#RPGaDAY2020: Day 24 — Humor

DAY TWENTY-FOURHUMOR When developing an RPG, its launch is critical. Beyond the mechanics of the game, which to be fair, are generally derivative of Dungeons & Dragons*, there has to be a defining hook, which can often take the form of modules or adventure paths. One of the first such adventures I began working on…

#RPGaDay2020: Day 20 — Investigate

DAY TWENTYINVESTIGATE At the heart of nearly every RPG is a mystery meant for the players to investigate. Be it a medieval-influenced fantasy or a gritty occult noir campaign, game masters lead their players through a complex narrative by dangling a carrot. The mystery might be the location of a legendary sword lost within the…

#RPGaDay2020: Day 19 — Tower

DAY NINETEENTOWER Bloody Hell, WordPress went and changed their interface on me and thus most of the time I meant to spend on today’s prompt was spent trying to figure out how to use the damn thing. I’ve never understood why you would change something that’s not broken… But I guess, in a way, it’s…

#RPGaDAY2020: Day 18 — Meet

DAY 18 MEET While we’ve taken a step back from Occult Detective: The Roleplaying Game to complete work on a licensed intellectual property, it is never far from my mind. When today’s prompt crept up, unsurprisingly,  it was Occult Detective that my mind went to. One of the challenges in bringing a game steeped in…

#RPGaDAY2020: Day 12 — Message

DAY TWELVE MESSAGE To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all. Aleister Crowley My son and I were talking about today’s prompt —message — last night. He thought it was a tough one, stating that the only thing that came to mind…

#RPGaDAY2020: Day 9 — Light (& Dark)

DAY NINE LIGHT For today’s word prompt, Light, I thought I would dust off a mechanic we devised for our, as yet, unpublished Occult Detective: The Roleplaying Game. That mechanic, or concept, is Light and Dark. Light and Dark are opposing forces, crudely defined as good and evil, though that is often a matter of…

No Quarter (Keep): Session 23 — “Two & A Half”

SESSION 23 Two & A Half Beleaguered and weary, the company set out, intent on rescuing Sir Jon Foster above all else. Other matters would have to wait. Traversing the maze like underbelly, they found their way back to the rat room, the rodent nest beyond the bedchamber of the war hero Wilborn the Hunter….

Paint it Black: An Occult Detective RPG Casefile / Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Ashton and the Closed Door Reality has escaped our investigators as they find themselves amidst the cosmic soup of the Astral Plane. Before them, the dark magician Ashton Connors stands in a summoning circle, calling an Old One to him with the help of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth that he took from Arthur…

Paint it Black: An Occult Detective RPG Casefile / Chapter Four

Chapter Four: The Magician When last we left our unlikely investigators, they had traveled through the planes in order to access Sam Hill Investigations, an former private detective’s office located in Wabash. Once there, the group saw blood staining the floor, and they could feel dark magic in the air. The building’s current occupant, a…

Paint it Black: An Occult Detective RPG Casefile / Chapter Three

Chapter Three: The Plot Thickens Alone in the basement of Caliburn House, our unlikely investigators are left to lick their wounds after confronting the Demon that had a hand in the Archangel Cassiel’s murder. The Demon had been banished, but not after doing a number on Liam Diggle’s psyche. In spite of this, the reporter…