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About this blog

Discussion about writing game supplements and setting sourcebooks, hypnosis, immersion, ocarina music, and why I write material for Mythras.
About The Author
Occultist, practitioner of chaos magic, Klingon teacher, Welsh language poet, ocarina player, Games Master. Mutant. I'm not into science fiction. I am science fiction.

Entries in this blog

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Saturday's Post

Saturday, the post continues its look at M-Space with a review of its rules for Circles and Psionics. Also, would anyone like a complete post detailing the Pelacur species from my previous post? They are turning up, along with some favourites from Castrobancla, in a setting called Terra Quadrant. I'm working on that setting to submit to Frostbyte Books for a possible future sourcebook either for M-Space or for a new project Clarence Redd has been working on, which I can't wait to review for
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A First Look At ... Frostbyte Books' M-Space, Part 5

This week, we will be looking at the aliens of M-Space. I'm not going to lie; you're going to have to take notes. This chapter deals with the basic biological blueprints for creating real, strange aliens, rather than the bumpy-headed humanoids you know and love from TV and movie science fiction (or fantasy, for that matter). There's a lot to take in. What is your world's biosphere like? How and where did your alien species evolve, and why did they evolve? What makes your designed speci
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A First Look At ... Frostbyte Books' M-Space, Part 4: Starships Special

Welcome to part 4 of this look through Frostbyte Books' M-Space. Today, it's all about the transport. Specifically, starships. Transport The default mode of transport in M-Space is by ship. Nothing is stopping you from creating a setting which has your guys traipsing between star systems or even universes via a network of portals a la Stargate or the Glen Larson TV series Buck Rogers - or indeed like the original Trippy Stargate sequence from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. You c
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A First Look At ... Frostbyte Books' M-Space, Part 3

Imagine a compelling game involving your character and a strange, motley crew of ragtag colonists, aliens, criminals on the run, psychics who are trying to kick the habit, and even a cyborg and an android. Maybe even a hologram character ... Your ship is massive. It's organic, like Tin Man or the Lexx. Its fuel is exotic particles absorbed from the local star. And the occasional asteroid and comet or small planetoid. Your adventures have you dropping in on some solar system, and you remain
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A First Look At ... Frostbyte Books' M-Space, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of this review of Frostbyte Books' M-Space. Last week's blog introduced you to the game, and specifically to the core rulebook. Let's take our first look at the contents, starting with Characters and Game Systems. Characters M-SPACE characters can be everything from starship pilots and bounty hunters, to journalists and librarians! All depending on what type of scenarios you want to play. -- the core rulebook That's always promising. Characters in
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A First Look At ... Frostbyte Books' M-Space, Part 1

In the beginning was Traveller. Traveller was not the first science fiction roleplaying game, and it wasn't the last. It's just that Traveller eclipsed practically every other science fiction tabletop roleplaying game on the market; and in terms of its market share, it still does. I mean, Chaosium wanted to give us a d100 science fiction roleplaying game. It started so well. And we got RIngworld, and the mission failed at takeoff. Look at some of those names. Ralph McQuarrie
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A Look At ... Casting The Runes RPG

This blog post is best read in the dark. Alone. I'm going to take you to a calmer, cosier world, where people could walk for miles across lonely moors, down country roads, and along beaches, without meeting a single living soul. A world where the pace of life is slower, but the heart rate is through the roof. A cool world, where your brow occasionally prickles with sweat for no reason. A cold sweat, to accompany the chills down your spine. Welcome, reader, to the world of Montague
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A Look At ... Weird of Hali, Part 2

So, where were we? Ah, yes, here we go. We were exploring the first 100 or so pages of Weird of Hali. So far, the game has felt pretty much like any other Mythos game, with one exception - the player characters are on the other side, working with the Great Old Ones and possibly calling some of them family, displaying odd traits which become more pronounced as the alien side of the family gradually wins out over the human blood. And let me point out that, in Weird of Hali, this is a goo
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A Look At ... Weird of Hali, Part 1

Okay, this blog entry takes a look at a book which comes with a bit of a back story. Sit down. I'll begin. Way back in 2021, Aeon Games set up a Kickstarter for one of their books. An author, John Michael Greer, had created a roleplaying game based around the seven book series he'd published, Weird if Hali. Bad news - it failed to reach the funding goal, so the hardback was scrapped. Good news, though - the publishers released the roleplaying game anyway. So, let's take the p
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Hiatus

I'm taking a hiatus this week. I really want to take a look at two books which slightly deviate from Mythras products, but which have strong ties to Mythras. One is The Weird of Hali; the other is Casting The Runes. The next book review will be next week.
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A Look At ... Perceforest, Part 2

The timing of this blog turned out to be prescient. Perceforest has been listed on DriveThruRPG for the first time, this week. For anyone who's just picked up their copy from DriveThruRPG, and want to know what is between the covers, here's Part 1 for you to start with. We'll be here when you're ready. On that happy note, let's get on with the rest of the book. We left the book with a tantalising glimpse of what was to follow on page 69. Aside from the College of Arms, there
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A Look At ... Perceforest, Part 1

And so it's time to crack open Perceforest and take a look at this book which has been sitting on my bookshelf, unopened, gathering dust since 2020. Seriously, this is the first time I have actually opened this book, so this will be charting unknown territory for me. Perceforest The original Perceforest is one of the great fantasy epics, a million-word story over six volumes. Which Hollywood has not yet touched, or reduced to three feature-length movies. Catch up with the Wik
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A Look At ... Monster Island Companion and A Bird In The Hand

There are two supplements for Monster Island - the Monster Island Companion and the adventure, A Bird In The Hand. Monster Island Companion The biggest feature of this book is the A2-scaled map of The Island. The PDF comes with layers, so you can turn different aspects of the map on or off. The second part is a list of statistics for the non-player characters who feature in Monster Island. And the third section covers the Encounter Tables from the main sourcebook. And that's it.
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A Look At ... Monster Island, Part 3

Right, so we're back on Monster Island this week, and we're going to finish off the book by going through the final chapters, beginning with Magic. The characteristics of magic on The Island are:- Workings take time and great effort. Magic is ritualised, so you can't exactly do a powerful sorcery spell of the wrist. Magic is culturally demarcated - some tribes do one type of magic, and other tribes do another type, and so on; and magical energies replenish very slowly, forcing magicians to
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A Look At ... Monster Island, Part 2

Last week, we began a look at Monster Island. Part 1 covered Chapters 1 through 4, covering the geography and geology of the island, its cultures, its hot nightclub scene, the hotel swimming pools and spas, the tourist spots, the bronze, four-armed, animated, female, Ray Harryhausen statues (you think I'm kidding? Check out page 112) and all the fun athletic activities you can get up to (climbing, running, more running, self-defence classes, Zumba, even more running ...). The Rough Guide to
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A Look At ... Monster Island, Part 1

This blog post takes a look at Monster Island (MI). Monster Island Companion (MIC), and A Bird In The Hand (ABITH) will be covered in a separate post. First things first. There is a beautiful, loving dedication on the title page, which sets the tone for this document, and provides the biggest reason for you to buy this much-loved supplement. There are some things you can read, but you can't really point to specific words or phrases. How can you pojnt to a turn of phrase which shows f
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A Look At ... Lyonesse

Enter a fantastic world unlike any other you may have encountered before. A world of larger-than-life characters and situations. A world of pomp and beauty. A world written with love, where passions can often accomplish more than weapons. Welcome to The Elder Isles; the Ten Kingdoms. Welcome to Lyonesse. Loving Tribute The late Jack Vance (1916-08-28 - 2013-05-26) was an author of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories. Born John Holbrook Vance, he created numerous s
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A Look At ... Worlds United

Worlds United is The Design Mechanism's venture into the world of the pulp adventure genre. Imagine that the Solar System had turned out exactly the way Twentieth Century science fiction authors had imagined it. Venus as a humid jungle planet, Mars as the home of a dying civilisation, and rocket ships routinely travelling between these worlds and the Earth. Even a Moonbase or two, if you like. Now imagine a world where a cataclysmic event had caused humanity to take to the stars -
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A Look At ... After The Vampire Wars

The world around you is not what it seems. If you look out of the corner of your eye, you might catch a glimpse of something lurking in the shadows. Sometimes, whatever is lurking in the shadows turns its attention towards you. Good luck. The premise of John Snead's After The Vampire Wars is a world transformed by the discovery that the supernatural creatures of myth and legend, vampires in particular, have been living among you humans all this time, and you never knew. Until now.
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A Look At ... Luther Arkwright

Following from the last blog post, which looked at the newest Mythras setting, Destined, we're going to take a look at another Mythras setting, Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across The Parallels. Luther Arkwright is The Design Mechanism's foray into a genre known as Steampunk. This genre of science fiction is characterised by strange, baroque steam-driven inventons, vehicles, devices and weapons. The Difference Engine by Wiliam Gibson and Bruce Sterling more or less made Steampunk mainstrea
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Hiatus

I'm typing this from my tablet. The laptop from which I have posted all of my articles here to date went and died last Sunday. Worse, I got sold a lemon - and the replacement laptop lasted just 48 hours before it, too, was brown bread. Posts will resume as and when I can get crowdfunded for a new one. ALso, wish me luck because I have found a halfway competent tech guy who might be able to fix my old laptop. We'll meet for the first time on Tuesday.
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A First Look At Destined

This week, instead of looking at Mythras, we look at the latest core rulebook to emerge from The Design Mechanism. Enter a world of four colour Spandex action, where brightly-clad warriors for justice chase sneering bad guys across rooftops, and fight pitched battles in the grimy streets; where larger-than-life people stride through life like Colossi and dare to call themselves heroes. Put on your costume, take to the streets and rooftops, and stand beneath the silver light of the Moon
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