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Archive for June, 2009

Vapors of Colossal Death

Posted by MadBrew On June - 3 - 2009
Vapors of Colossal Death

Vapors of Colossal Death

Since I have declared this month’s RPG Blog Carnival to be Steampunk & Klokwerks, it would be a good time to reveal my Steampunk influenced submission for the One Page Dungeon contest hosted by Chgowiz and the Chatty DM.  The contest is over and I judging from their tweets on Twitter, they are having an awesome time judging the entries.  The general look and feel was inspired by Stargazer’s 1PD entry, The Horror of Leatherbury House.

The dungeon took me about 10 hours from start to completion, which is a feat considering I was suffering from an uncomfortable bout of food poisoning.  It was late and I was delirious, but my “geek cred” was at stake since I had announced on Twitter that I would submit a dungeon.  I blame any resemblance of the dungeon blueprint to a robot face on bad Mexican (seriously, it was not intentional).

The general idea is that this dungeon is actually the insides of a giant steam-powered colossus, a remnant of some ruined civilization.  The wilderness has grown over the colossus, but the PCs stumble upon some maintenance doors that give them access to the innards.  Should the PCs reactivate the colossus it resumes its program (which can be anything you want it to be).

As far as the graphic design goes, I think I will revisit this dungeon later and put in a layer option to see a printer friendly version (i.e. decent margins and only a simple map).  I would also increase the size of the title and arrange the map better to accommodate the size.  I might also fade the text background to improve readability.  All in all, not to bad for what is actually a rough draft.

Download Vapors of Colossal Death PDF

Listening to: Abney Park - The Death of Tragedy - Dear Ophelia

RPG Carnival: Steampunk & Klokwerks

Posted by MadBrew On June - 1 - 2009
This month I managed to snag that traveling caravan of gypsies and vagabonds called the RPG Blog Carnival and had them pitch tents outside the Labs.  Last month Roleplaying Pro hosted the carnival and presented the topic, The Future of Roleplaying.  This month the RPG Carnival is dressed in grand Victorian (and Edwardian) style, are firing up the gaslamps, and donning brass goggles in preparation for this months topic:
Steampunk & Klokwerks
Steamnocchio by Fabricio Moraes

Steamnocchio by Fabricio Moraes, CGS Image Master Award winner

Steampunk, like most genres, is difficult to define.  I deem Steampunk anything set in an era with older than current technology, that uses that older technology (usually steam-powered contraptions, elaborate clockwork, or even harnessing electricity from lightning) to create modern inventions that would not normally be considered possible with that technology.  Steam-powered computers, clockwork automatons, and lightning powered Tesla coils are good examples of such anachronistic inventions.
Many considered the Victorian and Edwardian eras are prime time periods for Steampunk because steam engines were in use.  The fashion of those eras are iconic imagery that many Steampunk creations use.  Where Steampunk has come to represent the setting of anachronistic tech, Klokwerks is limited to using clock escapements, weights, and counter-balance to create inventions.
I’ve talked about Steampunk before and it’s one of my favorite flavors of SF/Fantasy, so I figured I’d unleash the subject on the RPG blogosphere and see what kinds of great things our talented community comes up with.  I would like to leave it that and not place further constraints on the topic, but for any bloggers that prefer concrete examples, here are some things that would be interesting to contribute:
  • Adventures/Hooks
  • Characters
  • Classes/Abilities/Powers
  • Costuming/Fashion
  • Encounters
  • Equipment
  • Feats
  • Game Props
  • Locations
  • Media Resources
  • Monsters
  • Opinion Essays
  • Skill Challenges
  • Societies
  • Theory & Design
  • Worldbuilding/Setting

I hope to see some great contributions to this month’s RPG Blog Carnival.  Contributors, please be sure to leave a comment with a link back to your posts in case trackbacks do not register.  I’ll post a round-up of all the contributing articles within the first week of July.

Listening to: Vernian Process – Steam Age Symphony – Ironworks

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