing, and waiting for artwork.
Wyrm drawn by me
…and last but not least…
HARTHBREAKER: The Dungeon Age RPG !!!
Yes, my homebrew game is now (probably) brewed enough for you to play! It’s called HARTHBREAKER because it is my fantasy “heartbreaker” and it is set in my dying world of “Harth”. It is basically a classless fantasy PbtA game. No damage rolls. No armor. No math. Just tons of in-game fiction. Your mileage will obviously vary.
The 40-page guide contains about 6 pages for the players and 30 pages for the Game Runner, which is mostly d66 tables full of tools for generating villains, magic items, villages, and quests. It is super good for generating zero-prep games. It is super good for new players, and for young players. It is super good for having fun with your friends. It is not at all good for simulationist wargamers (sorry!).
Last week, my 10yo daughter asked me to run a one-shot with her, and we did, and it was great. And then I asked her if she wanted to help me write an adventure, and she did, so we did. She designed some monsters and magic items, some rooms, and a villain and a plot, and I wrote it all up. This is that adventure.
Imperial Vault 19
A grieving widow in the forest begs you to save her baby. A hedge witch has taken the infant down into an old imperial vault where she uses the child’s Chaos tears in alchemical potions.
And who knows what old treasures might still be hidden in the vault?
Unless it’s not that kind of vault…
This is a one-shot dungeon delve. The players have the opportunity to be classic heroes, fighting villains and saving babies. They also have the chance to loot a small dungeon for treasure.
…and they might be horribly mutated into bizarre monstrosities.
I said “might”!
Bottom Line
This is a quick and easy one-shot you can run on its own, or inserted into a campaign. Like all Dungeon Age adventures, it is full of original monsters and treasures. And its especially full of potions and mutation effects, which should make your game extra memorable!
It’s only $2 on DriveThruRPG, and she doesn’t know it yet, but my daughter will be receiving her half of the cut! So I hope you’ll check it out, and I hope you and your table enjoy Imperial Vault 19.
The bad news is that this is slowing me down. The good news is that I’m going to finish all of them. Eventually.
In no particular order, here they are:
Orbital Vampire City. The “sequel” to Orbital Vampire Tower, this urban campaign setting is an entire city full of vampires, in space. There are over 40 detailed locations so far, various mutant vampires, sad aliens, monstrous aliens, weird aliens, vampire hunters, giant vampire mecha for fighting star dragons, and a star dragon. Probably coming this year.
Rogues of Carcassay. A sprawling, filthy city (sandbox campaign setting) of dungeoneers, alchemists, oracles, mercenaries, horror cults, zealous crusaders, warring wealthy Houses, reclusive Corpse Lords, insane hermits, and all manners of creatures spread across a hundred locations. We played in (and under) Carcassay for months and had countless bizarre plots and discoveries and battles. Maybe coming this year.
Six Essential Classes for 5E. I have designed and am currently testing six simplified classes for 5E. These are the Berserker, Hunter, Mercenary, Necromancer, Priest, and Witch. Each is built around a Core Ability, and all of the rules for each fit onto 2 pages (no spells). The idea behind each one is to give a player a very thematic and unique character that is also very easy to learn and run, with no mechanical decisions to make, just flavor options. For instance, the Berserker is a shapeshifter (you choose the creatures) and the Priest can invoke Plagues (you choose the vermin or material), but at each level, the range or power is clearly stated. Obviously, these classes are not for everyone, just folks who want something simpler to run. Probably coming soon.
The Dungeon Age Roleplaying Game. Yes, the long-rumored gaming system that I keep mentioning may actually come to light! Playtesting with both adults and kids continues to go well. What is it? I mean, basically it is a stripped down version of Dungeon World. No moves, just rolls and player creativity, three stats, and 2d6. It’s not for everyone, but everyone I play it with seems to have a great time. Probably coming this year.
Secrets of the Silt Sea. A seafaring campaign setting with adaptive, evolving island mechanics so that every game’s version of the Silt Sea is unique. A misty world of giant crustaceans and crocodilians. Probably coming later.
Gunwitches and Gilaraptors. A grasslands campaign setting of ruined cities and roving dinosaurs, and undead. Partly inspired by North American cryptids and legends. Probably coming later.
That’s all! Did anything catch your eye? Anything sound good?
There is a new Dungeon Age adventure available on DriveThruRPG today in both 5E and OSE formats! Go check out Battle for Carrion Vale. It’s grim. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s…grimdarkgritty.
“This morning, the forces of Law and Chaos clashed at Castle Yennagor. The battle raged all day, but as darkness fell, a cataclysmic explosion destroyed most of the castle and leveled both armies. Now, as night claims the vale, flickers of life return. Survivors make camp, flee the field, or continue the fight. Scavengers creep over the dead. And one question remains unanswered: what happened inside the castle?”
This is a dark sandbox adventure. Players take the role of battlefield survivors. They can choose which side they are on (or neither), and they can choose their goal, such as to escape the field with their lives, to plunder the dead, or to reach the castle and finish the mission.
The map is a sort of point-crawl with 30 locations. It looks like this:
You can show the map to your players because the Location names only describe what the PCs can see or hear as they move about the battlefield. If the PCs travel along the dotted paths, they can move quickly and safely. If they choose to move across the wilderness (off the paths), then they take longer to move and roll for a Random Encounter with one of the factions of Law and Chaos that are roaming around the valley.
Locations!
There are 30.
At each Location, the players can Search the battlefield for supplies. There is d66 table of things they can find, which include all sorts of useful or ruined weapons and armor, medical supplies and food, gravedigging gear, magical items, and lost animals.
Also at each Location are the actual battlefield wreckage and survivors that make up the encounter, including magicians casting spells, war-mounts dying in the mud, eldritch visitors from the stars and the future, thieves looting the dead, monsters eating the dead, necromancers recycling the dead, warriors adding to the dead, and lots more dead.
I told you this is a grimdarkgritty adventure.
Factions!
The Army of Law has brought the Silveri soldiers, who are your all-purpose good guys who just want to do the right thing. They aren’t very strong, but there are a lot of them. Law has also brought the Crusaders of Virune, who are extremely passionate about killing the forces of Chaos. Be careful around them.
The Army of Chaos has hired Jassinar mercenaries, who don’t care about cosmic politics at all but they are definitely worth their high price. Chaos also hired the Tharite corsairs, flamboyant desert pirates who are less than reliable. Chaos also tricked the Ngadi rangers into helping out.
Of course, lots of other people are here in Carrion Vale who have no allegiances. Watch out for the Plague Warriors, the Thieves Militant, the Last Folk, and three horrible old women, to name just a few.
Features
There are 70+ new magic items in this adventure, including weapons of Law and Chaos, specialized gear for rangers and assassins, hideous devices of bone and iron, unusual musical instruments, and a very dangerous bile sac.
There are 30+ new monsters and creatures in this adventure, including a wide variety of wizards and warriors, vampires and werewolves, aberrations, undead, and some very sad little demons who might have been watching Voltron and gotten some strange ideas.
Battle for Carrion Vale
Check out Battle for Carrion Vale on DTRPG, and let me know what you think about it.
