Author Archives: Brent

About Brent

21st Century Renaissance Man. My gamer resume: http://brentnewhall.com/rpg/doku.php?id=brent_s_gamer_resume

Random Idea: Samuel Teleki, Vampire Hunter

This is part of a series of RPG characters, creatures, and locations inspired by random entries from Wikipedia. The material I create may grow distant from its roots. Today we have Count Sámuel Teleki, a jovial Transylvanian aristocrat who explored deep into Africa in search of “a sea that lay beyond the desert, surrounded by … Continue reading »

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Dungeon Delvers: D&D on one page

This is the story of a snowball. Earlier this week, Deeds & Doers appeared on various social networks. It was a simple D&D retroclone packed into one page, complete with art. Unfortunately, it confused a lot of its readers. The rules were vague and interspersed with odd phrases. So I wrote Dungeon Delvers, an ultra-portable D&D … Continue reading »

Categories: Role-playing | 3 Comments

Random Idea: Joseph Hardcastle Corsbie

This is part of a series of RPG characters, creatures, and locations inspired by random entries from Wikipedia. The material I create may grow distant from its roots. Today we have Joseph Hardcastle Corsbie: a minor Canadian politician most notable for his three unsuccessful candidacies, though he found success elsewhere. This is a perfect example … Continue reading »

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How Naming Affects a World

As I finish up work on the Shattered World setting (more on that in a few weeks, assuming the rest of the art and editing comes through), I’m part into playtesting of a tabletop RPG set in a world of savages. Literally, even the players are naked jungle villagers. And names matter, as you’ll see … Continue reading »

Categories: Role-playing | 4 Comments

Poisons of the Shattered World

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. Today: poisons! Karawa powder is a strong irritant, derived from certain ores found mainly on the island of Iziz. While fairly expensive, it is odorless and tasteless, and enough of it will kill an … Continue reading »

Categories: Shattered World | 2 Comments

Claymen, Monsters of the Shattered World

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. Time for a different take on the golem. Introduction Claymen stand as another example of popular stories falling far short of the horrible reality. They are presented as simple humanoid creatures made by magic, formed … Continue reading »

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Sea Devils of the Shattered World

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. This time, we look at the sahuagin or sea devils of D&D, and imagine if they were civilized. Sea Devils Physical Description Sea devils have been boogey-men since the times of the Old Ones. … Continue reading »

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DROP Session Log: The Horror of the Desert Isle

My sci-fi storytelling game, DROP, is intended for tales of starship crew members descending to a planet, exploring a strange structure, then running for their lives. Turns out this works just as well in the past. This session log is taken from a game of DROP in which we wanted to combine an Indiana Jones-like … Continue reading »

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DROP Session Log

In my tabletop game DROP (pay-what-you-want on DriveThruRPG), you play the crew of a starship on a doomed mission. The players all write down their characters’ actions on a shared piece paper. What does that look like? I, historicula, and historicula’s brother wrote the following story: Phase 1: Preparation The basic scenario will be a … Continue reading »

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Bugbears of the Shattered World

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. It’s based on the Gamer Assembly‘s Shattered Seas meta-setting. Here’s a rather different take on bugbears. Bugbears Physical Description Svelte, silver-furred killers, bugbears glide out of the woods on four legs, then rise on their haunches to … Continue reading »

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